FFmpeg PowerShell Utilities

Small Windows PowerShell utilities for installing FFmpeg, updating FFmpeg, and joining video files with FFmpeg.

Compatibility

• Operating system: Windows only
• Minimum PowerShell version: Windows PowerShell 5.1
• FFmpeg requirement for join script: ffmpeg.exe must already be available in PATH. You can run install-ffmpeg.ps1

Scripts

install-ffmpeg.ps1

Downloads the latest shared GPL Windows FFmpeg build, extracts it into your user profile, and adds the FFmpeg bin directory to your user PATH.

What it does

• Downloads the latest FFmpeg build archive.
• Extracts FFmpeg into your user profile.
• Adds the extracted bin folder to the current user's PATH.
• Refuses to continue unless you acknowledge the script's actions with a safety switch.

Usage

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\install-ffmpeg.ps1 -iAgreeAndAcknowledgeRisks

update-ffmpeg.ps1

Update FFmpeg on Windows by removing the existing user-profile installation, downloading the latest build, extracting it, and re-adding the FFmpeg bin directory to the current user's PATH.

Requirements

• Windows
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 or newer
• Internet connection
• Permission to modify your user profile folder and user PATH

Safety Acknowledgement

This script requires the -iAgreeAndAcknowledgeRisks switch before it will run.

If the switch is not provided, the script prints a warning message and exits.

Usage

Basic usage

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\update-ffmpeg.ps1 -iAgreeAndAcknowledgeRisks

ffmpeg-join-video-files.ps1

Join multiple video files into a single .mp4 or .mkv output using FFmpeg. This script autofixes timestamps.

Requirements

• Windows
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 or newer
• ffmpeg.exe available in your PATH
• Enough free disk space for temporary working files (approximately 2x the total size of all input files)

Script Parameters

-inputListFile

Path to a text file containing the list of input video files.

Rules:

• Must end with .txt
• Must already exist

-outputFile

Path to the final output video file.

Rules:

• Must end with .mp4 or .mkv
• The destination directory must already exist

Input List File Format

Create a text file list.txt file in this format:

file 'C:\Videos\clip01.mp4'
file 'C:\Videos\clip02.mp4'
file 'C:\Videos\clip03.mp4'

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\ffmpeg-join-video-files.ps1 -inputListFile .\list.txt -outputFile C:\Videos\joined.mp4