[FFmpeg-user] Documentation for input -i options

[Moritz Barsnick]

On Thu, Dec 05, 2019 at 15:30:16 +0000, John Dexter wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Dec 2019 at 15:23, Gyan <ffmpeg at gyani.pro> wrote:
> > What specifically are you trying to do?
>
> Time-lapse from a whole bunch of images. I've found examples online of
> syntax I can use but no explanation exactly how this is working and how
> flexible this is.
> e.g. -i image%8d

This is basically the image2 demuxer.

> I'd like to know how I can specify which files are used and in which order.
> Maybe my question is where is the input URL functionality documented?

It's documented in the image2 demuxer's docs:
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-formats.html#image2-1

Look at the description of "pattern_type" and its restrictions.

If you want to specify an arbitrary list (random file names,
non-alphabetical order), it's probably easiest to rename the files - or
better, using a modern operating system, creating symbolic links - to
adhere to "somename%08d.suffix" in numerical order without gaps.

Cheers,
Moritz