Imported videos timeline show 0 length

[DaveS]

Recently all my Videos show a timeline length of 0 rather than their actual length. They play just fine, but if I hit the ff or rev keys, they the payback ends and jumps back to the Video menu. I've tried rescanning the import directory, alo tried changing the properties file line force_full_content_reindex=true". Nothing has helped. I'm currently using v9 on Ubuntu after many years with the Windows version. Also using Phoenix Fanart for SageTV plugin along with CMT and BMT, the combination of which has always worked fine.

Any ideas what could be causing the timeline issues?
Thanks!

[Narflex]

Take a look at the sagetv_0.txt log file when you do the rescan (or just post it here). Usually when this problem happens, it's because there's a problem when it's running the FFMPEG binary to get this information. You can also try just running the ffmpeg binary manually that's in the SageTV folder and see if it executes...if it doesn't, then there's your answer.

[DaveS]

Thank you, I will try this later this week.

[zoop]

FWIW when I encountered this same issue it was due to unmet dependencies with ffmpeg... ldd should tell you if the ffmpeg binary in /opt/sagetv/server is missing a library it needs to function or not.

[DaveS]

Thank you very much for the help. I found that ffmpeg was not installed correctly. I'll try reinstalling Sage.

[DaveS]

A while ago I reinstalled FFMEG but that didn't solve the problem. I put it aside for months and then just recently updated to the newest version for Linux. The 0 duration timeline for some imported movies continues to be an issue. I've posted the log right after I started an imported video with a 0 timeline, watched it for a few seconds (it played fine), then hit the fast forward button which caused the video to end and Sage to go back to the previous menu. Can anyone determine the problem from the log posted here?



sagetv_0.zip

[DaveS]

fwiw, i think the video I played was a Bourne movie. I searched toward the end of the attached file and found this entry. I'm not sure what it means or if it's even related to the issue I'm experiencing...

Sun 6/11 16:13:57.493 [LibraryImporter@2971b8e1] ERROR parsing metadata number of:java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: ""

[Narflex]

It still looks like an issue running FFMPEG...are you able to execute FFFMPEG manually if you try to run it from a terminal in the SageTV folder? (be sure you are also executing that one by typing ./ffmpeg rather than just ffmpeg)

[SVinzant]

I am seeing this "zero" length issue as well. It seems to be related to imported files. I tried the "move the files, move them back trick" (from another thread).
That didn't seem to fix things.
As suggested above, when I tried running ./ffmpeg I get the following message:

./ffmpeg: error while loading shared libraries: libfaad.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I searched for libfaad.so.2 and did not find that file on my server.

My questions:
1/ How do I install that file?
2/ Or should I reinstall ffmpeg?
3/ If ffmpeg should be reinstalled, how do I do that?
4/ What might be causing it to not install properly in the first place?
Thanks!
Scott

[DaveS]

Originally Posted by Narflex

It still looks like an issue running FFMPEG...are you able to execute FFFMPEG manually if you try to run it from a terminal in the SageTV folder? (be sure you are also executing that one by typing ./ffmpeg rather than just ffmpeg)

I tested this today. I think I have the same issue and result as Scott above. The problem only surfaces when I play movies that I've imported that were originally on DVD. TV recordings converted to videos work fine.

While in /opt/sagetv/server/, if i type ffmpeg it runs fine. While in the same directory if I type ./ffmpeg I get an error message "./ffmpeg error while loading shared libraries: \libfaad.so.2 cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

I'm a complete novice with Linux. I suspect this means that the needed files are not where they are supposed to be. Is that correct, and if so, how do I fix that? I'm sorry for the newbie questions. I am much more comfortable in Windows, but I've fund 64b Linux to be more responsive and it manages my JVM Heap Size much better.

[Narflex]

I think there's something wrong with the way FFMPEG gets built sometimes in that it is depending on the system libfaad.so file rather than having one merged into it statically. When I run 'ldd' on the FFMPEG in my SageTV folder it doesn't have a libfaad.so dependency.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Narflex

I think there's something wrong with the way FFMPEG gets built sometimes in that it is depending on the system libfaad.so file rather than having one merged into it statically. When I run 'ldd' on the FFMPEG in my SageTV folder it doesn't have a libfaad.so dependency.

Jeff, maybe on your system, you rebuilt ffmpeg, yourself with the static options. In SageTV build script I'm seeing the following...

# Build FFMPEG
cd ../../../../ffmpeg
make clean
./configure --disable-ffserver --disable-ffplay --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --enable-nonfree --enable-libfaac --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --disable-devices --disable-bzlib --disable-demuxer=msnwc_tcp --enable-libfaad "--extra-cflags=-I. -I`readlink -f ../codecs/faad2/include` -I`readlink -f ../codecs/faac/include` -I`readlink -f ../codecs/x264` -I`readlink -f ../codecs/xvidcore/src`" "--extra-ldflags=-L`readlink -f ../codecs/faac/libfaac/.libs` -L`readlink -f ../codecs/faad2/libfaad/.libs` -L`readlink -f ../codecs/x264` -L`readlink -f ../codecs/xvidcore/build/generic/=build`" || { echo "Build failed, exiting."; exit 1; }
make -j32 || { echo "Build failed, exiting."; exit 1; }

I don't see anything that lead me to think this would build a static binary. (I'm ok though if we want to change it to build a static binary, and then strip it as well)

[Narflex]

Yeah, feel free to change that. I just rebuilt it all and the only thing that's not static in FFMPEG is libfaad. I tried changing libfaad to only compile the static version, but then ffmpeg failed in configure. Hopefully somebody else can figure it out. (I would but I'm busy with other things right now)

[SVinzant]

[SOLVED]
I was able to solve the "0:00 timeline" on imported videos issue with the following method: (or something very close to this)
Linux 16.04 LTS server SageTV 9.x
1/ Make sure everything is up-to-date.

A/ sudo apt-get update

B/ sudo apt-get upgrade

2/ Install "libfad2"

A/ sudo apt-get install libfaad2

NOTE: This gets the "missing" libfaad.so.2 file installed onto the server.

3/ Reboot the server

A/ sudo reboot

4/ Move the "problem" files, then move them back.

A/ I followed Turak's post (using my own folder names) found here (Post #13)

5/ Verified everything was working!

ADDITIONAL NOTE:
I also discovered that I could NOT convert a file prior to implementing these instructions. I seem to be able to do that now too!

Scott

[DaveS]

Following Scott's instructions above I was successful in correcting the issue also. Thank you Scott!