installed with ffmpeg, pressing "on" button hangs blender 4.2 and then nothing happens

[umbrellaville]

Hi. I'm a huge fan of this plugin and have used it for ages, but I found it uninstalled recently and when I reinstalled it, it no longer works. I've triple checked that ffmpeg is in the correct place. I then press the "on" button in my graph editor's tabs, and then blender hangs for about a minute.... and when it comes back, it's as if nothing happened. There is no waveform in any of the panels. I do have audio in my video sequencer, which I can hear normally, so it is there and it does work.

This didn't work in 4.1 and isn't working in 4.2 either. I am downloading the latest version of the plugin from here on github.

sorry for the vague bug report but I'm not sure what more I can do to try to get it to work. Since I animate a lot with dialogue, I'm eager to get it working again. Thank you!!

[Pullusb]

Hi, thank you for reaching out !

Happy you like the tool and sorry for the bug.

Investigating quickly, it still works for me with latest in blender 4.2.1 with latest addon version. so can you tell me more:

• What is your OS ?
• Where did you get the addon from ? gumroad, Blender market, github
• Did it bug after you updated the addon ?

You can try the debug mode to inspect what happens as shown in the following image.
Also check if there are messages or errors in console (preferably after enabling debug mode)

[umbrellaville]

Hi, thank you for such a fast reply.

I'm on Windows 11, using Blender 4.2, and the version of this plugin is 1.0.2, so it is the latest version. I got it from here on github. Don't worry, once this is fixed I'll be sure to donate 😁

There isn't a debug check box, but I assume the Verbose checkbox is the same,

as for when I noticed it not working, a little while ago on my last project I used 4.1 and it worked great. A day ago, I noticed that it somehow had uninstalled itself, so I went to re-install and re-enable it, and while the tab definitely appears as normal, the button does nothing. The sound file I'm using is an mp3, could that be it?

Thanks again!

[Pullusb]

Ah, then I see the problem. You are actually running an older version. It should be exactly the same panel. So if you see Verbose instead of Debug that's problematic.

You say you see Version 1.0.2 anyway... It means there was either an incomplete update of the addon files (less likely) or there are conflicts with multiple versions in your addon folder (And that would explain the self-uninstall).

Note : The version 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 fixed a problem of invisible waveform that happened since Blender 4.1, exactly what you describe.

Try the following and it should clean all this:

• Go to your addon folder (the path is written in addon infos under the version. If you have my other addon Path Actions you have a button to open it from path Action's addon preferences)
• Remove all the folder with name starting with "sound_waveform_display" (there might be two if my guess was correct)
• Restart blender
• Install by using install from file or unzip in the addon folder (then hit refresh button or restart blender to see it listed)

This should solve your issue. Let me know how it went.

And don't feel obligated to donate anything (especially if you cannot afford it).

[firelighted]

Not a bug report, just documenting solutions I used for posterity

Hi, gorgeous addon, was thrilled to find it while buying your other gumroad stuff, and I'm excited to use it! Very useful debug buttons. I had a similar issue (described below in detail for possible future users with similar problems) and I fixed it by using the Auto-install FFmpeg button kindly provided. I had been stymied by this for a while.

Windows 10 Blender 4.4.3 addon version 1.0.2 (downloaded zip from this git repo, also on gumroad I'm realizing now)

Problem I had: When I click On in the Display Waveform panel (2D Animation tab, Playback), I get the console info--- problem generating sound wave image and the On button is automatically switched off. In the Temp folder (through the handy Open Temp Folder button) I see that tmp_scene_mixdown.wav was created, but .tmp_scene_waveform.png is not there. I do have FFmpeg in my system path.

Solution I used: The Check if FFmpeg is ready button tells me that ffmpeg in system PATH and gives a location, HOWEVER perhaps I had an older FFmpeg version than was assumed by the addon. Things started working when I auto-installed with the Edit> Preferences> Add-ons> Sound Waveform Display> Auto-install FFmpeg button.

Problem I had: Waveform was weirdly very tall, overflowing the timeline panel, and not changing to a reasonable scale to toggling Waveform Height: Relative/Absolute in the add-ons preferences or by playing with Height Offset

Solution I used: Resize the Timeline and/or Dopesheet panels to force an update, and then adjust the Height Offset.

-- Thanks immensely for the addon, this is going to help timing mouth-movements and sfx so much!