aind-video-utils 0.6.0

Tools to work with videos using ffmpeg

AIND Video Utils

Tools for working with video files using ffmpeg.

Prerequisites

This package requires ffmpeg and ffprobe to be installed and available on your PATH.

• Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install ffmpeg (Fedora)
• macOS: brew install ffmpeg
• Windows: Download from ffmpeg.org and add to PATH

Installation

# uv
uv add aind-video-utils                        # core only
uv add "aind-video-utils[transcode]"            # with transcode CLI
uv add "aind-video-utils[plotting]"             # with QC plotting

# pip
pip install aind-video-utils
pip install "aind-video-utils[transcode]"
pip install "aind-video-utils[plotting]"

Extra	Adds
transcode	pydantic-settings, rich — required for aind-transcode CLI
plotting	matplotlib, opencv — required for aind-video-qc CLI

Usage

from aind_video_utils import probe, extract_luma_frame, extract_srgb_frame

# Probe video metadata
info = probe("video.mp4")
print(info["streams"][0]["pix_fmt"])  # e.g. "yuv420p", "gbrp"

# Extract luma (Y) plane at t=1.0s
luma, color_range, bit_depth = extract_luma_frame("video.mp4", 1.0)

# Extract an sRGB frame at t=1.0s
srgb = extract_srgb_frame("video.mp4", 1.0)

Encoding Profiles

This package is the canonical Python source for the AIND behavior video file standard encoding profiles. Four profiles are provided as frozen dataclass constants:

Constant	Codec	Pixel Format	Container	Use Case
OFFLINE_8BIT	libx264	yuv420p	mp4	Long-term storage (default)
OFFLINE_10BIT	libx264	yuv420p10le	mp4	Long-term storage, 10-bit
ONLINE_8BIT	h264_nvenc	yuv420p	mkv	Real-time acquisition
ONLINE_10BIT	hevc_nvenc	p010le	mkv	Real-time acquisition, 10-bit

from aind_video_utils import OFFLINE_8BIT, ONLINE_8BIT

# Inspect the exact ffmpeg args
OFFLINE_8BIT.ffmpeg_output_args()
ONLINE_8BIT.ffmpeg_input_args()

# Customize with replace()
fast = OFFLINE_8BIT.replace(codec_params=("-preset", "veryfast", "-crf", "18"))

For online acquisition pipelines that build their own ffmpeg command:

from aind_video_utils import ONLINE_8BIT

profile = ONLINE_8BIT
cmd = [
    "ffmpeg",
    *profile.ffmpeg_input_args(),
    "-f", "rawvideo", "-pix_fmt", "bgr24",
    "-s", f"{w}x{h}", "-r", str(fps),
    "-i", "pipe:0",
    *profile.ffmpeg_output_args(),
    str(output_path),
]

Transcoding Python API

from aind_video_utils import transcode_video, OFFLINE_8BIT

# Simplest form — offline 8-bit with automatic colorspace fix
transcode_video(input_path, output_path)

# Explicit profile
transcode_video(input_path, output_path, profile=OFFLINE_8BIT)

# Custom profile with speed override
fast = OFFLINE_8BIT.replace(codec_params=("-preset", "veryfast", "-crf", "18"))
transcode_video(input_path, output_path, profile=fast)

# Skip automatic setparams probing
transcode_video(input_path, output_path, auto_fix_colorspace=False)

Transcode CLI

With the transcode extra installed, the aind-transcode command is available:

aind-transcode videos/                                # defaults: offline-8bit, auto-fix
aind-transcode videos/ --profile offline-10bit        # explicit profile
aind-transcode videos/ --preset veryfast              # override speed
aind-transcode videos/ --crf 20 --preset veryfast     # override quality + speed
aind-transcode videos/ --no-auto-fix-colorspace       # skip setparams probing
aind-transcode videos/ --jobs 4                       # parallel workers

Settings can also be stored in aind-transcode.toml in the working directory:

input = ["videos/"]
output_dir = "transcoded"
profile = "offline-8bit"
overwrite = false

QC CLI

With the plotting extra installed, the aind-video-qc command is available:

# Compare linear-light input against BT.709-encoded output
aind-video-qc linear-to-bt709 input.mp4 output.mp4

# Compare ffmpeg luma extraction with OpenCV decode
aind-video-qc opencv input.mp4

# Options
aind-video-qc linear-to-bt709 input.mp4 output.mp4 --frame-time 1.5 --dpi 300 -o qc.png

QC Python API

from aind_video_utils.video_qc import compare_linear_to_bt709

fig = compare_linear_to_bt709("input.mp4", "output.mp4", frame_time=0)
fig.savefig("qc.png")

Development

uv sync                              # install all dev dependencies
./scripts/run_linters_and_checks.sh -c  # run full lint + test suite

Contributing

We use Conventional Commits:

<type>(<scope>): <short summary>

Types: feat, fix, docs, ci, build, perf, refactor, test

For internal members, please create a branch. For external members, please fork the repository and open a pull request from the fork.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.