Overview

  Content-Aware Scene Detection

    Detects breaks in-between content, not only when the video fades to black (although a threshold mode is available as well for those cases).

  Compatible With Many External Tools

    The detected scene boundaries/cuts can be exported in a variety of formats, with the default type (comma-separated HH:MM:SS.nnn values) being ready to copy-and-paste directly into other tools (such as ffmpeg, mkvmerge, etc...) for splitting and/or re-encoding the video.

  Statistical Video Analysis

    Can output a spreadsheet-compatible file for analyzing trends in a particular video file, to determine the optimal threshold values to use with specific scene detection methods/algorithms.

  Extendible and Embeddable

    Written in Python, and designed with an easy-to-use and extendable API, PySceneDetect is ideal for embedding into other programs, or to implement custom methods/algorithms of scene detection for specific applications (e.g. analyzing security camera footage).

Features

  • exports list of scenes to .CSV file and terminal (both timecodes and frame numbers) with list-scenes command
  • exports timecodes in standard format (HH:MM:SS.nnn), comma-separated for easy copy-and-paste into external tools and analysis with spreadsheet software
  • statistics/analysis mode to export frame-by-frame video metrics via the -s [FILE]/--stats [FILE] argument (e.g. --stats metrics.csv)
  • output-suppression (quiet) mode for better automation with external scripts/programs (-q/--quiet)
  • save an image of the first and last frame of each detected scene via the save-images command
  • split the input video automatically if ffmpeg or mkvmerge is available via the split-video command

Detection Methods

  • threshold scene detection (detect-threshold): analyzes video for changes in average frame intensity/brightness
  • content-aware scene detection (detect-content): based on changes between frames in the HSV color space to find fast cuts
  • adaptive content scene detection (detect-adaptive): based on detect-content, handles fast camera movement better by comparing neighboring frames in a rolling window

Version Roadmap

Future version roadmaps are now tracked as milestones (link). Specific issues/features that are queued up for the very next release will have the backlog tag, and issues/features being worked on will have the status: in progress tag. Also note that bug reports as well as additional feature requests can be submitted via the issue tracker; read the Bug Reports and Contributing page for details.

Planned Features

The following features are under consideration for future releases. Any contributions towards completing these features are most welcome (pull requests may be accpeted via Github).

  • graphical interface (GUI)
  • automatic threshold detection for the current scene detection methods (or just ouptut message indicating "Predicted Threshold: X")
  • suppression of short-length flashes/bursts of light #35
  • histogram-based detection algorithm in HSV/HSL color space #53
  • perceptual hash based scene detection (prototype by @wjs018 in PR#290)
  • adaptive bias for fade in/out interpolation
  • export scenes in chapter/XML format #323