Turning images into videos with ffmpeg

Question

I asked this on another forum but never had any luck. I found the following command online that is supposed to create a video from images(duration of 5 seconds each) using FFmpeg.

ffmpeg -f image2 -r 1/5 -i img%03d.png -vcodec libx264 out.mp4

I have ran that and I have two images named img001.png and img002.png, however when I play out.mp4, it's only a 5 second clip with img001.png being played. What's really strange as well, is in my Windows Media Player, it thinks it's 10 seconds long (2 images @ 10 seconds), but when the gauge gets half way through(5 seconds) the video, it ends.

Any suggestions of what could be going on?

I also tried a bunch of other commands I found online but never had any luck. They would end up showing both images, but the first one would just flash for a fraction of a second, or some other ones would do the same thing would happen to the second image at the end of the video.

I have it ImageMagick installed into XAMPP on my Windows Vista PC. I can provide my command line output from the command if needed.

Edit: Added command line output

C:\xampp\htdocs>ffmpeg -f image2 -r 1/5 -i img%03d.png -vcodec libx264 out.mp4
ffmpeg version N-50911-g9efcfbe Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Mar 13 2013 21:26:48 with gcc 4.7.2 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-av
isynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enab
le-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libg
sm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libo
pencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-li
bschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-lib
twolame --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enabl
e-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
  libavutil      52. 19.100 / 52. 19.100
  libavcodec     55.  0.100 / 55.  0.100
  libavformat    55.  0.100 / 55.  0.100
  libavdevice    54.  4.100 / 54.  4.100
  libavfilter     3. 45.103 /  3. 45.103
  libswscale      2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
Input #0, image2, from 'img%03d.png':
  Duration: 00:00:10.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Video: png, rgb24, 800x600 [SAR 1:1 DAR 4:3], 0.20 tbr, 0.20 tb
n, 0.20 tbc
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Slow SlowCTZ
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] profile High 4:4:4 Predictive, level 3.1, 4:4:4 8-bit
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] 264 - core 130 r2274 c832fe9 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Cop
yright 2003-2013 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 de
block=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1
me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chr
oma_qp_offset=4 threads=3 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 i
nterlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1
b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=1 scenecu
t=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0
 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf55.0.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv444p, 800x600 [SAR 1:1
 DAR 4:3], q=-1--1, 16384 tbn, 0.20 tbc
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (png -> libx264)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=    2 fps=0.0 q=2621023.0 Lsize=      37kB time=00:00:10.00 bitrate=  30.0
kbits/s
video:36kB audio:0kB subtitle:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 2.142993%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] frame I:1     Avg QP:11.18  size: 17627
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] frame P:1     Avg QP:11.45  size: 18415
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] mb I  I16..4: 18.3% 69.5% 12.3%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] mb P  I16..4: 11.6% 60.1%  9.7%  P16..4:  8.9%  6.6%  2.2%
 0.0%  0.0%    skip: 0.8%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] 8x8 transform intra:71.4% inter:67.1%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] coded y,u,v intra: 57.0% 24.1% 22.3% inter: 42.6% 25.7% 16.
4%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] i16 v,h,dc,p: 28% 50% 15%  8%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 16% 39% 28%  2%  2%  2%  3%
 3%  4%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 14% 53% 23%  1%  2%  2%  3%
 0%  2%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] Weighted P-Frames: Y:0.0% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 0032cae0] kb/s:28.83

C:\xampp\htdocs>

@LordNeckbeard I have added the command line output if that is what you are referring to by the ffmpeg console output. Also, I do plan on using this with PHP and exec(). But I never knew FFMpeg couldn't be used in this site? It looks like there are a lot of other people using it. — user3276588, Feb 05 '14 at 19:41
See, e.g. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7468274/ffmpeg-images-to-video-script-anyone — Fredrik Pihl, Feb 05 '14 at 19:45
@fredrilPhil I tried that but then it says "Invalid frame size: WxH". When I remove the size, it only creates a 0 second video that quickly shows two frames. Know how I could add length to each image? I added -r 1/5 to the start of that same syntax you linked to and it just played the first image at 5 seconds and flashed the second one at the very end. — user3276588, Feb 05 '14 at 20:10
Did you actually replaced "W" and "H" by some real values like "1920" and "1080" for full HD ? — AJ29, Feb 05 '14 at 21:08
@AJ29 Oops. I totally didn't realize WxH stood for width and height. I guess that explains why I was getting errors with it--I thought it was just some letters for a predefined size. However, I tried removing "-s WxH" earlier, and also now just adding in the dimensions and neither made a difference. Maybe does "-f image2" need anything done to it? I couldn't figure out what it was or meant. I'm trying the following now: ffmpeg -f image2 -i img%03d.png-r 12 -s 1920x1080 foo.avi -- Still not working unfortunately — user3276588, Feb 05 '14 at 21:36
@rogerdpack I think so. I have them in a folder named img000.png and img001.png. Previously I was trying img001.png img002.png. The folder has other files in it. I don't think that would cause any issues would it? It just has other PHP files and stuff, no other images. — user3276588, Feb 05 '14 at 21:40
odd, this works here (using your command line): https://gist.github.com/rdp/8847062 — rogerdpack, Feb 06 '14 at 16:02
I tried that too, but not having any luck :( Someone else on here mentioned I might need to upgrade my version of ffmpeg, although I didn't even install it in the first place. I installed imagemagick which apparently comes with some version of ffmpeg. So I ended up uninstalling imagemagick and tried installing the latest Zeranoe FFmpeg Build Version "git-9c978f2", but am still having issues. Not sure what's going on or if I just need to switch over to a linux operating system or something. I'm using Xampp on Windows Vista. — user3276588, Feb 06 '14 at 16:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 09 '14 at 17:31

I think your only problem is that you're not telling ffmpeg what output format to use.

try ffmpeg -f image2 -r 1/5 -i img%03d.png -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p out.mp4

Also remember that the images have to be the same size. You'll need to preprocess them to the same size if they're not.

good luck

Turning images into videos with ffmpeg

1 Answers1