PySceneDetect is a tool for detecting shot changes in videos (example), and can automatically split the video into separate clips. PySceneDetect is free and open-source software, and has several detection methods to find fast-cuts and threshold-based fades.

Quickstart

Split video on each fast cut using command line (more examples):

scenedetect -i video.mp4 split-video

Split video on each fast cut using Python API (docs):

from scenedetect import detect, AdaptiveDetector, split_video_ffmpeg
scene_list = detect('my_video.mp4', AdaptiveDetector())
split_video_ffmpeg('my_video.mp4', scene_list)

Examples and Use Cases

Here are some of the things people are using PySceneDetect for:

• splitting home videos or other source footage into individual scenes
• automated detection and removal of commercials from PVR-saved video sources
• processing and splitting surveillance camera footage
• statistical analysis of videos to find suitable "loops" for looping GIFs/cinemagraphs
• academic analysis of film and video (e.g. finding mean shot length)

Of course, this is just a small slice of what you can do with PySceneDetect, so why not try it out for yourself! The timecode format used by default (HH:MM:SS.nnnn) is compatible with most popular video tools, so in most cases the output scene list from PySceneDetect can be directly copied and pasted into another tool of your choice (e.g. ffmpeg, avconv or the mkvtoolnix suite).