How to blur the sides of horizontal video with FFmpeg?

Tech QnA
1

I would like to find a solution to blur the top and the bottom of a video.
I used the following common but didn’t work for me:
ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -lavfi “[0:v]scale=19202:10802,boxblur=luma_radius=min(h,w)/20:luma_power=1:chroma_radius=min(cw,ch)/20:chroma_power=1[bg];[0:v]scale=-1:1080[ov];[bg][ov]overlay=(W-w)/2:(H-h)/2,crop=w=1920:h=1080” outpt.mp4Any suggestion on that?

2

Hey! Try this if it helps.

3

Thanks, I tried this previously, but this is not exactly what I want.

4

To blur the sides of a horizontal video with ffmpeg, you can use the unsharp filter with a negative amount parameter to create a blur effect.

Here’s an example command that will blur the left and right sides of the video:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf “unsharp=amount=-1:threshold=0:radius=1:x=-w/2:y=0” output.mp4
This command will apply the unsharp filter to the input video (input.mp4) and create a new output video (output.mp4). The amount parameter is set to a negative value (-1) to create a blur effect, and the x parameter is set to -w/2 to apply the blur only to the left half of the video.

5

You can blur the right side of the video as well, by using the following command:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf “unsharp=amount=-1:threshold=0:radius=1:x=w/2:y=0” output.mp4
This command is similar to the above, but the x parameter is set to w/2 to apply the blur to the right half of the video.

You can adjust the strength of the blur by changing the value of the amount parameter. A higher value will result in a more substantial blur effect.

Thanks