🎬 PyVideoKit-CLI

Command-line tool for FFmpeg-based video processing: trim, concatenate, fade, apply a VHS effect, extract audio, archive to lossless FFV1, and export for YouTube — all from a single pvk command.

✨ Features

• 📼 VHS effect — retro visual noise, color bleed, and audio degradation
• ✂️ Trim — cut a segment by start/end time with stream copy (no re-encoding)
• 🔗 Concatenate — join two or more videos with stream copy
• 🎬 Fade — fade-in and/or fade-out on an FFV1 master
• 🔊 Extract audio — dump the audio track to uncompressed WAV (PCM 16-bit)
• 🎞️ Convert to FFV1 — create a lossless MKV master for editing
• 📺 Prepare for YouTube — encode to ProRes 422 HQ MOV, upscaled to 4K

📦 Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.10
• FFmpeg and FFprobe available in PATH
• SoX available in PATH (required by apply-vhs-effect)
• PyVideoKit-Libs — installed automatically as a dependency

🔧 Installation

🏗️ Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S python-pyvideokit-cli

FFmpeg, FFprobe, SoX, and PyVideoKit-Libs are installed automatically as pacman dependencies.

🐍 Other systems (pip)

pip install PyVideoKit-CLI

Make sure FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SoX are available in your PATH.

This installs the pvk command group and seven standalone scripts (trim-video, concat-videos, etc.).

🖥️ Desktop Integration

If you also have PyVideoKit-GUI installed, you can add it to your application launcher. Arch Linux users get this automatically via the AUR package. For all other systems:

1. Save the icon:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps
cat > ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/pvk-gui.svg << 'EOF'
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 48 48">
  <rect x="4" y="14" width="40" height="30" rx="3" fill="#2d3561"/>
  <rect x="10" y="19" width="28" height="20" rx="2" fill="#1a2038"/>
  <polygon points="18,21 18,37 33,29" fill="#ff6b6b"/>
  <rect x="4" y="6" width="40" height="8" rx="2" fill="#ff6b6b"/>
  <rect x="11" y="6" width="6" height="8" fill="#ffffff"/>
  <rect x="23" y="6" width="6" height="8" fill="#ffffff"/>
  <rect x="35" y="6" width="5" height="8" fill="#ffffff"/>
</svg>
EOF

2. Create the .desktop entry:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
cat > ~/.local/share/applications/pvk-gui.desktop << 'EOF'
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=PyVideoKit
GenericName=Video Processing Tool
Comment=FFmpeg-based video processing GUI
Exec=pvk-gui
Icon=pvk-gui
Categories=AudioVideo;Video;AudioVideoEditing;
Terminal=false
Keywords=video;ffmpeg;trim;fade;vhs;youtube;convert;
EOF

3. Refresh the icon cache (may be required on some desktop environments):

gtk-update-icon-cache ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/

PyVideoKit will now appear in your application launcher.

🚀 Usage

pvk [--version] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Each command is also available as a standalone script — trim-video ... is equivalent to pvk trim-video ....

📼 apply-vhs-effect

Apply a retro VHS visual and audio effect to a video.

pvk apply-vhs-effect INPUT [-o OUTPUT]

🔗 concat-videos

Concatenate two or more videos using stream copy (no re-encoding).

pvk concat-videos VIDEO VIDEO... [-o OUTPUT]

🎞️ convert-to-ffv1

Convert a video to lossless FFV1/MKV format. Use this to create an editing master before applying effects.

pvk convert-to-ffv1 INPUT [--fps FPS] [-o OUTPUT]

🔊 extract-audio

Extract the audio track to an uncompressed WAV file (PCM 16-bit).

pvk extract-audio INPUT [-o OUTPUT]

🎬 fade-video

Add a fade-in and/or fade-out to an FFV1 video.

pvk fade-video INPUT [--fade SECS] [--fade-in SECS] [--fade-out SECS] [-o OUTPUT]

--fade is a shorthand: it sets whichever of --fade-in and --fade-out you did not give explicitly.

📺 prepare-youtube

Encode an FFV1 master to ProRes 422 HQ MOV, upscaled to 4K, optimized for YouTube upload.

pvk prepare-youtube INPUT [-o OUTPUT]

✂️ trim-video

Cut a segment from a video using stream copy (no re-encoding).

pvk trim-video INPUT --start TIME --end TIME [-o OUTPUT]

🔄 Typical Workflow

# 1. Create a lossless master from any source video
pvk convert-to-ffv1 recording.mp4 -o master.mkv

# 2. Trim to the desired range
pvk trim-video master.mkv --start 00:00:10 --end 00:05:30 -o trimmed.mkv

# 3. Add a 1-second fade in and out
pvk fade-video trimmed.mkv --fade 1.0 -o faded.mkv

# 4. Export for YouTube
pvk prepare-youtube faded.mkv -o final_upload.mov

All operations display a real-time progress bar in the terminal.