Ubuntu

No video in Movie Player or VLC Player

Asked by VanillaMozilla

I have audio but no video in Movie Player and VLC Player. It fails for .flv, .mp4, and .VOB files. Avidemux works for .VOB; didn't try it for the others.

I believe the problem was caused by a poorly conceived update attempt. Faced with a broken Pitivi that I needed to fix, I figured I would update it from the PPA. (I have Oneiric, which does not have the latest version.)

I executed the following command, which I got from http://www.pitivi.org/?go=download :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa && sudo apt-get update

Here's the relevant excerpt from /var/log/apt/history.log:

Commandline: aptdaemon role='role-commit-packages' sender=':1.68'
Install: libspandsp2:i386 (0.0.6~pre18-2)
Upgrade: gstreamer0.10-alsa:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), libpurple0:i386 (2.10.0-0ubuntu2.1, 2.10.0-0ubuntu2.2), gstreamer0.10-x:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-doc:i386 (0.10.35-1, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty1, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly:i386 (0.10.19-1~natty2, 0.10.19-1~oneiric1), gir1.2-gstreamer-0.10:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty1, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-gconf:i386 (0.10.31-1~natty2, 0.10.31-1~oneiric1), pidgin-data:i386 (2.10.0-0ubuntu2.1, 2.10.0-0ubuntu2.2), gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386 (0.10.31-1~natty2, 0.10.31-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-good-doc:i386 (0.10.30-1ubuntu7.1, 0.10.31-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio:i386 (0.10.31-1~natty2, 0.10.31-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad:i386 (0.10.23-1~natty3, 0.10.23-1~oneiric1), libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-0:i386 (0.10.23-1~natty3, 0.10.23-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-doc:i386 (0.10.35-1, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), libpurple-bin:i386 (2.10.0-0ubuntu2.1, 2.10.0-0ubuntu2.2), pidgin:i386 (2.10.0-0ubuntu2.1, 2.10.0-0ubuntu2.2), gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty2, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), transmission-common:i386 (2.33-0ubuntu2, 2.33-0ubuntu2.1), gstreamer0.10-tools:i386 (0.10.36-1~natty1, 0.10.36-1~oneiric1), transmission-gtk:i386 (2.33-0ubuntu2, 2.33-0ubuntu2.1)

This is a little mysterious. I have no idea why those natty packages are mentioned. The system was updated months ago from Natty, and it was fully up to date. I don't know how they could have been installed, if they were. What do I have to do to get this working? Ideas?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

What is the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy vlc totem

Thanks

Revision history for this message
VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#2

~$ lsb_release -a; uname -a; apt-cache policy vlc totem

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric
Linux Opal 3.0.0-31-generic-pae #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 19 20:24:31 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
totem:
  Installed: 3.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
  Candidate: 3.0.1-0ubuntu7.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.1-0ubuntu7.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.1-0ubuntu5 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main i386 Packages
vlc:
  Installed: 1.1.12-2~oneiric1
  Candidate: 1.1.12-2~oneiric1
  Version table:
 *** 1.1.12-2~oneiric1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.1.11-2build2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/universe i386 Packages

Revision history for this message
VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#3

Problem spontaneously solved itself, at least partly. Almost OK for now.

Here's what happened, for the record.

I changed the VLC video option from "default" to "X11". Then I had video but no sound. Then changed the option back, and still had video but no sound, whereas the original problem was sound but no video. Keep in mind that NO other settings -- no sound volumes, etc. have been changed at all. I logged off and on and rebooted; at some point I had both video and sound without changing ANY settings.

Totem also works now with most files but not all. Possibly a separate problem -- I'm not sure this is new.

So (maybe) solved for now.

Revision history for this message
VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#4

Even more good news. OpenShot is now working. Hasn't worked for months.

The only thing I can think of that might have affected this stuff somehow is that yesterday I installed dvdrip, and today Ubuntu updated Flash and some other minor thing. None of this should have had any effect, but this isn't the first time I've seen problems spontaneously to away.

A happy ending, I think.

Revision history for this message
VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#5

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. I even ran through a system test, and there was no sound anywhere. I checked that it was not a cable or speaker problem. I don't think user error is involved, so I have to suspect a bug somewhere, but I'm sure I'll never find it.

Thanks for your help, Andrew. Do you ever get any rest?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

Oneiric is EOL in April 2013. I suggest you either upgrade to Precise, or clean install Precise. It is LTS so is supported tilApril 2017.

I do rest but I do this at work sometimes :)

Glad all is well.

Revision history for this message
VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#7

I know about the EOL, and will update. For the moment almost everything works on Oneric and it's very nice, but I have a LOT of major problems with Precise on one test machine. One other machine works with Precise but still has a lot of broken stuff. I need the computer, so with all the recent changes I am taking it very carefully. This is a rough time for Linux.