Hi,
I had this same problem and was mystified. Saw this post (http://babybean.info/index.php?post=rtmpdump-path) and remembered that I'd been messing with my path environment variable. Fixed it up and get_iplayer is working a treat again. Hope this helps...

Thanks - very well spotted.

Andrew:

The get_iplayer installer doesn't touch PATH. However, if it's messed up by some other application or installer (not altogether uncommon), it could affect the execution environment of external programs like rtmpdump when launched from get_iplayer. The purpose of those additional perl commands in my last post was to test just that. However, as jimdog suggests, a better first step would be to simply look at your PATH environment variable to check for something that looks awry. You can view the value of PATH by opening the get_iplayer command prompt and running:




If there is anything in PATH you don't recognise, please post it here and we'll take a look. It may reference old drivers or utilities that aren't well-behaved and are interfering with rtmpdump.

If you need to fix PATH, you'll find it buried in the Control Panel (Win 7):

1. Control Panel -> System and Security -> System
   
2. Click "Advanced System Settings"
   
3. Click "Environment Variables" button in tab
   
4. Look for "Path" under "System variables" (bottom list)
   
5. You may also have a user-level "PATH" (top list)
   

You'll find a lot of information and step-by-step guides on the net for manipulating Windows PATH.

There is a lot to post (because I did a lot of fruitless de/installing and other stuff) but first this:

C:\Program Files\get_iplayer>echo %PATH%
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_25\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_25\bin


Nothing suspicious, just my java settings.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hi again,
Again, not sure if this is helpful but I changed my path settings when installing java/jre to get eclipse running with the android developer tools. It was after this that get_iplayer stopped working (didn't realise at the time) and following the fix in the above post plus adding the java binary location to the path plus a reboot, I have get_iplayer and java/jre running happily.

path setting when get_iplayer didn't work:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin

path with get_iplayer working again:




hope this helps...

Andrew: If you haven't already, you should be able to follow jimdog's example to restore the missing PATH entries, then try get_iplayer again. If I corrupt my PATH like yours, I can replicate the problems you've described with rtmpdump. That is exactly what I would expect with the system directories are missing from PATH.

EDIT: It looks like the JRE/JDK installer is not to blame - it doesn't touch PATH, at least not in my test. So there is more to the the story, but I suppose it doesn't matter how PATH is messed up, just that it is messed up.

SP, Dp and jimdog - thanks.




This is how my PATH looks now. I can javac for England and get_iplayer (the older version) works, too. I am not gonna post the results of the other tests - it seems pointless now.

As a last favour can I ask you whether I should leave the PATH as it is right now?


Thanks again,
Andrew

No need for the other results. Presumably this command:

``
produced no output, which would have led to the same resolution, albeit by a more circuitous route. I'm afraid I was guilty of a failure of imagination in that I didn't consider the possibility that the default PATH entries could have been obliterated.

To boil it down for posterity: Never remove the default PATH entries created when Windows is installed, and restore them if some other application removes them. For Windows 7, the default entries should be:





Technically, only the first entry is required for rtmpdump, et al., to run, but keep all the default entries.

As for your current PATH, I wouldn't think you need duplicate entries for the JDK bin directory, but that's harmless. Otherwise, it looks as it should. You should also be able to re-install get_iplayer with the current version of the installer.

1. The first perl command from the previous post produced the rtmp garb, the second produced nothing.


Thanks,
Andrew

Thanks for the confirmation. If this issue comes up again, PATH will be the starting point for diagnosis.

I get the Same problem as Andrew when i enter

Quote:perl -e "system('.\RTMPDump\rtmpdump.exe', '--help', '2>&1')"

I get the help file, but when i enter the second command instead of a help file i get no output at all

any help I will be grateful for

Darren

@commgames: What troubleshooting steps have you taken? Have you explored your current PATH settings and confirmed that they are correct? That was the resolution for the others in this thread.

to be perfectly honest, the path change worked, then stopped working, then worked again, now rtmpdump starts crashing occasionally

If it's just occasionally then that is (somewhat unfortunately) the 'expected' behaviour. This is something that @user-2 has touched on before in another thread:

/topic...#post-1739

As per that thread, if you are experiencing an inordinate amount of problems with rtmpdump crashes then you can try an alternate build as outlined here:

/topic...#post-1734

It sounds to me like your PATH was broken but is now fixed, which has revealed upstream problems causing rtmpdump to crash occasionally. I you're seeing repeatable errors with rtmpdump, then create a new topic in the forum. Run get_iplayer with and attach your log as an attachment to your post. However, you may find that there is no rhyme or reason to rtmpdump crashes. If your upstream connectivity is erratic, streams can be garbled and cause unpredictable problems for rtmpdump.

I found my problem was that the RTMPdump installer had not unzipped. I extracted the files to the RTMPdump folder and all was well again.