Python – Extracting and Saving Video Frames

Answer #1:

From here download this video so we have the same video file for the test. Make sure to have that mp4 file in the same directory of your python code. Then also make sure to run the python interpreter from the same directory.

Then modify the code, ditch waitKey that’s wasting time also without a window it cannot capture the keyboard events. Also we print the success value to make sure it’s reading the frames successfully.

import cv2
vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture('big_buck_bunny_720p_5mb.mp4')
success,image = vidcap.read()
count = 0
while success:
  cv2.imwrite("frame%d.jpg" % count, image)     # save frame as JPEG file      
  success,image = vidcap.read()
  print('Read a new frame: ', success)
  count += 1

How does that go?

Answer #2:

To extend on this question (& answer by @user2700065) for a slightly different cases, if anyone does not want to extract every frame but wants to extract frame every one second. So a 1-minute video will give 60 frames(images).

import sys
import argparse

import cv2
print(cv2.__version__)

def extractImages(pathIn, pathOut):
    count = 0
    vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture(pathIn)
    success,image = vidcap.read()
    success = True
    while success:
        vidcap.set(cv2.CAP_PROP_POS_MSEC,(count*1000))    # added this line 
        success,image = vidcap.read()
        print ('Read a new frame: ', success)
        cv2.imwrite( pathOut + "\frame%d.jpg" % count, image)     # save frame as JPEG file
        count = count + 1

if __name__=="__main__":
    a = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    a.add_argument("--pathIn", help="path to video")
    a.add_argument("--pathOut", help="path to images")
    args = a.parse_args()
    print(args)
    extractImages(args.pathIn, args.pathOut)

Answer #3:

This is a tweak from previous answer for python 3.x from @GShocked, I would post it to the comment, but dont have enough reputation

import sys
import argparse

import cv2
print(cv2.__version__)

def extractImages(pathIn, pathOut):
    vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture(pathIn)
    success,image = vidcap.read()
    count = 0
    success = True
    while success:
      success,image = vidcap.read()
      print ('Read a new frame: ', success)
      cv2.imwrite( pathOut + "\frame%d.jpg" % count, image)     # save frame as JPEG file
      count += 1

if __name__=="__main__":
    print("aba")
    a = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    a.add_argument("--pathIn", help="path to video")
    a.add_argument("--pathOut", help="path to images")
    args = a.parse_args()
    print(args)
    extractImages(args.pathIn, args.pathOut)

Answer #4:

This is Function which will convert most of the video formats to number of frames there are in the video. It works on Python3 with OpenCV 3+

import cv2
import time
import os

def video_to_frames(input_loc, output_loc):
    """Function to extract frames from input video file
    and save them as separate frames in an output directory.
    Args:
        input_loc: Input video file.
        output_loc: Output directory to save the frames.
    Returns:
        None
    """
    try:
        os.mkdir(output_loc)
    except OSError:
        pass
    # Log the time
    time_start = time.time()
    # Start capturing the feed
    cap = cv2.VideoCapture(input_loc)
    # Find the number of frames
    video_length = int(cap.get(cv2.CAP_PROP_FRAME_COUNT)) - 1
    print ("Number of frames: ", video_length)
    count = 0
    print ("Converting video..n")
    # Start converting the video
    while cap.isOpened():
        # Extract the frame
        ret, frame = cap.read()
        # Write the results back to output location.
        cv2.imwrite(output_loc + "/%#05d.jpg" % (count+1), frame)
        count = count + 1
        # If there are no more frames left
        if (count > (video_length-1)):
            # Log the time again
            time_end = time.time()
            # Release the feed
            cap.release()
            # Print stats
            print ("Done extracting frames.n%d frames extracted" % count)
            print ("It took %d seconds forconversion." % (time_end-time_start))
            break

if __name__=="__main__":

    input_loc = '/path/to/video/00009.MTS'
    output_loc = '/path/to/output/frames/'
    video_to_frames(input_loc, output_loc)

It supports .mts and normal files like .mp4 and .avi. Tried and Tested on .mts files. Works like a Charm.

Answer #5:

After a lot of research on how to convert frames to video I have created this function hope this helps. We require opencv for this:

import cv2
import numpy as np
import os

def frames_to_video(inputpath,outputpath,fps):
   image_array = []
   files = [f for f in os.listdir(inputpath) if isfile(join(inputpath, f))]
   files.sort(key = lambda x: int(x[5:-4]))
   for i in range(len(files)):
       img = cv2.imread(inputpath + files[i])
       size =  (img.shape[1],img.shape[0])
       img = cv2.resize(img,size)
       image_array.append(img)
   fourcc = cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc('D', 'I', 'V', 'X')
   out = cv2.VideoWriter(outputpath,fourcc, fps, size)
   for i in range(len(image_array)):
       out.write(image_array[i])
   out.release()


inputpath = 'folder path'
outpath =  'video file path/video.mp4'
fps = 29
frames_to_video(inputpath,outpath,fps)

change the value of fps(frames per second),input folder path and output folder path according to your own local locations

Answer #6:

The previous answers have lost the first frame. And it will be nice to store the images in a folder.

# create a folder to store extracted images
import os
folder = 'test'  
os.mkdir(folder)
# use opencv to do the job
import cv2
print(cv2.__version__)  # my version is 3.1.0
vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture('test_video.mp4')
count = 0
while True:
    success,image = vidcap.read()
    if not success:
        break
    cv2.imwrite(os.path.join(folder,"frame{:d}.jpg".format(count)), image)     # save frame as JPEG file
    count += 1
print("{} images are extacted in {}.".format(count,folder))

By the way, you can check the frame rate by VLC. Go to windows -> media information -> codec details

Answer #7:

This code extract frames from the video and save the frames in .jpg formate

import cv2
import numpy as np
import os

# set video file path of input video with name and extension
vid = cv2.VideoCapture('VideoPath')


if not os.path.exists('images'):
    os.makedirs('images')

#for frame identity
index = 0
while(True):
    # Extract images
    ret, frame = vid.read()
    # end of frames
    if not ret: 
        break
    # Saves images
    name = './images/frame' + str(index) + '.jpg'
    print ('Creating...' + name)
    cv2.imwrite(name, frame)

    # next frame
    index += 1

Answer #8:

I am using Python via Anaconda’s Spyder software. Using the original code listed in the question of this thread by @Gshocked, the code does not work (the python won’t read the mp4 file). So I downloaded OpenCV 3.2 and copied “opencv_ffmpeg320.dll” and “opencv_ffmpeg320_64.dll” from the “bin” folder. I pasted both of these dll files to Anaconda’s “Dlls” folder.

Anaconda also has a “pckgs” folder…I copied and pasted the entire “OpenCV 3.2” folder that I downloaded to the Anaconda “pckgs” folder.

Finally, Anaconda has a “Library” folder which has a “bin” subfolder. I pasted the “opencv_ffmpeg320.dll” and “opencv_ffmpeg320_64.dll” files to that folder.

After closing and restarting Spyder, the code worked. I’m not sure which of the three methods worked, and I’m too lazy to go back and figure it out. But it works so, cheers!