ff-probe

Read media file metadata with one function call. open returns a structured MediaInfo with typed accessors for resolution, frame rate, sample rate, duration, and codec identifiers.

ff-probe safely wraps FFmpeg's container inspection (libavformat demuxing and stream discovery) as a read-only metadata reader, with no decoding or encoding. Errors are typed and carry path and message context (ProbeError), so a failure reads as an actionable message rather than a raw FFmpeg 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-probe = "0.18"

Quick Start

use ff_probe::open;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let info = open("video.mp4")?;

    let format = info.format();
    let duration = info.duration();
    println!("format:   {format}");
    println!("duration: {duration:?}");

    if let Some(video) = info.primary_video() {
        let (width, height, fps) = (video.width(), video.height(), video.fps());
        let codec = video.codec();
        println!("video:    {width}x{height} @ {fps:.2} fps");
        println!("codec:    {codec:?}");
    }

    if let Some(audio) = info.primary_audio() {
        let (sample_rate, channels) = (audio.sample_rate(), audio.channels());
        let codec = audio.codec();
        println!("audio:    {sample_rate} Hz, {channels} channels");
        println!("codec:    {codec:?}");
    }

    Ok(())
}

Returned Fields

MediaInfo exposes typed fields, no string parsing required:

Method	Type	Description
`info.duration()`	`Duration`	Total media duration
`info.primary_video()`	`Option<&VideoStreamInfo>`	First video stream, if present
`info.primary_audio()`	`Option<&AudioStreamInfo>`	First audio stream, if present
`video.width()`	`u32`	Frame width in pixels
`video.height()`	`u32`	Frame height in pixels
`video.frame_rate()`	`Rational`	Frames per second as an exact fraction
`video.codec()`	`VideoCodec`	Typed codec enum, not a string
`video.pixel_format()`	`PixelFormat`	Pixel format of the encoded stream
`audio.sample_rate()`	`u32`	Samples per second
`audio.channels()`	`u32`	Channel count
`audio.codec()`	`AudioCodec`	Typed codec enum
`audio.sample_format()`	`SampleFormat`	Sample format of the encoded stream

Error Handling

Variant	When it occurs
`ProbeError::FileNotFound`	The path does not exist
`ProbeError::CannotOpen`	FFmpeg could not open the container
`ProbeError::InvalidMedia`	The file is not a valid media file
`ProbeError::NoStreams`	The container has no streams
`ProbeError::Io`	An underlying I/O error (`std::io::Error`)
`ProbeError::Ffmpeg`	An FFmpeg call failed (`code` + `message`)

MSRV

Rust 1.93.0 (edition 2024).

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0