From 33aae8c4e9d1b5b2f945d4c6973e456ab133b165 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Josh Hawkins <32435876+hawkeye217@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:13:15 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] improve ffprobe error reporting

---
 frigate/api/camera.py    | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 frigate/util/services.py |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/frigate/api/camera.py b/frigate/api/camera.py
index 01da847bc..9a91bd1a9 100644
--- a/frigate/api/camera.py
+++ b/frigate/api/camera.py
@@ -199,19 +199,30 @@ def ffprobe(request: Request, paths: str = "", detailed: bool = False):
             request.app.frigate_config.ffmpeg, path.strip(), detailed=detailed
         )
 
-        result = {
-            "return_code": ffprobe.returncode,
-            "stderr": (
-                ffprobe.stderr.decode("unicode_escape").strip()
-                if ffprobe.returncode != 0
-                else ""
-            ),
-            "stdout": (
-                json.loads(ffprobe.stdout.decode("unicode_escape").strip())
-                if ffprobe.returncode == 0
-                else ""
-            ),
-        }
+        if ffprobe.returncode != 0:
+            try:
+                stderr_decoded = ffprobe.stderr.decode("utf-8")
+            except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                try:
+                    stderr_decoded = ffprobe.stderr.decode("unicode_escape")
+                except Exception:
+                    stderr_decoded = str(ffprobe.stderr)
+
+            stderr_lines = [
+                line.strip() for line in stderr_decoded.split("\n") if line.strip()
+            ]
+
+            result = {
+                "return_code": ffprobe.returncode,
+                "stderr": stderr_lines,
+                "stdout": "",
+            }
+        else:
+            result = {
+                "return_code": ffprobe.returncode,
+                "stderr": [],
+                "stdout": json.loads(ffprobe.stdout.decode("unicode_escape").strip()),
+            }
 
         # Add detailed metadata if requested and probe was successful
         if detailed and ffprobe.returncode == 0 and result["stdout"]:
diff --git a/frigate/util/services.py b/frigate/util/services.py
index 587794990..c51fe923a 100644
--- a/frigate/util/services.py
+++ b/frigate/util/services.py
@@ -577,7 +577,7 @@ def ffprobe_stream(ffmpeg, path: str, detailed: bool = False) -> sp.CompletedPro
     if detailed and format_entries:
         ffprobe_cmd.extend(["-show_entries", f"format={format_entries}"])
 
-    ffprobe_cmd.extend(["-loglevel", "quiet", clean_path])
+    ffprobe_cmd.extend(["-loglevel", "error", clean_path])
 
     return sp.run(ffprobe_cmd, capture_output=True)