Video Viewing and Analysis

Download and analyze video files from direct URLs with frame extraction and metadata retrieval.

Quick Start

The simplest way to download a video:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://example.com/video.mp4"

This downloads the video to /mnt/user-data/outputs/ (or current directory if not available).

Options

Custom Output Directory

Use -o or --output to specify a different output directory:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -o /path/to/directory

Custom Filename

Use -n or --name to specify a custom filename (without extension):

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -n my_video

Extract Frames

Use -f or --frames to extract key frames from the video:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -f

This extracts frames at regular intervals and saves them as images for visual analysis.

Get Video Info

Use -i or --info to get video metadata without downloading:

python scripts/download_video.py "URL" -i

This displays duration, resolution, codec, frame rate, and file size.

Complete Examples

Download video with default settings:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://previews.customer.envatousercontent.com/h264-video-previews/dfb637cb-f04e-46dc-99dc-256fa6090958/61509131.mp4"

Download and extract frames for analysis:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://example.com/video.mp4" -f

Get video information only:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://example.com/video.mp4" -i

Download to custom directory with custom name:

python scripts/download_video.py "https://example.com/video.mp4" -o /custom/path -n my_video

How It Works

The skill uses standard Python libraries to:

Download video files using requests with streaming support
Extract video metadata using ffprobe (part of ffmpeg)
Extract key frames using ffmpeg
Support resume for partially downloaded files

Viewing Downloaded Videos

After downloading, Claude can analyze the video content by:

Extracting frames at key intervals
Analyzing the extracted images to describe video content
Providing metadata about duration, resolution, and format

Requirements

The script requires:

Python 3.7+
requests library (installed automatically)
ffmpeg and ffprobe for frame extraction and metadata (optional)

Install ffmpeg on Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Install ffmpeg on macOS:

brew install ffmpeg

Important Notes

Only supports direct video file URLs (not streaming platforms like YouTube)
Supported formats: mp4, webm, mkv, avi, mov, m4v, wmv, flv
Large files are downloaded with progress indication
Frame extraction requires ffmpeg to be installed
Downloads are saved to /mnt/user-data/outputs/ by default, or current directory

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