Change ffprobe Log Level to Only Show Errors

By default, ffprobe outputs a significant amount of configuration metadata, build details, and stream information whenever it processes a media file. This guide explains how to use the built-in logging flags to suppress standard banners and operational notices, configuring ffprobe to exclusively output critical error messages to your terminal.

To restrict the output of ffprobe to errors only, you must use the -loglevel option (or its shorthand alias -v) followed by the error argument.

The Basic Command Syntax

Use either of the following commands:

ffprobe -loglevel error input.mp4

or

ffprobe -v error input.mp4

When this flag is set, ffprobe suppresses the standard header information and warning messages, printing to the console only if an actual error occurs during execution.

Common Log Level Values

FFmpeg and ffprobe support several logging levels depending on how much detail you want to filter out:

• -v quiet: Suppresses all output entirely, including errors.
• -v panic: Only logs errors that will cause the process to crash immediately.
• -v fatal: Only logs fatal errors that prevent recovery.
• -v error: Logs all errors, including recoverable ones. This is the standard choice for error-only tracking.
• -v warning: Logs warnings and errors.

Practical Example: Parsing Output Cleanly

A common reason to restrict the log level to error is when you need to parse specific stream data via scripts without parsing through build banners. You can combine -v error with options like -show_entries and -of (output format):

ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=width,height -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 input.mp4

This ensures that the output contains strictly the requested dimensions, unless a processing failure occurs, in which case the error description will be displayed.