How can I get Python to find ffprobe?

Question

I have ffmpeg and ffprobe installed on my mac (macOS Sierra), and I have added their path to PATH. I can run them from terminal.

I am trying to use ffprobe to get the width and height of a video file using the following code:

import subprocess
import shlex
import json


# function to find the resolution of the input video file
def findVideoResolution(pathToInputVideo):
    cmd = "ffprobe -v quiet -print_format json -show_streams"
    args = shlex.split(cmd)
    args.append(pathToInputVideo)
    # run the ffprobe process, decode stdout into utf-8 & convert to JSON
    ffprobeOutput = subprocess.check_output(args).decode('utf-8')
    ffprobeOutput = json.loads(ffprobeOutput)

    # find height and width
    height = ffprobeOutput['streams'][0]['height']
    width = ffprobeOutput['streams'][0]['width']

    return height, width

h, w = findVideoResolution("/Users/tomburrows/Documents/qfpics/user1/order1/movie.mov")
print(h, w)

I am sorry I cannot provide a MCVE, as I didn't write this code, and I don't really know how it works.

It gives the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/tomburrows/Dropbox/Moviepy Tests/get_dimensions.py", line 21, in <module>
    h, w = findVideoResolution("/Users/tomburrows/Documents/qfpics/user1/order1/movie.mov")
  File "/Users/tomburrows/Dropbox/Moviepy Tests/get_dimensions.py", line 12, in findVideoResolution
    ffprobeOutput = subprocess.check_output(args).decode('utf-8')
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 626, in check_output
    **kwargs).stdout
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 693, in run
    with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as process:
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 947, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/subprocess.py", line 1551, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'ffprobe'

If python is not reading from the PATH file, how can I specify where ffprobe is?

Edit: It appears the python path is not aligned with my shell path. Using os.environ["PATH"]+=":/the_path/of/ffprobe/dir" at the beginning of each program allows me to use ffprobe, but why might my python path not be the same as my shell path?

Answer 1

You may use

import os
print os.environ['PATH']

to verify/validate that ffprobe is in your python environment. According to the error you have, it is likely not.