No video in VLC

[Lavene]

Lenny, fresh install: No video in VLC, only audio. The video files plays OK in other players like Kaffeine. I have installed "w32codecs":

$ vlc videotest.avi
VLC media player 0.8.6e Janus

** (.:5660): CRITICAL **: gtk_pizza_set_size: assertion `pizza != NULL' failed
[00000296] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `FMP4'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

Same error for .mp4 except:

[00000296] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `avc1'.

What am I missing?

[JohnDeere630]

I dunno...I just noticed the same problem, except I have a 64-bit system. Have installed w64codecs as well. Kaffiene works ok.

[julian67]

Broken ffmpeg.....sound familiar? I think the ffmpeg team motto might be "if it ain't broken don't release it".

http://debian-multimedia.org/

18/06/2008 :
Broken ffmpeg libraries :
Since Debian use the same soname packages name than my packages, official packages (vlc, totem, etc...) linked against libavc* doesn't work with my libavc* packages.
If you want to use vlc and friends you need to downgrade libavc* packages to the official packages.
Beware : downgrading to these packages will remove all debian-multimedia packages who depends on libavc*
To downgrade do the following :
dpkg -l | grep 3:2008
for each package echoed do :
apt-get install --reinstall <package>=0.svn20080206-8
0.svn20080206-8 is the unstable version and 0.cvs20070307-6 for testing (check with apt-cache for the current version).

If somebody know a better solution tell me.

[garrincha]

Hmmm...strange VLC was working fine a few days ago so I checked again tonightand I got the same problem. Something must have broken it during upgrade. I'm actually using Debian/Sid. Otherwise I use my main video player which is MPlayer that has been so far trouble-free since Sarge was the de-facto stable, and sometime xine for checking the DVD extra features.

[Lavene]

So we are playing the waiting game again. I think I'll just forget about it for now rather than start downgrading, and hope that someone does something somewhere to fix it some time...

[julian67]

So we are playing the waiting game again. I think I'll just forget about it for now rather than start downgrading, and hope that someone does something somewhere to fix it some time...

It still plays DVDs with no problem, from .iso image. This is my main use for it so I kept it.

[slowcoach]

I installed totem-xine, the odd file it won't play tends to play with totem-gstreamer (Movie Player). Didn't need to install w64codecs or any other codecs or plugins.
I now no longer have mplayer or vlc installed.
Totem-xine has improved immensely since the last time I tried it.

[birdywa]

18/06/2008 :
Broken ffmpeg libraries :
Since Debian use the same soname packages name than my packages, official packages (vlc, totem, etc...) linked against libavc* doesn't work with my libavc* packages.
If you want to use vlc and friends you need to downgrade libavc* packages to the official packages.
Beware : downgrading to these packages will remove all debian-multimedia packages who depends on libavc*
To downgrade do the following :
dpkg -l | grep 3:2008
for each package echoed do :
apt-get install --reinstall <package>=0.svn20080206-8
0.svn20080206-8 is the unstable version and 0.cvs20070307-6 for testing (check with apt-cache for the current version).

If somebody know a better solution tell me.

Can someone please tell me how to do this with aptitude?

[garrincha]

18/06/2008 :
Broken ffmpeg libraries :
Since Debian use the same soname packages name than my packages, official packages (vlc, totem, etc...) linked against libavc* doesn't work with my libavc* packages.
If you want to use vlc and friends you need to downgrade libavc* packages to the official packages.
Beware : downgrading to these packages will remove all debian-multimedia packages who depends on libavc*
To downgrade do the following :
dpkg -l | grep 3:2008
for each package echoed do :
apt-get install --reinstall <package>=0.svn20080206-8
0.svn20080206-8 is the unstable version and 0.cvs20070307-6 for testing (check with apt-cache for the current version).

If somebody know a better solution tell me.

Can someone please tell me how to do this with aptitude?

ffmpeg from the Debian-Multimedia (Malliriat) repo is a bit broken. You need to remove some packages from the Debian-Multimedia repo, deactivate Debian-Multimedia repo in /etc/apt/source.lst and install ffmpeg and other dependencies from the official Debian repo.

See post #4 by hubi in Sidux forum:
http://sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-11182.html

I have not attempt to do that because 1) I use Debian "unstable" 2) I have too many dependencies to keep track of and likely to remove a lot of packages if I tried hubi's suggestion and 3) I don't use VLC.

[birdywa]

garrincha: That actually worked, thank you. Man was that a mess to fix though. I hate having to knit through webs of dependencies to replace a package like that.

[birdywa]

This has created a new problem; apparently lame resides in debian multimedia and going through this process has removed it. I tried to put the multimedia repo back in and upgrade, but in addition to adding lame back, it wanted to revert all those packages I replaced. How do I get mp3 and avi working at the same time?

[julian67]

This has created a new problem; apparently lame resides in debian multimedia and going through this process has removed it. I tried to put the multimedia repo back in and upgrade, but in addition to adding lame back, it wanted to revert all those packages I replaced. How do I get mp3 and avi working at the same time?

It's a big mess right now in Lenny as there are two versions of lame, 3.97 and 3.98. Some applications depend on specific versions and you can't have both installed at the same time (well, not via the package manager, but you could compile one, install to /usr/local and symlink). I had a look at the debian-multimedia repos for Sid and Lenny and they're not so different so I enabled the Sid repo for multimedia only, not the regular Debian repos, and upgraded and added most of the stuff that had been uninstallable previously. It worked fine, I now have ffmpeg, Totem-xine, Xine, mplayer, lame, dvdrip, ogmrip and soundconverter all working fine. As for VLC I'm resigned to simply waiting it out.

[birdywa]

It's a big mess right now in Lenny as there are two versions of lame, 3.97 and 3.98. Some applications depend on specific versions and you can't have both installed at the same time (well, not via the package manager, but you could compile one, install to /usr/local and symlink). I had a look at the debian-multimedia repos for Sid and Lenny and they're not so different so I enabled the Sid repo for multimedia only, not the regular Debian repos, and upgraded and added most of the stuff that had been uninstallable previously. It worked fine, I now have ffmpeg, Totem-xine, Xine, mplayer, lame, dvdrip, ogmrip and soundconverter all working fine. As for VLC I'm resigned to simply waiting it out.

Yeah, I have everything but VLC working as far as i'm concerned. I just dont see why this guy puts the same packages in his repo that are in the official one. I mean, its expected for stuff like this to happen when you pull that shit.

[julian67]

. I just dont see why this guy puts the same packages in his repo that are in the official one. I mean, its expected for stuff like this to happen when you pull that shit.

It's because the official packages are often compiled without all the useful available options. For example easytag official version has no aac support, mplayer official doesn't support x264 xvid libdv amr_wb amr_nb faac musepack twolame toolame.

Lenny has been going through enormous changes lately, I assume in the rush to get it frozen, so I'm not surprised stuff is getting confusing and breaking. I've even had issues with the official repos so I can't fairly expect a 3rd party maintainer to keep up.

[BioTube]

One of Lenny's release requirements is not to wait as long as Etch did. So things that might have been phased in are being shoved in to avoid such a long delay.