Video Reading

Note: Reading of audio streams is not yet implemented

Reading Video Files

VideoIO contains a simple high-level interface which allows reading of video frames from a supported video file (or from a camera device, shown later).

using VideoIO

#io = VideoIO.open(video_file)
io = VideoIO.testvideo("annie_oakley") # for testing purposes

f = VideoIO.openvideo(io)

img = read(f)

while !eof(f)
    read!(f, img)
    # Do something with frames
end
close(f)

Seeking through the video can be achieved via seek(f, seconds::Float64) and seekstart(f) to return to the start.

seek(s::VideoReader, seconds::AbstractFloat, seconds_min::AbstractFloat=-1.0,  seconds_max::AbstractFloat=-1.0, video_stream::Integer=1, forward::Bool=false)

seek(s::VideoReader, seconds::AbstractFloat, seconds_min::AbstractFloat=-1.0,  seconds_max::AbstractFloat=-1.0, video_stream::Integer=1, forward::Bool=false)

seekstart(s::VideoReader, video_stream=1)

seekstart(avin::AVInput{T}, video_stream=1) where T <: AbstractString

Frames can be skipped without reading frame content via skipframe(f) and skipframes(f, n)

skipframe(s::VideoReader; throwEOF=true)

skipframes(s::VideoReader, n::Int)

Total available frame count is available via counttotalframes(f)

counttotalframes(s::VideoReader)

!!! note H264 videos encoded with crf>0 have been observed to have 4-fewer frames available for reading.

Changing the target pixel format for reading

It can be helpful to be explicit in which pixel format you wish to read frames as. Here a grayscale video is read and parsed into a Vector(Array{UInt8}}

f = VideoIO.openvideo(filename, target_format=VideoIO.AV_PIX_FMT_GRAY8)

while !eof(f)
    img = reinterpret(UInt8, read(f))
end
close(f)

Video Playback

A trivial video player interface exists (no audio) through Makie.jl. Note: Makie must be imported first to enable playback functionality.

using Makie
using VideoIO

f = VideoIO.testvideo("annie_oakley")  # downloaded if not available
VideoIO.playvideo(f)  # no sound

Customization of playback can be achieved by looking at the basic expanded version of this function:

import Makie
import VideoIO

#io = VideoIO.open(video_file)
io = VideoIO.testvideo("annie_oakley") # for testing purposes
f = VideoIO.openvideo(io)

img = read(f)
scene = Makie.Scene(resolution = reverse(size(img)))
makieimg = Makie.image!(scene, img, show_axis = false, scale_plot = true)[end]
Makie.rotate!(scene, -0.5pi)
display(scene)

while !eof(f)
    read!(f, img)
    makieimg[1] = img
    sleep(1/f.framerate)
end

This code is essentially the code in playvideo, and will read and (without the sleep) play a movie file as fast as possible.

Reading Camera Output

Frames can be read iteratively

using VideoIO
cam = VideoIO.opencamera()
for i in 1:100
    img = read(cam)
    sleep(1/cam.framerate)
end

Webcam playback

The default system webcam can be viewed directly

using Makie
using VideoIO
VideoIO.viewcam()

An expanded version of this approach:

import Makie, VideoIO

cam = VideoIO.opencamera()

img = read(cam)
scene = Makie.Scene(resolution = size(img'))
makieimg = Makie.image!(scene, img, show_axis = false, scale_plot = false)[end]
Makie.rotate!(scene, -0.5pi)
display(scene)

while isopen(scene)
    read!(cam, img)
    makieimg[1] = img
    sleep(1/cam.framerate)
end

close(cam)

Video Properties & Metadata

get_start_time(file::String) -> DateTime

get_time_duration(file::String) -> (DateTime, Microsecond)

get_duration(file::String) -> Float64