One file API. Any media. Fast, typed, web-ready.

Load image, audio, and video from files, URLs, bytes, base64, or numpy, convert on save.
Built on FFmpeg (PyAV) and OpenCV for production-grade speed.

Install

pip install media-toolkit

Audio and video processing requires FFmpeg. PyAV usually installs it automatically. If needed, install it manually from ffmpeg.org.

Quick start

One API for all media types. Load from files, URLs, bytes, base64, or numpy arrays:

from media_toolkit import ImageFile, AudioFile, VideoFile, media_from_any

# Load any file and convert it to the correct type, with smart content detection
audio = media_from_any("media/my_favorite_song.mp3")  # returns AudioFile

# Load from any source
image = ImageFile().from_any("https://example.com/image.jpg")
audio = AudioFile().from_file("audio.wav")
video = VideoFile().from_file("video.mp4")
img = ImageFile().from_base64("data:image/png;base64,...")

# Convert to any format
image_array = image.to_np_array()      # numpy array (H, W, C)
audio_array = audio.to_np_array()      # numpy array (samples, channels)
image_base64 = image.to_base64()       # base64 string
video_bytes = video.to_bytes_io()      # BytesIO object

Batch processing

from media_toolkit import MediaList, AudioFile

# Process multiple files efficiently
audio_files = MediaList([
    "song1.wav",
    "https://example.com/song2.mp3",
    b"raw_audio_bytes..."
])

for audio in audio_files:
    audio.save(f"converted_{audio.file_name}.mp3")  # Auto-convert on save

Image processing

OpenCV-powered image operations:

from media_toolkit import ImageFile
import cv2

# Load and process
img = ImageFile().from_any("image.png")
image_array = img.to_np_array()  # (H, W, C) uint8 array

# Apply transformations
flipped = cv2.flip(image_array, 0)

# Save processed image
ImageFile().from_np_array(flipped).save("flipped.jpg")

Audio processing

FFmpeg/PyAV-powered audio operations:

from media_toolkit import AudioFile

# Load audio
audio = AudioFile().from_file("input.wav")

# Get numpy array for ML and analysis
audio_array = audio.to_np_array()  # (samples, channels) float32 in [-1, 1] range

# Inspect metadata
print(f"Sample rate: {audio.sample_rate} Hz; Channels: {audio.channels}; Duration: {audio.duration}")

# Format conversion (automatic re-encoding)
audio.save("output.mp3")   # MP3
audio.save("output.flac")  # FLAC (lossless)
audio.save("output.m4a")   # AAC

# Create audio from numpy
new_audio = AudioFile().from_np_array(
    audio_array,
    sample_rate=audio.sample_rate,
    audio_format="wav"
)

Supported formats: WAV, MP3, FLAC, AAC, M4A, OGG, Opus, WMA, AIFF.

Video processing

High-performance video operations:

from media_toolkit import VideoFile
import cv2

video = VideoFile().from_file("input.mp4")

# Extract audio track
audio = video.extract_audio("audio.mp3")

# Process frames
for i, frame in enumerate(video.to_stream()):
    if i >= 300:  # First 300 frames
        break
    # frame is a numpy array (H, W, C)
    processed = my_processing_function(frame)
    cv2.imwrite(f"frame_{i:04d}.png", processed)

# Create video from images
images = [f"frame_{i:04d}.png" for i in range(300)]
modified_video = VideoFile().from_files(images, frame_rate=30, audio_file="audio.mp3")

Web and API integration

Native APIPod Support

Built-in integration with APIPod for simplified file handling:

from apipod import APIPod, ImageFile, VideoFile

app = APIPod()

@app.endpoint("/process")
def process_media(image: ImageFile, video: VideoFile) -> VideoFile:
    # Automatic type conversion and validation
    modified_video = my_ai_inference(image, video)
    # Any media can be returned automatically
    return modified_video

FastAPI integration

from fastapi import FastAPI, UploadFile, File
from media_toolkit import ImageFile

app = FastAPI()

@app.post("/process-image")
async def process_image(file: UploadFile = File(...)):
    image = ImageFile().from_any(file)

HTTP client usage

import httpx
from media_toolkit import ImageFile

image = ImageFile().from_file("photo.jpg")

# Send to API
files = {"file": image.to_httpx_send_able_tuple()}
response = httpx.post("https://api.example.com/upload", files=files)

Advanced features

Container classes

MediaList for type-safe batch processing:

from media_toolkit import MediaList, ImageFile

images = MediaList[ImageFile]()
images.extend(["img1.jpg", "img2.png", "https://example.com/img3.jpg"])

# Lazy loading, files are loaded on access
for img in images:
    img.save(f"processed_{img.file_name}")

MediaDict for key-value media storage:

from media_toolkit import MediaDict, ImageFile

media_db = MediaDict()
media_db["profile"] = "profile.jpg"
media_db["banner"] = "https://example.com/banner.png"

# Export to JSON
json_data = media_db.to_json()

Streaming for large files

# Memory-efficient processing
audio = AudioFile().from_file("large_audio.wav")
for chunk in audio.to_stream():
    process_chunk(chunk)  # Process in chunks

video = VideoFile().from_file("large_video.mp4")
stream = video.to_stream()
for frame in stream:
    process_frame(frame)  # Frame-by-frame processing

# Video-to-audio stream
for av_frame in stream.audio_frames():
    pass

Performance

MediaToolkit leverages industry-standard libraries for maximum performance:

• FFmpeg (PyAV): professional-grade audio and video codec support
• OpenCV: optimized computer vision operations
• Streaming: memory-efficient processing of large files
• Hardware acceleration: GPU support where available

Benchmarks:

• Audio conversion: roughly 100x faster than librosa and pydub
• Image processing: near-native OpenCV speed
• Video processing: hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding, over 500 FPS for video decoding on consumer-grade hardware

Key features

• Universal input: files, URLs, bytes, base64, numpy arrays, BytesIO, Starlette upload files, soundfile
• Automatic format detection: smart content-type inference
• Seamless conversion: change formats on save
• Type-safe: full typing support with generics
• Web-ready: native FastTaskAPI integration, plus extras for httpx and FastAPI
• Production-tested: used in production AI and ML pipelines

Format support overview

Category	Formats	Integration	Class	Description
Images	jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, tiff, tif, jfif, ico, webp, avif, heic, heif, svg	Deep	ImageFile	OpenCV-powered processing, format conversion, channel detection and more.
Audio	wav, mp3, ogg, flac, aac, m4a, wma, opus, aiff	Deep	AudioFile	FFmpeg/PyAV-powered, format conversion, sample rate conversion, streaming, metadata extraction.
Video	mp4, avi, mov, mkv, webm, flv, wmv, 3gp, ogv, m4v	Deep	VideoFile	Hardware-accelerated encoding/decoding, frame extraction, audio extraction.
3D Models	obj, glb, gltf, dae, fbx, 3ds, ply, stl, step, iges, x3d, blend	Shallow	MediaFile	Basic file handling, no specialized 3D processing yet.
Documents	pdf, txt, html, htm, json, js, css, xml, csv	Shallow	MediaFile	Text and document formats, basic file operations.
Archives	zip, 7z, tar, gz	Shallow	MediaFile	Archive and compressed file formats, basic file operations.
Data	npy, npz, pkl, pickle	Shallow	MediaFile	Python data serialization formats, basic file operations.

Deep integration: specialized classes with advanced processing, format conversion, and media-specific operations.

Shallow integration: basic MediaFile class with universal file operations, automatic format detection, and standard conversions.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Key areas:

• Performance optimizations
• New format support
• Documentation and examples
• Test coverage
• Platform-specific enhancements

License

MIT License, see LICENSE for details.

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