Introduction

This is a component to convert and encode videos in your CakePHP application. This was extracted from a live social networking project that I built. Currently it is just optimized to encode and convert flash video but it is very easy to modify the code to your needs.

Requirements

• CakePHP 1.2+
• ffmpeg
• flvtool2

How to Use

Place the component inside of your components directory and then include it inside of any controller that you want to encode videos. Ensure that you set the correct paths to you installations of ffmpeg and flvtool2.

Example

The following is a typical example that you might use after uploading a video from a form.

<?php
function add () {
  // You probably will upload the video from a form
  
  // Let's say all of that is said and done and you have your video 
  // uploaded and have it's path stored in the variable $path
  
  // Let's also say that you have a variable set with the output path
  // that the converted video will be stored named $out_path
  
  // The first this we need to do is convert the video
  $this->VideoEncoder->convert_video($path, $out_path, 480, 360);
  
  // Then we need to set the buffer on the converted video
  $this->VideoEncoder->set_buffering($out_path);
  
  // We can now get some information back about the converted video that
  // can be stored in a database for further use
  $duration = $this->VideoEncoder->get_duration($out_path);
  $filesize = $this->VideoEncoder->get_filesize($out_path);
  
  // We can also grab a screenshot from the video as a jpeg
  // and store it for future use.
  $this->VideoEncoder->grab_image($out_path, $path_to_save_image);
  
  // Finally we can delete the original video
  $this->VideoEncoder->remove_uploaded_video($path);
}
?>

Code

<?php
/*
 * Video Encoder CakePHP Component
 * Copyright (c) 2009 Andrew Weir
 * http://andrw.new
 *
 *
 * @author      Andrew Weir <andru.weir@gmail.com>
 * @version     1.0
 * @license     MIT
 */
class VideoEncoderComponent extends Object {
  
  /**
   * Everything in this method can be placed into a global configuration
   * file that is called at bootstrap/runtime.
   **/
  function __construct () {
    // ffmpeg path
    Configure::write('Video.ffmpeg_path', '/usr/bin/ffmpeg');

    // flvtool2 path
    Configure::write('Video.flvtool2_path', '/bin/flvtool2');

    // Bitrate of audio (valid vaues are 16,32,64)
    Configure::write('Video.bitrate', 64);

    // Sampling rate (valid values are 11025, 22050, 44100)
    Configure::write('Video.samprate', 44100);
  }
  
  function convert_video ($in, $out, $width = 480, $height = 360, $optimized = false) {
    if ($optimized == false) {
      $command = Configure::read('Video.ffmpeg_path') . " -i {$in} -y -s {$width}x{$height} -r 30 -b 500 -ar " . Configure::read('Video.samprate') . " -ab " . Configure::read('Video.bitrate') . " {$out}";
    } else {
      $command = Configure::read('Video.ffmpeg_path') . " -i {$in} -b 256k -ac 1 -ar 44100 {$out}";
    }
    echo exec($command);
  }
  
  function set_buffering ($in) {
    $command = Configure::read('Video.flvtool2_path') . " -U {$in}";
    shell_exec($command);
  }
  
  function grab_image ($in, $out) {
    $command = Configure::read('Video.ffmpeg_path') . " -y -i {$in} -f mjpeg -t 0.003 {$out}";
    shell_exec($command);
  }
  
  function get_duration ($in) {
    $command = Configure::read('Video.ffmpeg_path') . " -i {$in} 2>&1 | grep \"Duration\" | cut -d ' ' -f 4 | sed s/,//";
    return shell_exec($command);
  }
  
  function get_filesize ($in) {
    return filesize($in);
  }
  
  function remove_uploaded_video ($in) {
    unlink($in);
  }
}

If you have any questions or comments drop me a line below and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.