1.1.0.2 Stuck on "Reading source media properties..."

[dbelancic]

I setup a workflow to convert files to h264 and whenever it gets to that node it just gets stuck and te status monitor says "Reading source media properties..."

I tried with different files of different formats and codecs and it's still the same.
Then I made a new workflow with a new encoder and again the same thing.

I just launched FFAStrans for the first time today so I have no idea what it could be, any help is apreciated.

[momocampo]

Hello dbelancic, thanks to use FFASTrans and welcome to this forum .

To help you, first I need to know if you created correctly your workflow. So, can you tell me how is it? Can you tell me how many nodes you have and how they are linked?
You can give us your workflow as well
Thanks and see you soon.

B.

[dbelancic]

Here it is, the v02 has an A/V decoder added (my logic tells me I should have one in there, but not sure)

Master-H264_v02.json

(4.29 KiB) Downloaded 210 times

Master-H264.json

(4.29 KiB) Downloaded 213 times

[momocampo]

Hello,
ok so it works for me but the 2 json files are the same for me, no trace of a/v decoder. About A/V decoder, you have to place it after the monitor folder and before any filter then apply an encoder after your filter.
You should try on C: first(input and output)to check if the workflow can be ok. We will see after that.

[dbelancic]

I messed up the second file, attached the correct one now

Tried it with a couple of different files, still the same problem though, even on C: drive
Changed the input and output to C: and after it didn't work I tried with switching the work root as well, no luck

Master-H264_v2.json

(3.39 KiB) Downloaded 212 times

[emcodem]

hey dbelancic,
so your workflow works for momocampo and me (we had a chat about it) and there is no obvious reason why it wouldnt work for you too, especially if you already changed everything to work on c:

We suspect this is something related to your environment but it is really hard to guess what it could be.
If you want to go on:
On the Job Monitor, rightclick a job and open log folder of a stuck job, then zip the contents of the folder and upload them here please.

What happens at the moment in question is that ffprobe, mediainfo and exiftool are being executed by ffastrans and the results are written to files named like ~ffprobe.json in the work folder of the job. There are lots of internal waiting loops built in, but from what i see, the maximum time it should take until the job fails with a message like "Error getting ffprobe data from ..." or similar is 100 seconds. (i guess you aready waited that time?)

By the way, you really dont need the A/V decoder node if you dont use filters.
Other things you can try: create a new workflow, insert some h264 encode node and manually submit some small file to the encode node. (really dont insert any other node) - it should behave the same. - So basically i would expect, whatever you do, no matter which node you use, your job should always get stuck at the current point - even when your job consists of a "populate variables" node only, not more.
If you have installed as service, uninstall and try to run as application too please. (the only thing that changes are the credentials that the stuff is executed as but it helps us to pin down whats your issue).

Do you see any ffprobe.exe, mediainfo.exe or exiftool.exe process running while the job is stuck?

[dbelancic]

Yes, everything is the same even when I use only an h264 node.
The app is also running without a service already.

I checked the logs before zipping them and there are ffprobe/exiftool/mediainfo errors. All three are present on my PC and work normally on their own.

[emcodem]

Oh thats just perfect, at least now we know that our code works as designed and we have some problem getting mediainfo, ffprobe and exif stuff. Still it is not 100% clear what exactly is this problem, it can still be environment related or source file realated. I am so sorry for you having those troubles with ffastrans, it is really not intended to behave like this.

First, it kind of looks like this is a reference file, is that true? ..not that ffastrans is supposed to behave like that with reference files but still interesting. In this case, try to submit a "normal" file like some mp4, .ts, .wav, .mp3 or such (something self-contained), so you can at least verify that the basics work and we could have a hint that it kind of is about your source files. Then:

Step 1: Can you try and run this on commandline:

Code: Select all

"E:\Apps\FFAStrans1.1.0.2\Processors\MediaInfo\mediainfo.exe" -f "S:\YOURSOURCFOLDERS\YOURSORUCEFILE.mov" --Output=JSON 

(sure insert your actual source file, best use the one you sent me the logs from A_A01_2020-12-18_1557_C0002.mov)

If above command kind of fails instead of wrinting the source file analysis on commandline, you do not need to go on. If it works and outputs the file analysis as it would do with any .mp4 or other normal file, please go reading on Step 2:

Step2: i'd like to ask you to go one level deeper with me. In the Workflow editor, left side, right-click the name of your workflow -> properties -> Maintenance and there, check "Keep Jobs work folders" (the left checkbox).
Then submit again some file and wait 3-4 minutes until it fails. --> Open the Job Monitor, rightclick your failed job and open the work folder. There again, zip the files and upload it to here.

[dbelancic]

It's just a random file straight out of camera (DNxHD 185x), but the same thing happened with a .mp4 (h264) file.

Got a full output from the command line with no issues, so here's the work folder

20201226-2123-5042-7f52-1a9b8f926755.rar

(2.36 KiB) Downloaded 210 times

[emcodem]

Hmmm it kind of looks like there is a problem for the analysis tools writing to your work folders but i cannot imagine how this could work. I guess we'll need to call our @admin here, hope he has time soon

One more thing, i'd probably move the whole ffastrans install to c:\ and make sure all the work folders and such are on C:. This all basically just to satisfy UAC, antivirus and such. It also is always a good thing to make an AV exclusion for the ffastrans directory.