Format Video Length in HH:MM:SS from Command Line

By  on  

In my experimentation with audio and video manipulation, I've found that most tools prefer to handle time in HH:MM:SS (hour:minute:second) format.  I always presumed that using seconds would be easier but I'm barely a novice media tool user, much less a tool creator.

When I wrote the Create Short Preview from Video post, I calculated the video length in seconds with the following command:

length=$(ffprobe $sourcefile  -show_format 2>&1 | sed -n 's/duration=//p' | awk '{print int($0)}')]

That was helpful in detecting if a video was long enough to generate a preview for, but I then needed to get that length in HH:MM:SS format:

formattedlength=$(printf "%02d:%02d:%02d\n" $(($length/3600)) $(($length%3600/60)) $(($length%60)))

In the end you need to evaluate loads of individual statements to get your final HH:MM:SS format!

Recent Features

  • By
    9 Mind-Blowing Canvas Demos

    The <canvas> element has been a revelation for the visual experts among our ranks.  Canvas provides the means for incredible and efficient animations with the added bonus of no Flash; these developers can flash their awesome JavaScript skills instead.  Here are nine unbelievable canvas demos that...

  • By
    CSS 3D Folding Animation

    Google Plus provides loads of inspiration for front-end developers, especially when it comes to the CSS and JavaScript wonders they create. Last year I duplicated their incredible PhotoStack effect with both MooTools and pure CSS; this time I'm going to duplicate...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Resize an Image Using Canvas, Drag and Drop and the File API

    Recently I was asked to create a user interface that allows someone to upload an image to a server (among other things) so that it could be used in the various web sites my company provides to its clients. Normally this would be an easy task—create a...

  • By
    Using Dotter for Form Submissions

    One of the plugins I'm most proud of is Dotter. Dotter allows you to create the typical "Loading..." text without using animated images. I'm often asked what a sample usage of Dotter would be; form submission create the perfect situation. The following...

Discussion

    Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!