Show HN: fftool – A Terminal UI for FFmpeg – Shows Command Before It Runs
20 hours ago
- #terminal-ui
- #ffmpeg
- #media-processing
- fftool is a terminal UI for ffmpeg written in Go, designed to make ffmpeg more user-friendly.
- It organizes common ffmpeg operations into five categories: Video, Audio, Image, Generative, and Info/Probe.
- Before executing any command, fftool shows the full ffmpeg command for review and adjustment.
- Handles multi-pass operations like stabilization and normalization transparently, showing all passes before execution.
- Displays live progress during encoding, including frame count, FPS, time position, bitrate, and speed.
- Built with Go for a single compiled binary, fast startup, and straightforward concurrency.
- Part of a philosophy with other tools like newtop and netsock—terminal-native, minimal, and efficient.
- Does not replace ffmpeg but wraps it, allowing users to see and copy commands for direct shell use.
- Includes a Generative category for ffmpeg's internal filter sources like test patterns and fractals.
- Works with ffmpeg 4.x and later, requires ffmpeg and ffprobe on PATH, and is Linux-only.