ai.jp.net

Windows users navigating torchaudio's upgrade to 2.9 confront a triad of dependencies: torchcodec, FFmpeg, and Python DLL loading. The article documents a practical workaround: install the shared FFmpeg build and modify the DLL search path (os.add_dll_directory) before importing torchcodec, or fall back to librosa. This yields a pragmatic solution that highlights a broader issue: cross-platform packaging for audio tooling remains fragile when runtime binaries are external. The core problem isn't just how to load audio, but who owns the lifecycle of native binaries on Windows—pip wheels rarely bundle FFmpeg, and users must manually procure a compatible binary and ensure the path is correct. A more robust approach would be for library maintainers to declare and bundle runtime dependencies, or to provide an automated installer or containerized environment that isolates the dependency graph. In the long term, expect better Windows packaging for torchaudio—explicit binary wheels including torchcodec and FFmpeg, or at least a guiding setup script. Until then, developers may consider lighter-weight alternatives like librosa, but should acknowledge potential trade-offs in performance and API parity.