Decoding / Encoding images and videos
=====================================

.. currentmodule:: torchvision.io

The :mod:`torchvision.io` module provides utilities for decoding and encoding
images and videos.

Image Decoding
--------------

Torchvision currently supports decoding JPEG, PNG, WEBP and GIF images. JPEG
decoding can also be done on CUDA GPUs.

The main entry point is the :func:`~torchvision.io.decode_image` function, which
you can use as an alternative to ``PIL.Image.open()``. It will decode images
straight into image Tensors, thus saving you the conversion and allowing you to
run transforms/preproc natively on tensors.

.. code::

    from torchvision.io import decode_image

    img = decode_image("path_to_image", mode="RGB")
    img.dtype  # torch.uint8

    # Or
    raw_encoded_bytes = ...  # read encoded bytes from your file system
    img = decode_image(raw_encoded_bytes, mode="RGB")


:func:`~torchvision.io.decode_image` will automatically detect the image format,
and call the corresponding decoder. You can also use the lower-level
format-specific decoders which can be more powerful, e.g. if you want to
encode/decode JPEGs on CUDA.

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: function.rst

    decode_image
    decode_jpeg
    encode_png
    decode_gif
    decode_webp

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: class.rst

    ImageReadMode

Obsolete decoding function:

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: function.rst

    read_image

Image Encoding
--------------

For encoding, JPEG (cpu and CUDA) and PNG are supported.


.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: function.rst

    encode_jpeg
    write_jpeg
    encode_png
    write_png

IO operations
-------------

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: function.rst

    read_file
    write_file

Video
-----

.. warning::

    Torchvision supports video decoding through different APIs listed below,
    some of which are still in BETA stage. In the near future, we intend to
    centralize PyTorch's video decoding capabilities within the `torchcodec
    <https://github.com/pytorch/torchcodec>`_ project. We encourage you to try
    it out and share your feedback, as the torchvision video decoders will
    eventually be deprecated.

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: function.rst

    read_video
    read_video_timestamps
    write_video


**Fine-grained video API**

In addition to the :mod:`read_video` function, we provide a high-performance 
lower-level API for more fine-grained control compared to the :mod:`read_video` function.
It does all this whilst fully supporting torchscript.

.. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
    :template: class.rst

    VideoReader
