MATLAB: Do I receive a premature EOF error when reading certain frames QuickTime movies using the READ method of MMREADER in MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a)

MATLAB

When reading particular frames in QuickTime movies, I receive the following error message:

 ??? The frame index requested is beyond the end of the file.
 Error in ==> mmreader.read at 76
 videoFrames = read(uddobj, index);

However, no error occurs when reading frames that come after (or before) the problem frames. Furthermore, other readers/players handle the frames without trouble.

Best Answer

This is an issue with QuickTime 7 when using the READ method of MMREADER in MATLAB 7.6 (R2008a), on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

To workaround this issue, either:

1. Use OS X 10.5 or

2. Skip the problem frames with a TRY-CATCH block:

try
      vidFrames = read(myMovie, frameIndex);
catch
      % Error handling code
end

You can also refer to the attached files for more detailed examples.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Do I get an errorWithFileClose error when I use AVIREAD in MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a) on Linux

The video file is a 16 bit AVI file, which is not the most conventional kind of AVI file. Most AVI files are 8 bits per channel or 24 bpp.

Although this file can be read with MMREADER on Windows, AVIREAD and MMREADER fail to read this file on Linux. This is because GStreamer on Linux does not have the appropriate plugin to read this kind of AVI file. This a limitation of the GStreamer plugin.

A workaround is to use MMREADER on Windows to read this file and write it out as an uncompressed AVI file with 8 bits per channel. Then you can read that uncompressed AVI file on your Linux machine.

Here is an example of the conversion code to be run in Windows:

% Read in AVI file and get frames
readerobj = mmreader('bit16avi.avi', 'tag', 'myreader1');
vidFrames = read(readerobj);
% Get the number of frames
numFrames = get(readerobj, 'numberOfFrames');
% Add frames into a MATLAB movie
for k = 1 : numFrames
      mov(k).cdata = vidFrames(:,:,:,k);
      mov(k).colormap = [];
end
% Play movie in MATLAB
movie(mov);
% Save movie as AVI file to be read in Linux
movie2avi(mov,'output.avi','compression','none');

MATLAB: Do I receive ‘Error using ==> avifile.addframe>ValidateFrame’ when adding a frame to the avi file

The proper way to add frames to a movie is as described in the documentation, to add frames to the avifile by using the GETFRAME function as shown in the code below:

mov = avifile('pd3.avi'); 
figure 
surf(peaks)
frame = getframe(gcf);
mov = addframe(mov,frame); 
frame = getframe(gcf);
mov = addframe(mov,frame); 
mov = close(mov);

Note that MATLAB graphics objects must be displayed on screen because the GETFRAME function, which is used to produce frames for the movie structure, performs a screen capture to acquire the necessary image data for the frames.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Do I get an errorWithFileClose error when I use AVIREAD in MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a) on Linux

MATLAB: Do I receive ‘Error using ==> avifile.ad​dframe>Val​idateFrame​’ when adding a frame to the avi file

Related Question

MATLAB: Do I receive ‘Error using ==> avifile.addframe>ValidateFrame’ when adding a frame to the avi file