File naming convention

In CINELERRA-GG's ffmpeg configuration directory you will see files as listed and described below. File type and extension names are the key for CINELERRA-GG's use of ffmpeg. Basically the .opts file extension represents options; .dfl represents defaults; and all the rest are media types. For example one media type is quicktime so that *.qt file names would be the quicktime choices. In the file names below, ext refers to a set of files with file names matching the *.ext file extension. And typ refers to a type of format / codec combination used, that is, the media type. AppImage does not provide this capability unless you use the workaround as described in the Appendix FAQ, Known Problems and Workarounds.

In the ffmpeg configuration directory there are a series of options files used when encoding or decoding audio or video. They are read in the order from top to bottom and only the files needed for the current operation are added to the active configuration.

ffmpeg/ffmpeg.opts	global ffmpeg options, always used
ffmpeg/decode.opts	global decoder options, used when opening existing files for decoding
ffmpeg/encode.opts	global encoder options, used when creating new files for encoding
ffmpeg/audio/audio.opts	audio encoder options, used when creating audio streams
ffmpeg/video/video.opts	video encoder options, used when creating video streams
ffmpeg/plugin.opts	parameters for ffmpeg filters as audio/video plugins

Decoder options:

Normally, only ffmpeg.opts and decode.opts are used when reading/decoding files, but may be specialized if a <path>/media.opts exists for a given <path>/media.ext file. For example, if you want to only fail on fatal errors and to always use the video filter, edgedetect, when working with your media file dreaming.y4m, then create a file dreaming.opts in the same directory with the contents of loglevel=fatal on the first line and video_filter=edgedetect on the next. These specialized settings will override the defaults. The fatal loglevel is especially handy for lesser quality media.

Encoder Options:

Within the audio/video subdirectories of the first level ffmpeg directory, the typ.ext files are for encoder (rendering) setups.

ffmpeg/audio	directory of audio encoder settings
audio.opts	options used by all audio encoders
typ1.ext, typ2.ext, …	are all *.ext type choices for encoding audio
ext.dfl	contains the default selection used when ext is first selected
ffmpeg/video	directory of video encoder settings
video.opts	options used by all video encoders
typ1.ext, typ2.ext, …	are all *.ext type choices for encoding video
ext.dfl	contains the default selection used when ext is first selected
ffmpeg/format	presets needed to initialize audio / video formats