How do I get the number of frames in a video on the linux command line?

Question

I have a video file and I want to get the number of video frames that are in it. I can use ffmpeg to get the length of the video and the FPS. However I can't see anything obvious for the total number of frames.

In theory one should be able to multiply the length (in seconds) by the FPS to get the number of frames, but in this case the length (34.43 seconds) and the framerate (29.97 fps) give a non-integer, which makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

I need to be able to do this on the command line in a totally automated and non-graphical manner. I also need this to be pretty exact, and not an estimate (if that's even possible with video files)

I tried using tcprobe on some files. For some AVI files it works, but for some VOB files, the tcprobe output doesn't have the number of frames. I get this output:

[tcprobe] MPEG program stream (PS)
[tcprobe] summary for myfile.vob, (*) = not default, 0 = not detected
import frame size: -g 720x480 [720x576] (*)
     aspect ratio: 4:3 (*)
       frame rate: -f 29.970 [25.000] frc=4 (*)
                   PTS=2199.3972, frame_time=33ms bitrate=7000 kbps
      audio track: -a 0 [0] -e 48000,16,5 [48000,16,2] -n 0x2000 [0x2000] (*)
                   PTS=2199.2763, bitrate=192 kbps
                   -D 3 --av_fine_ms 20 (frames & ms) [0] [0]

Aftershock · Answer 1 · 2014-06-16T17:01:58.033

ffprobe can be used to get info about a media file:

ffprobe -select_streams v -show_streams input.avi

You will get details about the stream:

nb_frames=159697

Look for nb_frames with grep:

ffprobe -select_streams v -show_streams input.avi 2>/dev/null | grep nb_frames | sed -e 's/nb_frames=//'

That works for avi, mp4 and etc For some containers, it does not show valid value e.g. mpeg.

In that case, this works ffprobe -show_packets a.mpg 2>/dev/null | grep video | wc -l

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 01 '10 at 17:04

This is horrible, and stupid, and slow, but seems to work:

ffmpeg -i foo.avi -vcodec copy -f rawvideo -y /dev/null 2>&1 | tr ^M '\n' | awk '/^frame=/ {print $2}'|tail -n 1

It will also work right on truncated files and raw streams(that is why you get nothing for .vob files)

Elder Geek · Answer 3 · 2025-04-04T17:32:40.933

I've found that mediainfo --fullscan inputfile | grep "Frame count" works nicely for most files.

If you get 2 lines rather than one of output the first line is the video track and the second line is the audio track. It appears that this occurs on files with Variable Bit Rate audio.

Tested on .mkv, .m4v, .mp4, flv, vob and .avi samples as of date of edit.

Another mediainfo solution brought to my attention via comment that doesn't require grep is mediainfo --Inform='Video;%FrameCount%' videofile

This provides the same count of video frames only without the chance of unnecessary audio frame info.

(Tested on .mkv as of date of edit)

Either of these approaches is expected to work on any video file that mediainfo supports.

Debian based systems can install mediainfo with apt-get install mediainfo

Sources:

How do I get the number of frames in a video on the linux command line?

How to retrieve video file information from command line under Linux?

and testing under Ubuntu (and other Debian based OS) flavors.

You can find mediainfo available for your OS here.

score 16 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

I posted this on another question. Using the tcprobe tool (from the transcode package), the number of frames is included in the info. Use the -i switch to get an info dump from the file:

$ tcprobe -i foo.avi
[tcprobe] RIFF data, AVI video
[avilib] V: 29.970 fps, codec=XVID, frames=38630, width=512, height=384
[avilib] A: 48000 Hz, format=0x55, bits=16, channels=2, bitrate=128 kbps,
[avilib]    53707 chunks, 21768720 bytes, VBR
[tcprobe] summary for foo.avi, (*) = not default, 0 = not detected
import frame size: -g 512x384 [720x576] (*)
       frame rate: -f 29.970 [25.000] frc=4 (*)
      audio track: -a 0 [0] -e 48000,16,2 [48000,16,2] -n 0x55 [0x2000] (*)
                   bitrate=128 kbps
           length: 38630 frames, frame_time=33 msec, duration=0:21:28.954

Note the number of frames is given on two lines here (2nd output line and last output line).

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 04 '17 at 11:08

8

Directly with mediainfo, no grep, no wait, no nothing:

mediainfo --Inform='Video;%FrameCount%' $the_file

For other information see mediainfo --info-parameters

answered Aug 04 '17 at 11:08

xenoid

10,597

Guillaume Blain · Answer 6 · 2014-11-26T14:57:40.327

5

ffprobe -select_streams v -show_frames -count_frames INPUT_FILE | grep pkt_duration_time=

Add up the duration. Could be fancier with sed/awk and what not.

From our testing I can say that for now it has shown to be the best most reliable. You get a precise framecount and exact duration. Even with variable framerate which all other tools like mediainfo seem to go gaga.

edited Nov 26 '14 at 14:57

answered Nov 26 '14 at 14:36

Guillaume Blain

51

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 06 '16 at 19:02

Tested on Ubuntu.

melt icecap.mp4 -consumer xml

melt - melt was meant as a test tool for the MLT framework, but it is also a powerful multitrack command line oriented video editor. It could also used as an minimalistic media player for audio and video files.
-consumer id[:arg] [name=value]*
Set the consumer (sink)
xml - Set the consumer (sink) to xml formatted output
<property name="length">nnnn</property> - shows the number of frames, where nnnn is replaced by an integer number that equals the number of frames

If you don't have melt you can install it on Ubuntu and other Debian based systems with sudo apt-get install melt

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 16 '12 at 14:01

I've found that the number of frames is actually twice the fps*duration (no idea why, I'd be happy know).

In a script of mine, I have:

# Get duration and fps
duration=$($FFMPEG -i $input 2>&1 | sed -n "s/.* Duration: \([^,]*\), start: .*/\1/p")
fps=$($FFMPEG -i $input 2>&1 | sed -n "s/.*, \(.*\) tb.*/\1/p")

hours=$(echo $duration | cut -d":" -f1)
minutes=$(echo $duration | cut -d":" -f2)
seconds=$(echo $duration | cut -d":" -f3)
# For some reason, we have to multiply by two (no idea why...)
# Get the integer part with cut
frames=$(echo "($hours*3600+$minutes*60+$seconds)*$fps*2" | bc | cut -d"." -f1)

And yes, for some reason I have to get the integer part of it. It doesn't make sense, but this script has always managed to convert my videos properly so far.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 19 '18 at 17:06

0

linux

ffmpeg -i "/home/iorigins/Завантаження/123.mov" -f null /dev/null

ruby

result = `ffmpeg -i #{path} -f null - 2>&1`
r = result.match("frame=([0-9]+)")
p r[1]

answered Jun 19 '18 at 17:06

Yaroslav Maluk

101

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 17 '13 at 19:12

You can do this by adding and multiplying the values you get from ffprobe .

Note: ffprobe is part of libav(avconv) - the linux version of ffmpeg.

#your command -
 ffprobe man.avi

When you do this you will get the number of frames per/second and also the duration of the clip.

Convert the duration of the clip to second's and the multiply that value by the number of frames/second.

Remember to round up number to the nearest.

score -2 · Answer 11 · edited May 12 '19 at 11:41

Best method: (Direct by calculating right parameters, confirmed by ffmpeg)

Cmd ->

ffprobe.exe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=r_frame_rate,duration -of default=nw=1 "d:\movies\The.Matrix.1999.1080p.BrRip.x264.YIFY.dut.mp4"

Result ->

r_frame_rate=24000/1001
duration=8177.794625

Calculation ->

Frames=24000/1001*8177.794625=196071 (exactly... ;P)

Proof ->

ffmpeg -i "d:\movies\The.Matrix.1999.1080p.BrRip.x264.YIFY.dut.mp4" -f 

null /dev/null
ffmpeg version N-92938-g0aaaca25e0-ffmpeg-windows-pacman Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 8.2.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --pkg-config=pkg-config --pkg-config-flags=--static --extra-version=ffmpeg-windows-pacman --enable-version3 --disable-debug --disable-w32threads --arch=x86_64 --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=/opt/sandbox/cross_compilers/mingw-w64-x86_64/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32- --enable-libcaca --enable-gray --enable-libtesseract --enable-fontconfig --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libflite --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopus --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libzimg --enable-libzvbi --enable-libmysofa --enable-libaom --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenh264 --enable-liblensfun --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --extra-libs=-lm --extra-libs=-lpthread --extra-cflags=-DLIBTWOLAME_STATIC --extra-cflags=-DMODPLUG_STATIC --extra-cflags=-DCACA_STATIC --enable-amf --enable-libmfx --enable-gpl --enable-avisynth --enable-frei0r --enable-filter=frei0r --enable-librubberband --enable-libvidstab --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libxavs --enable-avresample --extra-cflags='-march=core2' --extra-cflags=-O2 --enable-static --disable-shared --prefix=/opt/sandbox/cross_compilers/mingw-w64-x86_64/x86_64-w64-mingw32 --enable-nonfree --enable-decklink --enable-libfdk-aac
  libavutil      56. 25.100 / 56. 25.100
  libavcodec     58. 43.100 / 58. 43.100
  libavformat    58. 25.100 / 58. 25.100
  libavdevice    58.  6.101 / 58.  6.101
  libavfilter     7. 47.100 /  7. 47.100
  libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
  libswscale      5.  4.100 /  5.  4.100
  libswresample   3.  4.100 /  3.  4.100
  libpostproc    55.  4.100 / 55.  4.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'd:\movies\The.Matrix.1999.1080p.BrRip.x264.YIFY.dut.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf58.25.100
  Duration: 02:16:17.91, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2497 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x800 [SAR 1:1 DAR 12:5], 2397 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 24k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 93 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : GPAC ISO Audio Handler
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> wrapped_avframe (native))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> pcm_s16le (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
Output #0, null, to '/dev/null':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf58.25.100
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: wrapped_avframe, yuv420p, 1920x800 [SAR 1:1 DAR 12:5], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      encoder         : Lavc58.43.100 wrapped_avframe
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 1411 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : GPAC ISO Audio Handler
      encoder         : Lavc58.43.100 pcm_s16le

Here

frame=196071 fps=331 q=-0.0 Lsize=N/A time=02:16:17.90 bitrate=N/A speed=13.8x

Output

video:102631kB audio:1408772kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
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How do I get the number of frames in a video on the linux command line?

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