Powerful features to streamline your media workflow
Video Commander offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help you inspect, analyze, preview, convert, and deliver your media files, using tools you already know.
Inspect
Open any local file or remote URL and explore its full structure — container format, codec parameters, stream metadata, MP4 box hierarchy, hex dump, and frame-level sample tables.
Convert
A clean FFmpeg front-end with full control over codec, resolution, bitrate, and stream mapping. Supports software and hardware encoders (VideoToolbox, NVENC, AMF, QSV), a full video filter pipeline, and shows the exact FFmpeg command before you run it.
Batch
Queue multiple files for encoding in a single batch. Each file gets its own job with independent progress tracking, processed sequentially with shared encode settings. Set it up and walk away.
Filters
Build a video filter chain without touching FFmpeg arguments. Deinterlace, denoise, sharpen, deband, deshake, deflicker, crop, rotate, and adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and gamma — each with configurable parameters.
Deliver
Package a master file into HLS or DASH adaptive bitrate output in one step. Configure rendition ladders, segment duration, and content encryption, and get a CDN-ready folder structure out.
Analyze
Run VMAF quality analysis against any source file. View an aggregate score summary and a per-frame quality timeline, then export results as CSV or JSON. Jobs are saved so you can reload and compare previous runs at any time.
Preview
Play back local files or remote streams directly in the app. Supports MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, and adaptive streaming formats including HLS and DASH.
Jobs
All long-running tasks — encodes, quality analysis, packaging — run as tracked jobs with live progress, elapsed time, and full log output. VMAF results and exports are accessible directly from the job detail view.
Validate
Check HLS and DASH manifests for spec compliance and delivery issues. Detects missing segments, malformed playlists, codec inconsistencies, and more — with per-rendition filtering and optional URL reachability probing.
Deep media inspection
Open any local file or remote URL and explore its full structure — container format, codec parameters, stream metadata, MP4 box hierarchy, hex dump, and frame-level sample tables.
Overview
- Major brand & compatible brands
- File size & bitrate
- Duration & timescale
- Fragmentation status
- Per-track stream table
- Track ID, type, codec
- Resolution & frame rate
- Language & sample count
Box Tree
- Full ISOBMFF / MP4 box hierarchy
- Box type, size, offset
- Parsed field values per box type
- Hex dump of raw box bytes
- Expandable nested structure
- Cross-link to Box Graph
Box Graph
- Visual DAG of box relationships
- Click-through to Box Tree
- Container and leaf nodes
- Zoomable & pannable canvas
Sample Tables
- Frame-level sample index
- Presentation timestamp (PTS)
- Decode timestamp (DTS)
- Sample size & file offset
- Sync / keyframe flags
- Paginated for large tracks
- Per-track selection
HLS & DASH Manifests
- HLS master & media playlists
- Variant stream table
- Bandwidth, resolution, codecs
- Segment list with durations
- Encryption key info
- DASH MPD periods & adaptation sets
- Representation details
- SegmentTemplate attributes
Sources
- Local file paths
- Remote http(s):// URLs
- HLS .m3u8 manifests
- DASH .mpd manifests
Supported file formats
Every supported format opens directly — local file or remote URL. Inspection views adapt automatically based on the container type.
| Format | Overview | Tree | Graph | Samples | Manifest | Validator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .mp4MPEG-4 | ||||||
| .movQuickTime | ||||||
| .m4viTunes Video | ||||||
| .mkvMatroska | ||||||
| .aviAVI | ||||||
| .webmWebM | ||||||
| .mkaMatroska Audio | ||||||
| .m3u8HLS Playlist | ||||||
| .m3uHLS (legacy) | ||||||
| .mpdDASH Manifest |
Comprehensive encoding control
Every significant FFmpeg encoding option is exposed through a structured UI — no flag memorisation required. See the exact command before you run it.
Video Codecs
- H.264 (libx264)
- H.265 (libx265)
- VP9
- AV1
- H.264 VideoToolbox
- H.265 VideoToolbox
- H.264 NVENC
- H.265 NVENC
- AV1 NVENC
- H.264 AMF
- H.265 AMF
- H.264 QSV
- H.265 QSV
- AV1 QSV
- Copy (passthrough)
Quality & Bitrate
- CRF (constant quality)
- Target VMAF
- 1-pass
- 2-pass
- Target bitrate
- Min / max rate
- Buffer size
- GOP size
- Profile
- Level
- Preset
- Tune
- Hardware quality (VBR/CQ)
Resolution & Format
- 4K (3840×2160)
- 2K (2560×1440)
- 1080p
- 720p
- 480p / 360p / 240p
- Custom width × height
- Aspect ratio
- Frame rate
- Pixel format
- Scaling algorithm
- MP4 fast start
Filters
- Deinterlace
- Denoise (hqdn3d / NLMeans)
- Sharpen
- Deband
- Deshake
- Deflicker
- Dejudder
- Crop
- Rotate & flip
- Brightness / contrast
- Saturation / gamma
Audio
- AAC
- MP3
- Opus
- FLAC
- Copy (passthrough)
- Mono / stereo / 5.1 / 7.1
- Bitrate
- Sample rate
- Audio delay
- EBU R128 loudnorm
- Audio contrast
Advanced
- Container: MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WebM
- Stream mapping
- Trim (start / end)
- Extra FFmpeg args
- Live command preview
- Real-time progress
- Full job log output
Flexible packaging options
Go from a master file to a delivery-ready package in one step. Configure rendition ladders, segment settings, and content protection without touching the command line.
Output Formats
- HLS (.m3u8)
- DASH (.mpd)
- HLS + DASH simultaneously
- Progressive MP4
- CDN-ready folder structure
- master.m3u8 / manifest.mpd
Adaptive Streaming
- Multi-rendition ladder
- 240p · 360p · 480p
- 720p · 1080p · 1440p · 4K
- Custom width × height
- Per-rendition bitrate
- Video codec: H.264, H.265, AV1
- Audio codec: AAC, MP3, Opus
Segment Control
- Segment duration (2–10 s)
- VOD playlist type
- Live playlist type
- HLS version 6 / 7
- DASH live profile
- DASH on-demand profile
Progressive Download
- Multi-quality MP4 output
- Output name pattern
- {name}, {quality}, {date} tokens
- Auto-named from source file
Content Protection
- AES-128 segment encryption
- Key rotation interval
- Custom key delivery URL
Workflow
- Quick-start delivery presets
- Web Streaming preset
- Mobile Optimized preset
- Progressive Download preset
- Premium Streaming preset
- Real-time packaging progress
- Full job log output
HLS & DASH validation
Check manifests for spec compliance and delivery problems before they reach your CDN or players. Findings are surfaced with severity levels and per-rendition filtering, with optional URL reachability probing.
HLS Checks
- HLS_001 — no EXT-X-STREAM-INF renditions
- HLS_002 — missing BANDWIDTH attribute
- HLS_003 — missing CODECS attribute
- HLS_004 — differing CODECS across renditions
- HLS_005 — missing EXT-X-TARGETDURATION
- HLS_006 — segment duration exceeds TARGETDURATION
- HLS_007 — EXT-X-VERSION absent or < 3
- HLS_008 — EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE not set
- HLS_009 — discontinuity without EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY-SEQUENCE
- HLS_010 — media playlist has zero segments
DASH Checks
- DASH_001 — missing mediaPresentationDuration
- DASH_002 — AdaptationSet has no Representations
- DASH_003 — Representation missing @codecs
- DASH_004 — Representation missing @bandwidth
- DASH_005 — SegmentTemplate missing @initialization or @media
- DASH_006 — period adjacency gap detected
- DASH_007 — minBufferTime not set
- DASH_008 — duplicate mimeType without @lang differentiation
Severity Levels
- Error — spec violation, likely broken playback
- Warning — non-fatal, may cause issues
- Info — advisory, worth reviewing
URL Probing
- HTTP reachability check per segment
- HTTP status code reporting
- Latency measurement (ms)
- Unreachable segment detection
- Sampled probe rate
- Average latency summary
Manifest Tree
- Visual manifest structure tree
- Master → variant → segment hierarchy
- DASH period → adaptation set → representation
- Click to filter findings by node
- Per-node finding indicators
Sources
- Local .m3u8 and .mpd files
- Remote http(s):// URLs
- Auto-detected protocol (HLS / DASH)
- Re-validate on demand
VMAF quality analysis
Measure perceptual video quality objectively. Compare any reference against an encoded output and get a frame-level quality timeline alongside an aggregate score summary.
Models
- HD / Default
- 4K
- Phone
Analysis Options
- Reference video (source/mezzanine)
- Distorted video (encoded output)
- Trim: start & end time
- Thread count
- Scaling algorithm
- Custom log path
Scaling Algorithms
- Lanczos (default)
- Bicubic
- Bilinear
- Fast bilinear
- Nearest neighbor
- Gaussian
- Sinc
- Spline
- Area
- Bicublin
Results
- Aggregate score summary
- Min, mean, max VMAF
- Per-frame quality timeline
- Interactive chart
- File size and bitrate in result
- VMAF JSON export
Job History
- Persistent job history
- Reload previous results
- Quick-select recent encode outputs
- Full log output per run
Ready to get started with Video Commander?
Available now for macOS and Windows. Free for personal use.