• dvd-slideshow and ffmpeg

    From Mike Scott@usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid to alt.os.linux.mint on Tue May 12 16:17:56 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

    I've just tried to run dvd-slideshow, having used it quite a few years
    ago, and found it didn't work this time round.

    It tries to run ffmpeg with a "-vol 100" option, but ffmpeg doesn't seem
    to recognize -vol.

    The manpage (nor 'ffmpeg -h full') doesn't list the option, but online
    ffmpeg docs (github) do.

    I've stripped out the -vol stuff from dvd-slideshow (it's only a bash
    script) and all now seems well.

    But what about ffmpeg? should -vol be legit?
    --
    Mike Scott
    Harlow, England

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  • From Paul@nospam@needed.invalid to alt.os.linux.mint on Tue May 12 15:57:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

    On Tue, 5/12/2026 11:17 AM, Mike Scott wrote:
    I've just tried to run dvd-slideshow, having used it quite a few years ago, and found it didn't work this time round.

    It tries to run ffmpeg with a "-vol 100" option, but ffmpeg doesn't seem to recognize -vol.

    The manpage (nor 'ffmpeg -h full') doesn't list the option, but online ffmpeg docs (github) do.

    I've stripped out the -vol stuff from dvd-slideshow (it's only a bash script) and all now seems well.

    But what about ffmpeg? should -vol be legit?



    FFMPEG consists of several executables. These have similar sizes,
    so a lot of the same baseline functions are likely in there. But of necessity, the command line level is different (a player needs player-like parameters).

    ffmpeg
    ffplay
    ffprobe

    When you download a package, there is a documentation folder.
    This should resemble what is on the ffmpeg.org site.

    *******

    I've selectively snipped this, just leaving some "highlights".
    There is a volume in here.

    FFMPEG-doc/ffplay-all.html

    3.4 Main options# TOC

    -x width

    Force displayed width.
    -y height

    Force displayed height.
    -an

    Disable audio.
    -vn

    Disable video.
    -sn

    Disable subtitles.
    -ss pos

    Seek to pos. Note that in most formats it is not possible to seek exactly, so ffplay will seek to the nearest seek point to pos.

    pos must be a time duration specification, see (ffmpeg-utils)the Time duration section in the ffmpeg-utils(1) manual.

    -volume

    Set the startup volume. 0 means silence, 100 means no volume reduction or amplification.
    Negative values are treated as 0, values above 100 are treated as 100.

    *******

    Plenty of volume parameters in here, but they're part of format conversions. I'll look through Main Options on this one.

    FFMPEG-doc/ffmpeg-all.html#Main-options

    5.4 Main options

    I don't think there is a volume in that section.
    As we'd want a volume on the "outside" of the thing,
    any volume setting for an "effect" such as Normalize,
    is unlikely to "appear on a screen".

    Make sure first of all, that ffplay is being used,
    as it's a player, and it must have something for this purpose.

    A few applications, use ffmpeg as a "helper" application,
    and the main purpose of this is as a stream mux or demux.
    For example, yt-dlp will glue together a video stream and
    a vaguely related audio stream, to make a movie format on
    output, so that might be "muxing and a conversion to fit
    the declared container type". Containers are limited on the
    CODECs that can be used inside them, which is why a stream
    may need format conversion before a final movie is made.

    Paul
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