Why does ffmpeg report wrong or missing size information when demuxing some EXRs?

Question

I am converting EXR image sequences to mp4. Some sequences are converted without error, but others report "wrong or missing size information" and generate . It is difficult to identify what is different in these sequences. So far it seems that:

• Single layer EXRs always work, multilayer EXRs usually work
• EXRs with no transparency always work, EXRs with transparency usually work
• ExifTool reports a "Composite" image size of 1920x1082 on failing EXRs
• Increasing analyzeduration and probesize makes no difference
• Explicitly setting video_size 1920x1080 on failing image sequences makes no difference (stills fails, slightly different error message)

C:\Users\username\Documents\exr_bad1>ffmpeg -y -start_number 101 -i F1_255_020.%04d.exr test.mp4
ffmpeg version 2.8.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.2.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libdcadec --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
  libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
  libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[exr @ 04e48880] Wrong or missing size information.
[image2 @ 04e536a0] decoding for stream 0 failed
[image2 @ 04e536a0] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: exr, rgba64le): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
F1_255_020.%04d.exr: could not find codec parameters
Input #0, image2, from 'F1_255_020.%04d.exr':
  Duration: 00:00:01.20, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Video: exr, rgba64le, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
[buffer @ 04e4cdc0] Unable to parse option value "0x0" as image size
    Last message repeated 1 times
[buffer @ 04e4cdc0] Error setting option video_size to value 0x0.
[graph 0 input from stream 0:0 @ 04e81c60] Error applying options to the filter.
Error opening filters!

Answer 1

ExifTool reports a "Composite" image size of 1920x1082 on failing EXRs

This was the problem. Some multilayer EXRs were made up of multiple 1920x1080 layers, but the layers were not aligned, so the final size was incorrect (as reported by ExifTool) and ffmpeg couldn't handle it.

After correcting the EXR generation, the new image sequence worked.