diff --git a/fftools/ffmpeg_utils.h b/fftools/ffmpeg_utils.h
index bd225abc38..7939e44cdc 100644
--- a/fftools/ffmpeg_utils.h
+++ b/fftools/ffmpeg_utils.h
@@ -35,11 +35,12 @@ typedef struct Timestamp {
 /**
  * Merge two return codes - return one of the error codes if at least one of
  * them was negative, 0 otherwise.
- * Currently just picks the first one, eventually we might want to do something
- * more sophisticated, like sorting them by priority.
  */
 static inline int err_merge(int err0, int err1)
 {
+    // prefer "real" errors over EOF
+    if ((err0 >= 0 || err0 == AVERROR_EOF) && err1 < 0)
+        return err1;
     return (err0 < 0) ? err0 : FFMIN(err1, 0);
 }