Small script that uses ffmpeg in order to generate GIFs from a chosen part of the playing video.

This script is an extension of the original and forks:

• Original: https://gist.github.com/Ruin0x11/8fae0a9341b41015935f76f913b28d2a
• Forked from: https://github.com/tyalie/mpv-gif-generator
• Windows support: https://github.com/the-honey/mpv-gif-generator

What's different from the other versions?

• It is cross platform (it should work in windows and linux at least).
• Keybindings are configurable. Default is "g" but you can change it to any A-Z key or set all keybindings manually.
• Supports local videos as well as all videos supported by yt-dlp.
• Highly configurable. No that you need to change much from the defaults but you can.

• ffmpeg
• mpv
• yt-dlp (optional)
• ffprob (optional, should come along ffmpeg)

Copy the lua script into

• ~/.config/mpv/scripts/ for linux (single user)
• /etc/mpv/scripts for linux (all users)
• ~/AppData/Roaming/mpv/scripts for windows (single user)

Script supports cloning the repo into the scripts directory.

If errors with ffmpeg occurs these are either logged to the terminal (when terminal != no) otherwise to /tmp/mpv-gif-ffmpeg.<TIMESTAMP>.log. The terminal==no case occurs for example when starting mpv through the *.desktop entry (i.e. file explorer, …)

The script has one key configurable which can be any key from A-Z in the keyboard. The default key is "g" if not configured. The case is insensitive. See the table using the default "g".

You can of course map any of the 4 keybinfings separately using keyStartTime, keyEndTime, keyMakeGif and keyMakeGifSub. Any keybinding not provided will default to the default key (g or any set as key in the config).

Note: Rendering of gifs with subtitles is a bit limited as only non-bitmap ones are currently supported and the generation can take quite long when the file is in a network share or similar.

For videos played with yt-dlp it is required to download the segment of the video first which may take a bit of time. Be patient while the video downloads. You'll see a notification when gif processing starts.

There are three modes available for configuring the behavior of the extension.

For any non-valid mode the behavior will be to default to gif.

By default the output directory is ~/mpv-gifs. This setting can be changed in the config with the key outputDirectory. The output file name is in the format <VIDEO NAME>_000<MODE INITIAL>.<EXT>. Full path ~/mpv-gifs/<VIDEO NAME>_000<MODE INITIAL>.<EXT>.

The script can be configured either by having a script-opts/gifgen.conf or using e.g. --script-opts=gifgen-width=-1. An example configuration file could be:

# Default configs

# fps for output (can be -1 for source fps).
fps=-1

# Width of the resulting gif.
width=680

# Leave -1 to automatically determine height or set to customize.
height=-1

# File extension (e.g. mp4 for telegram gifs).
extension=gif

# Gif output directory. It supports mpv expansions: https://mpv.io/manual/master/#paths
outputDirectory=~/mpv-gifs

# Set mode use to work with. Available 'gif', 'video' and 'all'.
mode=gif

# Set keybinding. See more in the table above.
key=g

# Set start time key
keyStartTime=""

# Set end time key
keyEndTime=""

# Make gif keybinding
keyMakeGif=""

# Make gif keybinding with subtitles
keyMakeGifSub=""

# Command used for ffmpeg. Useful if ffmpeg is not in the path. It supports mpv expansions.
ffmpegCmd=ffmpeg

# Command used for ffprog. Useful if ffmpeg is not in the path. It supports mpv expansions.
ffprogCmd=ffprog

# Command used for yt-dlp. Useful if yt-dlp is not in the path. It supports mpv expansions.
ytdlpCmd=yt-dlp

# If adding subtitles and video is played by yt-dlp, this will be passed to yt-dlp to filter
# the language of the subtitles. Default to english only subtitles.
ytdlpSubLang="en.*"

# When cutting a local video you can specify a codec for reencoding the video like "libx256"
# Using "copy" will preserver the original video codec.
# This does not apply to videos played with yt-dlp.
copyVideoCodec="copy"

# When cutting a local video you can specify a codec for reencoding the audio like "aac"
# Using "copy" will preserver the original audio codec.
# This does not apply to videos played with yt-dlp.
copyAudioCodec="copy"

# Add additional logs for debbuging
debug=false

# Either "spline" or "lanczos".
# These are different filters for downscaling.
# See more: https://superuser.com/questions/375718/which-resize-algorithm-to-choose-for-videos/375726#375726
# And: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/saxswa/scalezscale_and_lanczosspline
flags="lanczos"

# Pass arbitrary filter strings. It was used when debugging.
# Not recommended to set unless you know what you are doing.
# You can set templates for the formatting of width (%d), height (%d) and flags (%s) in that order.
# You will replace the string: "scale='trunc(ih*dar/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2',setsar=1/1,scale=%d:%d:flags=%s"
customFilters=

NOTE: Configuration is read when gif processing starts. This mean you can update your config without restarting mpv. The only limitation are keybinding which are set on script load.