STANDALONE: VideoTexture Op issue when loading video

[60-hz]

Describe the bug
VideoTexture Op return this error and cannot display video with many .mp4 file:

Red Error: Could not load video / DEMUXER_ERROR_COULD_NOT_OPEN: FFmpegDemuxer: open context failed
log say "video size 00" in loop at load

Also, The loading screen never stop even if a video is playing:

How To Reproduce

1. Open a .mp4 file with VideoTexture
2. See the red error message

Platform

• MacOS 14.3.1
• Cables Version : cables-2024-07-29-nightly.app

[gravitas-navi]

I'm not at my PC at the moment, but I don't think it's just a matter of sound or no sound. I got the same message testing something last night in 0.1
3, but I dragged in 12 random video-only Pixabay files and found ~ half of the random selection worked, half didn't.

Ffmpeg isn't my area of expertise, but my first hunch is this is some sort of issue with certain types of video encoding methods. I was going to run a few basic Ffmpeg - i metadata checks later on the .mp4s I used to see if there was some sort of pattern in this.

[steam0r]

can you try this in chromium or share and example video? this might be a video-format/licencing issue :/

[60-hz]

yes, the sound might not be the cause of this issue...
I cannot access to https://cables.gl/ from Taïwan now, I will try later but I remember it was ok.

Here is very small video examples:

Working: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e3353e54-4011-4dac-a022-9724a60290f6

Not Working: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/827f5b9f-5793-4523-8c93-df7f2021600e

[pandrr]

why cant you access cables from taiwan ?!

[pandrr]

cables.gl works fine via vpn to taiwan

[60-hz]

Yes, it works fine 75% of time, and suddenly it's almost not possible to display a page for few hours, don't know why.

[60-hz]

btw, I tried and all my video works well in https://cables.gl/

[pandrr]

would be helpful if you could send me screenshots from dev tools open in the network tab

[60-hz]

Here is a screenshot while loading and uploading small videos. But everything is ok now... maybe I should try if I encounter slowness.

[steam0r]

check ffmpeg in electron

[kikohs]

I have the same issue, I have ffmpeg.exe on my windows build available from the windows shell.

[steam0r]

do these videos work if/when you toggle "play" manually and not on patchload?

[kikohs]

no, I put the videoTexture op, pick a file and it fails. It was not on load.

[gravitas-navi]

the files I tested just now are well past too big for Github, so links to relevant files and types I downloaded:

• mov:
  • https://www.loc.gov/item/96521939
  • https://www.loc.gov/item/00694112/
• mp4:
  • https://www.loc.gov/item/96521939
  • https://pixabay.com/videos/birds-flock-fly-sky-circle-138891/

also a json metadata dump of said files from MediaInfo, if that sort of thing might be useful to you:
metadata_output.json

seems it's not just a .mp4 container-type issue, although video isn't my expertise so I can't tell you much past that.

[metaphysician]

hello - i've just run into this error with FFMPEG after using the standalone version of cables.gl. my system is a macOS 13.6.4. the video example runs fine with the waves.mp4 video file, but any other mp4 file i've tried i've does NOT work and results in the same error. the error is printed as soon as the video is loaded and activating play doesn't change anything.

curious, i tried this with the online web version which also has an error where it thinks i somehow don't have rights to the uploaded file. so basically i am unable to use video textures at all in cables.gl, unless i want to run the demo file. i have no idea why it works with that file and no others. there's nothing unusual about it as far as i can see compared to others. i've used files generated from OBS screencaps mainly but i have used some generic ones. they are H264 MP4 files.

[steam0r]

what do you meant with "where it thinks i somehow don't have rights to the uploaded file"?

[metaphysician]

that's just the error it printed. to be precise it said ERROR: fileUploadStr NO_RIGHTS_UNTRUSTED i'll get you a screencap. hang on:

[metaphysician]

this isn't the wave.mp4 file BTW it printed that when i dropped a different file in the upload overlay popup. the file field on the op doesn't change from the default wave.mp4

[steam0r]

are you trying to upload a file to a patch that is not yours? an example patch or something? this is a screenshot from the web...right?

[metaphysician]

yeah it's an example patch using the web version. but it let me alter the patch in a bunch of other ways just playing around with it. seems a bit unintuitive that it would let me delete a bunch of ops in that patch but wouldn't let me upload a video.

anyway, i wanted to run cables locally but i have to have the video texture working and it seems like it needs a bit more updating before it will be stable. i don't have a deadline so i'll check back a few months later. cheers!

[60-hz]

The video Op error is also the same on Windows standalone when opening most of .mp4 file: "Could not load video / DEMUXER_ERROR_COULD_NOT_OPEN: FFmpegDemuxer: open context failed"

[steam0r]

latest version fixes a loading bug that makes a few more videos on this page load...i am still struggling to get to the root of this problem but it seems to be something with video codecs on chromium build, related to what the os supports and also if your machine has a hardware decoder for some formats...there also seem to be some legal ramifications with ffmpeg and all.

some info:

• https://www.chromium.org/audio-video/
• Support for proprietary codecs electron/electron#633
• Legal ramifications of using proprietary_codecs electron/libchromiumcontent#174

some more testing videos:

• https://flutter.github.io/assets-for-api-docs/assets/videos/bee.mp4
• https://www.pexels.com/search/videos/sample/
• https://file-examples.com/index.php/sample-video-files/sample-mp4-files/
• https://gist.github.com/jsturgis/3b19447b304616f18657

if someone has more experience, a better idea or simply wants to go down this rabbit-hole we'd be super-happy....