# SimpleMovieDemo crashes?

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [January 29, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011 "2020-01-29T18:44:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kira](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/kira)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/1 "2020-01-29T18:44:00Z")

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Hello -

I’m having issues even running SimpleMovieDemo - it loads a white screen then a black screen and then Matlab crashes (so I don’t even see the actual error). It’s on Windows.

I have Gstreamer installed and did the Custom Installation (checking each box individually) as suggested. I’ve checked that multiple times, so I’m pretty sure it’s not a Gstreamer installation issue. Any idea what else I can look at?

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**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/2 "2020-01-30T14:02:54Z")

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Hi. Did you install the MSVC variant of GStreamer 1.16 as mandated, or accidentally the other variant? The other variant would crash.

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**Author:** ![kira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kira](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/kira)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/3 "2020-01-30T20:15:23Z")

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Hi, thanks for the help! I removed/reinstalled gstreamer with the MSVC variant just to be sure and it stopped crashing, but still doesn’t play the SimpleMovieDemo and now gives error code 126, which I can’t seem to find anywhere.

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**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/4 "2020-01-30T21:00:46Z")

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And this is the latest PTB 3.0.16 beta release? GStreamer 1.16 MSVC with all codecs installed (Either custom install button and check all boxes, or maybe there is a “full installation” button, that does the same)? Windows-10?

What’s the full Matlab output? What does PlayMoviesDemo do if you ask for the ©ool demo movies?

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**Author:** ![kira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kira](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/kira)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/5 "2020-01-31T16:39:12Z")

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It’s PTB 3.0.15 on Matlab2018a on Windows 7. It’s Gstreamer 1.16 MSVC with all codec installed through custom install.

Here’s the output:

PTB-INFO: This is Psychtoolbox-3 for Microsoft Windows, under Matlab 64-Bit (Version 3.0.15 - Build date: Feb 7 2019).  
PTB-INFO: Support status on this operating system release: Windows 7 (Version 6.1) partially supported, but no longer tested at all.  
PTB-INFO: Type ‘PsychtoolboxVersion’ for more detailed version information.  
PTB-INFO: Most parts of the Psychtoolbox distribution are licensed to you under terms of the MIT License, with  
PTB-INFO: some restrictions. See file ‘License.txt’ in the Psychtoolbox root folder for the exact licensing conditions.

PTB-INFO: Will disable DWM because a regular fullscreen onscreen window is opened -\> We want best timing and performance.  
PTB-INFO: The detected endline of the vertical blank interval is equal or lower than the startline. This indicates  
PTB-INFO: that i couldn’t detect the duration of the vertical blank interval and won’t be able to correct timestamps  
PTB-INFO: for it. This will introduce a very small and constant offset (typically \<\< 1 msec). Read ‘help BeampositionQueries’  
PTB-INFO: for how to correct this, should you really require that last few microseconds of precision.  
PTB-INFO: Btw. this can also mean that your systems beamposition queries are slightly broken. It may help timing precision to  
PTB-INFO: enable the beamposition workaround, as explained in ‘help ConserveVRAMSettings’, section ‘kPsychUseBeampositionQueryWorkaround’.

PTB-INFO: OpenGL-Renderer is NVIDIA Corporation :: Quadro 600/PCIe/SSE2 :: 4.4.0  
PTB-INFO: VBL startline = 1080 , VBL Endline = 1079  
PTB-INFO: Measured monitor refresh interval from beamposition = 16.665701 ms [60.003475 Hz].  
PTB-INFO: Will use beamposition query for accurate Flip time stamping.  
PTB-INFO: Measured monitor refresh interval from VBLsync = 16.665475 ms [60.004292 Hz]. (50 valid samples taken, stddev=0.033963 ms.)  
PTB-INFO: Reported monitor refresh interval from operating system = 16.666667 ms [60.000000 Hz].  
PTB-INFO: Small deviations between reported values are normal and no reason to worry.

PTB-ERROR: Tried to startup GStreamer multi-media framework. This didn’t work, because one  
PTB-ERROR: of the required GStreamer runtime libraries failed to load, probably because it  
PTB-ERROR: could not be found, could not be accessed (e.g., due to permission problems),  
PTB-ERROR: or most likely because GStreamer isn’t installed on this machine at all.  
PTB-ERROR: Another reason could be that you have GStreamer version 0.10.x instead of the required  
PTB-ERROR: version \>= 1.4.0 installed. The version 0.10 series is no longer supported.

PTB-ERROR: The system returned the error code 126.  
PTB-ERROR: Please read the help by typing ‘help GStreamer’ for installation and troubleshooting  
PTB-ERROR: instructions.

PTB-ERROR: Due to failed GStreamer initialization, the movie playback engine is disabled for this session.

Error in function OpenMovie: Usage error  
GStreamer initialization failed due to library loading problems. Aborted.  
Error using Screen  
Usage:

[moviePtr [duration] [fps] [width] [height] [count] [aspectRatio]]=Screen(‘OpenMovie’, windowPtr, moviefile [, async=0] [,  
preloadSecs=1] [, specialFlags1=0][, pixelFormat=4][, maxNumberThreads=-1][, movieOptions]);

Error in SimpleMovieDemo (line 49)  
movie = Screen(‘OpenMovie’, win, moviename);

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dcnieho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dcnieho](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/dcnieho)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/6 "2020-01-31T21:44:07Z")

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3.0.15 is old, please update to the latest PTB and see if that solves your issues.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kira](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/kira)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/7 "2020-02-03T20:19:12Z")

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I updated both Matlab (2019a) and PTB (3.0.16) and still have the same issues.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/8 "2020-02-03T20:36:45Z")

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Windows-10 + R2019a + PTB 3.0.16 + GStreamer 1.16.0 MSVC edition with all codecs installed is a fully tested configuration and known to work perfectly from my own tests. Please make sure you have the very latest PTB from 4 or 5 days ago. If the problem persists, post the full Matlab output from Matlab startup to failure. The diary command can help to log stuff.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c4cdca/32.png) [@kira](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/kira)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/9 "2020-02-03T22:08:51Z")

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I just reinstalled PTB today, so I’m assuming it’s the most recent version. However, I’m on Windows 7 and can’t upgrade. Is that an issue?

This is the Matlab output:

PTB-INFO: This is Psychtoolbox-3 for Microsoft Windows, under Matlab 64-Bit (Version 3.0.16 - Build date: Jan 30 2020).  
PTB-INFO: OS support status: Windows 7 (Version 6.1) partially supported, but no longer tested at all.  
PTB-INFO: Type ‘PsychtoolboxVersion’ for more detailed version information.  
PTB-INFO: Most parts of the Psychtoolbox distribution are licensed to you under terms of the MIT License, with  
PTB-INFO: some restrictions. See file ‘License.txt’ in the Psychtoolbox root folder for the exact licensing conditions.

PTB-INFO: Will disable DWM because a regular fullscreen onscreen window is opened -\> We want best timing and performance.  
PTB-INFO: The detected endline of the vertical blank interval is equal or lower than the startline. This indicates  
PTB-INFO: that i couldn’t detect the duration of the vertical blank interval and won’t be able to correct timestamps  
PTB-INFO: for it. This will introduce a very small and constant offset (typically \<\< 1 msec). Read ‘help BeampositionQueries’  
PTB-INFO: for how to correct this, should you really require that last few microseconds of precision.  
PTB-INFO: Btw. this can also mean that your systems beamposition queries are slightly broken. It may help timing precision to  
PTB-INFO: enable the beamposition workaround, as explained in ‘help ConserveVRAMSettings’, section ‘kPsychUseBeampositionQueryWorkaround’.

PTB-INFO: OpenGL-Renderer is NVIDIA Corporation :: Quadro 600/PCIe/SSE2 :: 4.4.0  
PTB-INFO: VBL startline = 1080 , VBL Endline = 1079  
PTB-INFO: Measured monitor refresh interval from beamposition = 16.665123 ms [60.005556 Hz].  
PTB-INFO: Will use beamposition query for accurate Flip time stamping.  
PTB-INFO: Measured monitor refresh interval from VBLsync = 16.660916 ms [60.020710 Hz]. (50 valid samples taken, stddev=0.049860 ms.)  
PTB-INFO: Reported monitor refresh interval from operating system = 16.666667 ms [60.000000 Hz].  
PTB-INFO: Small deviations between reported values are normal and no reason to worry.

INFO: PTB’s Screen(‘Flip’, 10) command seems to have missed the requested stimulus presentation deadline  
INFO: a total of 13 times out of a total of 53 flips during this session.

INFO: This number is fairly accurate (and indicative of real timing problems in your own code or your system)  
INFO: if you provided requested stimulus onset times with the ‘when’ argument of Screen(‘Flip’, window [, when]);  
INFO: If you called Screen(‘Flip’, window); without the ‘when’ argument, this count is more of a ‘‘mild’’ indicator  
INFO: of timing behaviour than a hard reliable measurement. Large numbers may indicate problems and should at least  
INFO: deserve your closer attention. Cfe. ‘help SyncTrouble’, the FAQ section at [www.psychtoolbox.org](http://www.psychtoolbox.org) and the  
INFO: examples in the PDF presentation in PsychDocumentation/Psychtoolbox3-Slides.pdf for more info and timing tips.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mariokleiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@mariokleiner](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/mariokleiner)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/simplemoviedemo-crashes/3011/10 "2020-02-04T23:34:18Z")

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That’s the latest version. But your last output doesn’t show signs of any trouble anymore?