Say file-like instead of io types

Author: scotts

src/torchcodec/decoders/_audio_decoder.py

@@ -26,14 +26,14 @@ class AudioDecoder:
     Returned samples are float samples normalized in [-1, 1]
 
     Args:
-        source (str, ``Pathlib.path``,
-                ``io.RawIOBase``, ``io.BufferedReader``,
-                bytes, or ``torch.Tensor``): The source of the audio:
+        source (str, ``Pathlib.path``, bytes, ``torch.Tensor`` or file-like object): The source of the video:
 
             - If ``str``: a local path or a URL to a video or audio file.
             - If ``Pathlib.path``: a path to a local video or audio file.
-            - If ``io.RawIOBase`` or ``io.BufferedReader``: a file-like object that refers to a audio file.
             - If ``bytes`` object or ``torch.Tensor``: the raw encoded audio data.
+            - If file-like object: we read video data from the object on demand. The object must
+              expose the methods ``read(self, size: int) -> bytes`` and
+              ``seek(self, offset: int, whence: int) -> bytes``. Read more in TODO_FILE_LIKE_TUTORIAL.
         stream_index (int, optional): Specifies which stream in the file to decode samples from.
             Note that this index is absolute across all media types. If left unspecified, then
             the :term:`best stream` is used.

src/torchcodec/decoders/_decoder_utils.py

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def create_decoder(
         return core.create_from_tensor(source, seek_mode)
     elif isinstance(source, io.TextIOBase):
         raise TypeError(
-            "source is of type io.TextIOBase; did you forget to specify binary reading?"
+            "source is for reading text, likely from open(..., 'r'). Try with 'rb' for binary reading?"
         )
     elif hasattr(source, "read") and hasattr(source, "seek"):
         # This check must be after checking for text-based reading. Also placing
@@ -46,5 +46,7 @@ def create_decoder(
 
     raise TypeError(
         f"Unknown source type: {type(source)}. "
-        "Supported types are str, Path, io.RawIOBase, io.BufferedReader, bytes and Tensor."
+        "Supported types are str, Path, bytes, Tensor and file-like objects with "
+        "read(self, size: int) -> bytes and "
+        "seek(self, offset: int, whence: int) -> bytes methods."
     )

src/torchcodec/decoders/_video_decoder.py

@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@ class VideoDecoder:
     """A single-stream video decoder.
 
     Args:
-        source (str, ``Pathlib.path``,
-                ``io.RawIOBase``, ``io.BufferedReader``,
-                bytes, or ``torch.Tensor``): The source of the video:
+        source (str, ``Pathlib.path``, bytes, ``torch.Tensor`` or file-like object): The source of the video:
 
             - If ``str``: a local path or a URL to a video file.
             - If ``Pathlib.path``: a path to a local video file.
-            - If ``io.RawIOBase`` or ``io.BufferedReader``: a file-like object that refers to a video file.
             - If ``bytes`` object or ``torch.Tensor``: the raw encoded video data.
+            - If file-like object: we read video data from the object on demand. The object must
+              expose the methods ``read(self, size: int) -> bytes`` and
+              ``seek(self, offset: int, whence: int) -> bytes``. Read more in TODO_FILE_LIKE_TUTORIAL.
         stream_index (int, optional): Specifies which stream in the video to decode frames from.
             Note that this index is absolute across all media types. If left unspecified, then
             the :term:`best stream` is used.