Can't select mp4 encoder settings

[Rosen Penev]

Selecting mp4 while trying to encode files to an ipod results in an "Ubuntu" preset being applied and grayed out. I could control the settings in Fedora and Arch but not Ubuntu.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: rhythmbox 3.3-1ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-24.43-generic 4.4.10
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Jun 18 16:36:45 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-03 (46 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

what version of fedora and arch has options for mp4 encoding ?

I haven't seen them and don't seen them in recent fedora ( FC27 ) and arch ( 2017 ) releases, either.

Thanks !

[Rosen Penev (rosenp)]

I think this was on fedora 25. Maybe 24.

I don't use Linux anymore(this laptop sucks).

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

Below is the case for Fedora ( and possibly arch ), which use faac encoder.

[rem@fc25 ~]$ gst-inspect-1.0 | grep -i aac
faac: faac: AAC audio encoder
faad: faad: AAC audio decoder
...

[rem@fc25 ~]$ gst-inspect-1.0 faac
...
  quality : Variable bitrate (VBR) quantizer quality in %
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Integer. Range: 1 - 1000 Default: 100

  bitrate : Average Bitrate (ABR) in bits/sec
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Integer. Range: 8000 - 320000 Default: 128000

which supports cbr and vbr, and hence their gstreamer profiles. Refer to below attachments.

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

Rhythmbox in FC25 with faac encoder installed.

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

whereas with debian and its derivatives ( Ubuntu / Mint ), aac encoder from libav is used.

Refer https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gst-plugins-bad1.0/+bug/1299376

rem@debian:~$ gst-inspect-1.0 | grep -i aac
libav: avenc_aac: libav AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) encoder
libav: avdec_aac: libav AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) decoder
...

rem@debian:~$ gst-inspect-1.0 avenc_aac
...
  bitrate : Target Audio Bitrate
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Integer. Range: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0

I guess from the above, libav's aac encoder supports only default configuration. Can't see a quality element property here.

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

Tried manually compiling libfaac and copying it to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/

Now debian lists faac too

rem@debian:~$ gst-inspect-1.0 | grep -i aac
faac: faac: AAC audio encoder
...

Now, CBR / VBR profiles are now visible in Rhythmbox ( debian ) and hence should be in Rhythmbox ( ubuntu ) too.

So, the conclusion is that bug scope is outside of Rhythmbox ( Ubuntu )

[rithik g (gkrithi)]

By manually compiling libfaac I meant the gstreamer faac from gst-plugins-bad located in

gst-plugins-bad/gst-plugins-bad1.0-1.12.4/ext/faac

not libfaac, which should anyway be installed as part of build dependency for gstreamer faac, as below:

# apt-get install libfaac-dev

The following additional packages will be installed:
  libfaac0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libfaac-dev libfaac0
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 72 not upgraded.
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[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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