Suggestion: Option to shorten video using FFMPEG

[supRy]

After running this program, I have separately been running an FFMPEG command which removes duplicate frames. This brings a 10 minute Sentry video down to about 2 minutes typically.

There are a couple ffmpeg commands that can remove duplicate frames. What I like about the one I use is that it doesn't cut the video to the action, it takes out the intermediate frames. This means I can watch the timestamp go through the full time of the video, but when there is no motion on screen, the timestamp runs very quick; when there is motion, the time runs at normal speed.

The ffmpeg command I use is:

ffmpeg -i "fileIN.mp4" -vf mpdecimate,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB "fileIN-shortened.mp4"

I'm thinking this would add a tesla_dashcam argument of --shorten. I'm not an ffmpeg expert, but I think this could be run concurrently with the concatenation (this would be the fastest if possible), or after the concatenation is complete.

Thanks for all the work you put into this!

[PiscisSwimeatus]

Just tried that mpdecimate on a few of my clips and the result is fantastic. I would really like to see this added as well.

Just one issue I am seeing is that the clip is still reported as 10min long. Not sure if this is a bug or working as intended. So for example if it’s reduced to a 30sec clip. The progress bar and if you try to skip will only work on the first 5% of progress. The other 95% contains no data and will just end playback if you try to skip into it. From my perspective, the expected result would be a clip reported as a normal 30sec one, or 10min where you skip into the correct real life time and only playback time is sped up and slowed down.

[supRy]

@PiscisSwimeatus My clips report the new length. My clips also don't have 95% without any data. Can you provide more information on how you ran it?

[PiscisSwimeatus]

I used the same command as above on some already merged clips. For example ffmpeg -i "2019-09-19T09-15-53_2019-09-19T09-26-08.mp4" -vf mpdecimate,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB "2019-09-19T09-15-53_2019-09-19T09-26-08-shortened.mp4"

The original video is 9:51 long The shortened video is 1:15 long However both mediainfo, VLC and other players I tried reports the shortened video as still 9:51 long.

Which results in the progress stopping here in the players I tried:

My previous statement about 95% without data, just means trying anything after the 1:15 marks ends the video/no data.

I’ve uploaded the file here if you want to have a look: https://ufile.io/2nk461em

[ehendrix23]

Release 0.1.14 is out now including this enhancement. Issue that was mentioned here with chapters is resolved in this.