diff --git a/ffmpeg.c b/ffmpeg.c
index db0eafd8f0..3817050c9b 100644
--- a/ffmpeg.c
+++ b/ffmpeg.c
@@ -3769,7 +3769,7 @@ static const OptionDef options[] = {
     { "itsoffset", OPT_FUNC2 | HAS_ARG, {(void*)opt_input_ts_offset}, "set the input ts offset", "time_off" },
     { "itsscale", HAS_ARG, {(void*)opt_input_ts_scale}, "set the input ts scale", "stream:scale" },
     { "title", HAS_ARG | OPT_STRING, {(void*)&str_title}, "set the title", "string" },
-    { "timestamp", OPT_FUNC2 | HAS_ARG, {(void*)&opt_rec_timestamp}, "set the timestamp", "time" },
+    { "timestamp", OPT_FUNC2 | HAS_ARG, {(void*)&opt_rec_timestamp}, "set the timestamp ('now' to set the current time)", "time" },
     { "author", HAS_ARG | OPT_STRING, {(void*)&str_author}, "set the author", "string" },
     { "copyright", HAS_ARG | OPT_STRING, {(void*)&str_copyright}, "set the copyright", "string" },
     { "comment", HAS_ARG | OPT_STRING, {(void*)&str_comment}, "set the comment", "string" },
diff --git a/libavformat/utils.c b/libavformat/utils.c
index 4f098d9344..417a7e35e8 100644
--- a/libavformat/utils.c
+++ b/libavformat/utils.c
@@ -2908,6 +2908,9 @@ int64_t parse_date(const char *datestr, int duration)
     p = datestr;
     q = NULL;
     if (!duration) {
+        if (!strncasecmp(datestr, "now", len))
+            return (int64_t) now * 1000000;
+
         /* parse the year-month-day part */
         for (i = 0; i < FF_ARRAY_ELEMS(date_fmt); i++) {
             q = small_strptime(p, date_fmt[i], &dt);