What does "level" mean in FFprobe output?

Question

I do not understand some attributes in the output by FFprobe

For a sample file

$ ffprobe -v error -show_format -show_streams input.mp4
[STREAM]
index=0
codec_name=h264
codec_long_name=H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
profile=High
width=320
height=240
has_b_frames=2
pix_fmt=yuv420p
level=13                <= This one!
color_range=N/A

What does "level" mean here? Is there any document explain those attributes?

@szatmary Thanks for your comment. In fact, I read it before, however, on Wikipedia it says "level" like 1, 1b, 2, 2.2. Nothing like "level=13". What is level 13? Is not it supposed to be "level=1b" or "level=1.3"? — shintaroid, Mar 07 '17 at 01:11
13 is 1.3. That are all like that (20 is 2.0, etc) except 1b which is 9 — szatmary, Mar 07 '17 at 03:28

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '17 at 18:44

0

The [level][1] means a set of constraints (mostly resolution but bit depth as well) that indicate a degree of required decoder performance for a profile. The 13 probably refers to 1.3

answered Mar 07 '17 at 18:44

Leandro Moreira

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What does "level" mean in FFprobe output?

1 Answers1