Video-To-Ascii

A modern C# console application that converts videos into ASCII art with audio support.

Overview

Video-To-Ascii transforms video files into ASCII art live in the console. The application provides a responsive and efficient video-to-text conversion experience with synchronized audio playback. Additionally exporting to different output formats like .json, .ps1 or .sh is supported.

Thanks to Joel Ibaceta/video-to-ascii for the original project.

Features

• Convert video files to real-time ASCII art in your console
• Multiple conversion strategies for different artistic styles
• Audio support for a complete viewing experience
• Support for various video formats
• Support for outputting the result to a file

Requirements

• .NET 8 Runtime
• FFmpeg for audio support (optional)
• Terminal/console with Unicode support
• Sufficient console size for the desired ASCII resolution

Installation

Chocolatey

Install Chocolatey and open a terminal:

choco install videotoascii

Scoop

Install Scoop and add My Scoop bucket and the versions bucket:

scoop bucket add der_floh https://github.com/der-floh/scoop-bucket
scoop bucket add versions

Then install the tool:

scoop install videotoascii

WinGet

Install WinGet and run a terminal with administrator privileges (required for dotnet):

winget install videotoascii

Releases

Download and install the latest Release or view all Releases.

Usage

Options

Options:
  -f, --file <path>        Path to the video file (required)
  -s, --strategy <name>    Conversion strategy (default: filled-ascii)
                           Available: filled-ascii, ascii-color, just-ascii
  -a, --audio <bool>       Enable/disable audio (default: false)
  -o, --output <path>      Output file path (default: none)
  --help                   Display help information

Supported Output types

These are the current supported output file types:

• .txt
• .json
• .bat
• .ps1
• .sh

Examples

# Basic playback with default settings
videotoascii -f video.mp4

# Just-ascii conversion with audio
videotoascii -f video.mp4 -s just-ascii -a

# Output to file
videotoascii -f video.mp4 -o output.ps1

Acknowledgments

• Joel Ibaceta/video-to-ascii for the original project