regression: mplayer detects video frame rate as -nan

[Stig-Arne Grönroos]

MPlayer 1.1-4.8 detects the frame rate of H264 videos as -nan,
which causes the video to play very rapidly and out of synch with the audio.

The expected result is that the video plays with the correct frame rate in synch with the audio.
This bug has been fixed in the current SVN version of MPlayer (SVN-r37244-4.8),
which identifies the frame rate in the attached example video as ID_VIDEO_FPS=39.583 and correctly plays the video.

The bug appeared when upgrading from Precise to Trusty (Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS)
The mplayer in Precise did not have difficulty playing these same files.

mplayer -identify mplayer_nan_framerate_bug.mp4
MPlayer 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing mplayer_nan_framerate_bug.mp4.
libavformat version 54.20.4 (external)
Mismatching header version 54.20.3
libavformat file format detected.
ID_VIDEO_ID=0
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
ID_AUDIO_ID=0
ID_AID_0_LANG=eng
[lavf] stream 1: audio (aac), -aid 0, -alang eng
VIDEO: [H264] 1280x720 24bpp -nan fps 8717.4 kbps (1064.1 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 major_brand: isom
ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME0=major_brand
ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE0=isom
 minor_version: 0
ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME1=minor_version
ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE1=0
 compatible_brands: isom3gp4
ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME2=compatible_brands
ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE2=isom3gp4
 creation_time: 2014-08-04 15:49:46
ID_CLIP_INFO_NAME3=creation_time
ID_CLIP_INFO_VALUE3=2014-08-04 15:49:46
ID_CLIP_INFO_N=4
Load subtitles in ./
ID_FILENAME=mplayer_nan_framerate_bug.mp4
ID_DEMUXER=lavfpref
ID_VIDEO_FORMAT=H264
ID_VIDEO_BITRATE=8717376
ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=1280
ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=720
ID_VIDEO_FPS= -nan
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=1.7778
ID_AUDIO_FORMAT=MP4A
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=186104
ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
ID_START_TIME=0.00
ID_LENGTH=2.59
ID_SEEKABLE=1
ID_CHAPTERS=0
[vdpau] Error when calling vdp_device_create_x11: 1
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
libavcodec version 54.35.0 (external)
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
ID_VIDEO_CODEC=ffh264
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, floatle, 186.1 kbit/6.06% (ratio: 23263->384000)
ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=186104
ID_AUDIO_RATE=48000
ID_AUDIO_NCH=2
Selected audio codec: [ffaac] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio))
==========================================================================
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch floatle (4 bytes per sample)
ID_AUDIO_CODEC=ffaac
Starting playback...
Unsupported AVPixelFormat 53
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
ID_VIDEO_ASPECT=1.7778
VO: [xv] 1280x720 => 1280x720 Planar YV12
A: 2.2 V: 1.9 A-V: 0.303 ct: -nan 0/ 0 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0

Exiting... (End of file)
ID_EXIT=EOF

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: mplayer 2:1.1+dfsg1-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Aug 4 19:26:25 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-05-29 (797 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
SourcePackage: mplayer
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-07-30 (4 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Mike B. (mcbarron)]

I see the same thing across several *.m4v files that have previously worked fine.

Verbose execution of mplayer follows (username and file name redacted):

Ubuntu 14.04
3.13.0-33-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 29 16:47:17 UTC 2014 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux

_mplayer -v [filename].m4v_

MPlayer 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team
CPU vendor name: AuthenticAMD max cpuid level: 1
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ (Family: 15, Model: 75, Stepping: 2)
extended cpuid-level: 24
extended cache-info: 33587520
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
Testing OS support for SSE... yes.
Tests of OS support for SSE passed.
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNowExt: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 SSSE3: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading optional codecs config file /home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Reading optional codecs config file /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
init_freetype
Using MMX (with tiny bit MMX2) Optimized OnScreenDisplay
get_path('fonts') -> '/home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/fonts'
Configuration: --prefix=/usr --confdir=/etc/mplayer --enable-xvmc --enable-menu --enable-radio --enable-radio-capture --disable-arts --language=all --disable-dvdread-internal --disable-libdvdcss-internal --disable-libmpeg2-internal --disable-ffmpeg_a --target=i586-linux --enable-runtime-cpudetection --enable-debug --enable-joystick --disable-gui
CommandLine: '-v' '[filename].m4v'
Using nanosleep() timing
get_path('input.conf') -> '/home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/input.conf'
Reading optional input config file /home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Parsing input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf
Input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf parsed: 92 binds
Setting up LIRC support...
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
get_path('[filename].m4v.conf') -> '/home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/[filename].m4v.conf'

Playing [filename].m4v.
get_path('sub/') -> '/home/[myUsername]/.mplayer/sub/'
[file] File size is 839610047 bytes
STREAM: [file] [filename].m4v
STREAM: Description: File
STREAM: Author: Albeu
STREAM: Comment: based on the code from ??? (probably Arpi)
libavformat version 54.20.4 (external)
Mismatching header version 54.20.3
Configuration: --arch=i386 --enable-pthreads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-version='6:9.16-0ubuntu0.14.04.1' --libdir=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --enable-bzlib --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-vaapi --enable-vdpau --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-zlib --enable-gpl --enable-swscale --enable-libcdio --enable-x11grab --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --shlibdir=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/i686/cmov --cpu=i686 --enable-shared --disable-static
LAVF_check: QuickTime / MOV
libavformat file format detected.
[mov,mp4,m4a,...

[Silvio Levy (levy-msri)]

Any chance this might be fixed soon? I can't live without mplayer, it's the only really good video player I know, and after I upgrated to ubuntu 14.04 half of my mp4 files fail to play because of this problem.

[Kees Cook (kees)]

My workaround is to install mplayer from 13.10.

[Kees Cook (kees)]

sudo -s
echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get install mplayer=mplayer=2:1.0~rc4.dfsg1+svn34540-1
echo "mplayer hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

[Cip Man (cipman-p)]

Thanks Kees!
I think the 5th line should be:
apt-get install mplayer=2:1.0~rc4.dfsg1+svn34540-1