Ready to add a unique touch to your videos? Explore the world of video reversal using FFmpeg in this guide. Let’s dive in and discover FFmpeg’s creative potential for your video projects.

Step 1: Install FFmpeg (if not already installed)

First, ensure that FFmpeg is installed on your system before we proceed. If it’s not already there, you can obtain it from the official website or follow our step-by-step installation guide.

How to Install FFmpeg in Windows

Step 2: Open Your Command Prompt or Terminal

Next, it’s time to access your command prompt (for Windows users) or terminal (for Mac and Linux users).

Step 3: Reverse Video using FFmpeg

To reverse a video with ffmpeg, you can use the reverse filter:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "reverse" reversed.mp4

This will:

• Take input.mp4 as input
• Apply the reverse filter to reverse the video
• Save the output as reversed.mp4

Some additional options:

• Add -an to also reverse the audio:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "reverse" -an reversed.mp4

• Use -af areverse to only reverse audio:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -af areverse reversed_audio.mp4

• Reverse parts of a video by using trim and setpts:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]trim=end=10,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v];[0:a]atrim=end=10,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" reversed_part.mp4

This will reverse the first 10 seconds of both audio and video.

So in summary of reverse video using FFmpeg:

• reverse filter to reverse entire video
• Add -an to also reverse audio
• -af areverse to only reverse audio
• Use trim and setpts to reverse segments