# 1. Syntax

When evaluating specific formats, FFmpeg uses internal library parsing functions, shared by the tools. This section documents the syntax of some of these formats.

## 1.1 Date

The accepted syntax is:

    [(YYYY-MM-DD|YYYYMMDD)[T|t| ]]((HH:MM:SS[.m...]]])|(HHMMSS[.m...]]]))[Z]
    now

If the value is "now" it takes the current time.

Time is local time unless Z is appended, in which case it is interpreted as UTC. If the year-month-day part is not specified it takes the current year-month-day.

## 1.2 Time duration

The accepted syntax is:

    [-]HH:MM:SS[.m...]
    [-]S+[.m...]

HH expresses the number of hours, MM the number a of minutes and SS the number of seconds.

## 1.3 Video size

Specify the size of the sourced video, it may be a string of the form widthxheight, or the name of a size abbreviation.

The following abbreviations are recognized:

‘`sqcif`’

  128x96

‘`qcif`’

  176x144

‘`cif`’

  352x288

‘`4cif`’

  704x576

‘`16cif`’

  1408x1152

‘`qqvga`’

  160x120

‘`qvga`’

  320x240

‘`vga`’

  640x480

‘`svga`’

  800x600

‘`xga`’

  1024x768

‘`uxga`’

  1600x1200

‘`qxga`’

  2048x1536

‘`sxga`’

  1280x1024

‘`qsxga`’

  2560x2048

‘`hsxga`’

  5120x4096

‘`wvga`’

  852x480

‘`wxga`’

  1366x768

‘`wsxga`’

  1600x1024

‘`wuxga`’

  1920x1200

‘`woxga`’

  2560x1600

‘`wqsxga`’

  3200x2048

‘`wquxga`’

  3840x2400

‘`whsxga`’

  6400x4096

‘`whuxga`’

  7680x4800

‘`cga`’

  320x200

‘`ega`’

  640x350

‘`hd480`’

  852x480

‘`hd720`’

  1280x720

‘`hd1080`’

  1920x1080

## 1.4 Video rate

Specify the frame rate of a video, expressed as the number of frames generated per second. It has to be a string in the format frame_rate_num/frame_rate_den, an integer number, a float number or a valid video frame rate abbreviation.

The following abbreviations are recognized:

‘`ntsc`’

  30000/1001

‘`pal`’

  25/1

‘`qntsc`’

  30000/1

‘`qpal`’

  25/1

‘`sntsc`’

  30000/1

‘`spal`’

  25/1

‘`film`’

  24/1

‘`ntsc-film`’

  24000/1

## 1.5 Ratio

A ratio can be expressed as an expression, or in the form numerator:denominator.

Note that a ratio with infinite (1/0) or negative value is considered valid, so you should check on the returned value if you want to exclude those values.

The undefined value can be expressed using the "0:0" string.

## 1.6 Color

It can be the name of a color (case insensitive match) or a [0x|#]RRGGBB[AA] sequence, possibly followed by "@" and a string representing the alpha component.

The alpha component may be a string composed by "0x" followed by an hexadecimal number or a decimal number between 0.0 and 1.0, which represents the opacity value (0x00/0.0 means completely transparent, 0xff/1.0 completely opaque). If the alpha component is not specified then 0xff is assumed.

The string "random" will result in a random color.