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How To Get Video Duration With FFMPEG and PHP

i would like to use PHP and FFMPEG to get the DURATION of the VIDEO so i can save into the Database.. I found some examples but could not get to work

my path to my FFMPEG is

*/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg*

here is the example of of snippet but it looks to be local for the ffmpeg??

so much help appreciated if you can fix the php code and fix the proper path i provided above to grab the DURATION in a php file.. thanks for any help to get this properly working as i do not want to have to use ffmpeg-php


bc.. if (isset($_GET['percent']))
{
$percent = $_GET['percent'];

ob_start();
passthru("ffmpeg-9260.exe -i \"". $videofile . "\" 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

preg_match('/Duration: (.*?),/', $duration, $matches);
$duration = $matches[1];
$duration_array = split(':', $duration);
$duration = $duration_array[0] * 3600 + $duration_array[1] * 60 + $duration_array[2];
$time = $duration * $percent / 100;
$time = intval($time/3600) . ":" . intval(($time-(intval($time/3600)*3600))/60) . ":" . sprintf("%01.3f", ($time-(intval($time/60)*60)));
}

33 Community Answers

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

First, you should change the script to:bc.. passthru("ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");


Then try ffmpeg from the command line in the directory where the script is, to confirm that it works:bc.. ffmpeg -i /path/path/videofile.flv

Up Down

JW Player

User  
1 rated :

sadhu

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JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Nice code it runnung fine.
Thanks

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

What "ob_start();" do ?

Up Down

JW Player

User  
-1 rated :

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=PHP+ob_start%28%29&aq=f&oq=

Up Down

JW Player

User  
1 rated :

muchas gracias!!

Up Down

JW Player

User  
1 rated :

This one worked for me:

<?php
$videofile="/var/video/user_videos/partofvideo.avi";
ob_start();
passthru("/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

$search='/Duration: (.*?),/';
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);
//TEST ECHO
echo $matches[1][0];
?>

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

thanks as i will try to implement this into my php code..

as users were having issue ffmpeg-php..


anyone have any other experience on any other ways to the duration with any other php files.. ID3Tag, etc

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

hy,

when i convert any media file into flv through ffmpeg.
orignal file have metadata but the converted flv file have not complete metadata which some information lost.
such as duration.which i need.
for copy metadata input file to output file this command is used (-map_meta_data output file:input file) but this parameter does not work.
which always movie file duration show 00:00:00.
please help me.
thanks

Rana Muhammad Saleem

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

hy,
when i used this code
ob_start();
passthru("ffmpeg-9260.exe -i \"". $videofile . "\" 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

preg_match('/Duration: (.*?),/', $duration, $matches);
$duration = $matches[1];

in which movie file duration show different from the orignal file duration which is showing by any player.
please help me why this code show wrong different file duration.
i have experienced with multiple file.
please help
thanks
Rana muhammad Saleem

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

hay,

when i convert any media file into flv through ffmpeg.
orignal file have metadata but the converted flv file have not complete metadata which some information lost.
such as duration.which i need.
for copy metadata input file to output file this command is used (-map_meta_data output file:input file) but this parameter does not work.
which always movie file duration show 00:00:00.
please help me.
thanks

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

i am using this commang

exec("ffmpeg -i $fileToFlv -ar 44100 -sameq -an $fileFlv");

after conversion, size of file increase too large and duration metadata missing.
Please help me

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Somebody knows how obtain the duration with vb6.0 thanks...

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

There's a Ruby tool that manipulates metadata; ffmpeg is a powerful tool, but it's a bit of overkill just to get the duration of an flv no?

http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1096&release_id=9694

It will even output the data as xml, very useful.

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :


ffmpeg is lightining fast!

That's why it's the best tool to use for video.

Not that it's needed here, but ffmpeg will transcode at 3~4 times the framerate, making real-time transcoding very usable.

ffmpeg will also serve "chunks" of FLV video without regard to keyframes.

It's the best tool there is.

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Ok so how do i parse this into the player (script) then ?

for example, my player script has :-

<?php
ob_start();
//$whereis ffmpeg: change with /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
passthru("/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i ".$file." 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

//the full output:
//echo $duration."<br/>";

$search='/Duration: (.*?)[.]/';
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
$duration = $matches[1][0];

//i suppose that our video hasn't duration of a day+ :
list($hours, $mins, $secs) = split('[:]', $duration);

echo $duration;
?>

then in the java script section (to invoke the player), i have

so.addVariable('duration','<?php echo $duration; ?>');

Since the duration string is derived from the first bit of php script it should work but it does not.

How do i get this to work ?

Thanks Rich

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

at the moment to get my non flv videos to work with some sort of progress bar i have to cheat with :-

so.addVariable('duration','10800');

basic say that my media files are 3 hours long.

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

I managed to fix my own issue

now what ever video format ffmpeg supports, on file selection the player file will then interogate the file for duration then parse this out the the jw player under $duration_in_seconds string

code -

<?php
$path = '/mnt/data/video/films/';
$filename = htmlspecialchars($_GET["file"]);
$ext=strrchr($filename, ".");
$file = $path . $filename;

ob_start();
passthru("/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i \"". $file . "\" 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

preg_match('/Duration: (.*?),/', $duration, $matches);
$duration = $matches[1];
list($hr,$m,$s) = explode(':', $duration);
$duration_in_seconds = ( (int)$hr*3600 ) + ( (int)$m*60 ) + (int)$s;

// a work around for now - need to remove when above works
//$duration_in_seconds = 10800
//}
?>

then further down the same php script i have the players code -

<script type='text/javascript'>
var so = new SWFObject('player-viral.swf','ply','640','360','9','#ffffff');
so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');
so.addVariable('smoothing','false');
so.addVariable('deblocking','0');
so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');
so.addParam('wmode','opaque');
so.addVariable('frontcolor','EEEEEE');
so.addVariable('backcolor','333333');
so.addVariable('provider','video');
so.addVariable('bufferlength','20');
so.addVariable('duration','<?php echo $duration_in_seconds; ?>');
so.addVariable('stretching','exactfit');
so.addVariable('autostart','true');
so.addVariable('file','/filmstreamencoder.php?file=<?php echo $_GET["file"]; ?>&position=0');
so.write('mediaspace');
</script>

well happy i finally nailed it.

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

<?php

$file= ".../movie.flv"

//ffmpeg-php method without the same output as mine:
//$movie = new ffmpeg_movie($file);
//echo $movie->getDuration();


ob_start();
//$whereis ffmpeg: change with /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
passthru("/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i ".$file." 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

//the full output:
//echo $duration."<br/>";

$search='/Duration: (.*?)[.]/';
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
$duration = $matches[1][0];

//i suppose that our video hasn't duration of a day+ :
list($hours, $mins, $secs) = split('[:]', $duration);

echo "Hours: ".$hours." Minutes: ".$mins." Seconds: ".$secs;

?>

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Try this to get the width and height too (there's probably a swisher way!):

ob_start();
passthru("/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");
$resolution = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$search='/Video: (.*?),(.*?),(.*?),/';
$resolution=preg_match($search, $resolution, $durmatches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);
$resolution= $durmatches[3][0];
$resolutionsplit=array();

$resolutionsplit=explode("x",$resolution);
$videowidth=$resolutionsplit[0];
$videoheight=$resolutionsplit[1];

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

here's an example that works on windows well and returns the seconds instead of the 00:00:00 format:
bc.. <?php
$videofile="c:\\webs\\band\\bunny.flv";
ob_start();
passthru("C:\\ffmpeg.rev12665\\ffmpeg.exe -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");
$duration = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$search='/Duration: (.*?),/';
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);
$duration = $matches[1][0];
//echo $duration."<BR>";
$timearray = explode(":", $duration);
$min = 60*$timearray[1];
$sec = $timearray[2];
$ttime = $min+$sec;
if($dot = strpos($ttime, ".")){
$ttime = substr($ttime, 0, 3);
}
echo $ttime;

?>

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

i want get duration video a use ffmpeg java ?
who can help me... please?

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

bc.. $percent = 100;
$text = "Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 50.00 (50/1) -> 25.00 (25/1)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/opt/lampp/htdocs/split_video/test.mp4':
Duration: 01:44:13.68, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 718 kb/s
Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264, yuv420p, 512x384, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, mono, s16
At least one output file must be specified";

$preg = '|Duration: (.*),|siU';
preg_match_all($preg, $text, $matches, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
if(isset($matches[1][0])){
$duration = trim($matches[1][0]);
$duration_array = split(':', $duration);
$duration = $duration_array[0] * 3600 + $duration_array[1] * 60 + $duration_array[2];
$time = $duration * $percent / 100;
$time = intval($time/3600) . ":" . intval(($time-(intval($time/3600)*3600))/60) . ":" . sprintf("%01.3f", ($time-(intval($time/60)*60)));
print $time;
}

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

hello, my friends

I am new to PHP. I use xampp and Window XP. I want to know how to convert video files to flv file type using ffmpeg. I find this information everywhere. But I can not find. Now here I find. Your
informations are so cool. So can you guide me how to convert movies to flv file type using ffmpeg on XAMPP.

Up Down

JeroenW

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

You should really go to the FFmpeg site for that info. It’s a bit too serverside/technical for the kind of support we provide here.

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Just in case anyone was wondering .. you can also get the video width and height if you wanted to set the video to its original width and height or work out if its widescreen so you can set the video settings to show widescreen. (I am new to PHP by the way)

bc.. $videofile="/home/sim2k/Tezco/Vids/802000129.MTS";
ob_start();
passthru("ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");
$Size = ob_get_contents();
$full = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$search='/Video: (.*?), (.*?), (.*?),/';
$Size=preg_match($search, $Size, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
$Size = $matches[3][0];
echo $Size."<BR>";

if (preg_match("/16:9/", $Size, $matches)) {
echo "This is wide screen <br />";
echo $matches[0]."<br><br>";
}

$search='/(.*?) (.*?) (.*?) (.*?) (.*?)/';
$Size=preg_match($search, $Size, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
$Size = $matches[1][0];
echo $Size."<BR>";
$Size = explode("x", $Size);
echo $Size[0]." - Width<br>";
echo $Size[1]." - Height<br><br>";
echo $full."<br><br>File stream Done";


Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

<?php
$videofile="http://localhost/spadesocial/code/ch_videos/2843business_video.flv";

ob_start();

passthru("/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");


$duration = ob_get_contents();

print_r($duration);
ob_end_clean();

$search='/Duration: (.*?),/';
print_r($search);
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);

print_r($duration);


//TEST ECHO
//echo $matches[1][0];
?>
please confirm me



Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

<?php
$videofile="http://localhost/spadesocial/code/ch_videos/2843business_video.flv";

ob_start();

passthru("/usr/bin/ffmpeg -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");


$duration = ob_get_contents();

print_r($duration);
ob_end_clean();

$search='/Duration: (.*?),/';
print_r($search);
$duration=preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);

print_r($duration);


//TEST ECHO
//echo $matches[1][0];
?>
please confirm me



Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

Confirm what?

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JW Player

User  
0 rated :


This seems to work fine for me. This script is most useful when you can call it with the filename of a video file and it returns the duration.
bc.. <?php

// call with: http://www.mydomain.com/path/duration.php?videofile=filename.ext

$videofile = isset($_GET["videofile"]) ? strval($_GET["videofile"]) : "default";

//...external access
$videofile = "http://localhost/path/" . $videofile;

//...internal access
//$videofile = "/path/" . $videofile;

ob_start();

passthru("\"/path/ffmpeg\" -i \"{$videofile}\" 2>&1");

$duration = ob_get_contents();

ob_end_clean();

$search = "/Duration: (.*?),/";

$duration = preg_match($search, $duration, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 3);

//return $matches[1][0];

echo "Duration of " . $videofile . ": " . $matches[1][0];

?>



Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

If you have full access to bash app you could use the following script:
$ /usr/bin/ffmpeg -i /path/to/file.flv 2>&1 |grep Duration |awk '{print $2}' |awk -F: '{print ($1 * 3600) + ($2 * 60 ) + $3}'

This command will return the time in seconds with milli precision.
If you like, you could replace the math formula and do what you want (eg return the time expressed in hh:mm:ss)

Cheers

Up Down

JW Player

User  
0 rated :

Why not use ffprobe(1) to obtain this kind of metadata?

When you compile ffmpeg, ffprobe gets compiled along with it. Here's some sample output from a small test mp4:

*The container format, displayed in json:*
[~] ffprobe -show_format -pretty -print_format json -v quiet t1.mp4
bc.. {
"format": {
"filename": "t1.mp4",
"nb_streams": 2,
"format_name": "mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2",
"format_long_name": "QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format",
"start_time": "0:00:00.000000",
"duration": "0:00:20.350000",
"size": "3.489486 Mibyte",
"bit_rate": "1.438423 Mbit/s",
"tags": {
"major_brand": "M4VH",
"minor_version": "1",
"compatible_brands": "M4VHM4A mp42isom",
"creation_time": "2010-04-12 18:05:54"
}
}
}



That gives us the duration and bit rate.

*The frame rate comes from the stream info:*
[~] ffprobe -show_streams -pretty -print_format json -v quiet t1.mp4
bc.. {
"streams": [
{
"index": 0,
"codec_name": "aac",
"codec_long_name": "Advanced Audio Coding",
"codec_type": "audio",
"codec_time_base": "1/44100",
"codec_tag_string": "mp4a",
"codec_tag": "0x6134706d",
"sample_fmt": "s16",
"sample_rate": "44.100000 KHz",
"channels": 2,
"bits_per_sample": 0,
"r_frame_rate": "0/0",
"avg_frame_rate": "11025/256",
"time_base": "1/44100",
"start_time": "0:00:00.000000",
"duration": "0:00:20.363900",
"bit_rate": "102.236000 Kbit/s",
"nb_frames": "877",
"tags": {
"creation_time": "2010-04-12 18:05:54",
"language": "eng",
"handler_name": "Apple Sound Media Handler"
}
},
{
"index": 1,
"codec_name": "h264",
"codec_long_name": "H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10",
"codec_type": "video",
"codec_time_base": "1/1200",
"codec_tag_string": "avc1",
"codec_tag": "0x31637661",
"width": 852,
"height": 480,
"has_b_frames": 1,
"pix_fmt": "yuv420p",
"level": 31,
"is_avc": "1",
"nal_length_size": "4",
"r_frame_rate": "30000/1001",
"avg_frame_rate": "91500/3053",
"time_base": "1/600",
"start_time": "0:00:00.000000",
"duration": "0:00:20.353333",
"bit_rate": "1.329995 Mbit/s",
"nb_frames": "610",
"tags": {
"creation_time": "2010-04-12 18:05:54",
"language": "eng",
"handler_name": "Apple Video Media Handler"
}
}
]
}


Note that you also get an "average" bit rate as well as a "real" frame rate (along with all sorts of neat stuff) but that it needs to be computed. In this case the real frame rate (r_frame_rate) comes out to 29.97 fps.

The "pretty" options formats the numbers in a way that makes sense; the "-v quiet" drops the debug info that you've been using with ffmpeg -i. There are other "print_formats" available.

T.

Up Down

Ethan Feldman

JW Player Support Agent  
0 rated :

Thank you for sharing this.

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