B"H Failed to build 'av' on Windows 11 — Build error in av\logging.pyx (Cython)

[jairojoelsas]

Hello OpenVoice team,

I’m trying to install OpenVoice on Windows 11, using Python 3.10.11, and I'm consistently running into the following error during pip install -r requirements.txt:

ERROR: Failed to build 'av' when getting requirements to build wheel

The log shows this happens in:

av\logging.pyx

Here’s what I’ve already tried:

• Installed Visual Studio Build Tools with “Desktop development with C++” enabled
• Tried adding av==10.0.0 ; sys_platform == "never" to skip av
• Tried forcing installation with --no-build-isolation and --no-deps
• Installed essential packages manually (torch, gradio, numpy, whisper, etc.)

I have a fully working environment for Whisper (import whisper works), and everything is installed except faster-whisper, which depends on av.

My Questions:

1. Is there a working installation path for OpenVoice on Windows that bypasses av successfully?
2. Do you recommend using Docker or Linux (WSL or native) for a complete installation?
3. Is a Windows support update planned, or is this a known limitation?

Would appreciate any guidance or a documented workaround.
Thank you in advance!

Best regards,
Jairo

[dosubot]

Hi @jairojoelsas! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the OpenVoice team.

There isn’t a way to bypass the av dependency on Windows if you want to use OpenVoice’s core features, since av is required by faster-whisper, which is itself a core dependency. The build error you’re seeing is a known issue caused by incompatibilities between PyAV (av), Cython, and Python versions on Windows.

Workarounds that have helped some users include: using Python 3.9 instead of 3.10, removing the version pin for faster-whisper in requirements.txt, and downgrading Cython to below 3.0. Some have also reported success by updating faster-whisper to 1.2.1 and av to 15.1.0 in both requirements.txt and setup.py (example).

There are no official Windows-specific installation instructions or workarounds for av in the OpenVoice documentation. If you want a smoother experience, using Docker or WSL (Ubuntu) is recommended—community Dockerfiles and guides are available and have been reported to work well (Docker example).

There’s no indication of an official Windows support update or a fix for this limitation in the near term. For now, Linux (native or WSL) or Docker is the most reliable path for a complete installation.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[DNDeveloper-s]

Hi,

Bumping this issue as I'm facing a very similar build error with the 'av' package, but on macOS (Apple Silicon M-series, macOS Sonoma/Sequoia) using Python 3.9 in a conda environment. This happens during pip install -e . after cloning the repo.
The error is identical: "Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully" with pkg-config failing to find libavformat, libavcodec, etc., and subprocess exit code 1.
I've tried:

The suggestions from #455 (e.g., --no-build-isolation, manual dependency installs like torch/whisper/numpy).
Installing FFmpeg dev libs via Homebrew: brew install ffmpeg pkg-config (tried both latest and @5 versions).
Ensuring PATH and PKG_CONFIG_PATH are set correctly (e.g., export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@5/lib/pkgconfig").
Force-building av: pip install av --no-binary av.
Clean reinstalls, new conda envs, and even Xcode command line tools refresh.

None resolved it—still hits the pkg-config library not found errors.

[EvgenijLutz]

Can confirm, like @dosu said, using Python 3.9 and bumping faster-whisper to 1.2.1 in both equirements.txt and setup.py resolved the issue on Ubuntu 24 arm64.

[melomv]

Hello,

I was having the same issue tryng to install under Ubuntu running on WSL and confirm the solution pointed here. After updating faster-whisper to 1.2.1 and av to 15.1.0 in both requirements.txt and setup.py, I was able to finish initial setup.