Support for custom Puppeteer / Apple M1 support

packages/cli/src/parse-command-line.ts

@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 import minimist from 'minimist';
-import {Codec, Config, ImageFormat, PixelFormat} from 'remotion';
+import {
+	BrowserExecutable,
+	Codec,
+	Config,
+	ImageFormat,
+	PixelFormat,
+} from 'remotion';
 
 export type CommandLineOptions = {
+	['browser-executable']: BrowserExecutable;
 	['pixel-format']: PixelFormat;
 	['image-format']: ImageFormat;
 	concurrency: number;
@@ -25,6 +32,9 @@ export const parseCommandLine = () => {
 	if (parsedCli['image-format']) {
 		Config.Rendering.setImageFormat(parsedCli['image-format']);
 	}
+	if (parsedCli['browser-executable']) {
+		Config.Puppeteer.setBrowserExecutable(parsedCli['browser-executable']);
+	}
 	if (parsedCli.concurrency) {
 		Config.Rendering.setConcurrency(parsedCli.concurrency);
 	}

packages/cli/src/render.tsx

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import {bundle} from '@remotion/bundler';
 import {
+	ensureLocalBrowser,
 	ffmpegHasFeature,
 	getActualConcurrency,
 	getCompositions,
@@ -77,6 +78,7 @@ export const render = async () => {
 	const overwrite = Internals.getShouldOverwrite();
 	const userProps = getUserProps();
 	const quality = Internals.getQuality();
+	const browser = Internals.getBrowser() ?? Internals.DEFAULT_BROWSER;
 
 	const absoluteOutputFile = path.resolve(process.cwd(), outputFile);
 	if (fs.existsSync(absoluteOutputFile) && !overwrite) {
@@ -102,6 +104,13 @@ export const render = async () => {
 		pixelFormat,
 		imageFormat
 	);
+	try {
+		await ensureLocalBrowser(browser);
+	} catch (err) {
+		console.error('Could not download a browser for rendering frames.');
+		console.error(err);
+		process.exit(1);
+	}
 	if (shouldOutputImageSequence) {
 		fs.mkdirSync(absoluteOutputFile, {
 			recursive: true,
@@ -123,10 +132,12 @@ export const render = async () => {
 	const bundled = await bundle(fullPath, (progress) => {
 		bundlingProgress.update(progress);
 	});
-	const comps = await getCompositions(bundled);
-	const compositionId = getCompositionId(comps);
-
 	bundlingProgress.stop();
+	const comps = await getCompositions(
+		bundled,
+		Internals.getBrowser() ?? Internals.DEFAULT_BROWSER
+	);
+	const compositionId = getCompositionId(comps);
 
 	const config = comps.find((c) => c.id === compositionId);
 	if (!config) {
@@ -164,6 +175,7 @@ export const render = async () => {
 		webpackBundle: bundled,
 		imageFormat,
 		quality,
+		browser,
 	});
 	renderProgress.stop();
 	if (process.env.DEBUG) {
@@ -201,14 +213,21 @@ export const render = async () => {
 		stitchingProgress.stop();
 
 		console.log('Cleaning up...');
-		await Promise.all([
-			fs.promises.rmdir(outputDir, {
-				recursive: true,
-			}),
-			fs.promises.rmdir(bundled, {
-				recursive: true,
-			}),
-		]);
+		try {
+			await Promise.all([
+				fs.promises.rmdir(outputDir, {
+					recursive: true,
+				}),
+				fs.promises.rmdir(bundled, {
+					recursive: true,
+				}),
+			]);
+		} catch (err) {
+			console.error('Could not clean up directory.');
+			console.error(err);
+			console.log('Do you have minimum required Node.js version?');
+			process.exit(1);
+		}
 		console.log('\n▶️ Your video is ready - hit play!');
 	} else {
 		console.log('\n▶️ Your image sequence is ready!');

packages/core/src/config/browser-executable.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+export type BrowserExecutable = string | null;
+
+let currentBrowserExecutablePath: BrowserExecutable = null;
+
+export const setBrowserExecutable = (
+	newBrowserExecutablePath: BrowserExecutable
+) => {
+	currentBrowserExecutablePath = newBrowserExecutablePath;
+};
+
+export const getBrowserExecutable = () => {
+	return currentBrowserExecutablePath;
+};

packages/core/src/config/browser.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+export type Browser = 'chrome' | 'firefox';
+
+export const DEFAULT_BROWSER: Browser = 'chrome';
+
+// There is no Firefox support yet, the waitForFunction method
+// does not yet work and downloading has a bug.
+// Disabling this for now!
+export const FEATURE_FLAG_FIREFOX_SUPPORT = false;
+
+let currentBrowser: Browser | null = null;
+
+export const setBrowser = (browser: Browser) => {
+	if (browser === 'chrome') {
+		process.env.PUPPETEER_PRODUCT = 'chrome';
+	}
+	if (browser === 'firefox') {
+		process.env.PUPPETEER_PRODUCT = 'firefox';
+	}
+	currentBrowser = browser;
+};
+
+export const getBrowser = () => {
+	return currentBrowser;
+};

packages/core/src/config/index.ts

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import {Browser} from './browser';
+import {BrowserExecutable, setBrowserExecutable} from './browser-executable';
 import {Codec, setCodec, setOutputFormat} from './codec';
 import {Concurrency, setConcurrency} from './concurrency';
 import {setCrf} from './crf';
@@ -21,6 +23,13 @@ export const Config = {
 		 */
 		overrideWebpackConfig,
 	},
+	Puppeteer: {
+		/**
+		 * Specify executable path for the browser to use.
+		 * Default: null, which will make Remotion find or download a version of said browser.
+		 */
+		setBrowserExecutable,
+	},
 	Rendering: {
 		/**
 		 * Sets how many Puppeteer instances will work on rendering your video in parallel.
@@ -34,8 +43,7 @@ export const Config = {
 		 * Default: 80
 		 */
 		setQuality,
-		/**
-		 * Decide in which image format to render. Can be either 'jpeg' or 'png'.
+		/** Decide in which image format to render. Can be either 'jpeg' or 'png'.
 		 * PNG is slower, but supports transparency.
 		 */
 		setImageFormat,
@@ -80,6 +88,8 @@ export type {
 	Concurrency,
 	WebpackConfiguration,
 	WebpackOverrideFn,
+	BrowserExecutable,
 	ImageFormat,
 	Codec,
+	Browser,
 };

packages/core/src/internals.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ import {
 	TComposition,
 	TSequence,
 } from './CompositionManager';
+import {
+	DEFAULT_BROWSER,
+	FEATURE_FLAG_FIREFOX_SUPPORT,
+	getBrowser,
+} from './config/browser';
+import {getBrowserExecutable} from './config/browser-executable';
 import {
 	DEFAULT_CODEC,
 	getFinalOutputCodec,
@@ -48,6 +54,7 @@ export const Internals = {
 	RemotionRoot,
 	useVideo,
 	getRoot,
+	getBrowserExecutable,
 	getCompositionName,
 	getIsEvaluation,
 	getPixelFormat,
@@ -61,6 +68,9 @@ export const Internals = {
 	getFinalOutputCodec,
 	DEFAULT_CODEC,
 	DEFAULT_PIXEL_FORMAT,
+	FEATURE_FLAG_FIREFOX_SUPPORT,
+	getBrowser,
+	DEFAULT_BROWSER,
 	getDefaultCrfForCodec,
 	getActualCrf,
 	getUserPreferredImageFormat,

packages/docs/docs/cli.md

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Besides choosing a video and output location with the command line arguments, th
 - `--sequence`: [Pass this flag if you want an image sequence as the output instead of a video.](config#setimagesequence) Available since v1.4.
 - `--codec`: [`h264` or `h265` or `png` or `vp8` or `vp9`](config#setoutputformat). If you don't supply `--codec`, it will use the H.264 encoder. Available since v1.4.
 - `--crf`: [To set Constant Rate Factor (CRF) of the output](config#setcrf). Minimum 0. Use this rate control mode if you want to keep the best quality and care less about the file size. Available since v1.4.
+- `--browser-executable`: [Path to a Chrome executable](config#setbrowserexecutable). If not specified and Remotion cannot find one, it will download one during rendering. Available since v1.5.
 
 :::info
 If you don't feel like passing command line flags every time, consider creating a `remotion.config.ts` [config file](config).

packages/docs/docs/config.md

@@ -27,6 +27,18 @@ Config.Bundling.overrideWebpackConfig((currentConfiguration) => {
 });
 ```
 
+## Puppeteer
+
+### setBrowserExecutable()
+
+Set a custom Chrome or Chromium executable path. By default Remotion will try to find an existing version of Chrome on your system and if not found, it will download one. This flag is useful if you don't have Chrome installed in a standard location and you want to prevent downloading an additional browser or need [support for the H264 codec](/docs/video#codec-support).
+
+```ts
+Config.Puppeteer.setBrowserExecutable('/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable')
+```
+
+The [command line flag](cli) `--browser-executable` will take precedence over this option.
+
 ## Rendering
 
 ### setConcurrency()

packages/docs/docs/getting-started.md

@@ -29,3 +29,15 @@ npm init video
 ```
 
 That's it! Wait for the installation to be finished and follow the instructions in the terminal.
+
+### Additional step for Linux users
+
+Linux users need to install some additional packages to get Chrome/Puppeteer working correctly.
+
+**Ubuntu**
+
+```console
+apt install -y gconf-service libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libc6 libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgcc1 libgconf-2-4 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libglib2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 ca-certificates fonts-liberation libappindicator1 libnss3 lsb-release xdg-utils wget libgbm-dev
+```
+
+Got instructions for more Linux distributions? [Add them to this page](https://github.com/JonnyBurger/remotion/edit/main/packages/docs/docs/getting-started.md)!

packages/docs/docs/importing-assets.md

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ title: Importing assets
 Remotion allows you to include several types of files in your project:
 
 - Images (`.png`, `.svg`, `.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.webp`, `.gif`, `.bmp`)
-- Videos (`.webm`, `.mp4`), with constraints
+- Videos (`.webm`, `.mp4`)
 - Audio (`.mp3`, `.wav`, `.aac`), preview only
 - [Fonts (`.woff` and `.woff2`) - read the separate page for fonts](fonts)
 
@@ -69,9 +69,7 @@ export const MyComp: React.FC = () => {
 }
 ```
 
-:::info
-Since Puppeteer doesn't include the proprietary codec to read MP4 videos, you must convert your videos to WebM before rendering.
-:::
+Be aware that if you are rendering using Chromium (as opposed to Chrome), the codec for MP4 videos is not included. Read the section on the [`<Video/ >`](/docs/video#codec-support) page for more information.
 
 ## Using Audio