Python Reference

VapourSynth is separated into a core library and a Python module. This section explains how the core library is exposed through Python and some of the special things unique to Python scripting, such as slicing and output.

Note

Any script executed through the vsscript api (that means vspipe, avfs, vsvfw or other API users) will have __name__ set to “__vapoursynth__” unlike normal Python scripts where it usually is “__main__”.

VapourSynth Structure

Most operations in the VapourSynth library are performed through the core object. This core may load plugins, which all end up in their own unit, or namespace, so to say, to avoid naming conflicts in the contained functions. For this reason you call a plugin function with core.unit.Function().

All arguments to functions have names that are lowercase and all function names are CamelCase. Unit names are also lowercase and usually short. This is good to remember.

Slicing and Other Syntactic Sugar

The VideoNode class (always called “clip” in practice) supports the full range of indexing and slicing operations in Python. If you do perform a slicing operation on a clip, you will get a new clip back with the desired frames. Note that frame numbers, like python arrays, start counting at 0. Here are a few examples.

Make a single frame clip containing frame number 5:

video = clip[5]

Make a clip containing frames 6 to 9 (unlike Trim, the end value of python slicing is not inclusive):

video = clip[6:10]

Select even numbered frames:

video = clip[::2]

Select odd numbered frames:

video = clip[1::2]

Negative step is also allowed, so this reverses a clip:

video = clip[::-1]

It may all be combined at once to confuse people, just like normal Python slicing:

video = clip[-400:-800:-5]

Filters can be chained with a dot, it mostly works like Avisynth:

clip = core.ffms2.Source("asdf.mov")
clip = clip.std.Trim(first=100, last=2000).std.FlipVertical()

The addition operator can be used to splice clips together:

clip4 = clip1 + clip2 + clip3

Which is equivalent to:

clip4 = core.std.Splice([core.std.Splice([clip1, clip2], mismatch=False), clip3], mismatch=False)

The multiplication operator can be used to loop a clip:

clip = clip * 42

Which is equivalent to:

clip = core.std.Loop(clip, times=42)

Note that multiplication by 0 is a special case that will repeat the clip up to the maximum frame count.

Python Keywords as Filter Arguments

If a filter’s argument happens to be a Python keyword, you may prepend an underscore to the argument’s name when invoking the filter. The Python module will strip one leading underscore from all filter arguments before passing them to the filters.

clip = core.plugin.Filter(clip, _lambda=1)

Another way to deal with such arguments is to place them in a dictionary:

args = { "lambda": 1 }
clip = core.plugin.Filter(clip, **args)

VapourSynth will also support the PEP8 convention of using a single trailing underscore to prevent collisions with python keywords.

Windows File Paths (Strings With Backslashes)

If you have a string containing backslashes, you must either prefix the string with “r”, or duplicate every single backslash. The reason is that the backslash is an escape character in Python.

Incorrect; Python will think “\A” and “\G” are supposed to mean something special:

core.avs.LoadPlugin("B:\Avisynth plugins\GuavaComb.dll")

Correct; Python will think “\\” means something special, namely a single backslash:

core.avs.LoadPlugin("B:\\Avisynth plugins\\GuavaComb.dll")

Correct; Python will not consider any combination of characters special:

core.avs.LoadPlugin(r"B:\Avisynth plugins\GuavaComb.dll")

Additionally, if the string is a Windows file path, it can also be written with forward slashes instead of backslashes:

core.avs.LoadPlugin("B:/Avisynth plugins/GuavaComb.dll")

Output

The normal way of specifying the clip(s) to output is to call clip.set_output(). All standard VapourSynth components only use output index 0, except for vspipe where it’s configurable but defaults to 0. There are also other variables that can be set to control how a format is output. For example, setting enable_v210=True changes the packing of the YUV422P10 format to one that is common in professional software (like Adobe products). An example on how to get v210 output:

some_clip = core.resize.Bicubic(clip, format=vs.YUV422P10)
some_clip.set_output()
enable_v210 = True

Raw Access to Frame Data

The VideoFrame class simply contains one picture and all the metadata associated with it. It is possible to access the raw data using either get_write_array(plane) or get_write_ptr with ctypes.

The relevant functions are get_read_array(plane), get_read_ptr(plane), get_write_ptr(plane), and get_stride(plane), all of which take the plane to access as an argument. The recommended way is to use get_read_array(plane) (get_write_array(plane)) to get a read-only (writable) memory view that can be accessed directly via view[row,col] or view[row][col]. The returned view is valid as long as its VideoFrame exists. The raw access functions are a bit trickier as get_read_ptr() and get_write_ptr() only return a pointer.

To get a frame simply call get_frame(n) on a clip. Should you desire to get all frames in a clip, use this code:

for frame in clip.frames():
    # Do stuff with your frame
    pass

Classes and Functions

core

Gets the singleton Core object. If it is the first time the function is called, the Core will be instantiated with the default options. This is the preferred way to reference the core.

get_core([threads = 0, add_cache = True])

Deprecated, use the core attribute instead.

Get the singleton Core object. If it is the first time the function is called, the Core will be instantiated with the given options. If the Core has already been instantiated, all options are ignored. Setting threads to a value greater than zero overrides the autodetection.

set_message_handler(handler_func)

Sets a function to handle all debug output and fatal errors. The function should have the form handler(level, message), where level corresponds to the vapoursynth.mt constants. Passing None restores the default handler, which prints to stderr.

get_outputs()

Return a read-only mapping of all outputs registered on the current node.

The mapping will automatically update when a new output is registered.

get_output([index = 0])

Get a previously set output node. Throws an error if the index hasn’t been set. Will return an AlphaOutputTuple when alpha was passed to VideoNode.set_output.

clear_output([index = 0])

Clears a clip previously set for output.

clear_outputs()

Clears all clips set for output in the current environment.

construct_signature(signature[, injected=None])

Creates a inspect.Signature object for the given registration signature.

If injected is not None, the default of the first argument of the signature will be replaced with the value supplied with injected.

class Core

The Core class uses a singleton pattern. Use the core attribute to obtain an instance. All loaded plugins are exposed as attributes of the core object. These attributes in turn hold the functions contained in the plugin. Use get_plugins() to obtain a full list of all currently loaded plugins you may call this way.

num_threads

The number of concurrent threads used by the core. Can be set to change the number. Setting to a value less than one makes it default to the number of hardware threads.

add_cache

For debugging purposes only. When set to False no caches will be automatically inserted between filters.

max_cache_size

Set the upper framebuffer cache size after which memory is aggressively freed. The value is in megabytes.

set_max_cache_size(mb)

Deprecated, use max_cache_size instead.

get_plugins()

Returns a dict containing all loaded plugins and their functions.

list_functions()

Works similar to get_plugins() but returns a human-readable string.

register_format(color_family, sample_type, bits_per_sample, subsampling_w, subsampling_h)

Register a new Format object or obtain a reference to an existing one if it has already been registered. Invalid formats throw an exception.

get_format(id)

Retrieve a Format object corresponding to the specified id. Returns None if there is no format with that id.

version()

Returns version information as a string.

version_number()

Returns the core version as a number.

class VideoNode

Represents a video clip. The class itself supports indexing and slicing to perform trim, reverse and selectevery operations. Several operators are also defined for the VideoNode class: addition appends clips and multiplication repeats them. Note that slicing and indexing always return a new VideoNode object and not a VideoFrame.

format

A Format object describing the frame data. If the format can change between frames, this value is None.

width

The width of the video. This value will be 0 if the width and height can change between frames.

height

The height of the video. This value will be 0 if the width and height can change between frames.

num_frames

The number of frames in the clip.

fps

The framerate represented as a Fraction. It is 0/1 when the clip has a variable framerate.

fps_num

Deprecated, use fps.numerator instead

The numerator of the framerate. If the clip has variable framerate, the value will be 0.

fps_den

Deprecated, use fps.denominator instead

The denominator of the framerate. If the clip has variable framerate, the value will be 0.

flags

Special flags set for this clip. This attribute should normally be ignored.

get_frame(n)

Returns a VideoFrame from position n.

get_frame_async(n)

Returns a concurrent.futures.Future-object which result will be a VideoFrame instance or sets the exception thrown when rendering the frame.

The future will always be in the running or completed state

get_frame_async_raw(n, cb: callable)

First form of this method. It will call the callback from another thread as soon as the frame is rendered.

The result-value passed to the callback will either be a VideoFrame-instance on success or a Error-instance on failure.

This method is intended for glue code. For normal use, use get_frame_async instead.

Parameters

  • n – The frame number

  • cb – A callback in the form cb(node, n, result)

get_frame_async_raw(n, cb: Future[, wrapper: callable = None])

Second form of this method. It will take a Future-like object (including asyncio.Future or similar) and set its result or exception according to the result of the function.

The optional wrapper-parameter is intended for calls like asyncio.EventLoop.call_soon_threadsafe in which all calls to its future-object must be wrapped.

This method is intended for glue code. For normal use, use get_frame_async instead.

Parameters

  • n – The frame number

  • cb – The future-object whose result will be set.

  • wrapper – A wrapper-callback which is responsible for moving the result across thread boundaries. If not given, the result of the future will be set in a random thread.

set_output(index=0, alpha=None)

Set the clip to be accessible for output. This is the standard way to specify which clip(s) to output. All VapourSynth tools (vsvfw, vsfs, vspipe) use the clip in index 0. It’s possible to specify an additional containing the alpha to output at the same time. Currently only vspipe takes alpha into consideration when outputting.

output(fileobj[, y4m = False, prefetch = 0, progress_update = None])

Write the whole clip to the specified file handle. It is possible to pipe to stdout by specifying sys.stdout as the file. YUV4MPEG2 headers will be added when y4m is true. The current progress can be reported by passing a callback function of the form func(current_frame, total_frames) to progress_update. The prefetch argument is only for debugging purposes and should never need to be changed.

frames()

Returns a generator iterator of all VideoFrames in the clip.

class AlphaOutputTuple

This class is returned by get_output. If a alpha was passed to set_output, get_output will return an object of this type.

clip

A VideoNode-instance containing the color planes.

alpha

A VideoNode-instance containing the alpha planes.

class VideoFrame

This class represents a video frame and all metadata attached to it.

format

A Format object describing the frame data.

width

The width of the frame.

height

The height of the frame.

readonly

If readonly is True, the frame data and properties cannot be modified.

props

This attribute holds all the frame’s properties as a dict. They are also mapped as sub-attributes for compatibility with older scripts. For more information, see: API Reference Note: This includes the data for matrix, transfer and primaries. (_Matrix, _Transfer, _Primaries) See Resize for more information.

copy()

Returns a writable copy of the frame.

get_read_ptr(plane)

Returns a pointer to the raw frame data. The data may not be modified.

get_read_array(plane)

Returns a memoryview of the frame data that’s only valid as long as the VideoFrame object exists. The data may not be modified.

get_write_ptr(plane)

Returns a pointer to the raw frame data. It may be modified using ctypes or some other similar python package.

get_write_array(plane)

Returns a memoryview of the frame data that’s only valid as long as the VideoFrame object exists.

get_stride(plane)

Returns the stride between lines in a plane.

class Format

This class represents all information needed to describe a frame format. It holds the general color type, subsampling, number of planes and so on. The names map directly to the C API so consult it for more detailed information.

id

A unique id identifying the format.

name

A human readable name of the format.

color_family

Which group of colorspaces the format describes.

sample_type

If the format is integer or floating point based.

bits_per_sample

How many bits are used to store one sample in one plane.

bytes_per_sample

The actual storage is padded up to 2^n bytes for efficiency.

subsampling_w

The subsampling for the second and third plane in the horizontal direction.

subsampling_h

The subsampling for the second and third plane in the vertical direction.

num_planes

The number of planes the format has.

replace(core=None, **kwargs)

Returns a new format with the given modifications.

The only supported attributes that can be replaced are color_family, sample_type, bits_per_sample, subsampling_w, subsampling_h.

The optional core-parameter defines on which core the new format should be registered. This is usually not needed and defaults to the core of the current environment.

class Plugin

Plugin is a class that represents a loaded plugin and its namespace.

namespace

The namespace of the plugin.

get_functions()

Returns a dict containing all the functions in the plugin. You can access it by calling core.std.get_functions(). Replace std with the namespace of the plugin you want to query.

list_functions()

Works similar to get_functions() but returns a human-readable string.

class Function

Function is a simple wrapper class for a function provided by a VapourSynth plugin. Its main purpose is to be called and nothing else.

name

The function name. Identical to the string used to register the function.

plugin

The Plugin object the function belongs to.

signature

Raw function signature string. Identical to the string used to register the function.

class Environment

This class represents an environment.

Some editors allow multiple vapoursynth-scripts to run in the same process, each of them comes with a different Core-instance and their own set of outputs. Each core-instance with their associated outputs represent their own environment.

At any given time, only one environment can be active (in the same context). This class allows introspection about environments and allows to switch to them at will.

env = get_current_environment()
# sometime later
with env.use():
  # Do stuff inside this env.

Warning

Environment-objects obtained using the vpy_current_environment() can directly be used as as a context manager. This can cuase undefined behaviour when used in combination with generators and/or coroutines.

This context-manager maintains a thread-local environment-stack that is used to restore the previous environment. This can cause issues if the frame is suspended inside the block.

A similar problem also existed in previous VapourSynth versions!

env = vpy_current_environment()
with env:
     yield
is_single()

Returns True if the script is _not_ running inside a vsscript-Environment. If it is running inside a vsscript-Environment, it returns False.

env_id

Return -1 if the script is not running inside a vsscript-Environment. Otherwise, it will return the current environment-id.

single

See is_single()

alive

Has the environment been destroyed by the underlying application?

copy()

Creates a copy of the environment-object.

Added: R50

use()

Returns a context-manager that enables the given environment in the block enclosed in the with-statement and restores the environment to the one defined before the with-block has been encountered.

env = vpy_current_environment()
with env.use():
    with env.use():
        pass

Added: R50

vpy_current_environment()

Deprecated. Use get_current_environment() instead.

Returns an Environment-object representing the environment the script is currently running in. It will raise an error if we are currently not inside any script-environment while vsscript is being used.

This function is intended for Python-based editors using vsscript. This function has been deprecated as this function has undefined behaviour when used together with generators or coroutines.

get_current_environment()

Returns an Environment-object representing the environment the script is currently running in. It will raise an error if we are currently not inside any script-environment while vsscript is being used.

This function is intended for Python-based editors using vsscript.

Added: R50

class EnvironmentPolicy

This class is intended for subclassing by custom Script-Runners and Editors. Normal users don’t need this class. Most methods implemented here have corresponding APIs in other parts of this module.

An instance of this class controls which environment is activated in the current context. The exact meaning of “context” is defined by the concrete EnvironmentPolicy. A environment is represented by a EnvironmentData-object.

To use this class, first create a subclass and then use register_policy() to get VapourSynth to use your policy. This must happen before vapoursynth is first used. VapourSynth will automatically register an internal policy if it needs one. The subclass must be weak-referenciable!

Once the method on_policy_registered() has been called, the policy is responsible for creating and managing environments.

Special considerations have been made to ensure the functions of class cannot be abused. You cannot retrieve the current running policy youself. The additional API exposed by “on_policy_registered” is only valid if the policy has been registered. Once the policy is unregistered, all calls to the additional API will fail with a RuntimeError.

Added: R50

on_policy_registered(special_api)

This method is called when the policy has successfully been registered. It proivdes additional internal methods that are hidden as they are useless and or harmful unless you implement your own policy.

Parameters

special_api – This is a EnvironmentPolicyAPI-object that exposes additional API

on_policy_cleared()

This method is called once the python-process exits or when unregister_policy is called by the environment-policy. This allows the policy to free the resources used by the policy.

get_current_environment()

This method is called by the module to detect which environment is currently running in the current context. If None is returned, it means that no environment is currently active.

Returns

An EnvironmentData-object representing the currently active environment in the current context.

set_environment(environment)

This method is called by the module to change the currently active environment. If None is passed to this function the policy may switch to another environment of its choosing.

Note: The function is responsible to check whether or not the environment is alive. If a dead environment is passed, it should act like None has been passed instead of the dead environment but must never error.

Parameters

environment – The EnvironmentData to enable in the current context.

Returns

The environment that was enabled previously.

is_alive(environment)

Is the current environment still active and managed by the policy.

class EnvironmentPolicyAPI

This class is intended to be used by custom Script-Runners and Editors. An instance of this class exposes an additional API. The methods are bound to a specific EnvironmentPolicy-instance and will only work if the policy is currenty registered.

Added: R50

wrap_environment(environment)

Creates a new Environment-object bound to the passed environment-id.

Warning

This function does not check if the id corresponds to a live environment as the caller is expected to know which environments are active.

create_environment()

Returns a Environment that is used by the wrapper for context sensitive data used by VapourSynth. For example it holds the currently active core object as well as the currently registered outputs.

unregister_policy()

Unregisters the policy it is bound to and allows another policy to be registered.

register_policy(policy)

This function is intended for use by custom Script-Runners and Editors. It installs your custom EnvironmentPolicy. This function only works if no other policy has been installed.

If no policy is installed, the first environment-sensitive call will automatically register an internal policy.

Added: R50

Note

This must be done before VapourSynth is used in any way. Here is a non-exhaustive list that automatically register a policy:

has_policy()

This function is intended for subclassing by custom Script-Runners and Editors. This function checks if a EnvironmentPolicy has been installed.

Added: R50

_using_vsscript

INTERNAL ATTRIBUTE. Deprecated (will be removed soon). This was the only way to find out if VSScript.h was calling this script. It now stores true if a custom policy is installed or VSScript.h is used. Use has_policy() instead.

class EnvironmentData

Internal class that stores the context sensitive data that VapourSynth needs. It is an opaque object whose attributes you cannot access directly.

A normal user has no way of getting an instance of this object. You can only encounter EnvironmentData-objects if you work with EnvironmentPolicies.

This object is weak-referenciable meaning you can get a callback if the environment-data object is actually being freed (i.e. no other object holds an instance to the environment data.)

Added: R50

class Func

Func is a simple wrapper class for VapourSynth VSFunc objects. Its main purpose is to be called and manage reference counting.

exception Error

The standard exception class. This exception is thrown on most errors encountered in VapourSynth.

Color Family Constants

The color family constants describe groups of formats and the basic way their color information is stored. You should be familiar with all of them apart from maybe YCOCG and COMPAT. The latter is a special junk category for non-planar formats. These are the declared constants in the module:

RGB
YUV
GRAY
YCOCG
COMPAT

Format Constants

Format constants exactly describe a format. All common and even more uncommon formats have handy constants predefined so in practice no one should really need to register one of their own. These values are mostly used by the resizers to specify which format to convert to. The naming system is quite simple. First the color family, then the subsampling (only YUV has it) and after that how many bits per sample in one plane. The exception to this rule is RGB, which has the bits for all 3 planes added together. The long list of values:

GRAY8
GRAY16
GRAYH
GRAYS

YUV420P8
YUV422P8
YUV444P8
YUV410P8
YUV411P8
YUV440P8

YUV420P9
YUV422P9
YUV444P9

YUV420P10
YUV422P10
YUV444P10

YUV420P12
YUV422P12
YUV444P12

YUV420P14
YUV422P14
YUV444P14

YUV420P16
YUV422P16
YUV444P16

YUV444PH
YUV444PS

RGB24
RGB27
RGB30
RGB48

RGBH
RGBS

COMPATBGR32
COMPATYUY2

Sample Type Constants

INTEGER
FLOAT