Video Handler Script by sea, using ffmpeg and TUI
Is it an audio extractor? Is it a stream caster? Is it a webradio player? Is it a video converter? Is it a video player? Yes, and more!
- Intro
- What it was...
- What does it do?
- Tools
- Examples : Command length
- Examples : Usage
- Installation
I'm a lazy guy, and eventhough i love the power of the console, one cannot remember/know all of the options and arguments of every tool there is. This said, i wanted to make my use of ffmpeg a little easier.
What started as a simple script to mass-encode videos to save discspace, became a quite powerfull tool around ffmpeg. It was never supposed to be, but now it is my favorite web radio player :D
Rather than typing a complex line of a single command, with the change of a letter, you can record from your webcam, your desktop or combine the both in a guide video. Encoding files, automaticly increases a naming number, so no file gets overwritten.
Even for dvd encoding, for which it requires vobcopy to be installed, in best case scenario, it reads the dvd its name, and uses that automaticly for the output name.
Initialy, all i wanted was to have a script i could throw video files at, and it would encode them:
- to my favorite codec
- with my favorite resolution
- at my favorite bitrates
At first i became quote busy just accomplishing that single task, and at some point, figured ffmpeg can encode vob files too. So i then tried to include that, while trying that, figured ffmpeg could record from webcam, record the desktop and do streaming tasks too.
Well, at that point i had to do a partial rewrite of VHS to accomplish all the new tasks, which i certainly like. By now, for my needs it replaces:
- ogmrip (dvd-ripper)
- {gtk|qt-}recordMyDesktop (screenrecording)
- Rythmbox (which i just used to listen webradio)
- totem/vlc (to play videos/music - music even in multiuser.stage)
So if you are aiming for an OS with as less possible packages/space usage, VHS is the way to go! While these named packages themself just require like ~20 mb, their dependencies grow quickly to aprox around 150mb pulling a quite amount of libs with them.
All the features below can be quick access'ed by simply passing 1 option to vhs, and if required the input files of concern.
- Make ffmpeg silent, as it expects the commands to work properly
- Encode files to save space.
- Rearange audio streams
- Extract time segments or just samples (1min)
- Extract audio / subtitle
- Add audio or subtitle stream
- Add another video stream as pip (there are presets for orientation)
- Join/concat audio or video files
- Enable, Remove or rearange subtitles
- Stream/Record Webcam
- Stream/Record Desktop
- Stream/Record Guide (the two above, webcam as pip)
- Streamserver, Audio or Video
- Streamplayer, Audio or Video
- Make a backup of your DVD
Recently i've added some handy tools.
vhs calc [cd|dvd|br #files ~#min]
vhs calc Would start the tool, and ask you for the storage device, the amount of files, and their average playtime. vhs calc dvd 32 20 Does pass all that information on the call and just prints the result.
vhs ip Simply prints your external (wan) and internal (lan) IP adresses.
IN-PLANNING vhs build-ffmpeg [CHROOT] Will pull in all source code and compile ffmpeg pulling in as many possible features as possible. CHROOT by default will be $HOME/.local, during compilation, the PREFIX will then be $CHROOT/usr -> $HOME/.local/usr.
So for lazy people like me, i usualy just call the first line, rather than the second...
Using subtitles and use 'full' preset Quality -Q RES
vhs -tQ fhd inputfile
ffmpeg -i "inputfile" -strict -2 -map 0:0 -b:v 1664K -vf scale=1920x1080 -c:v libx264 -minrate 3328K -maxrate 3328K -bufsize 1664K -b:a 256K -ac 2 -c:a ac3 -c:s ssa -map 0:3 -map 0:1 "outputfile"
Or to record whats going on on the desktop
vhs -S
ffmpeg -f x11grab -video_size 1920x1080 -i :0 -f alsa -i default -strict -2 -f mp4 "outputfile"
Or even take the desktop as background, and the webcam as a pip-overlay (orient- and sizeable):
vhs -Gp br480
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -s 1280x720 -framerate 25 -i /dev/video0 -f x11grab -video_size 1920x1080 -framerate 25 -i :0 -f alsa -i default -filter_complex '[0:v:0] scale=480:-1 [a] ; [1:v:0][a]overlay=1440:main_h-overlay_h-0' -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast -c:a ac3 -q:a 4 -strict -2 "/home/sea/mm/vid/guide-out.8.mkv"
vhs [/path/to/]file # Encodes a specific file
vhs * # Encodes all files in current directory
vhs -b a128 -b v256 files # Encode a video with given bitrates in kbytes
vhs -B files # Encode a video with default bitrates (vhs.conf)
vhs -c vlibx265 -c alibfaac files # Encode a file with given codecs
vhs -e XY files # Encode a video with container XY rather than favorite from vhs.conf
vhs -w files ... # Encode a video and move info flags in front (web/streaming)
vhs -v files ... # Encode a video and (ffmpeg) be verbose (good to see why it failed)
vhs -y files ... # Copy streams - dont encode
vhs -U files ... # Upstream passed files, to favorite upstream ID (urls.stream)
vhs -SU # Upstream desktop, to favorite (default) upstream ID
vhs -vPU # Play videostream from your most favorite (default) playstream id (vhs.conf)
vhs -vPP # Play videostream from one of the prevously played streams (urls.play)
vhs -Pu adress # Play audio stream from adress (urls.play)
There are times where the default settings, generated command, does not work. If that happens, you might want to change to verbose mode (-v) to get the error message produced by ffmpeg. There is also a chance to modify the generated command before it gets executed by passing -A.
If you still want more output, there you go:
# Script itself beeing verbose (not '-x', but still debug))
vhs -V[options] [filename]
# ffmpeg beeing verbose
vhs -v[options] [filename]
# To report a bug, please use the output of these two (with the first one modified) lines:
vhs -vV[youroptions] ["inputfile"]
tail ~/.config/vhs/vhs.log
su
cd /usr/src
git clone https://github.com/sri-arjuna/vhs.git
cd vhs
./configure --prefix=/usr
./make-install
To uninstall, it is quite the same:
su
cd /usr/src/vhs
./make-uninstall
cd ..
rm -fr vhs