How do I fix "AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'stdout'" when trying to write a CompositeVideoClip with moviepy?

Question

I am using the following:

from moviepy.editor import *

ukulele = VideoFileClip("./clips/513732763.mp4")

txt = TextClip("some text", color='white').set_duration(3)

final = CompositeVideoClip([ukulele,txt])
final.write_videofile("video.mp4",codec="libx264")

What I am trying to do is to add text over a video file clip. Writing normally with VideoFileClip is working, however, when using CompositeVideoClip it doesn't. However, when running with Python 3.6.9 I get the following errors:

Moviepy - Building video video.mp4.
MoviePy - Writing audio in videoTEMP_MPY_wvf_snd.mp3
chunk:  12% 52/447 [00:00<00:00, 518.22it/s, now=None]Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 8, in <module>
    final.write_videofile("video.mp4",codec="libx264")
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-51>", line 2, in write_videofile
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 54, in requires_duration
    return f(clip, *a, **k)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-50>", line 2, in write_videofile
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 137, in use_clip_fps_by_default
    return f(clip, *new_a, **new_kw)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-49>", line 2, in write_videofile
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 22, in convert_masks_to_RGB
    return f(clip, *a, **k)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/video/VideoClip.py", line 317, in write_videofile
    logger=logger)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-73>", line 2, in write_audiofile
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 54, in requires_duration
    return f(clip, *a, **k)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/AudioClip.py", line 209, in write_audiofile
    logger=logger)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-70>", line 2, in ffmpeg_audiowrite
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 54, in requires_duration
    return f(clip, *a, **k)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/io/ffmpeg_audiowriter.py", line 169, in ffmpeg_audiowrite
    logger=logger):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/AudioClip.py", line 85, in iter_chunks
    fps=fps, buffersize=chunksize)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-72>", line 2, in to_soundarray
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 54, in requires_duration
    return f(clip, *a, **k)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/AudioClip.py", line 126, in to_soundarray
    snd_array = self.get_frame(tt)
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-10>", line 2, in get_frame
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 89, in wrapper
    return f(*new_a, **new_kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/Clip.py", line 95, in get_frame
    return self.make_frame(t)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/AudioClip.py", line 296, in make_frame
    for c, part in zip(self.clips, played_parts)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/AudioClip.py", line 297, in <listcomp>
    if (part is not False)]
  File "</usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-10>", line 2, in get_frame
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/decorators.py", line 89, in wrapper
    return f(*new_a, **new_kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/Clip.py", line 95, in get_frame
    return self.make_frame(t)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/io/AudioFileClip.py", line 78, in <lambda>
    self.make_frame = lambda t: self.reader.get_frame(t)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/io/readers.py", line 184, in get_frame
    self.buffer_around(fr_max)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/io/readers.py", line 238, in buffer_around
    array = self.read_chunk(chunksize)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/moviepy/audio/io/readers.py", line 112, in read_chunk
    s = self.proc.stdout.read(L)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'stdout'

Everything is correct and is working except for writing the CompositeVideoClip. How would I go about fixing this?

Answer 1

This is a known issue with moveipy 1.0.1 that has an open github issue here https://github.com/Zulko/moviepy/issues/938

For now the best course of action seems to be reverting to version 1.0.0 which has helped a few people on that thread and myself also. You can do this using pip install moviepy==1.0.0 (note the double "=")