[FFmpeg-user] Possible to use named pipe between ffmpeg and ffplay on Windows?

[Paul Goins]

Hi,

Let's say I have two named pipes: "\\.\pipe\piper_in" and "\\.\pipe\piper_out".  The pipes are being 
managed through an intermediate process, basically working as a poor man's mkfifo on Windows.  The 
intent is to have ffmpeg write to \\.\pipe\piper_in, and ffplay read from \\.\pipe\piper_out.

ffplay seems to work fine with this.  I connect it first via:

     ffplay -f rawvideo -pixel_format bgr24 -s 1280x720
         -i \\.\pipe\piper_out

The problem comes when I try to run ffmpeg with the named pipe as
output.

Command line:

     ffmpeg -f dshow -rtbufsize 1000000k -s 1280x720 -r 30
         -i video="Logicool HD Webcam C310"
         -f rawvideo -vcodec copy -an
         \\.\pipe\piper_in

This results in the following:

     File '\\.\pipe\piper_in' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
     \\.\pipe\piper_in: No such file or directory

Basically: rather than writing to the pipe, ffmpeg attempts to create a new file.

Is there any way to make this work?  Or is this sounding like a feature request for the devs?


Best Regards,
Paul Goins