flv with h264 and mp4a codec not supported

[Herr Irrtum]

Binary package hint: vlc

First of all: This bug report was created by using the recommended "ubuntu-bug" tool, as it was announced by Mat Zimmerman on Planet Ubuntu today. There should be any information about my vlc version and OS things included - right at the moment I can not see any. But because this is a very generally bug report, also affecting mplayer and ffmpeg and is not bound only to the AMD64 Version of Ubuntu nor to the X86-32 Bit Versions this should not matter.

Also note: This bug has nothing to do with various h264 bugs reported about VLC inside launchpad. Actually VLC playes i.e. mp4 files with embedded h264 just fine (only the codec information tab doesn't show which codecs are in).

Problem:

On Ubuntu 8.10 (any versions, even mythbuntu, 64 bit and 32bit) it is not possible to play "newer" flv files as i.e. Youtube provides - which include h264 codecs for video an mp4a codecs for audio - outside your webbrowser. Especially not with VLC, Mplayer and depending players like KMPlayer and Mediacenters like MythTV or XBMC.
Furthermore ffmpeg can't be used to convert those files into a ubuntu friendly format. Also mencoder does not help here.
This is with all (really all!) dirty, ugly, unstriped and whatdoIknow libs from gstreamer, ffmpeg and so on - parts may be coming even from the medibuntu repository (especially those w32codecs / w64codecs packages).

This isn't about license issues. I.e. Fedora with the medibuntu like rpmfusion repository plays those files correct (at least with vlc, also ffmpeg works there like a charm on those flvs). And of course the vlc player for windows handles them too. And at least Vlc on ubuntu itself plays h264 content, but not inside flv files - as mentioned before.

I am sorry if this does not sound to nice but honestly I am not very amused. I can't use ubuntu as a multimedia platform like this without starting to compile my own versions of those programs - but what is the point on ubuntu then?

Regards, Herr Irrtum

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: vlc 0.9.4-1ubuntu3.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: vlc
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-11-generic x86_64

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

hardy has a pretty old version of ffmpeg. can you please try with intrepid or jaunty?
if you don't have access to a newer version of ubuntu, please attach an affected file to this bug.

[Herr Irrtum (die-nmi)]

@Reinhard - I was sure - sooner or later you "name the distro by its nickname" guys will fail by their own nickname schemes. I mean after years no one remembers if Hardy was there before Gutsy or was it the other way around? Especially an average user is totally confuses if you explain: "This feature is not working in Intrepid, but give Jaunty a try." This user will surely answer with "WTF?!"...
So Reinhard, the quiz is set:

What is the up to date official Ubuntu Version?
What is the name of Ubuntu 8.10 as reported by me?

Then again, think about the sense of your answer.

No hard feelings, regards,
Herr Irrtum

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Herr Irrtum <email address hidden> writes:

> What is the up to date official Ubuntu Version? What is the name of
> Ubuntu 8.10 as reported by me?

intrepid. jaunty will be 9.04.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

[Jesse (sbjesse)]

AFAIK totem (both backends), ffplay and vlc all work fine. MPlayer seems to be the only one left out in the flv crowd...

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

okay, reassinging to mplayer then

[Popolon (popolon)]

This is due to an old version of ffmpeg used inside this version of mplayer, this is fixed in karmic (seehttps://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mplayer/+bug/347021 ) and should be fixed in jaunty. FFmpeg was corrected long time before jaunty goes out, but this was not patched. Only ffmpeg/ffplay package have been patched.

See also this bug report for more informations:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ffmpeg/+bug/318445

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

karmic is built against the system ffmpeg

[Arfyness (inatrik)]

Will this be back-ported to the current stable and previous distros? If so where do we find it for Jaunty / Intrepid?

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Feel free to propose packages for MOTUMedia PPA. mplayer *should* be rather easy to be backported to jaunty, intrepid would be much more effort.