ffmpeg-fundamentals-2025

## CRITICAL GUIDELINES

### Windows File Path Requirements

**MANDATORY: Always Use Backslashes on Windows for File Paths**

When using Edit or Write tools on Windows, you MUST use backslashes (`\`) in file paths, NOT forward slashes (`/`).

### Documentation Guidelines

**NEVER create new documentation files unless explicitly requested by the user.**

---

## Quick Reference

| Task | Command Pattern |
|------|-----------------|
| Convert format | `ffmpeg -i input.ext output.ext` |
| Set quality (CRF) | `-c:v libx264 -crf 23` |
| Scale video | `-vf "scale=1920:1080"` |
| Trim video | `-ss 00:00:10 -t 00:00:30` |
| Extract audio | `-vn -c:a aac output.m4a` |
| Probe file | `ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams file` |

## When to Use This Skill

Use for **foundational FFmpeg operations**:
- First-time FFmpeg users needing syntax help
- Basic transcoding between formats (MP4, WebM, MKV, MOV)
- Understanding codec options and quality settings
- Simple filter operations (scale, crop, rotate)
- File analysis with ffprobe

**For specialized topics**: hardware encoding → `ffmpeg-hardware-acceleration`, streaming → `ffmpeg-streaming`, Docker → `ffmpeg-docker-containers`

## Progressive Disclosure References

For detailed documentation on FFmpeg 8.0 features, see the `references/` directory:
- `references/vvc-h266-encoding.md` - Complete VVC/H.266 encoding guide with libvvenc
- `references/whisper-transcription.md` - Whisper AI filter for speech-to-text and subtitles
- `references/vulkan-compute-codecs.md` - Vulkan compute-based codecs (FFv1, AV1, VP9, ProRes RAW)

For advanced topics, see related skills:
- `ffmpeg-filter-complex-patterns` - Multi-input compositions, transitions, audio mixing, GPU filtergraphs
- `ffmpeg-hardware-acceleration` - GPU encoding/decoding, CUDA filters, multi-GPU setups

---

# FFmpeg Fundamentals (2025)

Complete guide to FFmpeg core concepts, syntax, and essential operations with FFmpeg 7.1 LTS and 8.0.1 (latest stable).

## FFmpeg Versi