Removing Audio from Video

Removing the audio track from a video file is one of the most common tasks in FFmpeg. This is often called “stripping” the audio.

The Command

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -an output.mp4

Breakdown

• -i input.mp4: The input video file.
• -c:v copy: Copies the video stream exactly as it is (no re-encoding), preserving quality and speed.
• -an: Audio No. This flag tells FFmpeg specifically to exclude all audio streams.
• output.mp4: The resulting silent video file.

This process is extremely fast because it doesn’t require encoding the video, just copying the data packets to a new container.