[FFmpeg-user] how to (programmatically) determine video frames to take image snapshots

[Jeff Stagg]

-----Original Message-----
From: ffmpeg-user-bounces at ffmpeg.org [mailto:ffmpeg-user-bounces at ffmpeg.org] On Behalf Of pgoldweic
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 1:07 PM
To: ffmpeg-user at mplayerhq.hu
Subject: [FFmpeg-user] how to (programmatically) determine video frames to take image snapshots

As a newbie here, I apologize if this happens to be a question with a trivial
answer. I am wondering whether there is any way that I can have ffmpeg
automatically determine which video frames represent frames with enough
content variation that they are 'worth' taking a snapshot of. The goal here
is to generate *only informative* images from a video sequence. Any
information/help will be appreciated.

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One approach which could be taken is to take each frame save one as a 'to test against' and another as the 'subject to test', do color comparisons (run some sort of heuristics to generate a color histogram) and if the change in colors is above some 'defined' threshold for difference save the frame out as 'worth' taking a snapshot of.

There is no way to do this automagically with FFMPEG (to my knowledge)

My 2'cents.
---Jeff