FF2ppress is a PowerShell script that uses 2-pass encoding via FFmpeg to compress videos to a target size in MiB, useful for uploading or sharing on platforms with file size limits, such as Discord.
FF2ppress's main feature is customizability and control, allowing you to change advanced FFmpeg settings and parameters, such as:
- Changing the video encoder and preset;
- Passing parameters to the encoder;
- Specifying the audio or video stream of a multi-stream input file;
- Being able to pass most FFmpeg arguments directly, which opens up the majority of FFmpeg’s functionality;
This customizability tries not to sacrifice usability, and the script can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It's easy to start using it, as all you need is input video parameter, and the default libx265 and libopus encoders targeting 20 MiB file sizes should be satisfactory for most users out of the box. See examples below!
On Windows, make sure PowerShell and FFmpeg (with FFprobe) are installed and updated to their latest version (at least PowerShell 7 and FFmpeg 8.1). FFmpeg must be compiled with all the script-compatible encoders you wish to use. You may install the "full" FFmpeg release from gyan.dev, and it should be fine:
winget install Microsoft.PowerShell
winget install ffmpeg
Download or clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/Mot0193/ff2p-press.git && cd ff2p-press
If you get this error when you try to run ff2ppress.ps1: The file ff2ppress.ps1 is not digitally signed, open a PowerShell window and run:
dir -r C:\path\to\folder\ff2p-press\*.ps1 | Unblock-FileYou may add ff2ppress.ps1 to your PATH variable if you'd like.
FF2ppress contains a Nix flake, which makes installation easy on systems that use Nix.
Run or install with Nix:
# requires extra-experimental-settings "nix-command flakes" to be configured
nix run github:mot0193/ff2p-press -- -i {file} # run ff2p-press
nix shell github:mot0193/ff2p-press # open a shell with ff2p-press inside
# install ff2p-press imperatively (not recommended)
nix profile install github:mot0193/ff2p-pressHere you can find a short list of the most common parameters and use cases. You can find a full list of Parameters in the docs folder.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
-i <path_to_file> |
Video file input. This is the only required parameter for the script to function |
-s <desired_file_size_in_MiB> |
Target size of the file in mebibytes. The default is 20 MiB, enough for the Discord file size limit |
-o <folder_path> |
Output folder for the compressed video. Not setting this will output the video in the same folder as the input video |
-cv <encoder> |
The encoder used for compressing the video (e.g. libx264). Available encoders are listed in the Encoders documentation file. |
-cvpreset <preset_for_selected_encoder> |
Preset for the selected encoder. Preset naming schemes may be different between encoders, see Encoders for the preset names for each encoder. |
-h <desired_resolution>or -w <desired_resolution> |
Rescale resolution. You may only use -h (height) to automatically scale the width to match the aspect ratio or vice versa (e.g. using -h 1080 on a 2560x1440 video will result into a 1920x1080 video). Scaling down a video can make encoding faster. |
| Example command | Explanation |
|---|---|
| C:\path\to\script\ff2ppress.ps1 -i "C:\Users\Mot\Videos\BLUE PRINCE.mp4" | Compress the input video with the default settings to the default size (20 MiB) |
| .\ff2ppress.ps1 -i "C:\Users\mot\Desktop\Overwatch.mp4" -s 50 -cv libx264 | Compresses the input video to 50 MiB with the selected video encoder |
| ff2ppress -i "C:\Users\mot\Desktop\drive.mp4" -cv libsvtav1 -cvpreset 7 | Change the default video encoder and use a different preset compatible with it |