Manim: BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

[itspacchu]

When i run
python3 -m manim example_scenes.py SquareToCircle -pl

this is what i get
Animation 0: ShowCreationSquare: 0%| | 0/15 [00:00

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/extract_scene.py", line 153, in main
scene = SceneClass(*scene_kwargs)
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 54, in __init__
self.construct()
File "example_scenes.py", line 81, in construct
self.play(ShowCreation(square))
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 449, in wrapper
func(self, *args, *kwargs)
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 484, in play
self.add_frames(self.get_frame())
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 570, in add_frames
self.file_writer.write_frame(frame)
File "/home/pacchu/.local/share/Trash/files/manim/manimlib/scene/scene_file_writer.py", line 171, in write_frame
self.writing_process.stdin.write(frame.tostring())
BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

[MrJarnould]

same

[wknowleskellett]

Above that, does it say Unknown encoder 'libx264'?

[wknowleskellett]

Above that, does it say Unknown encoder 'libx264'?

My guess is that when you run ffmpeg -codecs 2> /dev/null | grep -e 264 that none of the lines contain 'libx264', but that there is still output.
Basically, I got this problem because ffmpeg (used by manim) would fail to generate the video as requested and close, causing your broken pipe.

I see two possible solutions -

1. For individuals with this problem: If my above command produced output for you which included the name of a codec (i.e. 'h264', change line 246 in ./manim/manimlib/scene/scene_file_writer.py from '-vcodec', 'libx264' to '-vcodec', 'the_codec_name_you_found'. This solved the problem for me (I used 'h264')
2. For the overall repository, maybe we change the installation requirements somehow to make sure you have libx264 installed. This, or if it turns out everyone should have one called h264, the master could be updated to use h264.

[tommyhayes100814]

Changing '-vcodec', 'libx264' to '-vcodec', 'h264' worked for me.

I am currently running Catalina 10.15.1 on 2017 13-Inch Macbook Pro.

[Fillot]

Same problem here.

running python3 -m manim example_scenes.py SquareToCircle -pl

outputs

Media will be written to ./media/. You can change this behavior with the --media_dir flag.
Animation 0: ShowCreationSquare: 0%| | 0/15 [00:00

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/extract_scene.py", line 155, in main
scene = SceneClass(*scene_kwargs)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 53, in __init__
self.construct()
File "example_scenes.py", line 83, in construct
self.play(ShowCreation(square))
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 406, in wrapper
func(self, *args, *kwargs)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 463, in play
self.progress_through_animations(animations)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 439, in progress_through_animations
self.add_frames(self.get_frame())
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 543, in add_frames
self.file_writer.write_frame(frame)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene_file_writer.py", line 185, in write_frame
self.writing_process.stdin.write(frame.tostring())
BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

while ffmpeg -codecs 2> /dev/null | grep -e 264

outputs

D.V.LS h264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

Changing line 246 to either h264 or H.264 did not solve the issue. This is running on Ubuntu 18.04

[haykh]

In case this is useful for anyone /also developers might wanna consider adding this feature/. I hacked around a little bit and added a flag argument to specify the codec used. First add inline argument parser in the manimlib/config.py.

# ... in `parse_cli()`
        parser.add_argument(
            "--vcodec",
            help="Specify the codec used to render video"
        )
# ... in `get_configuration(args)`
    file_writer_config = {
        # ...
        "vcodec": args.vcodec
    }
# ...

Now in manimlib/scene/scene_file_writer.py

        if self.movie_file_extension == ".mov":
            # ...
        else:
            command += [
                '-vcodec', self.vcodec, # <- change to this line
                '-pix_fmt', 'yuv420p',
            ]

Now you can specify --vcodec h264 or whatever you wish when rendering. This also works when using manim in jupyter with this neat library.

PS. You could probably even add a default vcodec, so that you don't have to specify it every time, but I was a bit lazy to do that.

PPS. As was pointed out above, you can view all the available codecs (not only video enconding) by doing this: ffmpeg -codecs 2> /dev/null.

PPPS. On MacOS I actually had the best quality when rendering with the --vcodec prores. It adds up a lot in file weight, but the quality is superb.

PPPPS. If you're using conda version (hopefully in a separate environment), you'll find the library here: ~/anaconda3/envs/<ENVNAME>/lib/python3.7/site-packages/manimlib.

[KokeCacao]

Same problem here.

running python3 -m manim example_scenes.py SquareToCircle -pl

outputs

Media will be written to ./media/. You can change this behavior with the --media_dir flag.
Animation 0: ShowCreationSquare: 0%| | 0/15 [00:00 Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/extract_scene.py", line 155, in main
scene = SceneClass(scene_kwargs)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 53, in *init
self.construct()
File "example_scenes.py", line 83, in construct
self.play(ShowCreation(square))
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 406, in wrapper
func(self, *args, *kwargs)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 463, in play
self.progress_through_animations(animations)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 439, in progress_through_animations
self.add_frames(self.get_frame())
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene.py", line 543, in add_frames
self.file_writer.write_frame(frame)
File "/home/tom/manim/manimlib/scene/scene_file_writer.py", line 185, in write_frame
self.writing_process.stdin.write(frame.tostring())
BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

while ffmpeg -codecs 2> /dev/null | grep -e 264

outputs

D.V.LS h264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10

Changing line 246 to either h264 or H.264 did not solve the issue. This is running on Ubuntu 18.04

On my Ubuntu 18.04, using h264 failed, but using prores worked!

[amilapsn]

https://stackoverflow.com/a/58421346/4146678
For conda peple

[NeroAsmarr]

https://stackoverflow.com/a/58421346/4146678
For conda peple

conda install x264=='1!152.20180717' ffmpeg=4.0.2 -c conda-forge

work for me

[anisghaoui]

I had the same problem when installing manim through pip3 on Ubuntu 18.04. It solved itself by simply uninstalling manimlib then ffmpeg :
pip3 uninstall manimlib
sudo apt --purge remove ffmpeg
sudo apt autoremove

then check if you can start ffmpeg from your terminal. if so you need to delete it manually :
wheresis ffmpeg should print : /usr/bin/ffmpeg
sudo rm /usr/bin/ffmpeg or whatever got printed

you can now optionally reboot now.

sudo apt install ffmpeg
pip3 install manimlib

try the example scene now.

[jason-c-kwan]

I was having this problem whenever trying to render 4K with the manim Docker image. I managed to fix it by using the libx265 codec, although it still seems to give the "broken pipe" error sometimes. I thought I'd leave this comment here in case others run into the same issue.