Skim a 30-minute video for Short-worthy moments: 24 stills a call

A 30-minute video is the limit: video inspect accepts sources up to 1800 seconds and returns at most 24 stills per call. Ask for a still every 75 seconds and you cover the whole thing in one request: 1800 / 24 = 75.

How to skim

Default max_edge is 768 pixels, which is enough to recognize a scene.

• Send frames: { fps: 0.0133 } for roughly one still per 75 seconds. fps must be above 0 and at most 2, and the count is capped at 24.
• Or send frames.at with 1 to 24 explicit timestamps once you know where to look.
• Add seek: fast to snap each still to the keyframe at or before its instant. It skips the decode, can be earlier by up to one GOP (about 0 to 5 seconds on typical sources), and never later.
• Use precise, the default, when a timestamp must match.

What fast does to your numbers

With fast, each grid carries seek: fast, sample_times are the instants the tiles actually show, and requested_times are the ones you asked for. Cut from sample_times, not requested_times, or your clip may start up to a few seconds late of what you saw.

From a still to a clip

Pick a moment, set start about 2 seconds before it, then call video trim for $0.02 with a duration of 45. Trim cuts a new MP4 and leaves the source alone. Inspect does not judge which moments are good; that choice is yours.

Request

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-inspect \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: skim-1" \
  -d '{"video_url":"https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/talk.mp4","frames":{"fps":0.0133,"seek":"fast"}}'