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 heigh

Answer 1

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]