FFMPEG - Unable to find a suitable output format for 'ffmpeg' ffmpeg: Invalid argument

Question

A lot of people asked this question, but each one with another meaning, and I couldn't understand anything.

I am trying to cut a video and save the changes to another file:

ffmpeg -i C:\Users\danie\Videos\video4.mp4 -ss 1:00 -t 3:00 -vcodec copy -acodec copy video5.mp4

When I enter this in the cmd, I get the following line:

[NULL @ 000000000318f4c0] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'ffmpeg'
ffmpeg: Invalid argument

I can't understand whats wrong. Can someone help me out with it?

EDIT: This is the log output:

ffmpeg started on 2016-10-11 at 14:14:13
Report written to "ffmpeg-20161011-141413.log"
ffmpeg version N-81960-g1bda0ee Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-libebur128 --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55. 32.100 / 55. 32.100
  libavcodec     57. 61.100 / 57. 61.100
  libavformat    57. 51.103 / 57. 51.103
  libavdevice    57.  0.102 / 57.  0.102
  libavfilter     6. 63.100 /  6. 63.100
  libswscale      4.  1.100 /  4.  1.100
  libswresample   2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'C:\Users\danie\Videos\video4.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: mp41isom
    creation_time   : 2016-10-10T11:32:52.000000Z
    date            : 2016
  Duration: 00:06:29.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 44036 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, smpte170m/smpte170m/bt470m), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 43828 kb/s, 59.70 fps, 59.94 tbr, 60k tbn, 120 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2016-10-10T11:32:52.000000Z
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      encoder         : AVC Coding
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 196 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2016-10-10T11:32:52.000000Z
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
[NULL @ 0000000003089540] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'ffmpeg'
ffmpeg: Invalid argument

Solution

This error happens often, because of wrong command.

Seems you have one more ffmpeg word before ffmpeg in your command like this one:

C:\ffmpeg-20160428-git-78baa45-win64-static\bin\ffmpeg.exe ffmpeg -i ....

Try removing it: C:\ffmpeg-20160428-git-78baa45-win64-static\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i .... or simply ffmpeg -i ...

Comments

[Aki]

Try changing your timestamp format to 00:01:00 for 1 minute. I think 01:00 should work, too.

[Daniel Engel]

Tried it, still gets the same output.

[Gyan]

Run the command with -report added and paste the logfile generated.

[Daniel Engel]

I edited the question with the logfile

[Behroozfar]

Is it your full command that generates this error? seems you have other things before this command. do you use special software that you don't mention here?

[Daniel Engel]

no, just ffmpeg

[PAT]

I had the path set in an environment variable which was wrapped around in quotes which showed the error. set FFBINPATH="D:\Users\Name\Downloads\utils\ffmpeg-20170425-b43‌​30a0-win64-static\bi‌​n" Used as %FFBINPATH%\ffmpeg.exe ...

[Allen J]

The old cut-n-paste gaffe. Got me too.