From: Nick Sinclair on
Hi Rob,
Just noticed your query. Much to late to be use to you probably. But you simply have to query the NumberOfFrames property AFTER running that read(obj,inf) command. It will not be empty after running that command.

FOR EXAMPLE:

readerobj = mmreader('calib_check.mov')
Warning: Unable to determine the number of frames in this file.
Summary of Multimedia Reader Object for 'calib_check.mov'.
Video Parameters: 25.00 frames per second, RGB24 768x576.
Unable to determine video frames available.
>> readerobj.NumberOfFrames
ans =
[]
>> frame = read(readerobj,inf); %LONG WAIT
>> readerobj.NumberOfFrames
ans =
868