Breaking ChangeAll platformsscenedetect v0.6+

ImportError: cannot import name 'VideoManager' from 'scenedetect'

pip install scenedetect

>>> from scenedetect import VideoManager

# installed version:

>>> import scenedetect; print(scenedetect.__version__)

0.6.4

Why this happens

VideoManager was removed in scenedetect v0.6 (released 2023). The new API uses open_video() to create a VideoStream, which is passed directly to SceneManager. Code written for v0.5 and earlier will fail on import.

Observed in

Linux · scenedetect 0.6+

VideoManager · failsopen_video · ok

macOS · scenedetect 0.6+

VideoManager · failsopen_video · ok

Any · scenedetect 0.5.x

VideoManager · ok (old)

Fixes

1Migrate to open_video() API (v0.6+)Easiest

Replace VideoManager with open_video(). The rest of the scene detection flow stays the same — pass the returned video to SceneManager as before.

# v0.5 (old — broken on 0.6+)
from scenedetect import VideoManager, SceneManager
from scenedetect.detectors import ContentDetector
video_manager = VideoManager(["video.mp4"])

# v0.6+ (correct)
from scenedetect import open_video, SceneManager
from scenedetect.detectors import ContentDetector

video = open_video("video.mp4")
scene_manager = SceneManager()
scene_manager.add_detector(ContentDetector())
scene_manager.detect_scenes(video)
scenes = scene_manager.get_scene_list()

2Pin to scenedetect 0.5.6 (temporary)Alternative

If you cannot migrate now, pin to the last 0.5.x release. Not recommended long-term — 0.5.x is unmaintained.

pip install "scenedetect==0.5.6"

scenedetect · Compatibility Matrix

See install results across all Python versions and operating systems

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Observed in 35 searches · Last verified Aug 2026