unrecognized option '-vf' in ffmpeg

Question

I am running this command

ffmpeg -i "video_in.mp4" -vf "movie=watermark.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=main_w/2-overlay_w/2:main_h/2-overlay_h/2 [out]" outputvideo.mp4

also tried

/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i "video_in.mp4" -vf "movie=watermark.png [watermark]; [in][watermark] overlay=main_w/2-overlay_w/2:main_h/2-overlay_h/2 [out]" outputvideo.mp4

Error : unrecognized option '-vf' in ffmpeg

Answer 1

Your ffmpeg version is too old, you need at least version 0.7.

-vf replaces the older -vhook flag used in older ffmpeg versions. The libavfilter work was started back in 2007 as a Google Summer of Code project and is now integrated in mainline ffmpeg.

See: http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-user/2011-July/001545.html

Answer 2

Your error is that "-vf" does not mean anything to ffmpeg. I am not sure what option that you meant to use (-f, -v, -vn) but check the man pages to see what you are intending.

man ffmpeg

Here is a link to the man pages: http://linux.die.net/man/1/ffmpeg