VLC unable to show MP4 video, plays audio fine

[Erich Eickmeyer]

VLC is able to playback audio from MP4 videos. However, the video does not show. When the window is closed, the mp4 video shows just for a moment and then disappears. This happens irrespective of X11 or Wayland and is irrespective of desktop environment. Tested on multiple machines with multiple video chipsets, so it's not related to nvidia drivers or intel drivers.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.10
Package: vlc 3.0.17.4-4build2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.19.0-1005.5-lowlatency 5.19.7
Uname: Linux 5.19.0-1005-lowlatency x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.23.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Fri Sep 30 11:14:45 2022
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-08-13 (47 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Studio 22.10 "Kinetic Kudu" - Alpha amd64 (20220813)
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Aaron Rainbolt (arraybolt3)]

Successfully reproduced bug on physical hardware. Also was able to reproduce in a Debian Sid VM.

[Rik Mills (rikmills)]

Not only is vlc seeded as the main media player in several Ubuntu flavours, it is a piece of software so Ubiquitous and assumed to work in the OS and wider community, that such broken behaviour is not acceptable to release with IMO.

[Rudra Saraswat (rs2009)]

Confirmed this issue on Ubuntu Unity too (where VLC is the default video player).

[Rik Mills (rikmills)]

Trying the vlc master branch (v4.0) build from https://launchpad.net/~videolan/+archive/ubuntu/master-daily shows the same breakage

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

Does playback work with `--no-embedded-video`?.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

I can reproduce the problem with Debian Sid, but not with a custom build of upstream release of the same baseline version 3.0.17.4.

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

Per conversations with Sebastian Ramacher in the watched Debian bug, the bug has been fixed in 3.0.18-rc2. I asked if he'd be willing to package this in Experimental, he declined saying he's waiting on a tarball of 3.0.18 when released. I have been investigating looking for a commit to cherry-pick as a patch, but I haven't zeroed-in on which one(s).

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

So, hate to rain on your parade, but as I wrote yesterday, the problem doesn't occur with upstream (building manually) 3.0.17.4. So there are ostensibly no patches to backport from upstream 3.0.18-rc2. This is probably an issue in the Debian packaging or at least that is triggered by Debian packaging.

Since it seems to affect only the Qt UI, it is most probably a problem with the last Qt update. Again, please check with --no-embedded-video.

[Rik Mills (rikmills)]

On 03/10/2022 07:13, Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
> So, hate to rain on your parade, but as I wrote yesterday, the problem
> doesn't occur with upstream (building manually) 3.0.17.4. So there are
> ostensibly no patches to backport from upstream 3.0.18-rc2. This is
> probably an issue in the Debian packaging or at least that is triggered
> by Debian packaging.
>
> Since it seems to affect only the Qt UI, it is most probably a problem
> with the last Qt update. Again, please check with --no-embedded-video.

Running with --no-embedded-video does indeed work, but as expected is
ugly with the video in a separate floating window. Thanks!

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

Remi,

Regarding the Debian packaging, all you need to see is here: https://salsa.debian.org/multimedia-team/vlc/-/tree/master/debian. You can even see the patching that is applied to make it work with the build system. If you see anything that is problematic, I suggest letting the packagers know on the Debian bug that is linked here (a simple email reply to <email address hidden> will do the trick, and I'll also see the replies). You can see that the Ubuntu package is merely a sync of the Debian package with no further changes (hence no ubuntu in the package name).

However, I'm more than happy to help fix this on our side if we can add another patch, but we are on a very severe time crunch here, and I can't code Qt. It doesn't really matter where the blame is, the fact of the matter is we're only seeing this problem in vlc.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

If you wanted to antagonise your upstream, congratulations, you've succeeded. Needless to say that this kind of hostile attitude, from an Ubuntu.com employee no less, is very unwelcome and in my personal opinion totally unwarranted.

Due to obvious personal reasons, I will no longer be triaging bugs on Launchpad.

Have fun.

[Brandon Snider (brandonsnider)]

EE, what makes you think you can grandstand like this and get away with it? Why are you convinced that tone policing upstream developers is a good idea?

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

Remi, I'm not an Ubuntu.com employee. I'm a volunteer.

Brandon, you're off topic.

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

Rémi: Sent you a letter of apology.

[Sam Colegrove (colegrove479)]

I am on Kubuntu Kinetic and I have added to my system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/master-daily

I now have VLC 4.0.0~rc1 installed and it is working well. This new version has a separate window for controlling the VLC video. On a dual screen display this is no problem as the control screen can be on a separate screen to the video being played. Alternately, if the control screen is behind the video you can bring if to the front by Alt+Tab.

[Rik Mills (rikmills)]

A fixed VLC package is in the unapproved queue awaiting review by the release-team.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/kinetic/+queue?queue_state=1&queue_text=vlc

Once approved, it will build and become available

[Lucía Andrea Illanes Albornoz (lalbornoz)]

This bug is still present in Kubuntu 22.10 and VLC version 3.0.17.4 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2). I cannot (a lot of the time) play videos w/ VLC. What's the status on this?