Run ffmpeg without outputting configuration information?

Question

I'm invoking ffmpeg with subprocess.Popen, and trying to capture the stderr output and write it to logging.

args = ['ffmpeg', '-i', path]
if start:
    args += ['-ss', start]
if end:
    args += ['-t', end]
args += [
    '-vcodec', 'copy',
    '-acodec', 'copy',
    '-scodec', 'copy',
    '-f', 'mpegts',
    '-y', '/dev/stdout']
self.child = subprocess.Popen(
    args,
    stdin=open(os.devnull, 'rb'),
    stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
    stderr=subprocess.PIPE)

ffmpeg generates a lot of configuration information like the following:

FFmpeg version 0.6.2-4:0.6.2-1ubuntu1, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the Libav developers built on Mar 22 2011 15:55:04 with gcc 4.5.2
configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu1 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libgsm --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static WARNING: library configuration mismatch libavutil configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu2 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static libavcodec configuration: --extra-version=4:0.6.2-1ubuntu2 --prefix=/usr --enable-avfilter --enable-avfilter-lavf --enable-vdpau --enable-bzlib --enable-libdirac --enable-libgsm --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pthreads --enable-zlib --enable-libvpx --disable-stripping --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-vaapi --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-x11grab --enable-libfaad --enable-libdirac --enable-libfaad --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libdc1394 --enable-shared --disable-static libavutil 50.15. 1 / 50.15. 1
libavcodec 52.72. 2 / 52.72. 2
libavformat 52.64. 2 / 52.64. 2
libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
libavfilter 1.19. 0 / 1.19. 0
libswscale 0.11. 0 / 0.11. 0
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0

Prior to finally outputting the stuff I'd like to log:

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 47.95 (66893/1395) -> 23.98 (66893/2790) At least one output file must be specified

Is there an option to prevent this excessive output? Should I be doing it differently?

Solution 1

This is now possible as of FFmpeg 2.2 with the -hide_banner option. See also the relevant commit and ticket.

Solution 2

AFAIK there is no way, loglevel is no use. Look at ffmpeg.c:

init_opts();
show_banner();

and cmdutils.c:

void show_banner(void)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "%s version " FFMPEG_VERSION ", Copyright (c) %d-%d the FFmpeg developers\n",
            program_name, program_birth_year, this_year);
    fprintf(stderr, "  built on %s %s with %s %s\n",
            __DATE__, __TIME__, CC_TYPE, CC_VERSION);
    fprintf(stderr, "  configuration: " FFMPEG_CONFIGURATION "\n");
    print_all_libs_info(stderr, INDENT|SHOW_CONFIG);
    print_all_libs_info(stderr, INDENT|SHOW_VERSION);
}

See here for an unsuccessful attempt of skipping it (I don't get what the GPL has to do with anything of this). I suggest you to file a bug and hope you are convicing enough.

As many others, I have ffmpeg compiled with show_banner() commented out, it's simply tiresome.

Solution 3

Take a look at ffmpeg's manpage, especially the -loglevel parameter.