How to generate images from mp4 file?

Question

I am trying to generate the images from mp4 video file with ffmpeg.

I only want the first 3 second of every video in the file.

I have the following command..

 $videoFile = $mp4File; //I have many mp4 files

 $ffmpeg ="/usr/ffmpeg";

 $image_path = $videoFile;

 $ALL_PLACE_WIDTH = 300;
 $ALL_PLACE_HEIGHT = 220;

 $image_cmd = " -r 1 -r 0.03 -s ".$ALL_PLACE_WIDTH."x".$ALL_PLACE_HEIGHT." -f image2 ";
 $dest_path = 'project/image-%01d.png';

 $str_command= $ffmpeg  ." -i " . $image_path . $image_cmd .$dest_path;
 shell_exec($str_command);

I am trying to generate firt 3 second image of every mp4 file but my script will genearte a lot of images and it create images across entire mp4 file.

Can I restrict the script to get only the first 3 seconds images only? Thanks a lot!

llogan · Answer 1 · 2013-05-23T00:29:00.630

1

If I understand you correctly you want one image from three seconds in.

Change:

$image_cmd = " -r 1 -r 0.03 -s ".$ALL_PLACE_WIDTH."x".$ALL_PLACE_HEIGHT." -f image2 ";

to:

$image_cmd = " -vf scale=".$ALL_PLACE_WIDTH.":-1 -frames:v 1 -ss 3 ";

What's different?

-r and -f image2 are not required.
The scale filter can automatically adjust the height or width with -1 in relation to your given value so aspect is preserved. This avoids stretching or squishing that could result from an absolute resize. This means that $ALL_PLACE_HEIGHT = 220; is not needed.
Use -frames:v 1 to output one frame.
-ss is the offset time, or the time that you want the image from.

edited May 23 '13 at 00:29

answered May 23 '13 at 00:15

llogan

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Thanks for help. I got an error...Unrecognized option 'frames:v' Failed to set value '1' for option 'frames:v' +1 – FlyingCat May 23 '13 at 00:33
@FlyingCat You are using an old version. My example uses recent syntax. – llogan May 23 '13 at 00:38
Do you know how to do this in old version? – FlyingCat May 23 '13 at 00:50
@FlyingCat I'm not sure what version you're using. – llogan May 23 '13 at 00:56
@LordNectbear my ffmpeg version 0.8.6-4:0.8.6-0 – FlyingCat May 23 '13 at 01:14
@FlyingCat Unfortunately that is a "fake" ffmpeg from a fork of FFmpeg (see [Who can tell me the difference and relation between ffmpeg, libav, and avconv?](http://stackoverflow.com/a/9477756/1109017)). I don't use it so I can't give any suggestions but maybe some other user can. – llogan May 23 '13 at 01:37
@FlyingCat `-vframes` should work on the version you're using. – slhck May 25 '13 at 17:52

How to generate images from mp4 file?

1 Answers1