ffmpeg (and some other programs) has a different solution to this: options apply to the succeeding non-option argument: ffmpeg -f wav infile -f mp4 outfile mean

ffmpeg (and some other programs) has a different solution to this: options apply to the succeeding non-option argument: ffmpeg -f wav infile -f mp4 outfile means to convert the wav infile to an mp4 outfile. of course, nobody ever reads the manual, so they use it wrong.