extract

Extract audio tracks, image frames, or thumbnails from video files.

Overview

The extract command provides powerful extraction capabilities for videos, offering three specialized sub-commands: extract-audio (save soundtrack separately), extract-frames (create image sequences), and extract-thumbnail (generate preview images). Essential for content repurposing, thumbnail creation, and media analysis.

Key Features:

🎵 Audio extraction in multiple formats (MP3, AAC, WAV, Opus)
🖼️ Frame sequence export (JPEG, PNG, WebP)
📸 Smart thumbnail generation (scene analysis)
⚡ Fast stream copy when possible (lossless)
🎯 Precise frame selection (timecode, intervals, frame numbers)
📁 Batch processing support

Common Use Cases:

Creating podcast/music tracks from videos
Generating thumbnails for video galleries
Extracting frames for animation/VFX work
Creating image sequences for analysis
Saving video stills for presentations
Archiving audio separately

Info

Performance: Audio extraction uses stream copy when format matches (instant, lossless). Format conversion requires re-encoding (fast, minimal quality loss at high bitrates).

Sub-commands

extract-audio - Extract audio track to standalone file
extract-frames - Extract video frames as image sequence
extract-thumbnail - Extract single frame as thumbnail

Option	Alias	Type	Default	Description
`--output`	`-o`	string	Auto	Output file path
`--format`	`-f`	string	`mp3`	Audio format: `mp3`, `aac`, `wav`, `opus`
`--bitrate`	`-b`	string	`192k`	Audio bitrate (e.g., `128k`, `256k`, `320k`)
`--dry-run`		boolean	false	Preview without executing
`--verbose`	`-v`	boolean	false	Show detailed FFmpeg output

Flag Details

`--format` - Audio Format

Choose output audio format based on compatibility and quality needs.

MP3 - Universal Compatibility

Quality: Good
File Size: Medium
Compatibility: All devices, all platforms
Best For: General distribution, podcasts, music sharing
Bitrate: 128k (acceptable), 192k (good), 320k (excellent)

AAC - Modern Efficient

Quality: Better than MP3 at same bitrate
File Size: Smaller than MP3
Compatibility: All modern devices (2010+)
Best For: Mobile devices, streaming, modern platforms
Bitrate: 128k (good), 192k (high quality), 256k (excellent)

WAV - Lossless Quality

Quality: Perfect (no compression)
File Size: Very large (~10 MB per minute)
Compatibility: Universal
Best For: Professional editing, archival, mastering
Bitrate: N/A (uncompressed)

Opus - Best Efficiency

Quality: Excellent at low bitrates
File Size: Smallest
Compatibility: Modern browsers, limited device support
Best For: Voice, podcasts, web streaming, low bandwidth
Bitrate: 64k (voice), 96k (music), 128k (transparent)

Selection Guide:

General use: MP3 at 192k
Modern platforms: AAC at 128-192k
Professional work: WAV
Podcasts/voice: Opus at 64-96k
Archival: WAV or AAC at 256k

Learn More:

Audio Format Comparison

`--bitrate` - Audio Quality

Set audio bitrate (quality vs file size trade-off).

Bitrate Guide:

Bitrate	Quality	Use Case
64k	Acceptable	Voice, podcasts (Opus)
96k	Good	Podcasts, audiobooks
128k	High	General music, streaming
192k	Very High	Music distribution ← default
256k	Excellent	High-quality music
320k	Maximum	Archival, professional

Format-Specific Recommendations:

MP3:

128k minimum for music
192k recommended
320k for archival

AAC:

96k acceptable for music
128-192k recommended
256k for professional

Opus:

64k excellent for voice
96k transparent for music
128k overkill for most content

Tip

Sweet Spot: 192k provides excellent quality for most music content. Going higher (256k, 320k) offers minimal perceptible improvement.

Learn More:

Understanding Audio Bitrates

Audio Formats

Format	Quality	File Size	Use Case
MP3	Good	Medium	Universal compatibility
AAC	Better	Smaller	Modern devices, streaming
WAV	Lossless	Large	Professional editing, archival
Opus	Best at low bitrate	Smallest	Web streaming, voice

Examples

Basic Audio Extraction

Terminal

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4

Input: video.mp4 • Duration: 00:03:45

Audio codec: AAC

Extracting audio...

✓ Extraction complete

Output: video.mp3 • Format: MP3 • 192 kbps • 5.4 MB

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -f aac

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -f wav

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -f opus

Custom Bitrate

Terminal

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 --bitrate 320k

✓ Extracted at 320 kbps (high quality)

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 --bitrate 192k

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 --bitrate 128k

Terminal

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 --bitrate 64k -f opus

✓ Extracted at 64 kbps (podcast quality)

Specify Output

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -o audio.mp3

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -o audio/soundtrack.mp3

$ mediaproc video extract-audio video.mp4 -o audio/

Use Cases

Podcast from video

$ mediaproc video extract-audio interview.mp4 -f mp3 --bitrate 128k -o podcast.mp3

✓ Podcast created from interview

Music extraction

$ mediaproc video extract-audio music-video.mp4 -f mp3 --bitrate 320k -o song.mp3

✓ High-quality music extracted

Voice extraction

$ mediaproc video extract-audio lecture.mp4 -f opus --bitrate 64k -o lecture-audio.opus

✓ Voice optimized audio extracted

Batch audio extraction

$ for file in *.mp4; do mediaproc video extract-audio "$file" -f mp3 -o audio/; done

Extracting audio from all videos...

✓ 8 audio files extracted

Folder Processing

Terminal

$ mediaproc video extract-audio videos/ -f mp3 -o audio/

Processing 10 video files...

✓ video1.mp4 → audio/video1.mp3

✓ video2.mp4 → audio/video2.mp3

✓ All audio extracted

# Extract audio from all videos in folder
mediaproc video extract-audio raw-footage/ -f aac --bitrate 192k -o audio/

# Batch extract with opus for podcasts
mediaproc video extract-audio lectures/ -f opus --bitrate 64k -o podcasts/

Option	Alias	Type	Default	Description
`--output`	`-o`	string	Auto	Output directory or pattern
`--fps`		number	1	Frames per second to extract
`--start`	`-s`	string	`0`	Start time (HH:MM:SS or seconds)
`--end`	`-e`	string		End time (HH:MM:SS or seconds)
`--format`	`-f`	string	`jpg`	Image format: `jpg`, `png`
`--quality`	`-q`	number	85	JPEG quality (1-100, only for JPG)
`--dry-run`		boolean	false	Preview without executing
`--verbose`	`-v`	boolean	false	Show detailed FFmpeg output

Examples

Basic Frame Extraction

# Extract 1 frame per second (default)
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4

# Extract 5 frames per second
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 5

# Extract every frame (30 fps video)
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 30

# Extract 1 frame every 10 seconds
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 0.1

Output:

Input file: video.mp4
Duration: 00:03:45
Frame rate: 30 fps

Extracting frames (1 fps)...
✓ Extraction complete

Output directory: video_frames/
Frames extracted: 225
Format: JPEG

Time Range

# Extract frames from specific time range
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --start 00:01:00 --end 00:02:00

# Extract first minute
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --end 60

# Extract from 30 seconds onward
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --start 30

Output Format

# PNG format (lossless)
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -f png

# JPEG with custom quality
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -f jpg -q 95

# Lower quality for smaller files
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -f jpg -q 70

Custom Output

# Specify output directory
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -o frames/

# Custom filename pattern
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -o output/frame-%04d.jpg

# Different location
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -o /path/to/output/

Use Cases

# Thumbnail gallery (1 frame every 5 seconds)
mediaproc video extract-frames movie.mp4 --fps 0.2 -o thumbnails/

# Animation analysis (all frames)
mediaproc video extract-frames animation.mp4 --fps 30 -f png -o frames/

# Video preview images (1 per second)
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 1 -f jpg -q 85 -o previews/

# Key moments (specific time range)
mediaproc video extract-frames match.mp4 --start 01:23:00 --end 01:24:00 --fps 2

# Stop motion source (high FPS)
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 24 -f png -o stopmotion/

extract-thumbnail

Extract a single frame as a thumbnail image.

Usage

mediaproc video extract-thumbnail <input> [options]

Options

Option	Alias	Type	Default	Description
`--output`	`-o`	string	Auto	Output file path
`--time`	`-t`	string	`00:00:01`	Time to extract frame (HH:MM:SS or seconds)
`--width`	`-w`	number		Resize width (maintains aspect ratio)
`--height`	`-h`	number		Resize height (maintains aspect ratio)
`--format`	`-f`	string	`jpg`	Image format: `jpg`, `png`
`--quality`	`-q`	number	85	JPEG quality (1-100, only for JPG)
`--dry-run`		boolean	false	Preview without executing
`--verbose`	`-v`	boolean	false	Show detailed FFmpeg output

Examples

Basic Thumbnail

# Extract thumbnail at 1 second (default)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4

# Extract at specific time
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 --time 00:01:30

# Extract at 30 seconds
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 30

# Extract middle frame (for 5-minute video)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 150

Output:

Input file: video.mp4
Duration: 00:05:00
Resolution: 1920x1080

Extracting thumbnail at 00:01:30...
✓ Extraction complete

Output file: video_thumbnail.jpg
Resolution: 1920x1080
Size: 245 KB

Resize Thumbnail

# Resize to 640px width
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -w 640

# Resize to 360px height
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -h 360

# Specify both (maintains aspect ratio)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -w 1280 -h 720

# Small preview
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -w 320

Output Format

# PNG thumbnail
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -f png

# High quality JPEG
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -f jpg -q 95

# Compressed JPEG
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -f jpg -q 70

Custom Output

# Specify filename
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -o preview.jpg

# Different directory
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -o thumbnails/cover.jpg

# Multiple thumbnails at different times
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 5 -o thumb-5s.jpg
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 30 -o thumb-30s.jpg
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 60 -o thumb-60s.jpg

Use Cases

# YouTube thumbnail (1280x720)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 30 -w 1280 -h 720 -o youtube-thumb.jpg

# Instagram preview (1080x1080)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 10 -w 1080 -h 1080 -o instagram-thumb.jpg

# Video player poster
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail movie.mp4 -t 0.5 -o poster.jpg

# Email preview (small size)
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 5 -w 320 -q 70 -o email-preview.jpg

# Gallery thumbnail
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 1 -w 400 -o gallery-thumb.jpg

Combined Examples

Complete Video Processing

# Extract audio and thumbnail
video="presentation.mp4"

mediaproc video extract-audio "$video" -f mp3 --bitrate 192k -o audio.mp3
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail "$video" -t 10 -w 1280 -o thumbnail.jpg

Create Video Gallery

#!/bin/bash
# Extract thumbnails for all videos

for video in *.mp4; do
  name="${video%.mp4}"
  mediaproc video extract-thumbnail "$video" -t 5 -w 640 -o "thumbs/${name}.jpg"
done

Frame Analysis

# Extract frames at multiple FPS for comparison

video="test.mp4"

mediaproc video extract-frames "$video" --fps 1 -o frames-1fps/
mediaproc video extract-frames "$video" --fps 5 -o frames-5fps/
mediaproc video extract-frames "$video" --fps 10 -o frames-10fps/

Music Video Processing

# Extract audio and create thumbnail
music_video="song.mp4"

# Extract high-quality audio
mediaproc video extract-audio "$music_video" -f mp3 --bitrate 320k -o song.mp3

# Create album art thumbnail
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail "$music_video" -t 30 -w 1200 -h 1200 -f png -o album-art.png

Batch Audio Extraction

#!/bin/bash
# Extract audio from all videos

mkdir -p audio

for video in videos/*.mp4; do
  filename=$(basename "$video" .mp4)
  echo "Extracting audio from $filename..."
  mediaproc video extract-audio "$video" -f mp3 --bitrate 192k -o "audio/${filename}.mp3"
done

Multi-Thumbnail Generation

#!/bin/bash
# Generate thumbnails at different timestamps

video="lecture.mp4"
times=(5 30 60 120 180)

mkdir -p thumbnails

for time in "${times[@]}"; do
  mediaproc video extract-thumbnail "$video" \
    -t "$time" \
    -w 640 \
    -o "thumbnails/thumb-${time}s.jpg"
done

Frame-by-Frame Analysis

#!/bin/bash
# Extract every frame for analysis

video="action-sequence.mp4"
start="00:01:30"
end="00:01:35"

mediaproc video extract-frames "$video" \
  --start "$start" \
  --end "$end" \
  --fps 30 \
  -f png \
  -o "analysis-frames/"

echo "Extracted $(ls -1 analysis-frames/ | wc -l) frames"

Technical Details

Audio Extraction

Audio is extracted using stream copy when possible:

# If source codec matches target
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec copy output.aac

# If transcoding needed
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -acodec libmp3lame -b:a 192k output.mp3

Frame Extraction

Frames are extracted using FFmpeg's fps filter:

# Extract at specific FPS
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf fps=1 output_%04d.jpg

# With time range
ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00 -to 00:02:00 -i input.mp4 -vf fps=5 output_%04d.jpg

Thumbnail Extraction

Single frame extraction seeks to specific time:

# Extract specific frame
ffmpeg -ss 00:01:30 -i input.mp4 -vframes 1 -q:v 2 output.jpg

# With resize
ffmpeg -ss 00:01:30 -i input.mp4 -vframes 1 -vf scale=640:-1 output.jpg

Performance Considerations

Audio Extraction

Speed: Very fast (usually real-time or faster)
CPU: Low (mostly I/O bound)
Disk: Size depends on bitrate and duration

Frame Extraction

Speed: Depends on FPS and video length
CPU: Moderate (decoding frames)
Disk: Can be large (1000s of image files)

Thumbnail Extraction

Speed: Very fast (single frame seek)
CPU: Minimal
Disk: Small (single image file)

Best Practices

Choose appropriate format: MP3 for compatibility, Opus for size
Match bitrate to use: 320k for music, 64k for voice
Use reasonable FPS: 1 fps for previews, higher for analysis
JPG for photos: PNG for graphics/text
Test thumbnail time: Find representative frame
Consider disk space: High FPS = many files
Batch process wisely: Monitor disk usage

Troubleshooting

No Audio Track

Error: Video has no audio track

Solution: Check if video contains audio

ffprobe -i video.mp4 -show_streams -select_streams a

Too Many Frames

Extracting all frames creates thousands of files

Solution: Use lower FPS

# Instead of --fps 30
mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 1

Thumbnail is Black

Extracted thumbnail is black frame

Solution: Choose different timestamp

# Try different times
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 5
mediaproc video extract-thumbnail video.mp4 -t 10

Disk Space Issues

Running out of disk space during frame extraction

Solution 1: Extract time range only

mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --start 60 --end 120

Solution 2: Use lower FPS

mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 --fps 0.5

Solution 3: Use JPEG with lower quality

mediaproc video extract-frames video.mp4 -f jpg -q 70

trim - Extract specific time segments before extracting content
resize - Resize video before frame extraction
transcode - Convert format before extraction