cannot play Quicktime reference media

[Alex Mauer]

Binary package hint: xine-plugin

The Quicktime videos linked at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html do not play at all.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Oct 21 21:30:10 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: xine-plugin 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: xine-plugin
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Most of the plugins simply failed completely. However:

When I chose to install gxine, it simply asked for installation of missing plugins again. When I manually installed gxineplugin instead, it launched a separate gxine window, which failed to play the media.

gecko-mediaplayer was able to play the video once; however, if I stopped the video and closed the new window where the media was supposed to play, it would not play again, even if I restarted the browser.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Note that the aforementioned “new window” refers to a new browser window opened by the web page link, not a separate window created by gecko-mediaplayer.

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Can you explain more in detail what the problem is with gecko-mediaplayer? I can see the quicktime video with no problem, stop it, close the window and play it again as much as I want.

[Kevin DeKorte (kdekorte-gmail)]

I know I had this site working before but today nothing is working there. Also, the version of mplayer may be a factor here. I am using mplayer SVN r29789

[Darren Salt (dsalt)]

This is not a front-end issue.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

mplayer version 29237 here.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Cesare:

The problem with gecko-mediaplayer is as I said. For me at least, it works very infrequently.

I click the link, it plays. I then close the window and it won't play again --- the new window opens up, the plugin loads, and then it just sits there at "Stopped". Clicking play has no effect. reloading the page has no effect. No error is indicated; it simply doesn't work.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

If I right-click on the plugin and choose “copy location”, then play the location at the command line using mplayer, I get the following:

Playing http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/media2/nova_eu_3012c01_caps.mov.
Resolving www.pbs.org for AF_INET6...
Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: www.pbs.org
Resolving www.pbs.org for AF_INET...
Connecting to server www.pbs.org[149.48.228.121]: 80...
Cache size set to 320 KBytes
Cache fill: 2.50% (8202 bytes)
Quicktime/MOV file format detected.
[mov] Subtitle stream found, -sid 0
No stream found.

So it appears that it’s perhaps trying to play a/the subtitle stream instead of the video stream?

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Darren: surely the part where gxine doesn't work as a browser plugin, and keeps trying to install over and over is a front-end and/or packaging issue. And if the backend can't play this type of video, it shouldn't be offered as a browser plugin for this type of video.

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

I tried on another machine where I have gnome-mplayer/gecko-mediaplayer 0.9.8 but a different mplayer version (its an svn snapshot from end of last April) and there I have the same problem as Kevin. So, I'd also say its either a backend problem or a problem with that site.

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Don't change statuses when both upstream and the ubuntu maintainer sets them.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Are you saying this plugin works with this video? Because it doesn't.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

Upstream said specifically, "today nothing is working there." -- they did not change the status to invalid.

[moamen (moamen-ymail)]

try to download the media player again

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Again, this is not a problem with the front end. If you change again the staus I will have to ask for you to be be banned from launchpad.

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

It is definitely a problem, though, as the media does not play. If you cannot accept that it is a problem with the 'front end', whatever that refers to, can you please assign it to the correct package instead of just claiming it's not a problem?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

The provided URL http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/media2/nova_eu_3012c01_caps.mov contains only subtitles - no video and no audio.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/media2/eu.mov would be a better one. It contains a reference to a working URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/media2/nova_eu_3012c01_ref.mov (working in native VLC anyway)

[John Rose (johnaaronrose)]

For Lucid, solution to play Quicktime videos (including URL previously referred to is:
-Close Firefox.
-Delete the plugins registry file. That should be in your ~/.mozilla/firefox/<profile (like xxxxxxxx.default)> folder, where ~/.mozilla is generally /home/<yourname>/.mozilla. Delete the file pluginreg.dat, which firefox will recreate when it starts.
-Using Synaptic Package Manager, ensure that the multiverse repository is enabled.
-Remove the totem mozilla plugin named totem-mozilla.
-Install gecko-mediaplayer, which automatically installs all of the mplayer goodness as well.
PS I have vlc installed (for playing of DVDs as it's the only app that always works for that) but I do not have the vlc-mozilla-plugin package installed.

[rusivi2 (rusivi2-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for posting this bug.

I have no problem playing a Quicktime format (.mov) via vlc in Maverick. Marking as such.

 lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu maverick (development branch)
Release: 10.10

apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: 1.1.4-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.1.4-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.1.4-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Justin Uptmor (skeeby)]

Im not sure how i came across this bug thread in my search, but i was having trouble with totem streaming divx files in firefox on build 10.10. Sometimes the videos would start to load, but most of the time not. I came across John Rose's fix and it worked like a charm.

Just a heads up for anyone else that may be experiencing difficulties streaming divx.

[Justin Uptmor (skeeby)]

Edit: Additional information update here.

When I experienced this problem, I had just updated from 10.04, currently 10.10.

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Closing for Totem as it doesn't seem an issue with currently supported versions of Totem and Ubuntu.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

This package has been removed from Ubuntu. Closing all related bugs.