glancecast

glancecast is a script that converts a video file into an MP3 with chapters that have sampled video frames as cover art.

This allows you to listen to a video in an audio-only podcast player, but glance at the screen if you need some visual context.

How it works

There are three steps:

1. Convert a video file to an MP3 (using FFMpeg)
2. Extract still frames from the video, every few seconds (also using FFMpeg)
3. Create ID3 chapters in the video, with the images as per-chapter cover art

For more details, see my article introducing glancecast.

Installation

Clone the Git repository, create a Python virtualenv, and install dependencies:

$ git clone git://alexwlchan.net/projects/glancecast.git
$ cd glancecast
$ python3 -m venv .venv
$ source .venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -e .

You also need FFmpeg installed, which is not included with the pip installer.

Usage

Run the glancecast.py script, passing your video file as a single argument. It prints the path to the MP3 file:

$ python3 glancecast.py tests/fixtures/lego_age_picker.mp4
tests/fixtures/lego_age_picker.mp3

There are three optional flags:

• --interval=INTERVAL_SEC sets the time interval between captured frames in seconds.
• --max-dimension=MAX_DIMENSION sets the maximum width/height in pixels for captured frames.
• --out-dir=OUT_DIR sets the output directory where the MP3 file will be saved.

You can see these options by running python3 glancecast.py --help.

Versioning and stability

This library is monotonically versioned (releases simply go up sequentially).

License

This project is shared under the MIT license.