Video Tools

Shell scripts and utilities for editing/converting videos.

apt install mencoder ffmpeg mkvtoolnix imagemagick avconv libavcodec-extra-53 libav-tools

Determine length in seconds of a given video file

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 "$1" | cut -d\. -f1

Remove first X seconds from video file

ffmpeg -i example.mp4 -ss 00:00:04.000 -acodec copy -vcodec copy -map_metadata -1 example.mp4

Split MKV into Smaller MKV’s Based on Timestamps

mkvmerge -o out.file --split timecodes:00:42:06.000,01:22:20.000 in.file

Cut and Direct Copy Video to New File

mencoder [-ss 00:00:00] -endpos 00:15:00 -oac copy -ovc copy in.file -o out.file
ffmpeg -i input.wmv -ss 00:00:00.000 -t 00:15:00.000 -acodec copy -vcodec copy output.wmv

Strip metadata

Ffmpeg -map_metadata -1  # Only metadata that is not required.

Generate Copies at One Second Intervals (For Bad Encodes)

for x in `seq -w 5 15`;do mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -ss 11:${x} -endpos 14:00 in.file -o out-${x}.file;done

Merge Video Files into a Single File

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy [-noskip] [hr-edl-seek] in1.file in2.file inX.file -o out.file

Insert a Video into a MKV Container

mkvmerge -o out.mkv in.file  # No Video Conversion -- Preferred.

Insert and Convert a Video into a MKV Container

# Re-encodes then inserts.
mencoder in.file -o out.mkv -of lavf -oac copy -ovc lavc

Insert and Convert Videos in a Directory to MKV Containers

find . -name "*.flv" -exec mencoder {} -o {}.mkv -of lavf -oac copy -ovc lavc \;

Convert Entire Directory to MKV Containers

find . -type f -exec mkvmerge -o {}.mkv {} \;

Convert Animated GIF to AVI/MPG

convert image.gif output%05d.png
convert -delay 12 -quality 100 output*png final_movie.mpg
ffmpeg -r 9 -i output%05d.png final_movie.avi

Combine multiple video parts into one video

mkvmerge -o out.mkv 1.file + 2.file + 3.file + 4.file + 5.file

Rip MP3 Audio from FLV File

avconv -i {FLV FILE} output.mp3

Convert FLV to MKV Container

ffmpeg -i {FLV FILE} -vcodec copy -acodec copy out.mkv

Convert webm to mkv

ffmpeg -i your_input_filename.webm -qscale 0 your_outfile_name.mkv

Use ffmpeg to download and stitch stream together

ffmpeg -i https://{URI}.m3u8 -c:v copy -c:a copy -f mpegts output.ts

ffmpeg Convert Minimizing Quality Loss

Convert file stripping metadata and enabling skipping and scrubbing in video.

ffmpeg -i example.mp4 -ss 00:00:10.000 -t 00:51:29.000 -crf 15 -movflags +faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p -map_metadata -1 out.mp4

Download M3U8 Playlist

For videos that are stitched together in short increments, usually TS (video stream).

Turn on developer tools (Chrome):

⋮ ➔ More Tools ➔ Developer Tools
Load Video URL.
Developer Tools ➔ Network ➔ All
Filter by m3u8.
Determine stream URL to use.
RMB ➔ Copy ➔ Copy link address