Linux video
Related Pages
- See Linux sound for Linux sound systems
- See Linux audio for audio support on Linux
- See Linux video for video support on Linux
- See Linux photo for photo support on Linux
Play videos
Mplayer
- External links
- Playing video files
MPlayer plays video files. Many video formats are supported. To play a file:
mplayer <SOMEFILE>
Here a short summary of keyboard shortcuts that can be used during playback:
Key | Function |
---|---|
Left Right | Forward / backward 10 seconds |
Down Up | Forward / backward 1 minutes |
PgDn PgUp | Forward / backward 10 minutes |
Some frequently-used options:
mplayer -xy 2 <SOMEFILE> # Plays a file with a scale factor of 2
- Playing DVD's
Here some handy examples. Mplayer can also be used to play dvd files directly from the harddisk. Check man mplayer
for more examples.
mplayer dvd://1 # Quick start playing dvd from dvd-reader
mplayer dvd://5-7 # Only plays titles 5 to 7
mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /path/to/directory/ # Play DVD title 1 from a directory with VOB files
mplayer dvd://1 -alang fr -slang en # Play in Japanese with French subtitles
bug: There is apparently a bug that prevents subtitles to be displayed even though the option -slang is given on the command-line. As a workaround press the key J while playback to cycle through the subtitles.
- Configuring
Edit ~/.mplayer/input.conf [1] (! It's PGDWN !):
RIGHT seek +10 LEFT seek -10 DOWN seek -60 UP seek +60 PGUP seek 600 PGDWN seek -600
mpv
An improved mplayer2.
Record video
Open Broadcaster Software
One of the best free software to record and stream your presentation, live games, etc. A bit difficult to setup, but powerful and excellent results. Linux, Windows, Mac.
# On Debian
sudo apt install ffmpeg obs-studio
SimpleScreenRecorder
SimpleScreenRecorder is a very simple and powerful tool to record desktop on Linux.
- Fullscreen - 128kb mp3, H.264 superfast setting
- Roughly 2Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 40% of one core.
VLC
We can use VLC to record the desktop, for instance to make Youtube tutorial videos.
- Go to Media → Convert/ Save
- Select the Capture Device tab
- Set Capture Mode to Desktop.
VLC foresee several profiles:
- H.264 + MP3 (.MP4 container).
- Roughly 1Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 95% of one core.
- Youtube SD.
- 640x480 - Roughly 1Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 40% of one core.
- Youtube HD.
- Issues
- VLC does not record audio
Encode video
HandBrake
See HandBrake.
ffmpeg
- Use yuvj420p to get full 8-bit color range
By default, ffmpeg would use a compressed color range [16,255]. Use pixel format yuvj420p
to get the full color range [2]:
ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuvj420p dest.mp4
- Rescale video
# Use :-1 to keep aspect ratio - might complain if height is odd
ffmpeg -i input.avi -filter:v scale=720:-1 -c:a copy output.mkv
- Change container
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4
- Concatenate video (with different codecs)
# https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Concatenate#differentcodec
# Concatenate
ffmpeg -i file1.mkv -i file2.flv -i file3.mp4 \
-filter_complex "[0:v:0][0:a:0][1:v:0][1:a:0][2:v:0][2:a:0]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]" \
-map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" output.mp4
# Concatenate, but use AAC for output audio
ffmpeg -i file1.mkv -i file2.flv -i file3.mp4 \
-filter_complex "[0:v:0][0:a:0][1:v:0][1:a:0][2:v:0][2:a:0]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]" \
-c:a aac \
-map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" output.mp4
Video Editor
KDEnLive
The best out there.
Flowblade Movie Editor
- Install
sudo apt install flowblade
- Slow export (8min for 1min video). Encoding in MPEG2.
- Export failed. Audio muted after 5 sec. In fact, audio playback was choppy during preview.
Openshot
- Status = BAD
- update — 2019-April: new version out, with positive feedback on Hacker news. To retry?
- Version 1.4.3 — Made a basic video edit (snip) and export. Works ok but has an annoying bug that video loses start time when editing properties [3].in
- Very fast export (youtube-HD), couple of seconds to export a 1min video.
- Version 2.3.4 — Video playback does not work. Stop playing after 2 or 3 sec.
- Ins
The version distributed in Ubuntu repository is an old version (1.4.3) and has an annoying bug [4]. Better install the latest version from dev PPA [5].
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openshot-qt
Pitivi
- Interface sucks.
- Movie cursor freezes after some min.
- Awful rendering time (>1h30 for 1min video, simple video clipping).
Movie subtitles
Gnome Subtitles
Gnome Subtitles is an excellent application to generate, or resync subtitles file (format .srt...).
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pedrocastro/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-subtitles
Creating a ScreenCast
From [6]:
- Created an Intrepid instance in VirtualBox.
- Used gtk-recordmydesktop to record only the VirtualBox window.
- Create the intro and outro slides in OOo and recorded them using gtk-recordmydesktop.
- Import all three clips into Pitivi and exported them as a single ogv.
- Recorded the speech in Audacity while watching the screencast and exported it as a wav file.
- Converted the ogv to an avi using mencoder.
- Imported the avi and wav into avidemux, mashed them together and saved an avi.
- Used ffmpeg2theora to convert it back to an ogv.
Another solution: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/ScreencastTeam
Webcam
- Display webcam video stream with mplayer [7]:
mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0
How-To
Find duplicates
- Below (modified from https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1110498).
- Update: https://github.com/stueja/viddupes
#!/usr/bin/perl
use File::Path;
# Source: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1110498
# Modified by Xeyownt
my $ofh = select STDOUT; #Make stdout hot
$| = 1;
select STDOUT;
$getimages = 1000; #render out 1000 images
$deletefirst = 300; #delete the first 300
$totalimages = $getimages - $deletefirst;
$minmatch = 2; #might use this later (not used now)
exit unless defined($ARGV[0]);
$searchdir = "$ARGV[0]"; #directory to scan
$searchdir = $searchdir . "/" unless $searchdir =~ m/\/$/;
$basedir = "/tmp/hashchecker/"; #working directory, this directory will get clobbered, make it something uniq in /tmp/
$basedir =~ s|/\z||;
print "Searching '$searchdir'...\n";
print "Cleaning up hsh directory '$basedir'...\n";
rmtree($basedir); #see, I told you.
print "Rendering $getimages frame(s), skipping the first $deletefirst. ($totalimages end result)\n";
@videofiles=`find "$searchdir" -type f -printf "%p\n" | grep -Ei "\.(mp4|flv|wmv|mov|avi|mpeg|mpg|m4v|mkv|divx|asf)"`;
foreach $i (@videofiles)
{
chomp $i;
print "Processing '$i'...";
@filename = split(/\//,$i);
$imgdir = $basedir . "/$filename[-1]";
mkpath($imgdir);
$data=`cd "$imgdir"; mplayer -really-quiet -vo png -frames $getimages -ao null "$i" 2>&1`;
@data=`find "$imgdir" -type f -name "*.png" | sort`;
for ($deletecount=0; $deletecount < $deletefirst; $deletecount++)
{
chomp $data[$deletecount];
unlink $data[$deletecount];
}
print "mogrify -resize 10x10! -threshold 50% -format bmp \"$imgdir/*\"\n";
$data=`mogrify -resize 10x10! -threshold 50% -format bmp "$imgdir/*"`;
$data=`find "$imgdir" -type f -name "*.png" -delete`;
print "\n";
}
print "Calculating hash table...\n";
@md5table=`find "$basedir" -type f -name "*.bmp" -exec md5sum "{}" \\; | sort | uniq -D -w32`;
foreach $x (@md5table)
{
chomp $x;
$x =~ m/^([0-9a-f]{32})/i;
$md5=$1;
$x =~ m/^[0-9a-f]{32}[ \t]*(.*)/i;
$fullpath=$1;
@filename = split(/\//,$x);
open (MYFILE, ">>$basedir/$md5.md5") or die "couldnt open file\n";
print MYFILE "$fullpath\n";
close (MYFILE);
}
@hashfiles=`find "$basedir" -type f -name "*.md5"`;
foreach $i (@hashfiles)
{
chomp $i;
@uniqfiles=`sort "$i" | uniq`;
$uniqsize=@uniqfiles;
if ($uniqsize > 1)
{
$firstpass = 1;
foreach $x (@uniqfiles)
{
chomp $x;
@filename=split(/\//,$x);
if ($firstpass == 1)
{
$outfile=$filename[-2];
$firstpass=0;
}
else
{
if ($outfile ne $filename[-2])
{
open (COUNTFILE, ">>$basedir/$outfile.count") or die "$outfile -> couldnt open file\n";
print COUNTFILE "$filename[-2]\n";
close (COUNTFILE);
}
}
}
}
}
print "Here come the delicious dupes:\n";
@hashfiles=`find "$basedir" -type f -name "*.count"`;
foreach $i (@hashfiles)
{
chomp $i;
print "$i\n";
@uniqfiles=`sort "$i" | uniq -c`;
foreach $x (@uniqfiles)
{
chomp $x;
$x =~ m/^[ \t]*([0-9]{1,50})/i;
$percent = $1/$totalimages*100;
$x =~ m/^[ \t]*[0-9]{1,50}(.*)/i;
$filename=$1;
printf "\t%.2f% match with %s\n",$percent,$filename;
}
print "\n";
}
exit;
Create video thumbnails
ffmpegthumbnailer
Requires ffmpegthumbnailer:
THUMBDIR=thumbnails
THUMBSUMMARY=summary.png
make_thumbnails()
{
if [ -d $THUMBDIR ]; then
mv $THUMBDIR $THUMBDIR-$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
fi
# sudo apt install ffmpegthumbnailer
SIZE=512
mkdir -p "$THUMBDIR"
i=0
for f in *; do
[ "$f" = "$THUMBDIR" ] && continue
echo -- "$f"
ffmpegthumbnailer -s $SIZE -i "$f" -o "$THUMBDIR/$f-10.png" -c png -t 10
ffmpegthumbnailer -s $SIZE -i "$f" -o "$THUMBDIR/$f-20.png" -c png -t 20
((i++))
# [ $i -lt 5 ] || break
done
echo "Doing montage..."
montage -label %f -frame 5 -geometry "$SIZEx$SIZE+2+2>" $THUMBDIR/*.png $THUMBSUMMARY
mv $THUMBSUMMARY $THUMBDIR/
}
Note that the thumbnail summary can be quite big. Use viewer like feh to view it. The same application can be used to view thumbnails easily:
THUMBDIR=thumbnails
THUMBSUMMARY=summary.png
view_thumbnails()
{
# sudo apt intall feh
feh -dF --zoom fill $THUMBDIR
}
view_thumbnails_summary()
{
# sudo apt intall feh
feh $THUMBDIR/$THUMBSUMMARY
}
ffmpeg
ffmpeg -itsoffset -5 -i "$srcimg" -vcodec mjpeg -vframes 1 -an -f rawvideo -s 200x200 -loglevel quiet "$dest"
Extracting A Clip From An MP4 File
From superuser.com:
avconv -i input.mp4 -ss 00:00:15 -t 00:00:10 -codec copy output.mp4
Also works for mp4 in EXT3MU
format:
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:11
#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:YES
#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:1
#EXTINF:5.000,
http://...
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://...
Convert a movie to PNG
Use ffmpeg:
# -nostdin to avoid ffmpeg to read frmo stdin. Or could do 'echo y | ffmpeg ...'
ffmpeg -nostdin -i movie.mp4 -r 25 movie%03d.png # -r sets the framerate
Reindex a video
Use ffmpeg:
# -nostdin to avoid ffmpeg to read frmo stdin. Or could do 'echo y | ffmpeg ...'
ffmpeg -nostdin -i movie.mp4 -codec copy reindexed.mp4
Repair a truncated video
- Using ffmpeg
If problem with the container [8]:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy output.mp4
- Using untrunc
If getting message moov atom not found
, untrunc can repair truncated video file given a working video file.
- Repair truncated video on android phone due to unexpected shutdown (battery failure).
To use:
- Build using docker:
git clone https://github.com/ponchio/untrunc.git
cd untrunc
sudo apt install docker.io
sudo docker build -t untrunc .
- Run trunc on the truncated video. Assuming these videos are located at /tmp/broken.mp4 and /tmp/working.mp4:
cd tmp
sudo docker run -v /tmp/:/files untrunc /files/working.mp4 /files/broken.mp4
Process can take several minutes, with lot of spam.