Windows Firefox videos become corrupted when I use `--videoParams.convert false --videoParams.addTimer false`

[Gregory Mierzwinski]

Have you read the documentation?

• Yes, I've read the how to make a reproducable bug guide
• Yes, I've read the how to debug my script guide

URL

www.amazon.com

What are you trying to accomplish

I was trying to run browsertime with these two flags --videoParams.convert false --videoParams.addTimer false as the additional processing these flags cause add about 30 seconds per iteration (it ends up taking up to 15 mins of a 50min task). This works on all platforms except windows where the videos become corrupted. I'm thinking there might be something in one of those two post-processing steps that makes the videos viable for windows.

What browser did you use?

Firefox

How to reproduce

Run Browsertime on Firefox on Windows with at least the following flags: --videoParams.convert false --videoParams.addTimer false --video true --visualMetrics true --visualMetricsContentful true --visualMetricsPerceptual true --visualMetricsPortable true --videoParams.keepOriginalVideo true --firefox.windowRecorder false

Full set of flags used: browsertime.js browsertime_pageload.js --firefox.noDefaultPrefs --browsertime.page_cycle_delay 1000 --skipHar --pageLoadStrategy none --webdriverPageload true --firefox.disableBrowsertimeExtension true --pageCompleteCheckStartWait 5000 --pageCompleteCheckPollTimeout 1000 --timeouts.pageLoad 60000 --timeouts.script 60000 --browsertime.page_cycles 1 --pageCompleteWaitTime 5000 --browsertime.url https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 --browsertime.post_startup_delay 1 --iterations 1 --videoParams.androidVideoWaitTime 20000 --browsertime.chimera false --browsertime.test_bytecode_cache false --firefox.perfStats false --browsertime.secondary_url https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A515-46-R14K-Quad-Core-Processor-Backlit/dp/B08VKNVDDR/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=laptop&qid=1627047187&sr=8-3 --browsertime.commands  --viewPort 1280x1024 --browser firefox --video true --visualMetrics true --visualMetricsContentful true --visualMetricsPerceptual true --visualMetricsPortable true --videoParams.keepOriginalVideo true --firefox.windowRecorder false --xvfbParams.display 0 --browsertime.testName amazon --browsertime.liveSite False --browsertime.loginRequired False

Relevant log output

No relevant logs available.

[Peter Hedenskog]

Hmm ok, that seems like a bug, let me have a look.

[Peter Hedenskog]

I briefly looked at the code and I think the convert always needs to run independently on platform to be viewable? I think that switch from beginning was added if you wanted to get visual metrics but don't need to keep the video (no need to make it viewable then). But then I guess maybe ffmpeg (or we?) changed over time so that it work without converting on some platforms, let me test it.