Using ffmpeg to obtain video durations in python

Question

I\'ve installed ffprobe using the pip ffprobe command on my PC, and installed ffmpeg from here.

However, I\'m still having trouble running the code listed here.

Answer 1

Updated solution using ffprobe based on @llogan guidance with the pointed link:

import subprocess

def get_duration(input_video):
    cmd = ["ffprobe", "-i", input_video, "-show_entries", "format=duration",
           "-v", "quiet", "-sexagesimal", "-of", "csv=p=0"]
    return subprocess.check_output(cmd).decode("utf-8").strip()

---

Fragile Solution due to stderr output:

the stderr output from ffmpeg is not intended for machine parsing and is considered fragile.

I get help from the following documentation (https://codingwithcody.com/2014/05/14/get-video-duration-with-ffmpeg-and-python/) and https://stackoverflow.com/a/6239379/2402577

Actually, sed is unnecessary: ffmpeg -i file.mp4 2>&1 | grep -o -P "(?<=Duration: ).*?(?=,)"

---

You can use the following method to get the duration in HH:MM:SS format:

import subprocess

def get_duration(input_video):
    # cmd: ffmpeg -i file.mkv 2>&1 | grep -o -P "(?<=Duration: ).*?(?=,)"
    p1 = subprocess.Popen(['ffmpeg',  '-i', input_video], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
    p2 = subprocess.Popen(["grep",  "-o", "-P", "(?<=Duration: ).*?(?=,)"], stdin=p1.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    p1.stdout.close()
    return p2.communicate()[0].decode("utf-8").strip()

Example output for both: 01:37:11.83

Answer 2

There is no need to iterate though the output of FFprobe. There is one simple command which returns only the duration of the input file:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 <input_video>

You can use the following method instead to get the duration:

def get_length(input_video):
    result = subprocess.run(['ffprobe', '-v', 'error', '-show_entries', 'format=duration', '-of', 'default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1', input_video], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
    return float(result.stdout)

Answer 3

Have you tried adding the encoding? That error is typical of that, as Chamath said. Add the utf-8 encoding to your script header:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- 

Answer 4

Python Code

<code>
cmnd = ['/root/bin/ffmpeg',  '-i', videopath]
process = subprocess.Popen(cmnd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
stdout, stderr = process.communicate()

#This matches regex to get the time in H:M:S format
matches = re.search(r"Duration:\s{1}(?P<hours>\d+?):(?P<minutes>\d+?):(?P<seconds>\d+\.\d+?),", stdout, re.DOTALL).groupdict()
t_hour = matches['hours']
t_min  = matches['minutes']
t_sec  = matches['seconds']

t_hour_sec = int(t_hour) * 3600
t_min_sec = int(t_min) * 60
t_s_sec   = int(round(float(t_sec)))

total_sec = t_hour_sec + t_min_sec + t_s_sec

#This matches1 is to get the frame rate of a video
matches1 = re.search(r'(\d+) fps', stdout)
frame_rate = matches1.group(0) // This will give 20fps
frame_rate = matches1.group(1) //It will give 20

</code>

Answer 5

we can also use ffmpeg to get the duration of any video or audio files.

To install ffmpeg follow this link

import subprocess
import re

process = subprocess.Popen(['ffmpeg',  '-i', path_of_video_file], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
matches = re.search(r"Duration:\s{1}(?P<hours>\d+?):(?P<minutes>\d+?):(?P<seconds>\d+\.\d+?),", stdout, re.DOTALL).groupdict()

print (matches['hours'])
print (matches['minutes'])
print (matches['seconds'])

Answer 6

I'd suggest using FFprobe (comes with FFmpeg).

The answer Chamath gave was pretty close, but ultimately failed for me.

Just as a note, I'm using Python 3.5 and 3.6 and this is what worked for me.

import subprocess 

def get_duration(file):
    """Get the duration of a video using ffprobe."""
    cmd = 'ffprobe -i {} -show_entries format=duration -v quiet -of csv="p=0"'.format(file)
    output = subprocess.check_output(
        cmd,
        shell=True, # Let this run in the shell
        stderr=subprocess.STDOUT
    )
    # return round(float(output))  # ugly, but rounds your seconds up or down
    return float(output)

If you want to throw this function into a class and use it in Django (1.8 - 1.11), just change one line and put this function into your class, like so:

def get_duration(file):

to:

def get_duration(self, file):

Note: Using a relative path worked for me locally, but the production server required an absolute path. You can use os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(file)) to get the path to your video or audio file.