Video library simply missing?

Running latest processing 4.0b8, reinstalled moments ago. Windows 10 64-bit.

import processing.video.*;
Movie vid1;

Results in this error:
“No library found for processing.video”

In the Contribution Manager the video libraries are greyed out. What’s up?

Hmm. I’m using x86_64 bit 4.0b8 on Linux and the Video Library for Processing 4 installs fine. There is some discussion of problems with the GStreamer libraries on Windows in this thread: Processing New GStreamer Error Still a beta release so I would think it will be fixed in the future.

If video is simply not working in Processing 4, this really needs to be flagged and mentioned on the download page. If there is a version of Processing 4 that works, this needs to be documented.

I have >30 students and rely on this working across operating systems.

“If there is a version of Processing 4 that works, this needs to be documented.”

It is. Beta usually means “work in progress and not everything may be working. Use at your own risk.” Software in beta is generally not considered suitable for production, or in your case, teaching, reliably. You may want to consider dropping back to the 3.5.x release if you need stability and reliability more than the new features.

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Well, I guess it’s a matter of perspective for me. Beta still means beta to me regardless of where it’s placed on a webpage. Cheers.

Hello @esc746,

It works for me on several W10 PCs that I have access to.

GitHub - processing/processing4: Processing 4.x releases (currently in “beta”) that use Java 17 states:

:)

Indeed, having led development teams, I know what beta means. In fact, I know it can mean very different things for very different projects. Many beta versions of software applications are absolutely stable except for bugs at the “edges” of the programming space. Missing a core module (apparently only sometimes, on some platforms) is more of an alpha problem, to my mind.

But regardless of personal perspective, there should be no need for guessing. The latest version 3 should be the priority download. The web page should clearly note deficiencies of the beta. Instead:

The beta is the default download on the site because it’s more usable than the 3.5.4 release.

In respect to the teaching, we have indeed retained version 3 in our labs. But students who download for their own laptops will grab the version the web page highlights as most recent.

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Ah, a good opportunity to point out the pitfalls of using beta software. I’ve taught at high school and college levels so I do understand your point of view. Cheers.