Combining a few issues into one report insofar as they may be related. I should also mention that behavior is the same with rc6; I only upgraded to the dev version in the hopes it might correct some of this:

OK - here we go...

Using local install of FFMPEG and Flowplayer API (not Flowplayer from SWF Tools). Linux server.

I'm later able to get the video to transcode, but on upload, where (I assume) you should be able to select the thumbnail, I get the radio buttons only. Digging a little deeper, I see something like this for the image:

<img width="50" src="http://[URL]/sites/default/files/video_thumbs/86/video-thumb-for-86-2.jpg?1286991248" alt = "">

The file in question (video-thumb-for-86-2.jpg) exists, but with 0 bytes.

Additionally, I only managed after a lot of tries to change the settings to reflect the correct paths for FFMPEG (in my case, /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg) and changing the amount of thumbnails from 5 has no effect - it just "sticks" at 5. Likewise with trying to disable the use of "nice" - the settings don't change on save.

I have "automatically generate thumbnails, with fallback to manual upload" selected, but there's no place to manually upload a thumbnail.

I'm using the default FFMPEG thumbnail command string; could I be missing something here? I should also mention that I'm uploading H264 video - could that have anything to do with it?

Very cool module if I could get it all working (thank you!) - any help would be appreciated - thanks in advance!

Comments

damiandab’s picture

damiandab commented

I have "automatically generate thumbnails, with fallback to manual upload" selected, but there's no place to manually upload a thumbnail.

I have the same problem, I've already made 2 posts about that issue(4 weeks and 1 week ago), but no answer :(

hypertext200’s picture

hypertext200
he/him
Primary language Singhalese
Location New York City
commented
Category: bug » support

The file in question (video-thumb-for-86-2.jpg) exists, but with 0 bytes.

It seems, FFMPEG doesn't extract thumbnails for your video. But you can try running debug command on the wtchdog and get the exact experience on how it would work.

"nice" - the settings don't change on save.

We have fixed this on dev version and soon to publish to live.

I have "automatically generate thumbnails, with fallback to manual upload" selected, but there's no place to manually upload a thumbnail.

I saw the main issue on this, and this will fix soon, so I get some time to debug the module with thumbnails, currently we are trying to have HTML5 video support and working on that.

bcobin’s picture

bcobin commented

It seems, FFMPEG doesn't extract thumbnails for your video. But you can try running debug command on the wtchdog and get the exact experience on how it would work.

Thank you for your response, heshan.lk - it seems that this might have something to do with Flowplayer API; I was (briefly) able to change the amount of thumbnails to 1 and change thumbnail conversion command to -i !videofile -an -y -f mjpeg -ss 2 -vframes 1 !thumbfile (from -i !videofile -an -y -f mjpeg -ss !seek -vframes 1 !thumbfile). Using JW Player 4, I was able to successfully generate a thumbnail.

Unfortunately, once I changed the thumbnail command back to !seek and, when it didn't work, tried to change the screenshot value to 5, the change wouldn't "stick" - the setting now remains at !seek - even if I change the .inc file code!

Conversion using FFMPEG Wrapper fails with a system error, however, I found that you could only change certain settings (like the FFMPEG path and amount of thumbnails) only if FFMPEG Wrapper was selected. Then, to actually do conversion, I have to change back to FFMPEG.

I saw the main issue on this, and this will fix soon, so I get some time to debug the module with thumbnails, currently we are trying to have HTML5 video support and working on that.

That's good news, heshan.lk - thank you. It seems clear, though (at least on this LAMP installation) that there are currently real problems with FFMPEG Wrapper, Flowplayer (at least) and thumbnail generation. I would think that having everything working properly for HTML4 would be a better starting point for HTML5, but hey - you're the one working on the code, and we are grateful!

Thank you for your response and for your work on what I have no doubt will be a terrific video solution for Drupal - I'll keep checking in!

verta’s picture

verta commented

"It seems, FFMPEG doesn't extract thumbnails for your video."

Hmm? Found some good command lines for this here: http://flowplayer.org/tutorials/generating-thumbs.html
Hope this helps.

bcobin’s picture

bcobin commented

Further discussion here:

http://drupal.org/node/948050

Bottom line for the moment is not to use the dev version (use release version instead) and to use SWF tools, not Flowplayer.

Thanks!

vensires’s picture

vensires
Location Greece
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

For those searching a solution because thumbnails are not generated:
Original from module(didn't work for me):
-i !videofile -an -y -f mjpeg -ss !seek -vframes 1 !thumbfile

Alternative(works for me):
-i !videofile -deinterlace -an -ss !seek -t 00:00:01 -r 1 -y -vcodec mjpeg -f mjpeg !thumbfile 2>&1

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

osopolar’s picture

osopolar
Primary language German
Location 🇩🇪 GER 🌐
commented
Status: Closed (fixed) » Needs work

@vensires: Last commit on 6.x-4.x was on May 3 ... so I don't think that is fixed. It should work out of the box without checking the issue queue, this means there should be a patch, some testing and the finally the commit to the module. So do not mark issues fixed that are not fixed, otherwise they never will get fixed!

Jorrit’s picture

Jorrit commented
Status: Needs work » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Please test again using the latest release.

Jorrit’s picture

Jorrit commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (cannot reproduce)

Closed because of lack of response.