Suggestion: use ffprobe json output format instead of parsing the 'human readable' output

[luziferius]

The block starting here https://github.com/mi-g/vdhcoapp/blob/9989b1ada04d3e51135ae2b5de6a42786e97abc4/app/converter.js#L127 looks like you are misusing the ffprobe command line interface. If I understand that block, you are parsing the standard error channel output of ffprobe. Instead, you should tell ffprobe what it should output. You can then change the output format to a more javascript friendly json format. My ffprobe installation supports these show options:

-print_format format  set the output printing format (available formats are: default, compact, csv, flat, ini, json, xml)
-show_data          show packets data
-show_data_hash     show packets data hash
-show_error         show probing error
-show_format        show format/container info
-show_frames        show frames info
-show_format_entry entry  show a particular entry from the format/container info
-show_entries entry_list  show a set of specified entries
-show_log           show log
-show_packets       show packets info
-show_programs      show programs info
-show_streams       show streams info
-show_chapters      show chapters info
-show_program_version  show ffprobe version
-show_library_versions  show library versions
-show_versions      show program and library versions
-show_pixel_formats  show pixel format descriptions
-show_private_data  show private data

of which show_format and show_streams should be the most useful in this context. As a demonstration, run this command on your system: ffprobe -loglevel error -print_format json -show_format -show_streams </path/to/video/file.mp4> replacing the path with a test video on your system. ffprobe then outputs your requested data on the standard output and only (real) errors during the file scan on the standard error channel. The returned json data should be directly loadable into a javascript program and spares you the manual parsing. Sample output from a video file downloaded from youtube running the ffprobe command from above:

Sample output(click to expand):

```js { "streams": [ { "index": 0, "codec_name": "h264", "codec_long_name": "H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10", "profile": "High", "codec_type": "video", "codec_time_base": "1/50", "codec_tag_string": "avc1", "codec_tag": "0x31637661", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "coded_width": 1280, "coded_height": 720, "has_b_frames": 0, "sample_aspect_ratio": "1:1", "display_aspect_ratio": "16:9", "pix_fmt": "yuv420p", "level": 31, "chroma_location": "left", "refs": 1, "is_avc": "true", "nal_length_size": "4", "r_frame_rate": "25/1", "avg_frame_rate": "25/1", "time_base": "1/25", "start_pts": 0, "start_time": "0.000000", "duration_ts": 6400, "duration": "256.000000", "bit_rate": "1088421", "bits_per_raw_sample": "8", "nb_frames": "6400", "disposition": { "default": 1, "dub": 0, "original": 0, "comment": 0, "lyrics": 0, "karaoke": 0, "forced": 0, "hearing_impaired": 0, "visual_impaired": 0, "clean_effects": 0, "attached_pic": 0, "timed_thumbnails": 0 }, "tags": { "language": "und", "handler_name": "VideoHandler" } }, { "index": 1, "codec_name": "aac", "codec_long_name": "AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)", "profile": "LC", "codec_type": "audio", "codec_time_base": "1/44100", "codec_tag_string": "mp4a", "codec_tag": "0x6134706d", "sample_fmt": "fltp", "sample_rate": "44100", "channels": 2, "channel_layout": "stereo", "bits_per_sample": 0, "r_frame_rate": "0/0", "avg_frame_rate": "0/0", "time_base": "1/44100", "start_pts": 0, "start_time": "0.000000", "duration_ts": 11290624, "duration": "256.023220", "bit_rate": "191999", "max_bit_rate": "202840", "nb_frames": "11026", "disposition": { "default": 1, "dub": 0, "original": 0, "comment": 0, "lyrics": 0, "karaoke": 0, "forced": 0, "hearing_impaired": 0, "visual_impaired": 0, "clean_effects": 0, "attached_pic": 0, "timed_thumbnails": 0 }, "tags": { "creation_time": "2014-08-19T02:57:25.000000Z", "language": "und", "handler_name": "IsoMedia File Produced by Google, 5-11-2011" } } ], "format": { "filename": "Videos/Kool_Savas_Matrix_Official_HD_Video_2014.mp4", "nb_streams": 2, "nb_programs": 0, "format_name": "mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2", "format_long_name": "QuickTime / MOV", "start_time": "0.000000", "duration": "256.021667", "size": "41054405", "bit_rate": "1282841", "probe_score": 100, "tags": { "major_brand": "mp42", "minor_version": "0", "compatible_brands": "isommp42", "creation_time": "2014-08-19T02:57:23.000000Z" } } } ```

[mi-g]

You are absolutely right. I have only discovered that this was possible a few days ago and planned to implement it in the next roll of vdhcoapp (which i don't want to update too often as this is an inconvenience to users).

[paulrouget]

Fixed in master.