Using MovieStim

Coding
1

Hi there,

I am very novice in coding but I was trying to find an example of how to actually used the MovieStim(). I want to use it in a simple application to rate short soundless videos (full scripts/application from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57834968/vid_rating_app.zip ), but I could not figure out how it works (I have seen some people use MovieStim2 or 3 -do these actually exists? I couldn’t find them in the documentation).

I would really appreciate it if somebody provided me with an example. I’m including below the key components of what I’ve tried so far:

from psychopy.visual import ImageStim, MovieStim, FINISHED

self.videos = MovieStim(pygaze.expdisplay, pos = (0, 100))

video_list = os.listdir(“vids”)
random.shuffle(video_list)

for video_name in video_list:
----self.disp.fill(self.fixation)
----self.disp.show()
----libtime.pause(500)

----self.videos.loadMovie(video_name)
----self.videos.play()
----while True:
--------self.disp.fill(self.visual_stimuli)
--------self.disp.show()
--------if self.videos.status != FINISHED:
------------break

Many thanks in advance

Santi

2

Start with the psychopy demos menu. That has many demos of different stimuli including moviestim. You appear to be using something else here because self.disp.fill() is not a PsychoPy function.

3

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely have a look at the demos menu (I must’ve missed it) and, if still unsuccessful, I will drop you another line.

I’m also using pygaze libraries (I hope that won’t represent a problem).

Santi

4

That depends on what you’re using to create the window and perform the rendering. I believe pygaze users sometimes use simple pygame windows without OpenGL acceleration and those are incompatible with psychopy stimuli. If you use PsychoPy for all your window/stimulus controls and just use pygaze for eyetracking then I think you’ll be fine.

5

I’m glad that you mentioned it. I’ll bear that in mind.

Thanks a lot!

6

Hi there again,

I think I figured out how to use the MovieStim2 now, but I keep getting the error message below… Any thoughts? (I have made sure that I have all prerequisites and installed necessary packages).

from psychopy.visual import ImageStim, MovieStim2, FINISHED

   self.visual_stimuli = libscreen.Screen()
   self.video = MovieStim2(pygaze.expdisplay, filename = 'vids/spv1.avi', pos = (0, 100), loop = False) 
   self.visual_stimuli.screen.append(self.video)

    video_list = os.listdir("vids")
    random.shuffle(video_list)
    
    for video_name in video_list:
        self.disp.fill(self.fixation)      
        self.disp.show()
        libtime.pause(500)
        print(video_name)
        self.video.loadMovie(video_name)
        self.video.play()
        while True:
            self.disp.fill(self.visual_stimuli)
            self.video.draw()
            self.disp.show()
            if self.video.status != FINISHED:
                break

File “E:/Santi/Stimuli_rating_app/stimuli_rating2.py”, line 60, in initialize_screens
self.video = MovieStim2(pygaze.expdisplay, filename = ‘vids/spv1.avi’, pos = (0, 100), loop = False)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.0-py2.7.egg\psychopy\contrib\lazy_import.py”, line 120, in call
return obj(*args, **kwargs)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.0-py2.7.egg\psychopy\visual\movie2.py”, line 235, in init
self.loadMovie(self.filename)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.0-py2.7.egg\psychopy\visual\movie2.py”, line 318, in loadMovie
raise RuntimeError(“Error when reading image file”)

RuntimeError: Error when reading image file

7

If you just use the code in the movie demo and use you file name/path does it work then? (I don’t know what this display.fill() thing is and whether it could cause a problem for you)

Also, there are 3 different movie stimulus options, each using a different library for loading movies. You’re currently using MovieStim2 but you could try MovieStim and Moviestim3 with no other changes to your code to test them instead.

8

Hi Jon, it must be then that the pygaze line of code is interfering (I did tried all of the other functions and their respective libraries).

I will try to just used psychopy to display this part...

Many thanks!

9

Well it might be your movie file is the problem, which is why I suggested that you try loading that just using the code from the movie demo script in PsychoPy Coder

10

Hi there again,

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of this problem with MovieStim2().

For the sake of testing I have tried to play some of my videos using your MovieStim2() demo script but I still get the same error (below). So I guess I have to accept that the problem is related to the files I am using… Is there any particular characteristics of the videos that make them “readable” (by the way my videos are played just fine using the standalone vlc application) or do you have a “readable” video sample I can use (to see its properties)?.

Once again, I’d really appreciate any help in this regard.

File “<ipython-input-1-eba62c432ceb>”, line 1, in <module> runfile(‘C:/Users/15238039/Documents/Experiments/MovieStim_try.py’, wdir=‘C:/Users/15238039/Documents/Experiments’)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\widgets\externalshell\sitecustomize.py”, line 685, in runfile execfile(filename, namespace)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\widgets\externalshell\sitecustomize.py”, line 71, in execfile exec(compile(scripttext, filename, ‘exec’), glob, loc)

File “C:/Users/15238039/Documents/Experiments/MovieStim_try.py”, line 19, in <module> loop=False)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.1-py2.7.egg\psychopy\contrib\lazy_import.py”, line 120, in call return obj(*args, **kwargs)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.1-py2.7.egg\psychopy\visual\movie2.py”, line 242, in init self.loadMovie(self.filename)

File “C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\psychopy-1.84.1-py2.7.egg\psychopy\visual\movie2.py”, line 325, in loadMovie raise RuntimeError(“Error when reading image file”)

RuntimeError: Error when reading image file