---
id: scenedetect
version: "0.7.1"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# scenedetect — Video scene cut/shot detection program and Python library (bundles the opencv-python OpenCV variant and the scenedetect CLI).

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.1M/mo

## What it is and what it does

PySceneDetect is a video analysis tool that identifies shot boundaries and scene cuts in video files. It provides both a command-line interface and a Python library for detecting fast-cuts and threshold-based fades, then automatically splitting videos into separate clips. The tool bundles opencv-python for computer vision and relies on standard dependencies like numpy, click, and tqdm.

You can use it as a standalone CLI tool (e.g., `scenedetect -i video.mp4 split-video`) or import its Python API to integrate scene detection into larger workflows. The package is actively maintained, supports modern Python versions (3.10–3.13), and offers variant distributions: the standard package bundles opencv-python, a headless variant uses opencv-python-headless for servers, and a core-only variant lets you bring your own OpenCV build.

Use it for:

- Automatically split long videos into individual scenes or shots for archival or editing workflows.
- Analyze video content to find shot boundaries for automated video summarization or highlight extraction.
- Integrate scene detection into video processing pipelines to trigger downstream tasks at scene cuts.
- Detect and extract fade transitions in videos for quality control or content analysis.
- Build video editing tools that need to identify natural cut points for re-composition.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Detects scene cuts and shot changes in videos, then splits them into separate clips using command-line or Python API.

Yes. Active maintenance, low install friction, no known vulnerabilities, permissive license, and a clear use case for video analysis. The CLI is immediately usable and the Python API is straightforward. Choose the standard package for desktop use, scenedetect-headless for servers, or scenedetect-core if you need to manage your own OpenCV variant.

## Install

pip install scenedetect
uv add scenedetect
poetry add scenedetect

## Installing scenedetect

Before you install: Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel. Active maintenance: last commit 2026-08-10, release 23 days old. Supports Python 3.10–3.13. Runtime dependencies are common and stable (click, numpy, opencv-python, platformdirs, tqdm).

License in practice: BSD-3-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install scenedetect

from scenedetect import detect, AdaptiveDetector, split_video_ffmpeg
scene_list = detect('video.mp4', AdaptiveDetector())
split_video_ffmpeg('video.mp4', scene_list)

Requires ffmpeg on the system PATH for split_video_ffmpeg; opencv-python needs a display server on headless systems (use scenedetect-headless variant instead).

Verify before relying:

- Whether AdaptiveDetector is the only detection method available or if others exist.
- Exact performance characteristics (speed, accuracy) on different video codecs and resolutions.
- Whether the Python API supports real-time streaming or only file-based input.

## Package facts

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.1M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

video scene detection, shot cut detection, split video by scenes, video shot boundary detection, automatic video splitting, scene change detection, video analysis tool, video-processing, computer-vision, cli-tool

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