[FFmpeg-user] Unable to play or import video files in an app that uses ffmpeg

[Jim DeLaHunt]

On 2020-09-07 14:32, Tim Stiles wrote:
> Thanks guys. I totally get your points about […snip…]
>
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 2:05 PM Chris Miceli <chris at miceli.net.au> wrote:
>
>> Hi Tim,
>>
>> As Jim was saying it's unfortunately a little difficult from what we can
>> see if it's ffmpeg causing you this trouble.


There are bots which monitor this list and send cryptic messages about 
"learn what top-posting is and stop doing it". You may have just 
triggered them. This 
<http://ffmpeg.org/mailing-list-faq.html#What-is-top_002dposting_003f> 
is a hint about what they mean.


On 2020-09-07 14:32, Tim Stiles wrote:
> …Is it bad that, for ffprobe.exe a ProcessCreate event occurs, then and a
> ProcessTerminate follows just milliseconds after?…
>
> ParentImage C:\PB_short_path_test\PinballBrowser756\ffprobe.exe
> ParentCommandLine "C:\PB_short_path_test\PinballBrowser756\ffprobe.exe" -v
> error -show_format -show_streams -print_format xml C:\Users\My
> Name\AppData\Local\Temp\pbi2.mp4
>
Maybe, maybe not. The purpose of FFprobe is to examine a media file and 
print out facts about its structure, format, size, etc. Maybe it can do 
that in a few milliseconds. Computers these days are very fast. Or maybe 
it is just failing immediately.
> …I have reached out to the developer and have done everything he's
> recommended.…

Good, good. That context matters for this list.


> …For some reason he cannot tell me what's going on, he just
> keeps saying it's probably a problem with ffmpeg on my machine. I will push
> him to look closer at the exceptions that seem to not be ffmpeg related.…
I can think of something the developer could do. The event log entries 
you included in your message show that FFprobe was called, but they 
don't show the result, or even whether the result indicated success or 
failure.  The developer could ensure that some indication of result made 
it into these logs.
> … Could you please let me know what
> command line I could run just to see if ffmpeg.exe or ffprobe.exe are
> working as expected?…

The first log entry appears to show how the app called FFprobe. You 
could try to run that same command yourself from the Command Prompt:

C:\> "C:\PB_short_path_test\PinballBrowser756\ffprobe.exe" -v error 
-show_format -show_streams -print_format xml "C:\Users\My 
Name\AppData\Local\Temp\pbi2.mp4"

When you run that, what do you get?

Also, the final quoted entry in that command is the location of the file 
being probed. Maybe try this again, but with you filling in the location 
of the file you want to use.

Try posting the complete uncut command and output of those two experiments.

Best regards,
       —Jim DeLaHunt