How do I ffmpeg extract frames?
Writes each frame to a numbered image file, or samples at a fixed rate to keep the count manageable.
Export every frame as an image
Writes each frame to a numbered image file, or samples at a fixed rate to keep the count manageable.
ffmpeg -i https://cdn.rendobar.com/assets/examples/sample.mp4 -vf fps=1 -t 5 frame_%04d.png- Encode
- 2810 ms
- Output
- —
- Cost
- $0.0037
- Result
- file
job_d24963d9a2c640b1
The part everyone gets wrong
A 5-minute 30fps video is 9,000 frames, and exporting all of them as PNG will produce gigabytes. Almost nobody wants every frame; they want a sample. fps=1 gives one per second. The %04d in the filename is required, and omitting it makes FFmpeg overwrite the same file repeatedly.
Frequently asked questions
What goes wrong most often?
A 5-minute 30fps video is 9,000 frames, and exporting all of them as PNG will produce gigabytes. Almost nobody wants every frame; they want a sample. fps=1 gives one per second. The %04d in the filename is required, and omitting it makes FFmpeg overwrite the same file repeatedly.
Do I need FFmpeg installed?
Not with Rendobar. The command on this page ran through the API against a URL, with no local FFmpeg and no server. The job id below it is the job that produced these numbers.
More recipes, all measured
Extract audio from video with FFmpeg Pulls the audio track out of a video, copying it without re-encoding when the format allows. Extract a thumbnail from a video Grabs a single frame as a JPEG or PNG, seeking to the timestamp first so it is fast on long files. Make a contact sheet from a video Samples frames across the video and lays them out in a grid as a single image. Convert MP4 to GIF with FFmpeg Turns a video into an animated GIF using a generated palette, which is the difference between a usable GIF and a muddy one.
Run this without installing FFmpeg
This exact command ran through the API against a URL.