How to drawtext colon with localtime in ffmpeg -filter_complex?

Question

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter_complex "drawtext='fontfile=font.ttf : text=%{localtime\:%Y/%m/%d %H%M%S} : fontsize=24 : fontcolor=white : x=10: y=10'" out.mp4

works.

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter_complex "drawtext='fontfile=font.ttf : text=%{localtime\:%Y/%m/%d %H\:%M\:%S} : fontsize=24 : fontcolor=white : x=10: y=10'" out.mp4

returns

%{localtime} requires at most 1 arguments

error.

the only difference is \:

Answer 1

You can use:

%{localtime\:%Y/%m/%d %H\\\\\:%M\\\\\:%S}

It's ugly. See FFmpeg: Quoting & Escaping for some info.