FFmpeg Graceful Degradation

When processing videos with ffmpeg, encoding failures are common due to codec availability, library version mismatches, or system configuration issues. This skill provides a systematic fallback strategy to ensure video processing completes successfully.

Overview

The pattern involves: (1) probing encoder availability upfront, (2) testing on a short clip before batch processing, (3) progressive fallback through copy mode, alternative codecs, and finally moviepy, (4) using moviepy as a reliable bundled alternative.

Step 1: Probe Encoder Availability

Before any encoding work, check what encoders are available:

ffmpeg -encoders | grep -E "libx264|libopenh264|mpeg4"