detect and remove black parts of a video using ffmpeg `trim`.

ffmpeg_blackdetect.py

print("""
this file is has migrated to https://github.com/FarisHijazi/deblack/blob/master/deblack.py
Please go head over to the repository and contribute to the project
""")

It's been a while, but what i remember is:

You need to have python 3 installed in the command line, make sure you cd into the folder where both this script is and the input video.

You need to have ffmpeg installed somehow, there are many ways to download it, one way is to download the binary (.exe) and put it in the same directory (make sure it's called ffmpeg.exe)
https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

Another option is using pip

pip3 install ffmpeg
# maybe even
pip3 install static-ffmpeg

And then just run the command:

python3 black_detect.py myvideo.mp4

Thanks very much for this help. I will try and let you know

…

On Sun, Jul 31, 2022, 12:32 PM Faris Hijazi ***@***.*** wrote: ***@***.**** commented on this gist. ------------------------------ It's been a while, but what i remember is: You need to have python 3 installed in the command line, make sure you cd into the folder where both this script is and the input video. You need to have ffmpeg installed somehow, there are many ways to download it, one way is to download the binary (.exe) and put it in the same directory (make sure it's called ffmpeg.exe) https://ffmpeg.org/download.html Another option is using pip pip3 install ffmpeg# maybe even pip3 install static-ffmpeg And then just run the command: python3 black_detect.py myvideo.mp4 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/eff7a7979440faa84a63657e085ec504#gistcomment-4250930>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ALC53C33UZJEGVGRAWI6TTTVWZP5VANCNFSM5W2LMZJQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

I have done that, but unfortunately i got this message which i dont actually understand if it is a success message or otherwise. if this is a success message please how can i see my trimmed video?

Seems that u don't have audio in your video
I can add a special mode for this later

Thanks a lot for this! its is very useful,
however im having this problem: im trying with 2 different videos, 8m40s in length, black frames happens more than 10 times for sure.
it nevers does the full video, its like a limit in the n times it detects a black.
has this any sense at all? is this error or limit possible?
could you help me? thanks a lot!

Hi again, actually it looks that it only trim it the first 6 times, but there are more blacks in the video. why is this?

ffprobe_cmd: ffprobe -f lavfi -i "movie=video2.mp4,blackdetect[out0]" -show_entries tags=lavfi.black_start,lavfi.black_end -of default=nw=1 -v quiet
ffmpeg -i "video2.mp4" -y -filter_complex "[0:v]trim=start=0:end=20.88,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[0v]; [0:a]atrim=start=0:end=20.88,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[0a]; [0:v]trim=start=22.08:end=50.68,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[1v]; [0:a]atrim=start=22.08:end=50.68,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[1a]; [0:v]trim=start=101.44:end=111.12,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[2v]; [0:a]atrim=start=101.44:end=111.12,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[2a]; [0:v]trim=start=191.2:end=191.72,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[3v]; [0:a]atrim=start=191.2:end=191.72,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[3a]; [0:v]trim=start=193.6:end=194.52,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[4v]; [0:a]atrim=start=193.6:end=194.52,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[4a]; [0:v]trim=start=195.16:end=196.6,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[5v]; [0:a]atrim=start=195.16:end=196.6,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[5a]; [0:v]trim=start=215.2:end=221.24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[6v]; [0:a]atrim=start=215.2:end=221.24,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[6a]; [0v][0a][1v][1a][2v][2a][3v][3a][4v][4a][5v][5a][6v][6a]concat=n=7:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]" -map [outv] -map [outa] "video2.out.mp4"
ffmpeg version 5.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developers
built with Apple clang version 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.29)

it's possible that this is a limitation with ffmpeg, remember that this tool I made is just a script which generates a command for ffmpeg, if ffmpeg has this limitation than that's kind of out of the scope here, what I could suggest (which isn't optimal) is to run it on the video, then run it on the output, then run it on the output, and so-on, until you reach 0 black segments

The issues is that it's inefficient + you may lose information as the video is being processed multiple times (it could be getting compressed again and again)

but this is the fastest thing i could think of

yes, thats actually the way to go, or cut it first in segments then run all the segments . thanks a lot for your reply!

Hey, thanks for this. I'm recording things with Nvidia shadow play and seem to get a lot of black flickering. I tried this solution however and I get no error message but the output file does not appear to be getting written. Any help would be greatly appreciated.:

ffprobe_cmd: ffprobe -f lavfi -i "movie=vid1.mp4,blackdetect[out0]" -show_entries tags=lavfi.black_start,lavfi.black_end -of default=nw=1 -v quiet
ffmpeg -i "vid1.mp4" -y -filter_complex "[0:v]trim=start=0:end=0.0333556,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,format=yuv420p[0v]; [0:a]atrim=start=0:end=0.0333556,asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS[0a]; [0:v]trim=start=0.0662667:end=0.100756,setpts=PTS-
............
[671a][672v][672a][673v][673a][674v][674a][675v][675a][676v][676a][677v][677a][678v][678a][679v][679a][680v][680a][681v][681a][682v][682a][683v][683a][684v][684a][685v][685a][686v][686a][687v][687a][688v][688a][689v][689a][690v][690a][691v][691a][692v][692a][693v][693a][694v][694a][695v][695a][696v][696a][697v][697a][698v][698a][699v][699a][700v][700a][701v][701a][702v][702a][703v][703a][704v][704a][705v][705a][706v][706a][707v][707a][708v][708a][709v][709a][710v][710a][711v][711a][712v][712a][713v][713a][714v][714a][715v][715a][716v][716a][717v][717a][718v][718a][719v][719a]concat=n=720:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]"
-map [outv] -map [outa] "vid1.out.mp4"

since so many people are using this, I created an entire repository based around this https://github.com/FarisHijazi/deblack, I haven't had much time to go over these issues, but I plan to do that in the future

Please go ahead and post your issues there and also maybe star the repository

Thank you so much!