ff-filter

Apply video and audio transformations without writing FFmpeg filter-graph strings. Build a chain with method calls; the graph description is generated and validated internally.

ff-filter is a safe, ergonomic wrapper over FFmpeg's libavfilter: build and run video and audio filter graphs without hand-writing filter-graph strings. Errors are typed and contextual (FilterError), so a bad input slot or an FFmpeg build error surfaces as a readable message rather than a raw return code.

It is an independent crate: use it on its own, or combine it with the other ff-* crates to build any media app or editing model. The ff-* crates are model-free primitives that impose no editing model; avio is one editing engine built on top of them. See the library comparison to choose the right layer.

Installation

[dependencies]
ff-filter = "0.18"

Building a Filter Chain

Filtering needs input frames, so this example decodes them with ff-decode, runs each through the graph, and encodes the results with ff-encode (add both as dependencies to run it):

use ff_decode::VideoDecoder;
use ff_encode::{BitrateMode, VideoCodec, VideoEncoder};
use ff_filter::{FilterGraph, ScaleAlgorithm};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Build a chain; the graph description is generated and validated internally.
    let mut graph = FilterGraph::builder()
        .trim(10.0, 30.0)                           // keep seconds 10-30
        .scale(1280, 720, ScaleAlgorithm::Fast)     // resize to 720p
        .fade_in(0.0, 0.5)                          // 0.5-second fade in at the start
        .fade_out(19.5, 0.5)                        // 0.5-second fade out
        .build()?;

    // A decoder for the input, an encoder for the graph's 1280×720 output.
    let mut decoder = VideoDecoder::open("input.mp4").build()?;
    let (width, height) = graph.output_resolution().unwrap_or((1280, 720));
    let mut encoder = VideoEncoder::create("output.mp4")
        .video(width, height, decoder.frame_rate())
        .video_codec(VideoCodec::H264)
        .bitrate_mode(BitrateMode::Crf(23)) // 0-51, lower = higher quality
        .build()?;

    // Push decoded frames into input slot 0 and pull transformed frames out.
    while let Some(input_frame) = decoder.decode_one()? {
        graph.push_video(0, &input_frame)?;
        while let Some(output_frame) = graph.pull_video()? {
            encoder.push_video(&output_frame)?;
        }
    }
    encoder.finish()?; // flush buffered frames and finalize the file

    Ok(())
}

build() checks the configured steps and returns an Err if a value is out of range or the step set is empty. The underlying FFmpeg graph is constructed lazily on the first push_video / push_audio call, using the first frame's format.

Available Video Operations

A representative selection; see the API docs for the full set (colour grading, blurs, denoise, keying, transitions, text, and more).

Available Audio Operations

Hardware Acceleration

use ff_filter::{FilterGraph, HwAccel, ScaleAlgorithm};

let graph = FilterGraph::builder()
    .scale(1920, 1080, ScaleAlgorithm::Fast)
    .hardware(HwAccel::Cuda)
    .build()?;

HwAccel selects the device type (Cuda, VideoToolbox, or Vaapi). When hardware is enabled, hwupload / hwdownload filters are inserted around the chain automatically.

Using the Filter Graph

The single-input loop is shown in Building a Filter Chain above: push each decoded frame into slot 0 with push_video, then drain the graph with pull_video.

Multi-input filters (such as xfade or overlay) read from additional slots: push clip A frames to slot 0 and clip B frames to slot 1.

// `graph` built with .overlay(x, y); `frame_a` / `frame_b` are VideoFrames
// from two decoders.
graph.push_video(0, &frame_a)?; // main stream → slot 0
graph.push_video(1, &frame_b)?; // overlay stream → slot 1
while let Some(output_frame) = graph.pull_video()? {
    // encode or display `output_frame`
}

Error Handling

MSRV

Rust 1.93.0 (edition 2024).

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0