What is this?

This is a script written in PHP to create small video previews like the ones you see on YouTube. It makes use of ffmpeg and ffprobe.

Why PHP, why not bash or something else?

Because I'm a web guy and comfortable with PHP.

How do I use it?

In its simplest form you call the script and give it a file and (optionally) video dimensions for the output:

php convert.php myVideo.mp4 400x300

The result will be a small preview video: myVideo-preview.mp4

Use quotes or escape spaces if your filename contains spaces:

php convert.php "my video.mp4" 400x300
php convert.php my\ video.mp4 400x300

Some configuration

Some tuning can be done with the settings at the top of the script:

• FFMPEG_PATH: Path to the ffmpeg binary. If globally installed leave it at ffmpeg
• FFPROBE_PATH: Path to the ffprobe binary. If globally installed leave it at ffprobe
• CHOP_SECONDS: The number of seconds to skip at the beginning and end of a file, to skip titles, default 30
• NUMBER_OF_PARTS: The number of segments you want your preview to have, default 8
• PART_DURATION: The length of each segment in seconds, default 1.25
• FPS: Frames per second for the output file, default 25

The reason why those values are not part of the command line input is because this script will most likely run as an automated task or cronjob and all the video previews need to be the same.

An example

Here is an example video preview of the ElephantsDream movie.

Todo

• Add check for minimum video length
• Add option to set output folder