Table of Contents

ffmpeg - Encoding - Set Language

FFMPeg uses the ISO 639-2 codes.

Set language on a stream

-metadata:s:1 language=eng

NOTE: Sets metadata language to eng on the stream id 1 (which is, in typical cases, the first audio stream).

Set language on first subtitle stream

-metadata:s:s:0 language=eng

NOTE: Sets the metadata language to eng on the first subtitle stream.

Set language for specific streams

-map 0:v \
-map 0:1 -metadata:s:a:0 language=zxx \
-map 0:2 -metadata:s:a:1 language=eng \
-map 0:3 -metadata:s:a:2 language=fra \
-map 0:4 -metadata:s:a:3 language=kin

NOTE: The standard includes some codes for special situations:

  • mis, for “uncoded languages”;
  • mul, for “multiple languages”;
  • qaa-qtz, a range reserved for local use.
  • und, for “undetermined”;
  • zxx, for “no linguistic content, not applicable”;

Set language as Unknown

ffmpeg -i in.mkv -map 0:a -metadata:s:a:0 language="und" -metadata:s:a:0 title="Just Music" out.mkv

NOTE: und stands for Undetermined.

The standard includes some codes for special situations:

  • mis, for “uncoded languages”;
  • mul, for “multiple languages”;
  • qaa-qtz, a range reserved for local use.
  • und, for “undetermined”;
  • zxx, for “no linguistic content, not applicable”;

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-2_codes