Export image2 file name as frame metadata

[Jan]

I'm creating a timelapse which I would love to include the "timecode" of when each picture was taken.

Currently, the timecode option creates one for everyframe of the video.

Also, using text='\%T' seems to work only for real-time streams.

I have files named:
2013-08-16_001032.jpg
2013-08-16_002045.jpg
2013-08-16_003024.jpg
2013-08-16_004043.jpg
and so on... That is year-month-date_hourminutesecond.jpg

I'm currently using the following:

% ffmpeg -y -i "2013-08-14_%*.jpg" -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/Library/Fonts/AppleGothic.ttf: text=%{n}:expansion=normal: r=25: x=(w-tw)/2: y=h-(2*lh): fontcolor=white: box=1: boxcolor=0x00000000@1" output.m4v

And it is printing a new number on each frame. It would be great if instead of %{n} we could use something to grab the filename, or even better, meta data from the jpg to be able to format the timestamp. But just with the file name would be great.

ffmpeg version 1.2.1

Thanks!

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

What metadata are you referring to? / Please provide a sample input file.

[Jan]

I don't know if meta data is the right word. I meant the information that any file has on an operating system. Like "Created Date", "Modified Date", etc

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Could you elaborate more on the use case? I thought what is interesting is the actual frame metadata of the file (like image creation time or image orientation or song name) and not information that the operating system provides for the file. Note that input generally does not have to be a file.

[Jan]

Oh yes, actual frame metadata would be great if someone was getting pictures from an actual camera. It is not my actual use case though, but whoever handles this enhancement could go way past my personal requirement.

My current use case is that I made a script that captures a screenshot of my desktop every n seconds.

At the end of the day, all the screenshots are compiled into a video with FFMPEG.

What I would like is to print into the video the date/time of each frame.

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Replying to jlubeck:

Oh yes, actual frame metadata would be great if someone was getting pictures from an actual camera. It is not my actual use case though, but whoever handles this enhancement could go way past my personal requirement.

This works with current FFmpeg.

My current use case is that I made a script that captures a screenshot of my desktop every n seconds.

At the end of the day, all the screenshots are compiled into a video with FFMPEG.

What I would like is to print into the video the date/time of each frame.

This sounds as if it would be simpler to use ffmpeg for the screen capture.

Adding the current file name as frame metadata should fix your problem.

[Jan]

I'm sorry, I don't know if I understood you correctly. You say I can already do what I need?
Could you share an example?

Thank you very much for your help

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Replying to jlubeck:

I'm sorry, I don't know if I understood you correctly. You say I can already do what I need?

No, you don't want frame metadata (as you explained in comment:4) , you want the filename (which is available within the demuxer but not currently exported as metadata) or as an alternative other file information that is currently not available within ffmpeg.

[Jan]

Oh, ok. Thanks for clearing that up. I figured later that the enhancement wouldn't still be open if I could do it now.

Thanks again!

[EkriirkE]

Replying to jlubeck:

Oh yes, actual frame metadata would be great if someone was getting pictures from an actual camera. It is not my actual use case though, but whoever handles this enhancement could go way past my personal requirement.

My current use case is that I made a script that captures a screenshot of my desktop every n seconds.

At the end of the day, all the screenshots are compiled into a video with FFMPEG.

What I would like is to print into the video the date/time of each frame.

I have a similar case; I have these cheap WiFi security cameras that write jpgs to an FTP, the JPGs have the camera MAC, alias, and timestamp in the filename. It would be fantastic to get the source frame's file name overlaid on a compiled video.

[ACiDSouL-BR]

Replying to EkriirkE:

I have a similar case; I have these cheap WiFi security cameras that write jpgs to an FTP, the JPGs have the camera MAC, alias, and timestamp in the filename. It would be fantastic to get the source frame's file name overlaid on a compiled video.

Looking for a way to use source frame's file name as overlay text, I found this proposal. I am exactly in the same case of having a cheap WiFi security camera that writes jpgs to an FTP, the JPGs have the camera MAC address, alias (cam name), and timestamp of acquired image in the filename - all things that I would find cool to have in the overlay text.

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

While this is not marked as solved, a handy solution is to define a tag within each image with the desired value. In this case, I'm defining tag ImageDescription to contain the path to each file found. Like this:

find -name "*.JPG" -exec exif --tag="ImageDescription" --ifd=0 --set-value="{}" --output="{}" "{}" \;

Or, if you need more control over what's being saved to the metatag, you can use:

find -name "*.JPG" | while read f; do exif --tag="ImageDescription" --ifd=0 --set-value="$f" --output="$f" "$f"; done

Then issuing something ffmpeg like this:

ffmpeg -f image2 -pattern_type glob -framerate 12 -i '/path/to/some/dir/*.JPG' -s 1920x1080 -b:v 3M -filter_complex drawtext="fontsize=h/20:fontcolor=white:fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf:text='%{metadata\:DateTime\:notfound}':x=0:y=100",drawtext="fontsize=h/20:fontcolor=white:fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf:text='%{metadata\:ImageDescription\:NA}':x=0:y=250" foo.avi

The above will use drawtext for two things:

1. Drawing the contents of DateTime metadata.
2. Drawing the contents of ImageDescription metadata.

Hope this helps someone out there.

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

Replying to jlubeck:

It would be great if instead of %{n} we could use something to grab the filename, or even better, meta data from the jpg to be able to format the timestamp. But just with the file name would be great.

It is possible to read the image's metadata and draw it on top of each frame by using the 'drawtext=' filter. For example, to read the DateTime metadata from each frame, one can use:

drawtext="text='%{metadata\:DateTime\:def_value}'"

Currently there's no way to print the input file name, unless some additional steps are taken, like shown here: ​https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2874#comment:13

ffmpeg version 3.4.6-0ubuntu0.18.04.1

[Jan]

Am I living in the Matrix and this is all in my head? I can't believe I got a reply from this ticket that I made 6 years ago and I needed to do again, but now for a work thing instead of a hobby! I'm freaking out. Let me try what you mentioned on ​https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2874#comment:13 (as unfortunately the images that are being delivered to me have no metadata associated so I can't use the DateTime thing)

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

In the last days I've been trying to find out how metatags are populated when image2 reads the input files. My idea is to add a new parameter containing the input filename, so it could be used by drawtext filter. But man... What a pain! Wish me luck! Maybe I can patch image2 so that it can send this info to other filters and make it happen.

[Jan]

With exif data

[Jan]

Hey Alex, I just attached 2 jpgs. The first one is an original that comes from my camera. The second is one which I added the DateTime field with exif. I can see the field with exif as well. But ffmpeg and ffprobe don't show any metadata at all. Any idea what might be wrong? I don't have access to the files I used 6 years ago, so I can't remember what was going on back then. But if I mentioned medatada, I'm sure I was at least getting SOMETHING. I'd appreciate any help!

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

Hi, jlubeck!

Make sure you're using exif the right way. For example:

exif -c --tag="DateTime" --ifd=0 --set-value="2011-12-13 14:15:16" --output="/tmp/new.jpg" /tmp/2019.12.03_22.26.52.jpg

Note -c was necessary here as your original image appears to not have an EXIF header.

After this, we can see the frame with ffprobe:

$ ffprobe -i new.jpg -show_frames
[FRAME]
media_type=video
stream_index=0
key_frame=1
pkt_pts=0
pkt_pts_time=0.000000
pkt_dts=0
pkt_dts_time=0.000000
best_effort_timestamp=0
best_effort_timestamp_time=0.000000
pkt_duration=1
pkt_duration_time=0.040000
pkt_pos=N/A
pkt_size=54705
width=1280
height=720
pix_fmt=yuvj420p
sample_aspect_ratio=1:1
pict_type=I
coded_picture_number=0
display_picture_number=0
interlaced_frame=0
top_field_first=0
repeat_pict=0
color_range=pc
color_space=bt470bg
color_primaries=unknown
color_transfer=unknown
chroma_location=center
TAG:XResolution=     72:1      
TAG:YResolution=     72:1      
TAG:ResolutionUnit=    2
TAG:DateTime=2011-12-13 14:15:16     <<<-------
TAG:YCbCrPositioning=    1
TAG:ExifVersion= 48,  50,  49,  48
TAG:ComponentsConfiguration=  1,   2,   3,   0
TAG:FlashpixVersion= 48,  49,  48,  48
TAG:ColorSpace=65535
TAG:PixelXDimension=      0
TAG:PixelYDimension=      0
[/FRAME]

This is what interests us:

TAG:DateTime=2011-12-13 14:15:16

Then we can use this tag with drawtext. For example:

ffmpeg -f image2 -i new.jpg -filter_complex drawtext="fontsize=50:fontcolor=white:fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf:borderw=2:bordercolor=black:text='%{metadata\:DateTime\:notfound}':x=100:y=100" out.avi

Hope that helps...

[Jan]

Dude... DUDE!! You are THE BEST. You finally resolved an issue I had after 6 years!!
Thank you so much man

I don't know if the ticket itself should be solved, as it would be nice to have the filter get the filename directly without having to resort to external tools. But still, Alex, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you!!

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

I'm happy to help you, my friend! If you don't mind, I'd leave the ticket opened until we find a way to make filename available as a meta for drawtext filter. That would be desirable for all people using image2.

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

I submitted a patch to the development team:

​http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2019-December/254369.html
​https://patchwork.ffmpeg.org/patch/16798/

Let's see if it is accepted.

[Jan]

Oh wow, that would be great!

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

New implementation sent: ​http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2019-December/254491.html

[Alexandre Heitor Schmidt]

The patch was applied: ​http://git.videolan.org/?p=ffmpeg.git;a=commit;h=ae436cc5e4d75c1a7deefb2b30820486e2f3d8af

We can close this ticket now.