Widest compatibility
job_362c7303d9184c2dWhat almost every delivery chain should end with.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "format=yuv420p" -t 5 out.mp4video filter
The FFmpeg format filter
Forces a pixel format inside the filter graph.
3 of 3 variants measured Measured 2026-08-20
The part that catches people
format=yuv420p is the fix for video that plays everywhere except QuickTime and Safari. Many filters output yuv444p or rgb, and those are legal H.264 but unsupported by a lot of hardware decoders. Adding it as the last filter costs nothing and prevents the bug.
Measured, not described
Every row below is a real job. The same 1280x720 five-second H.264 source went through each variant, so the numbers are comparable to each other and to every other filter page on this site. Encode time is the FFmpeg step on its own, separated from the download and the upload.
| Variant | Encode | Output | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widest compatibility | 933 ms | 514.0 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0024 |
| Higher chroma | 1021 ms | 556.0 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0039 |
| With alpha | 951 ms | 514.0 KB · 1280x720 | $0.0025 |
The exact commands
Higher chroma
job_dbcb2aa7b1c84216Better colour, narrower playback support.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "format=yuv422p" -t 5 out.mp4With alpha
job_46d9063108d547b1Only meaningful in codecs that carry alpha.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf "format=yuva420p" -t 5 out.mp4How these numbers were produced
Each variant was submitted to the Rendobar API as an ffmpeg job against the same public source file, and the response was recorded verbatim. Encode time is the API's own per-step timing for the FFmpeg step. Output size is the byte count of the file the job produced. Cost is what the job was actually billed.
Nothing here was estimated, and the whole set is re-runnable, so if a figure looks wrong it can be checked rather than argued about. The 72 variants behind this filter reference cost $0.193082 in total to measure.
Frequently asked questions
What does the FFmpeg format filter do?
Forces a pixel format inside the filter graph.
What is the most common mistake with format?
format=yuv420p is the fix for video that plays everywhere except QuickTime and Safari. Many filters output yuv444p or rgb, and those are legal H.264 but unsupported by a lot of hardware decoders. Adding it as the last filter costs nothing and prevents the bug.
How long does format take to run?
On a 1280x720 five-second H.264 source, the fastest variant on this page (Widest compatibility) spent 933 ms inside FFmpeg. That figure is the encode step alone, measured separately from the download and the upload, so it is the filter's own cost rather than the round trip.
Do I need FFmpeg installed to use format?
Not with Rendobar. Every command on this page ran through the Rendobar API against a URL, with no local FFmpeg install and no server. The job id next to each row is the real job that produced the numbers.
Other filters, measured the same way
scale Resizes video to a target width and height, with optional aspect-preserving arithmetic. crop Cuts a rectangle out of each frame, positioned from the top-left corner. fps Resamples video to a constant frame rate by duplicating or dropping frames. transpose Rotates video by 90 degree steps, optionally flipping as it goes. pad Adds bars around the frame to reach a target size without cropping the picture.
Run format without installing FFmpeg
Every command on this page ran through the API against a URL. No binary, no server.