Totem using GStreamer as backend cannot play RealVideo RV30/40 files

[Roman Polach]

In Feisty,
Totem cannot play RealVideo RV30/40 *.rm files, although mplayer can play them correctly.
Gstreamer displays error message "GStreamer encountered a general stream error".
MPlayer uses its "rv3040" codec to play them.

Installed relevant packages:
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg,
gstreamer0.10-pitfdll,
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad,
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse,
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly,
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse,
w32codecs (medibuntu).

[Roman Polach (rpolach)]

When a rv3040 video is contained in an MKV file,
then the Totem/gstreamer error message is different:

An error occured:
GstPlayBin: A subtitle stream was detected, but no video stream.

[Roman Polach (rpolach)]

In Gutsy, Totem plays correctly rv3040 .rm file with ffcook audio,
but it crashes when opening rv3040 .rm file with rasipr audio.

[Stéphane Loeuillet (leroutier)]

Can't find gstreamer0.10-pitfdll anymore in Gutsy.
Anyway, no 0.10.x release has never been done (latest available is 0.8.x)
But it shouldn't be needed

gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg should do the work

Could you provide such a file please ? (smaller is better)

[Stéphane Loeuillet (leroutier)]

Marking as Incomplete until file is provided

[Roman Polach (rpolach)]

I see (and have installed) gstreamer0.10-pitfdll 0.9.1.1+cvs20070321-1ubuntu1 form Gutsy Universe repository.

Attaching .rm file that crashes totem but not mplayer... sorry, it has about 1M, I do not have smaller one.

[Stéphane Loeuillet (leroutier)]

Unfortunatly, I'm on AMD64, where pitfdll isn't available.
So someone else would have to do the testing

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 beta?

[Anthony Fok (foka)]

I doubt that this bug is fixed in 8.10 beta.

According to this post http://www.unixresources.net/linux/clf/game/archive/00/00/61/34/613465.html "GStreamer still cannot play rmvb files?" (in Chinese) from year 2006, the root cause is that the gstreamer0.10-pitfdll package does not yet contain any code to handle proprietary RealVideo codecs from w32codecs. The versions of gstreamer0.10-pitfdll in hardy 8.04 and intrepid 8.10 are exactly the same.

While ffmpeg can decode some older RealVideo files, it does not yet handle RV30/40 ones.

So, this symptom won't magically cure itself. Either an open-source implementation of the RV30/40 codec appears (unlikely), or pitfdll adapts more code (from xine or mplayer) to handle the proprietary binary RV30/40 codec library, GStreamer would not be able handle RV30/40 RealVideo files.

but I'll try it out later today on intrepid 8.10 beta to make sure.

[Anthony Fok (foka)]

My mistake. I spoke too soon. :-)

With w32codecs installed, the "video" portion of Real Video 4.0 file can indeed play on Intrepid 8.10 beta! And, contrary to what I thought, it is not handled by gstreamer0.10-pitfdll, but rather by gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad (0.10.8), which is a new version in Intrepid (and in Debian experimental). The upstream NEWS.gz list the following fix (among many others):

    * Fix the Real codec wrapper plugin

Unfortunately, there is no audio:

    ** Message: don't know how to handle audio/x-pn-realaudio, raversion=(int)10, flavor=(int)0, rate=(int)32000, channels=(int)2, width=(int)16, leaf_size=(int)256, packet_size=(int)256, height=(int)1, codec_data=(buffer)021290
    ** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|RealAudio decoder|decoder-audio/x-pn-realaudio, raversion=(int)10, flavor=(int)0 (RealAudio decoder)
    ** Message: Automatic missing codec installation not supported (helper script missing)

When mplayer is used to play the same file, the following is shown:
    ==========================================================================
    Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
    FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!
    AUDIO: 32000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 16000->128000)
    Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) decoder)
    ==========================================================================

But gst-inspect does show the existence of the faad plugin. Hmm...

[Krinn (kr86420)]

RV40 is decodable by libavcodec as of svn20081203.

[Krinn (kr86420)]

Works fine in Jaunty.

[Roman Polach (rpolach)]

Still not fixed in Lucid.
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10218170/underworld1.rm gives the error message described.
Please reopen