# Gstreamer query duration **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby-Gnome 2\ **Created:** [March 7, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193 "2011-03-07T16:45:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/1 "2011-03-07T16:45:19Z")
hello all, seems i’m missing something querying song duration through gstreamer. i’ve seen this post [http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/206849](http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/206849) , and the proof-of-concept app, as well as duration meters in other players (zik) which use the same method. this code however: ## pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) pipeline.uri= “file://home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” d = Gst::QueryDuration.new(Gst::Format::Type::TIME) pipeline.query(d) gstdur = d.parse[1]/1000000 p “gstdur= #{gstdur}” ## returns: ## “gstdur= -1” ## at the moment i’m using the gem ‘mp3info’ for duration, and querying the same file with mp3info, like this: ## audio = “/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” Mp3Info.open(audio){|data| @infodur = data.length} p “infodur= #{@infodur}” ## returns: ## “infodur= 227.5791875” ## any ideas what i’m doing wrong in the gstreamer query? -jk ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/2 "2011-03-07T17:16:49Z")
2011/3/7 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > pipeline.query(d) > the same file with mp3info, like this: > > any ideas what i’m doing wrong in the gstreamer query? I think you have fogotten to call play method on pipeline. > solutions. [http://p.sf.net/sfu/progress-d2d](http://p.sf.net/sfu/progress-d2d) > > * * * > > ruby-gnome2-devel-en mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en](https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en) – Vincent C. ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/3 "2011-03-07T17:31:34Z")
> I think you have fogotten to call play method on pipeline. i had tried that, with the same result… pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) pipeline.uri= “file:/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” pipeline.play d = Gst::QueryDuration.new(Gst::Format::Type::TIME) pipeline.query(d) gstdur = d.parse[1]/1000000 p “gstdur= #{gstdur}” returns “gstdur= -1” strange ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/4 "2011-03-07T17:50:34Z")
this also returns the same value of -1 ## pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) pipeline.uri= “file:/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” bus = pipeline.bus bus.add\_watch {|bus, message| case message.type when Gst::Message::DURATION dur = message p dur.parse[1]/1000000 end true} pipeline.play ## -j ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/5 "2011-03-07T18:08:17Z")
2011/3/7 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > audio = “/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” > pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) > pipeline.uri= “file://home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” I think you are missing “/” here. file:///home/jk/ruby/test.mp3 protocole(file)://path(/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3) > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). – Vincent C. ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/6 "2011-03-07T18:20:14Z")
2011/3/7 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > i thought the same, but oddly i get an error with the extra ‘/’, and > the file doesn’t play - > > pipeline.uri= “file://home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” > > [#\, “gstgiosrc.c(313): > gst\_gio\_src\_get\_stream (): > /GstPlayBin2:playbin20/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0/GstGioSrc:source:\nCould > not open location file:///jk/ruby/test.mp3 for reading: Error opening > file: No such file or directory”] > I guess you now miss “home” > file:///home/jk/ruby/test.mp3 and not file:///jk/ruby/test.mp3 > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). – Vincent C. ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/7 "2011-03-07T18:27:06Z")
this: audio = “/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) pipeline.uri= GLib.filename\_to\_uri(audio) plays just fine, but my duration problem is not solved… i still return “gstdur= -1” -1 any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/8 "2011-03-07T20:06:26Z")
2011/3/7 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > “gstdur= -1” > -1 > > any ideas? Maybe you need some gstreamer plugins. Did you try other files, other formats? > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en](https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en) – Vincent C. ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/9 "2011-03-07T22:00:24Z")
Vincent C. wrote in post #986024: > > > > Maybe you need some gstreamer plugins. Did you try other files, other > formats? tried a different .mp3, .flac, .ogg, and .wav - all play fine, but give me the same “-1” duration. the plugins i have are the following: _gstreamer0.10-_ ffmpeg pitfdll tools fluendo-plugins-mp3-partner v.7.0.20100316 esd nice gnonlin pulseaudio alsa plugins-base packagekit plugins-good x plugins-bad plugins-base-apps plugins-bad-multiverse plugins-ugly plugins-ugly-multiverse plugins-good-dbg plugins-base-dbg plugins-bad-multiverse-dbg plugins-ugly-multivers-dbg libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10(and -dev) gir1.0-gst-plugins-base-0.10 libgstreamer0.10-0(and -dev) ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/10 "2011-03-07T18:14:08Z")
Vincent C. wrote in post #985992: > 2011/3/7 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > > > audio = “/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” > > pipeline = Gst::ElementFactory.make(“playbin2”) > > pipeline.uri= “file://home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” > > I think you are missing “/” here. file:///home/jk/ruby/test.mp3 > protocole(file)://path(/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3) i thought the same, but oddly i get an error with the extra ‘/’, and the file doesn’t play - pipeline.uri= “file://home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” [#\, “gstgiosrc.c(313): gst\_gio\_src\_get\_stream (): /GstPlayBin2:playbin20/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0/GstGioSrc:source:\nCould not open location file:///jk/ruby/test.mp3 for reading: Error opening file: No such file or directory”] when i remove the first ‘/’, the file is found and plays… pipeline.uri= “file:/home/jk/ruby/test.mp3” #\> “gstdur= -1” #\> -1 ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/11 "2011-03-19T13:43:33Z")
2011/3/19 J. K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > before the query takes place. > > * * * > > ruby-gnome2-devel-en mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en](https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ruby-gnome2-devel-en) Instead of sleep I would have use GLib::Timeout.add method. It should allows other events to be processed during the 0.125 s. def getDuration GLib::Timeout.add(125){ qd = Gst::QueryDuration.new(Gst::Format::Type::TIME) @pipeline.query(qd) @dur = qd.parse[1]/1000000000 if @dur\<0 true#TODO : add a limit for the number of queries else false end } – Vincent C. ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/12 "2011-03-19T17:09:08Z")
hi vincent - nice solution - didn’t like the sleep much myself, i’ll give this a shot. thanks, -j ---
**Author:** ![j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e9bcb4/32.png) [@j\_k](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/j_k)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gstreamer-query-duration/204193/13 "2011-03-19T03:54:55Z")
hey all, SOLVED interesting, it turns out that there is a lag in the duration query (at least with 1.8.7, gtk2 0.19.3 and gstreamer 0.10.x.) when i put the query in the timeout loop for showing position, it would first show -1 a couple of times, and then show the duration parsed to seconds after a bit. i ended up solving my problem writing a simple getDuration method, which includes an 1/8 of a second sleep, to let the pipeline get rolling before the query takes place. def getDuration sleep 0.125 qd = Gst::QueryDuration.new(Gst::Format::Type::TIME) @pipeline.query(qd) @dur = qd.parse[1]/1000000000 end not the prettiest thing in the world, but works like a charm. -jk