The Linux Daily

Python Script to Recursively Search For and Generate Thumbnails for Video Files

This script will recursively search for files based on listed extension names and then use the ‘ffmpegthumbnailer’ program to generate a thumbnail for each file it finds.

If you’re on a Ubuntu system, you should be able to install ffmpegthumbnailer using apt-get install ffmpegthumbnailer.

#!/usr/bin/python

import os

for root, dirnames, filenames in os.walk('/var/www/media/'):
  for filename in filenames:
    if filename.lower().endswith(('.m4v', '.mov', '.mpeg', 'mp4')): 
      ifile = os.path.join(root, filename)
      ofile = os.path.splitext(ifile)[0] + ".jpg"
      try:
        with open(ofile) as f: pass
      except IOError as e:
        print "Generating thumbnail for: " + ifile

        fftoptions = "-s0 -f"
        command = "ffmpegthumbnailer -i %s -o %s %s" % (ifile, ofile, fftoptions)

        p = os.popen(command,"r")
        while 1:
          line = p.readline()
          if not line: break
          print line

I had a specific purpose for this script, but you could easily modify it to fit your needs. When you save the file, don’t forget to mark it as executable with chmod +x scriptname.py.