blur_video

Obscure a rectangular region (or the entire frame) of one or more MP4 videos — Gaussian blur, pixelation, box blur, a median filter, or a solid fill — powered by ffmpeg.

Code generated by Claude Code

Features

• Region or whole-frame effects, five modes: G Gaussian, P pixelate, B box blur, M median, S solid fill
• Optional soft-edge feathering (-D) with a linear falloff at the border
• Time-windowed effects (-S / -E)
• Batch mode (-I): apply several independently-configured passes to every matched file from one parameter file, chained into a single encode
• 5-second test-clip preview (-T) before committing to a full run
• Dry-run mode (-N)
• Recursive / current-folder / wildcard file selection (-R / -C / -F)
• Installs its own Python prerequisites on first run (opencv-python, imageio-ffmpeg — the latter bundles ffmpeg itself, so no separate system ffmpeg install is required)
• Graceful per-file error handling with an on-demand error log (blur_errors.log, only created if something actually fails)
• Clean Ctrl-C interruption — no partial output files left behind

Requirements

• Python 3.8+

• Internet access on first run only, so pip can fetch opencv-python and imageio-ffmpeg if they aren't already installed. To pre-install:

  pip install -r requirements.txt

Quick start

# Blur a fixed region for the whole video
python blur_video.py -F movie.mp4 -X 100 -Y 50 -DX 300 -DY 200 -M G 70

# Pixelate the whole frame from 10s to 20s
python blur_video.py -F movie.mp4 -A -S 10 -E 20 -M P 90

# Preview a soft-edged box blur before running for real
python blur_video.py -F movie.mp4 -X 100 -Y 50 -DX 300 -DY 200 -M B 70 -D 12 -T

# Apply several different blurred regions to every .mp4 in a folder
python blur_video.py -C -I examples/passes.txt

Full reference

Every switch, the parameter-file format, exit codes, and known caveats are documented in the man page:

man ./blur_video.1

(or open blur_video.1 directly if man isn't installed).

License

MIT — edit the copyright line to your name.