How to parse ffmpeg info in PHP?

Question

How does one go about getting specific pieces of information, like the 'duration' from the output of ffmpeg -i /var/thismovie.avi ?

I need frame height, frame width, duration of movie and frame rate. All of these are in the out put of the above command but how do i get the bits i need individually and put them in a variable in PHP?

I've given up on trying to install ffmpeg-php which is what I used before this to do the same job.

Thanks

ffmpeg -i /var/thismovie.avi produce an output like this

ffmpeg version N-43171-ga763caf Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers built on Aug 3 2012 07:56:19 with gcc 4.1.2 (GCC) 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-52) configuration: --enable-version3 --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libvpx --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-pic --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --disable-ffplay --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-nonfree --enable-avfilter --enable-pthreads --extra-cflags=-fPIC libavutil 51. 66.100 / 51. 66.100 libavcodec 54. 48.100 / 54. 48.100 libavformat 54. 22.100 / 54. 22.100 libavdevice 54. 2.100 / 54. 2.100 libavfilter 3. 5.102 / 3. 5.102 libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100 libswresample 0. 15.100 / 0. 15.100 libpostproc 52. 0.100 / 52. 0.100 [avi @ 0x18e8e240] non-interleaved AVI [avi @ 0x18e8e240] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5000000 Input #0, avi, from '/var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/httpdocs/movie.avi': Duration: 00:00:10.76, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5180 kb/s Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High) (H264 / 0x34363248), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 128 kb/s At least one output file must be specified`

ffmpeg-php sounds like exactly the right tool for the job. What you're trying to do sounds like a terrible workaround for not being able to install an extension. — Matt Ball, Aug 04 '12 at 01:33
if you are able to execute command from php using [`exec`](http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php) you can capture the output of the command as php variable then parse it the way you like — Hawili, Aug 04 '12 at 01:35
@Matt Ball on the contrary, it saves me having to install ffmpeg-php just to get 4 values from a movie. And another reason is that ffmpeg-php hasn't been developed since 2007 from what I gather. I already have (and need) ffmpeg installed so why not just make use of that to get the info I'm after? — Jizbo Jonez, Aug 04 '12 at 02:08
@Hawili yes that's where I was heading, but how to parse the info exactly? — Jizbo Jonez, Aug 04 '12 at 02:08
Ok thanks Hawili, here's a sample - Duration: 00:00:10.76, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5180 kb/s Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High) (H264 / 0x34363248), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 128 kb/s — Jizbo Jonez, Aug 04 '12 at 02:16

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

15

Based on ffprobe solution suggested by @blahdiblah and inspired by another question answer: https://github.com/paulofreitas/php-ffprobe

Note: requires ffmpeg 0.9+, supports ALL ffmpeg supported file types

Using the class

// Example 1
$info = new ffprobe($filename);
var_dump($info->format->format_long_name); // e.g. string(10) "AVI format"
var_dump($info->streams[0]->duration);     // e.g. string(11) "5674.674675"

// Example 2 (prettified)
$info = new ffprobe($filename, true);
var_dump($info->format->format_long_name); // e.g. string(10) "AVI format"
var_dump($info->streams[0]->duration);     // e.g. string(14) "1:34:34.674675"

Extending the class

class ffprobe_ext extends ffprobe
{
    public function __construct($filename)
    {
        parent::__construct($filename);
    }

    public function getVideoStream()
    {
        foreach ($this->streams as $stream) {
            if ($stream->codec_type == 'video') {
                return $stream;
            }
        }
    }

    public function getVideoInfo()
    {
        $stream = $this->getVideoStream();
        $info   = new ArrayObject(array(), ArrayObject::ARRAY_AS_PROPS);
        $info->duration     = (float) $stream->duration;
        $info->frame_height = (int) $stream->height;
        $info->frame_width  = (int) $stream->width;
        eval("\$frame_rate = {$stream->r_frame_rate};");
        $info->frame_rate   = (float) $frame_rate;

        return $info;
    }
}

$ffprobe = new ffprobe_ext($filename);
$info = $ffprobe->getVideoInfo();
var_dump($info->duration); // e.g. float(5674.674675)

Welcome to further improvements! :-)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

Community

1
1

answered Aug 04 '12 at 08:55

Paulo Freitas

11,380
13
68
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Thanks for the detailed answer Paulo. This looks like exactly what I need but the class is failing at this line for some reason. I've tried with both .avi and .mpeg which are standard filetypes surely. I am also using the latest version of ffmpeg through git : if (!isset($json->format)){throw new Exception('Unsupported file type');} – Jizbo Jonez Aug 11 '12 at 08:01
That's unexpected... Try to `var_dump($json);` just before that `if (...)` statement, to see what you're getting from `shell_exec()`. If your `$json` dumps `{}`, it's probably that something isn't working as expected. In that case, please, tell me what your terminal dumps for `ffprobe -loglevel quiet -show_format -show_streams -print_format json video_file.avi` command (edit your question with this update, comments have some limitations). Thanks! :) – Paulo Freitas Aug 11 '12 at 20:13
I forgot to add the path to ffprobe in the json_decode command. It works now, and it's brilliant. Thanks a lot. One last question, how can I get just the value of say var_dump($info->duration); so for example with 4.4 second video, return just 4.4 instead of returning float(4.4) – Jizbo Jonez Aug 12 '12 at 14:09
1

Just use `$info->duration` on your code (without `var_dump()` call, I've used it in the examples for demonstration purposes), e.g. if you want to show that value, just print it with `print $info->duration;` or even `printf('%0.2f', $info->duration);` if you need it formatted. :) – Paulo Freitas Aug 12 '12 at 15:08
yeah I just worked it out and was about to delete that last comment. Thanks again, much appreciated. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 12 '12 at 15:13

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '12 at 02:24

Use ffprobe instead.

ffprobe is the tool packaged with FFmpeg for exactly the sort've purpose you're after: extracting video info. It outputs a variety of easily parsed formats and will be far easier than parsing the incidental information that FFmpeg outputs.

For example:

$ ffprobe -show_format -loglevel quiet mptestsrc.mp4 
[FORMAT]
filename=mptestsrc.mp4
nb_streams=1
format_name=mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2
format_long_name=QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
start_time=0.000000
duration=12.040000
size=237687
bit_rate=157931
TAG:major_brand=isom
TAG:minor_version=512
TAG:compatible_brands=isomiso2avc1mp41
TAG:encoder=Lavf54.20.100
[/FORMAT]

ok thats awesome... but, how do I get the SPECIFIC information I need. How do I go about extracting just the duration, frame height, frame width, frame rate in php? Right now it's almost the same output as what ffmpeg -i gives except it's on separate lines. — Jizbo Jonez, Aug 04 '12 at 02:35

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '13 at 22:40

You can use ffprobe which has an option to output JSON format.

Take a look at this example:

ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_format Ramp\ -\ Apathy.mp3

Which produces the follwing output:

{
    "format": {
        "filename": "Ramp - Apathy.mp3",
        "nb_streams": 2,
        "format_name": "mp3",
        "format_long_name": "MP2/3 (MPEG audio layer 2/3)",
        "start_time": "0.000000",
        "duration": "203.638856",
        "size": "4072777",
        "bit_rate": "159999",
        "tags": {
            "title": "Apathy",
            "artist": "Ramp",
            "album": "Evolution Devolution Revolution",
            "date": "1999",
            "genre": "Metal"
        }
    }
}

I'm using ffprobe version 1.0.7.

Thanks for the info Paulo, but that isn't much different to the accepted answer above which also uses ffprobe, your method just has slightly cleaner looking output. — Jizbo Jonez, May 30 '13 at 07:24

Hawili · Answer 4 · 2012-08-04T05:29:23.577

3

$output = `ffmpeg -i /var/thismovie.avi`; //note that back quote is like exec
preg_match('/Duration: (.*?),.*?Video:.*?0x.*?([0-9]+)x([[0-9]+).*?([0-9]+) fps/i'
    ,$output , $result);

output of $result array should be like this:

Array
(
    [0] => Duration: 00:00:10.76, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 5180 kb/s Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High) (H264 / 0x34363248), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps
    [1] => 00:00:10.76
    [2] => 1280
    [3] => 720
    [4] => 25
)

UPDATE

The actual output is multi line, so please update the pattern into

/Duration: (.*?),.*?([0-9]+)x([0-9]+) \[.*?([0-9]+) fps/is

edited Aug 04 '12 at 05:29

answered Aug 04 '12 at 02:58

Hawili

1,601
11
15

excellent thanks alot. A total noob question here but how do I get just one of the values? I tried the following but just get an error and I can't see what is wrong - $output = shell_exec($ffmpegPath . ' -i ' . $srcFile . ' 2>&1'); //note that back quote is like exec preg_match('/Duration: (.*?),.*?Video:.*?0x.*?([0-9]+)x([[0-9]+).*?([0-9]+) fps/i',$output , $result); print_r($result[0]); – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 03:49
what is the content of $output? just do `echo $output` to verify that the above command is giving results – Hawili Aug 04 '12 at 03:53
if you are sure there is output, just do `var_dump($result)`, if the array is like the one I posted you can access variables using `$result[1]` for duration, `$result[2]` for width and so on – Hawili Aug 04 '12 at 03:57
yeah it's not happening, var_dump($result) gives an empty array, var_dump($output) gives me the entire ffmpeg output which is too much info - $output = shell_exec($ffmpegPath . ' -i /var/www/vhosts/somesite.com/httpdocs/movie.avi 2>&1'); So $output is getting something but $result gets nothing. What do you even mean by '//note that back quote is like exec'... whats a back quote? – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 04:21
first of all, edit the main question, paste $output value there as code, seems there is something need to be changed in the regular expression. now regarding back quote ` you can use this instead of shell_exec, just check my original code, see I'm not using any function! – Hawili Aug 04 '12 at 04:26
does it make any difference whether i use the backquote method or just use shell_exec? – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 04:32
@jizbojonez no, its exactly the same, just a shortcut to write less code :) – Hawili Aug 04 '12 at 04:35
ok well it looks ugly in my editor, like it's an error. So I stuck with the shell_exec for now until I get this sorted. I edited the post with the output of $output – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 04:36
"just tried using the output you placed, it worked without modifying anything!" yes doing it that way does indeed work, but why wont it work when doing a shell_exec? Like this - $output = shell_exec($ffmpegPath . ' -i /var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/httpdocs/movie.avi 2>&1'); If I echo that $output it gives me the string I gave you, the one you say has no problem, but if that $output is passed to the preg_match it doesn't happen. This is just weird. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 04:53
ok so this is the behavior. If $output is given the shell_exec command, and then I do a echo($output) I get a long string with the required info. If I take that info and assign it to $output as a string, and then try to echo($result) I now get an array with values as you already know. The problem is if make $output use the shell_exec again and then echo($result), I get nothing. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 05:11
@JizboJonez change the pattern to `/Duration: (.*?),.*?([0-9]+)x([0-9]+) \[.*?([0-9]+) fps/is` – Hawili Aug 04 '12 at 05:24
guess what.... IT WORKS!!! yey Hawili you were right about the multi line problem. Thanks heaps for your help, you are the man. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 05:37
Btw I only just noticed the message in my inbox where you asked me to discuss this problem in chat, sorry about that. Anyway all sorted now, ur a legend. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 05:51
That won't work with any AVI file... I've tested a video encoded with mpeg4 and `ffmpeg` output doesn't have `fps` info. I'll provide a solution based on `ffprobe` suggested by @blahdiblah. – Paulo Freitas Aug 04 '12 at 08:17
ok thanks blahdiblah. For a quick fix I just changed the preg_replace 'fps' part to 'tbr' which is also some form of frame rate. It seems to work so far but maybe it won't with a certain video encode type. Anyway, looking forward to your solution. – Jizbo Jonez Aug 04 '12 at 08:48
I forgot to tell you that I've already posted my `ffprobe` solution below. You can even read TAGs with it if you ever need! Tested with AVI/WMV/MP4 videos. I'll improve checks and update my answer as soon as I've time do to it. – Paulo Freitas Aug 05 '12 at 00:50

How to parse ffmpeg info in PHP?

4 Answers4

Using the class

Extending the class

Linked