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Asked: 2024-09-26T00:56:39+05:30 In:

How can I display real-time progress of an FFmpeg operation using graphical tools like Zenity, Yad, or KDialog on Ubuntu?

I’ve been diving into video processing using FFmpeg, and it’s been a wild ride! I love the power it gives me over my video files, but I hit a snag recently. I tend to forget to check on my processing tasks because I usually run them in the terminal, and they can take a while, you know? I thought about adding some kind of GUI to show me what’s happening in real-time.

I’ve heard a bit about graphical tools like Zenity, Yad, or KDialog, but I’m not totally sure how to integrate them with FFmpeg. Has anyone here tackled something similar? I’d like to create a nice progress bar or some kind of visual feedback while my videos are converting, since just staring at the terminal can be mind-numbing.

What I’ve tried so far has mostly been a bit of a mess. I found examples online, but they often seem tailored for really simple tasks. For instance, I might’ve managed to pop up a simple dialog with Zenity showing when the process starts, but it just hangs there after that. I’m not getting any updates on the actual progress! It’s frustrating—I don’t want to go crazy trying to parse FFmpeg’s output into something useful for these GUI tools.

If anyone has a working example or some snippets to share, I would love to see them. Or maybe you have suggestions on how to get FFmpeg to talk to these tools more effectively? I’m using Ubuntu, so any tips specific to that environment would be super helpful too.

Honestly, I’m just looking for a way to make this all more user-friendly without having to resort to completely new software or setups. It doesn’t have to be fancy; a simple progress bar indicating how much of the task is complete would be awesome. Thanks in advance for any advice or insights!

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    2 Answers


    1. To integrate a GUI progress bar with FFmpeg, you can leverage Zenity, which is a helpful tool for creating simple graphical interfaces in Linux. The key is to use a pipe to send FFmpeg’s progress output directly into the Zenity progress bar. You can achieve this by executing FFmpeg in a subshell, capturing its output, and parsing the percent completion to update the Zenity progress bar. Here’s a basic example of how you can set this up in a Bash script:

      #!/bin/bash
( 
  echo "0"; # Initialize progress
  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=1280:720 -f mp4 output.mp4 2>&1 | 
  while read line; do 
    if [[ $line =~ "time=" ]]; then 
      TIME=${line#*time=}; 
      TIME=${TIME%% *}; 
      # Convert TIME to percentage (you may need to adjust for your video length)
      PERCENT=$(your_calculation_function_to_get_percentage) 
      echo "$PERCENT"; 
    fi 
  done
  echo "100"; # Complete 
) | zenity --progress --title="FFmpeg Progress" --percentage=0 --auto-close

      Replace `your_calculation_function_to_get_percentage` with a function that calculates progress based on the video’s duration and the current time value logged by FFmpeg. This will keep updating the Zenity window as FFmpeg processes the video. Additionally, if you’re using different commands or have specific parameters for your encoding, ensure that these are reflected in your FFmpeg command within the script. This approach will allow you to visually monitor your processing in real-time without excessive terminal watching, ultimately enhancing your workflow.




    2. FFmpeg Progress Bar Help

      FFmpeg with Zenity/Yad/KDialog Progress Bar

      Sounds like you’re on the right track! Adding a GUI for FFmpeg tasks can definitely make life easier. Here’s a simple way you can integrate Zenity with FFmpeg to show a progress bar while converting your videos.

      Basic Example with Zenity

      You can use a bash script that utilizes FFmpeg along with Zenity to create a progress bar. Here’s a small snippet you can start with:

      #!/bin/bash

input_file="input.mp4"  # Change this to your input file
output_file="output.mp4"  # Change this to your desired output file

# Start FFmpeg process in the background
ffmpeg -i "$input_file" -preset veryfast "$output_file" -nostdin &

# Get the PID of the last background command
pid=$!

# Show progress bar using Zenity
while kill -0 $pid 2> /dev/null; do
    # You can customize the timeout if needed
    sleep 1
    # Update the progress
    percent_done=$(ps -o %cpu= -p $pid)
    zenity --progress --title="Processing Video" --text="Converting..." --percentage=$percent_done --auto-close --no-cancel
done

# When done, show a completion message
zenity --info --text="Video processing complete!"

      This script runs FFmpeg in the background while displaying a Zenity progress bar that updates as the process runs. You might need to adjust how you’re determining the percentage complete since FFmpeg doesn’t provide a simple percentage out of the box. In real scenarios, you might want to parse the output of FFmpeg to get more precise updates.

      Tips for Better Integration

      • Make sure you have Zenity installed: sudo apt install zenity.
      • To get more accurate progress updates, consider redirecting FFmpeg’s stderr and using regex to parse the progress information from its output.
      • Explore Yad or KDialog if you want more capabilities or different styles of dialogs. They might offer better ways to interact with your process.

      Give it a shot, and hopefully, this will help you get going with your video processing tasks without the constant need to stare at the terminal. Good luck!


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