# Small Quicktime \*mov movies, snapshots, and pixels **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 17, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503 "2007-10-17T15:22:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_E)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503/1 "2007-10-17T15:22:43Z")
Dear all, I have many small Quicktime \*.mov movies ( 1 min maximum playing time), showing drops of some liquid falling into a glass filled with that liquid and the like. Now, I’d like to extract a sequence of snapshot images taken at defined times from such a movie. These snapshots should be in some graphic format which I could open with Imagemagick/Rmagick to access individual pixels and see how their colour evolves over time. (The latter is not a problem). How could this extraction be done? Thank you very much! Best regards, Axel ---
**Author:** ![Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_E)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503/2 "2007-10-17T15:42:03Z")
Axel E. wrote: > Dear all, > > I have many small Quicktime \*.mov movies ( 1 min maximum playing > time), showing drops of some liquid falling into a glass filled > with that liquid and the like. > Now, I’d like to extract a sequence of snapshot images taken at defined > times from such a movie. These snapshots should be in some graphic format which I could open with Imagemagick/Rmagick > to access individual pixels and see how their colour evolves over time. (The latter is not a problem). > > How could this extraction be done? > Apparently transcode can do this: [http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?Command\_Examples/Splitting\_A\_Movie\_Into\_Frames](http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/transcode?Command_Examples/Splitting_A_Movie_Into_Frames) ---
**Author:** ![Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_E)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503/3 "2007-10-17T16:10:59Z")
Axel E. wrote: > How could this extraction be done? If you are on a MAC, iMovie will do this. Import the clips, and then File \> Export \> Compress Movie for Expert Settings and then later choose “Movie to Picture”. Todd ---
**Author:** ![Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_E)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503/4 "2007-10-17T22:40:29Z")
On 17 Oct, 17:04, John J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > If you are on a MAC, iMovie will do this. > From that perspective, even Quicktime Pro can do it. And it’s > scriptable via Ruby (through AppleScript) You don’t even need the paid version of Quicktime Player as its scripting interface is fully accessible even in unpaid mode. Another Mac-only option would be to use QTKit via RubyCocoa. I dunno what’d be best option in this case though as it’s not something I’ve ever done myself. BTW, there was a similar question here a while back - I posted a QTP- based solution to that that might be of some help if you go that route: [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/msg/41a4029a10fe0ad3](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/msg/41a4029a10fe0ad3) In theory, you should be able to call QTP’s ‘export’ command with the ‘image sequence’ option, but I’m not sure how you’re meant to specify the export settings (specifically the frame rate) for that - it looks like it may have cut a few corners there. However, if you don’t need to export a huge number of frames, I imagine you could get by with exporting them one at a time. HTH has ---
**Author:** ![Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Axel\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Axel_E)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/small-quicktime-mov-movies-snapshots-and-pixels/117503/5 "2007-10-17T18:06:43Z")
On Oct 17, 2007, at 9:10 AM, Todd B. wrote: > ## Todd > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). From that perspective, even Quicktime Pro can do it. And it’s scriptable via Ruby (through AppleScript)