Has Anyone Got Loop Findr Working?
July 19, 2014 3:29 PM Subscribe
So yesterday I read about this cool new OS X application, Loop Findr, that apparently automagically analyzes an MP4 and finds segments that are ripe for looping as an animated GIF. Unfortunately, I can't make it work. Who can?
Loop Findr will apparently make the GIF for you, which is a wonderful bonus, but I was excited about the idea of a program that could seek out and identify potential loops, even if I had to do the gruntwork. I didn't have a chance to load the thing up until today, and it doesn't work. I'm on a first-gen MacBook Pro 13 with retina display running Mavericks. I've followed the instructions at the project's Github page and made my own MP4s (in Handbrake) at 360p resolution to feed it. I've even gone to YouTube and downloaded videos using the clipconverter.cc site, since the developer mentions that specifically as something that works. But I haven't gotten a single video to open in the application. I fire it up, it asks me to Choose A Video File using a standard Mac Finder dialog, and when I pick one the app window goes blank for a little while. If I'm lucky, I see a spinning beach ball for a few seconds. And then the window goes grey. If I expand it to full screen, it goes black. But nothing else ever happens and the program itself is offering me absolutely zero useful feedback.
I'd love to get this working, but I'm a Windows guy at heart and have no idea how to troubleshoot in OS X. I found some discussion on Reddit, most of it from frustrated would-be users and none of it especially helpful. Heck, I know it works for somebody, since a Tumblr search for "loopfindr" turns up some results, though not as many as I'd expect. Is there someplace else people would be talking about this? I'd like to get a sense for whether or not it's a fool's errand before I sink any more of my weekend into trying to get it to work!
Loop Findr will apparently make the GIF for you, which is a wonderful bonus, but I was excited about the idea of a program that could seek out and identify potential loops, even if I had to do the gruntwork. I didn't have a chance to load the thing up until today, and it doesn't work. I'm on a first-gen MacBook Pro 13 with retina display running Mavericks. I've followed the instructions at the project's Github page and made my own MP4s (in Handbrake) at 360p resolution to feed it. I've even gone to YouTube and downloaded videos using the clipconverter.cc site, since the developer mentions that specifically as something that works. But I haven't gotten a single video to open in the application. I fire it up, it asks me to Choose A Video File using a standard Mac Finder dialog, and when I pick one the app window goes blank for a little while. If I'm lucky, I see a spinning beach ball for a few seconds. And then the window goes grey. If I expand it to full screen, it goes black. But nothing else ever happens and the program itself is offering me absolutely zero useful feedback.
I'd love to get this working, but I'm a Windows guy at heart and have no idea how to troubleshoot in OS X. I found some discussion on Reddit, most of it from frustrated would-be users and none of it especially helpful. Heck, I know it works for somebody, since a Tumblr search for "loopfindr" turns up some results, though not as many as I'd expect. Is there someplace else people would be talking about this? I'd like to get a sense for whether or not it's a fool's errand before I sink any more of my weekend into trying to get it to work!
Response by poster: Yeah, I forgot to mention it crashes sometimes on my system, too.
Thanks for the input -- your system sounds similar enough to mine that I'm still somewhat optimistic. Can you describe the behavior you see when you're successful? After you select a video, do you see the grey screen for any length of time before the interface appears? If it takes some time to process, is there any notification on the screen that analysis is taking place? I'm just wondering if I should ditch and try another MP4 as soon as I get the grey screen, or if I should let it sit for a period of time to see if it works.
OK, done threadsitting.
posted by Mothlight at 4:02 PM on July 19, 2014
Thanks for the input -- your system sounds similar enough to mine that I'm still somewhat optimistic. Can you describe the behavior you see when you're successful? After you select a video, do you see the grey screen for any length of time before the interface appears? If it takes some time to process, is there any notification on the screen that analysis is taking place? I'm just wondering if I should ditch and try another MP4 as soon as I get the grey screen, or if I should let it sit for a period of time to see if it works.
OK, done threadsitting.
posted by Mothlight at 4:02 PM on July 19, 2014
Once it loads I have to press Spacebar to get it working. It loads a 60 MB movie in about five seconds.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:45 PM on July 19, 2014
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:45 PM on July 19, 2014
Response by poster: Updated to the public beta of OS X Yosemite tonight, hoping that a change in OS would goose me in the right direction, but no change. I installed ffmpeg on this machine for the first time (I think) and now it's taking a little longer to fail -- I'm getting the beachball for a few seconds each time I try to run it, and the window is now going black instead of grey. I've uninstalled the Adobe Creative Suite. I've uninstalled and reinstalled and uninstalled Handbrake.
Hate to be a noodge, but ... does anyone have any other suggestions for troubleshooting this? (Or, hell, OS X in general since I'm really a Windows guy.) This is a pretty plain vanilla OS X installation at this point with the exception of Scrivener, MS Office, FileZilla, TextWrangler, and Steam. I have a desktop resolution manager called QuickRes, but it doesn't even load it startup. (I only fire it up when I want to go into high-res mode on the Retina screen.) That couldn't be it, could it? I really want to play with Loop Findr.
posted by Mothlight at 6:36 PM on July 25, 2014
Hate to be a noodge, but ... does anyone have any other suggestions for troubleshooting this? (Or, hell, OS X in general since I'm really a Windows guy.) This is a pretty plain vanilla OS X installation at this point with the exception of Scrivener, MS Office, FileZilla, TextWrangler, and Steam. I have a desktop resolution manager called QuickRes, but it doesn't even load it startup. (I only fire it up when I want to go into high-res mode on the Retina screen.) That couldn't be it, could it? I really want to play with Loop Findr.
posted by Mothlight at 6:36 PM on July 25, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
(FWIW, 2010-era MBP w/ 10.9.4)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:46 PM on July 19, 2014