Two-Pixel Size Mismatch Crashed an ffmpeg Pipeline for Three Days Straight

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A developer's automated Instagram video pipeline failed every morning for three consecutive days, with ffmpeg returning the cryptic exit code 234. The root cause turned out to be a source video measuring 1078×1920 pixels — just two pixels narrower than the standard 9:16 ratio. Because the subprocess call lacked output capture, ffmpeg's actual error message was silently discarded, leaving only the misleading numeric code visible. The scale filter calculated a height of 1924 pixels, which exceeded the pad filter's 1920-pixel target, causing an invalid-argument rejection since pad adds borders but cannot crop. The fix involved supplying both dimensions explicitly to the scale filter and using ffmpeg's automatic centering (-1:-1) for the pad step, ensuring the pipeline handles any aspect ratio without breaking.

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