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# Pad a video with black frames to a target duration
- URL: https://ffmpeguru.com/pad-a-video-with-black-frames-to-a-target-duration/
- Published: 2026-09-16T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T17:59:44.000Z
- Author: FFmpeguru
- Tags: ffmpeg

![](https://picsum.photos/seed/ffback33/1200/630)

Sometimes you have a clip that is too short for the slot it needs to fill — a 2-second title card that needs to run for 10 seconds, a 30-second bumper that needs to be 1 minute. The \`tpad\` filter pads the start, end, or both of a video with a chosen color (black by default) to a target duration.

## The command

```
ffmpeg -i short.mp4 -vf "tpad=stop_duration=8:color=black" -c:v libx264 -crf 20 out.mp4
```

## What it does

The filter pads the end of the video with 8 seconds of black, so a 2-second source becomes a 10-second output. Use \`start\_duration=8\` to pad the beginning instead, or both for a centered source. The \`color\` parameter accepts any CSS color name or hex code. The audio is unaffected — to pad the audio as well, use \`apad\` with the same logic.

## Requirements

Any video input. The filter is in libavfilter. CPU-only — the padding is just a constant frame the encoder writes, so the cost is proportional to the target duration, not the source.

## Things to avoid

- Padding with a color that does not match the project's background. The pad will be visible at the cut; for a black background, use \`color=black\`; for a white background, \`color=white\`.
- Padding the video without padding the audio. The video will run longer than the audio, and the player will either loop the audio or play silence. Pad both.
- Using \`tpad\` on a stream that is already at the target duration. The filter pads up to the target, so passing a 12-second source with \`stop\_duration=8\` will leave the source untouched.
- Combining \`tpad\` with a complex filter chain. The padding is a single frame inserted at the end; if your chain expects a specific duration, run the padding last.