1 \input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
3 @settitle Video Hook Documentation
6 @center @titlefont{Video Hook Documentation}
13 @var{Please be aware that vhook is deprecated, and hence its development is
14 frozen (bug fixes are still accepted).
15 The substitute will be the result of our 'Video Filter API' Google Summer of Code
16 project. You may monitor its progress by subscribing to the ffmpeg-soc mailing
17 list at @url{http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-soc}.}
19 The video hook functionality is designed (mostly) for live video. It allows
20 the video to be modified or examined between the decoder and the encoder.
22 Any number of hook modules can be placed inline, and they are run in the
23 order that they were specified on the ffmpeg command line.
25 The video hook modules are provided for use as a base for your own modules,
26 and are described below.
28 Modules are loaded using the -vhook option to ffmpeg. The value of this parameter
29 is a space separated list of arguments. The first is the module name, and the rest
30 are passed as arguments to the Configure function of the module.
32 The modules are dynamic libraries: They have different suffixes (.so, .dll, .dylib)
33 depending on your platform. And your platform dictates if they need to be
34 somewhere in your PATH, or in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Otherwise you will need to
35 specify the full path of the vhook file that you are using.
39 This does nothing. Actually it converts the input image to RGB24 and then converts
40 it back again. This is meant as a sample that you can use to test your setup.
44 This implements a 'fish detector'. Essentially it converts the image into HSV
45 space and tests whether more than a certain percentage of the pixels fall into
46 a specific HSV cuboid. If so, then the image is saved into a file for processing
47 by other bits of code.
49 Why use HSV? It turns out that HSV cuboids represent a more compact range of
50 colors than would an RGB cuboid.
54 This module implements a text overlay for a video image. Currently it
55 supports a fixed overlay or reading the text from a file. The string
56 is passed through strftime() so that it is easy to imprint the date and
59 This module depends on the external library imlib2, available on
60 Sourceforge, among other places, if it is not already installed on
63 You may also overlay an image (even semi-transparent) like TV stations do.
64 You may move either the text or the image around your video to create
65 scrolling credits, for example.
67 The font file used is looked for in a FONTPATH environment variable, and
68 prepended to the point size as a command line option and can be specified
69 with the full path to the font file, as in:
71 -F /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/VeraBd.ttf/20
73 where 20 is the point size.
75 You can specify the filename to read RGB color names from. If none are
76 specified, these defaults are used: @file{/usr/share/X11/rgb.txt} and
77 @file{/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt}
80 @multitable @columnfractions .2 .8
81 @item @option{-C <rgb.txt>} @tab The filename to read RGB color names from
82 @item @option{-c <color>} @tab The color of the text
83 @item @option{-F <fontname>} @tab The font face and size
84 @item @option{-t <text>} @tab The text
85 @item @option{-f <filename>} @tab The filename to read text from
86 @item @option{-x <expression>}@tab x coordinate of text or image
87 @item @option{-y <expression>}@tab y coordinate of text or image
88 @item @option{-i <filename>} @tab The filename to read a image from
89 @item @option{-R <expression>}@tab Value for R color
90 @item @option{-G <expression>}@tab Value for G color
91 @item @option{-B <expression>}@tab Value for B color
92 @item @option{-A <expression>}@tab Value for Alpha channel
95 Expressions are functions of these variables:
96 @multitable @columnfractions .2 .8
97 @item @var{N} @tab frame number (starting at zero)
98 @item @var{H} @tab frame height
99 @item @var{W} @tab frame width
100 @item @var{h} @tab image height
101 @item @var{w} @tab image width
102 @item @var{X} @tab previous x coordinate of text or image
103 @item @var{Y} @tab previous y coordinate of text or image
106 You may also use the constants @var{PI}, @var{E}, and the math functions available at the
107 FFmpeg formula evaluator at (@url{ffmpeg-doc.html#SEC13}), except @var{bits2qp(bits)}
108 and @var{qp2bits(qp)}.
113 # Remember to set the path to your fonts
114 FONTPATH="/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/Fonts/"
115 FONTPATH="$FONTPATH:/usr/share/imlib2/data/fonts/"
116 FONTPATH="$FONTPATH:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
119 # Bulb dancing in a Lissajous pattern
120 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
121 'vhook/imlib2.dll -x W*(0.5+0.25*sin(N/47*PI))-w/2 -y H*(0.5+0.50*cos(N/97*PI))-h/2 -i /usr/share/imlib2/data/images/bulb.png' \
122 -acodec copy -sameq output.avi
125 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
126 'vhook/imlib2.dll -c red -F Vera.ttf/20 -x 150+0.5*N -y 70+0.25*N -t Hello' \
127 -acodec copy -sameq output.avi
129 # Date and time stamp, security-camera style:
130 ffmpeg -r 29.97 -s 320x256 -f video4linux -i /dev/video0 \
131 -vhook 'vhook/imlib2.so -x 0 -y 0 -i black-260x20.png' \
132 -vhook 'vhook/imlib2.so -c white -F VeraBd.ttf/12 -x 0 -y 0 -t %A-%D-%T' \
135 In this example the video is captured from the first video capture card as a
136 320x256 AVI, and a black 260 by 20 pixel PNG image is placed in the upper
137 left corner, with the day, date and time overlaid on it in Vera Bold 12
138 point font. A simple black PNG file 260 pixels wide and 20 pixels tall
139 was created in the GIMP for this purpose.
141 # Scrolling credits from a text file
142 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
143 'vhook/imlib2.so -c white -F VeraBd.ttf/16 -x 100 -y -1.0*N -f credits.txt' \
146 In this example, the text is stored in a file, and is positioned 100
147 pixels from the left hand edge of the video. The text is scrolled from the
148 bottom up. Making the y factor positive will scroll from the top down.
149 Increasing the magnitude of the y factor makes the text scroll faster,
150 decreasing it makes it scroll slower. Hint: Blank lines containing only
151 a newline are treated as end-of-file. To create blank lines, use lines
152 that consist of space characters only.
154 # Scrolling credits with custom color from a text file
155 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
156 'vhook/imlib2.so -C rgb.txt -c CustomColor1 -F VeraBd.ttf/16 -x 100 -y -1.0*N -f credits.txt' \
159 This example does the same as the one above, but specifies an rgb.txt file
160 to be used, which has a custom made color in it.
163 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
164 'vhook/imlib2.so -t Hello -R abs(255*sin(N/47*PI)) -G abs(255*sin(N/47*PI)) -B abs(255*sin(N/47*PI))' \
167 In this example, the color for the text goes up and down from black to
171 ffmpeg -i input.avi -vhook \
172 'vhook/imlib2.so -t Hello -A max(0,255-exp(N/47))' \
175 In this example, the text fades out in about 10 seconds for a 25 fps input
178 # scrolling credits from a graphics file
179 ffmpeg -sameq -i input.avi \
180 -vhook 'vhook/imlib2.so -x 0 -y -1.0*N -i credits.png' output.avi
182 In this example, a transparent PNG file the same width as the video
183 (e.g. 320 pixels), but very long, (e.g. 3000 pixels), was created, and
184 text, graphics, brushstrokes, etc, were added to the image. The image
185 is then scrolled up, from the bottom of the frame.
191 It's basically a launch point for a PPM pipe, so you can use any
192 executable (or script) which consumes a PPM on stdin and produces a PPM
193 on stdout (and flushes each frame). The Netpbm utilities are a series of
196 A list of them is here:
198 @url{http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/directory.html}
203 ffmpeg -i input -vhook "/path/to/ppm.so some-ppm-filter args" output
208 This module implements a text overlay for a video image. Currently it
209 supports a fixed overlay or reading the text from a file. The string
210 is passed through strftime() so that it is easy to imprint the date and
215 @item TrueType, Type1 and others via the FreeType2 library
216 @item Font kerning (better output)
217 @item Line Wrap (put the text that doesn't fit one line on the next line)
218 @item Background box (currently in development)
223 @multitable @columnfractions .2 .8
224 @item @option{-c <color>} @tab Foreground color of the text ('internet' way) <#RRGGBB> [default #FFFFFF]
225 @item @option{-C <color>} @tab Background color of the text ('internet' way) <#RRGGBB> [default #000000]
226 @item @option{-f <font-filename>} @tab font file to use
227 @item @option{-t <text>} @tab text to display
228 @item @option{-T <filename>} @tab file to read text from
229 @item @option{-x <pos>} @tab x coordinate of the start of the text
230 @item @option{-y <pos>} @tab y coordinate of the start of the text
233 Text fonts are being looked for in a FONTPATH environment variable.
234 If the FONTPATH environment variable is not available, or is not checked by
235 your target (i.e. Cygwin), then specify the full path to the font file as in:
237 -f /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/VeraBd.ttf
242 # Remember to set the path to your fonts
243 FONTPATH="/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/Fonts/"
244 FONTPATH="$FONTPATH:/usr/share/imlib2/data/fonts/"
245 FONTPATH="$FONTPATH:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
248 # Time and date display
249 ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 \
250 -vhook 'vhook/drawtext.so -f VeraBd.ttf -t %A-%D-%T' movie.mpg
252 This example grabs video from the first capture card and outputs it to an
253 MPEG video, and places "Weekday-dd/mm/yy-hh:mm:ss" at the top left of the
254 frame, updated every second, using the Vera Bold TrueType Font, which
255 should exist in: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
258 Check the man page for strftime() for all the various ways you can format
263 Command Line options:
264 @multitable @columnfractions .2 .8
265 @item @option{-m [0|1]} @tab Mode (default: 0, see below)
266 @item @option{-t 000000 - FFFFFF} @tab Threshold, six digit hex number
267 @item @option{-f <filename>} @tab Watermark image filename, must be specified!
271 The watermark picture works like this (assuming color intensities 0..0xFF):
273 If mask color is 0x80, no change to the original frame.
274 If mask color is < 0x80 the absolute difference is subtracted from the
275 frame. If result < 0, result = 0.
276 If mask color is > 0x80 the absolute difference is added to the
277 frame. If result > 0xFF, result = 0xFF.
279 You can override the 0x80 level with the -t flag. E.g. if threshold is
280 000000 the color value of watermark is added to the destination.
282 This way a mask that is visible both in light and dark pictures can be made
283 (e.g. by using a picture generated by the Gimp and the bump map tool).
285 An example watermark file is at:
286 @url{http://engene.se/ffmpeg_watermark.gif}
290 If mask color > threshold color then the watermark pixel is used.
294 ffmpeg -i infile -vhook '/path/watermark.so -f wm.gif' -an out.mov
295 ffmpeg -i infile -vhook '/path/watermark.so -f wm.gif -m 1 -t 222222' -an out.mov