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Convert

Synopsis

python  convert.py  [-p paths] [-c config]
                    [--fps_from_filename] [--input_fps]
                    [--delete_input] [--overwrite]

Description

In case you use raw .h264 videos (e.g. from OTCamera), you need to convert the videos to a supported video format.

As .h264 does not include metadata, the frame rate of the video has to be either read from the filename or specified by the user.

We suggest converting to .mp4 (the default output file type).

Parameters

paths (required)

-p "path/to/h264 files" "path/to/other h264 files"

or

--paths "path/to/h264 files" "path/to/other h264 files"

One or multiple paths to .h264 files or folders containing .h264 video files.

This parameter is required to run the convert.py script. It has to be specified either using the CLI or in the configuration yaml file.

config

-c "path/to/config file"

or

--config "path/to/config file"

Path to a custom user configuration yaml file. Other parameters (including paths) are parsed from this configuration file.

This parameter is optional. By default, the user_config.otvision.yaml in the root directory is read. This also overrides the default values of all parameters. If the user_config.otvision.yaml in the root directory is missing and no other configuration file is specified, the default values of the parameters as described below are used.

Warning

Any parameter passed to the CLI will overwrite the respective parameter from the config file.

fps_from_filename

--fps_from_filename to parse the video frame rates from the input .h264 filenames.

  • In this case the frame rate of each input .h264 file has to be specified in the filename using the following pattern: _FR<fps>_ (where fps is the frame rate)
  • An example would be _FR20_ in the following filename: OTCamera01_FR20_2023-01-01_12-15-00.h264
  • In this case, input_fps will be ignored.

This parameter is used by default if --no-fps_from_filename and --input_fps are not specified.

no_fps_from_filename

Use --no-fps_from_filename to prevent parsing the video frame rates from the input .h264 filenames.

  • In this case, an input_fps has to be specified.

input_fps

--input_fps <int> to set the frame rate for all .h264 files.

  • input_fps should be an integer value above zero.
  • E.g. if the input .h264 have been recorded at 20 frames per second, specify this parameter as follows: --input_fps 20

If --fps_from_filename is used, input_fps will be ignored.

This parameter is optional and defaults to 20.

overwrite

--overwrite to overwrite existing .mp4 files.

--no-overwrite to prevent overwriting existing .mp4 files.

This parameter is optional and defaults to --overwrite.

delete input

--delete_input to delete input .h264 files after conversion to .mp4 to save disk space.

--no-delete_input to keep input .h264 files after conversion to .mp4.

This parameter is optional and defaults to --no-delete_input.