First Steps
Your first hands-on experience with MediaProc.
Welcome!
Let's process your first media file with MediaProc. This guide will walk you through the basics step-by-step.
Prerequisites Check
Before starting, ensure you have:
✅ MediaProc installed (run mediaproc --version)
✅ FFmpeg installed (run ffmpeg -version)
✅ A terminal/command prompt open
✅ Sample media files to process
Info
Need to install? See the Installation Guide for detailed setup instructions.
Your First Command
Let's start with the simplest possible command - getting help:
Terminal
$ mediaproc --help
MediaProc CLI v1.0.0
Universal media processing toolkit
Available plugins: image, video, audio, ...
What you should see:
- MediaProc version number
- List of available plugins
- Global command options
Processing Your First Image
Step 1: Find an Image
Any image file will work. For this example, let's say you have photo.jpg.
Step 2: Resize the Image
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
Processing: photo.jpg
Resizing to 1920×1080
✓ Created: photo-resized.jpg
What happened:
- MediaProc read
photo.jpg - Resized it to 1920 pixels wide (maintaining aspect ratio)
- Saved as
photo-resized.jpg
Step 3: Verify the Result
Open photo-resized.jpg in any image viewer to see the result!
Understanding the Command
Let's break down what we just did:
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └─ Option: Target width
│ │ │ └───────────── Input file
│ │ └───────────────────── Command: What to do
│ └──────────────────────────── Plugin: Media type
└─────────────────────────────────── CLI tool
Try Different Options
Change Output Format
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920 --format webp
✓ Created: photo-resized.webp
Specify Both Width and Height
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920 --height 1080
✓ Created: photo-resized.jpg (1920×1080)
Custom Output Name
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920 --output thumbnail.jpg
✓ Created: thumbnail.jpg
Processing Multiple Files
Batch Processing
Process all JPGs in the current directory:
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize *.jpg --width 1920
Processing 5 files...
photo1.jpg → photo1-resized.jpg
photo2.jpg → photo2-resized.jpg
photo3.jpg → photo3-resized.jpg
photo4.jpg → photo4-resized.jpg
photo5.jpg → photo5-resized.jpg
✓ Successfully processed 5 files
Output to Directory
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize *.jpg --width 1920 --output ./resized/
✓ Created 5 files in ./resized/
Exploring Other Plugins
Video Processing
Trim a video segment:
Terminal
$ mediaproc video trim movie.mp4 --start 30 --duration 60
Trimming: 00:00:30 for 1:00
✓ Created: movie-trimmed.mp4 (60 seconds)
Audio Processing
Convert audio format:
Terminal
$ mediaproc audio convert song.mp3 --format flac
Converting: song.mp3 → FLAC lossless
✓ Created: song.flac
Getting Help
Plugin Help
See all available image commands:
Terminal
$ mediaproc image --help
Image Plugin Commands:
resize Resize images to specified dimensions
convert Convert images between formats
optimize Optimize images for web
...and 46 more commands
Command Help
See options for a specific command:
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize --help
Resize images to specified dimensions
Options:
--width, -w Target width in pixels
--height, -h Target height in pixels
--fit How to fit the image (cover, contain, fill)
--format, -f Output format (jpg, png, webp)
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Forgetting the Plugin Name
❌ Wrong:
mediaproc resize photo.jpg --width 1920
# Error: Unknown command 'resize'
✅ Correct:
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
2. Using Wrong Option Names
❌ Wrong:
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --size 1920
# Error: Unknown option '--size'
✅ Correct:
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
3. Forgetting Input File
❌ Wrong:
mediaproc image resize --width 1920
# Error: No input files specified
✅ Correct:
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
Preview Before Processing
Use --dry-run to see what will happen without actually processing:
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920 --dry-run
Would process: photo.jpg
Would create: photo-resized.jpg
Operation: resize to 1920px width
(Dry run - no files modified)
Verbose Output
See detailed processing information with --verbose:
Terminal
$ mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920 --verbose
Loading image: photo.jpg
Original size: 4000×3000 (12 MP)
Target size: 1920×1440
Using Sharp 0.32.0
Resizing with Lanczos3 resampling
Writing: photo-resized.jpg
✓ Completed in 0.8s
Practice Exercises
Try these commands to practice:
Exercise 1: Image Formats
Convert an image to different formats:
# Original to WebP
mediaproc image convert photo.jpg --format webp
# Original to PNG
mediaproc image convert photo.jpg --format png
# Original to AVIF
mediaproc image convert photo.jpg --format avif
Exercise 2: Video Trimming
Extract different segments from a video:
# First 30 seconds
mediaproc video trim movie.mp4 --duration 30
# From 1 minute to 2 minutes
mediaproc video trim movie.mp4 --start 60 --end 120
# Last 30 seconds (requires knowing duration)
mediaproc video trim movie.mp4 --start -30
Exercise 3: Audio Conversion
Convert audio to different formats:
# MP3 to FLAC (lossless)
mediaproc audio convert song.mp3 --format flac
# WAV to Opus (modern compression)
mediaproc audio convert recording.wav --format opus
# FLAC to MP3 (for compatibility)
mediaproc audio convert master.flac --format mp3 --quality high
Quick Reference Card
Basic Pattern:
mediaproc <plugin> <command> <input> [options]
Common Commands:
# Image
mediaproc image resize photo.jpg --width 1920
mediaproc image convert photo.jpg --format webp
mediaproc image optimize photo.jpg
# Video
mediaproc video trim video.mp4 --start 30 --duration 60
mediaproc video resize video.mp4 --width 1280
mediaproc video transcode video.mp4 --codec h265
# Audio
mediaproc audio convert song.mp3 --format flac
mediaproc audio normalize podcast.mp3 --loudness -16
mediaproc audio trim song.mp3 --start 30 --duration 60
Helpful Options:
--help Show help
--verbose Detailed output
--dry-run Preview only
--output Specify output file/directory
What's Next?
You've successfully run your first MediaProc commands! 🎉
Continue Learning:
- Basic Concepts - Understand key terminology
- Quick Start - More comprehensive examples
- Plugin Guides - Deep dive into each plugin
- CLI Overview - Master the command-line interface
Try Advanced Features:
- Batch processing multiple files
- Chaining commands in workflows
- Custom configurations for repeated operations
- Creating plugins for custom processing
Getting Help
Stuck? Here's how to get help:
Command Help:
mediaproc --help # General help
mediaproc image --help # Plugin help
mediaproc image resize --help # Command help
Online Resources:
Ready to explore more?