(Be aware that it could technically have a different stream number, like 0.1.) The below output uses the MS Video-1. Pull the Stream #0.0: Video line and you can see the codec. To reduce the output even further, introduce sed: $ ffprobe video.mkv 2>&1 >/dev/null |grep Stream.*Video | sed -e 's/.*Video: //' -e 's/.*//'įFmpeg gives the codec too. To extract the video codec information - since ffmpeg sends information to stderr - pipe and grep it: $ ffprobe video.mkv 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep Stream.*Video

Stream #0:1: Audio: vorbis, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default) To get the codec information without playing back the file, use ffprobe. This method is easier to understand but messy.

Mediainfo mediainfo -Inform='Video %Codec%' video.mkvĪnswer made possible thanks to How to find duration of a video file using mediainfo in seconds or other formats? ffprobe (ffmpeg) easy wayĪssuming your video has one video stream only: ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=codec_name -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 video.mkvĪnswer made possible thanks to How to get video duration in seconds? ffprobe (ffmpeg) dirty way

Ffmpeg codec