Python - Extracting and Saving Video Frames

Question

So I've followed this tutorial but this doesn't seem to do anything. Simply nothing. It waits a few seconds and closes the program. What is wrong with this code?

import cv2
vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture('Compton.mp4')
success,image = vidcap.read()
count = 0
success = True
while success:
  success,image = vidcap.read()
  cv2.imwrite("frame%d.jpg" % count, image)     # save frame as JPEG file
  if cv2.waitKey(10) == 27:                     # exit if Escape is hit
      break
  count += 1

Also, in the comments it says that this limits the frames to 1000? Why?

EDIT: I tried doing success = True first but that didn't help. It only created one image that was 0 bytes.

Answer 1

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

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 2

This function extracts images from video with 1 fps, IN ADDITION it identifies the last frame and stops reading also:

import cv2
import numpy as np

def extract_image_one_fps(video_source_path):

    vidcap = cv2.VideoCapture(video_source_path)
    count = 0
    success = True
    while success:
      vidcap.set(cv2.CAP_PROP_POS_MSEC,(count*1000))      
      success,image = vidcap.read()

      ## Stop when last frame is identified
      image_last = cv2.imread("frame{}.png".format(count-1))
      if np.array_equal(image,image_last):
          break

      cv2.imwrite("frame%d.png" % count, image)     # save frame as PNG file
      print '{}.sec reading a new frame: {} '.format(count,success)
      count += 1

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

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 5

To extend on this question (& answer by @user2700065) for slightly different case, if anyone does not want to extract every frame but wants to extract frame every one second. So 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__":
    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 6

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?