Ubuntu
totem package

How to play stand alone swf movies?

Asked by Bob Kieffer

I have several movies in a .swf format but unable to play them as a stand alone movie. Is there a app that I can download or use to be able to open up that file format? When I open the .swf movie up in Movie Player I get the error "GStreamer encountered a general supporting library error". Any help would be appreciated.
On another installation of Ubuntu I was abel to play those .swf movies but I blew out Ubuntu and had to re-install it but now I cannot find the correct app to install to play the .swf movie files....Dah!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu totem Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

sudo aptitude install swf-player

Then open the files with swf-player

Revision history for this message
Bob Kieffer (r7) said : 		#2

In the terminal I gave the command of "sudo aptitude install swf-player" It installed but now I cannot find swf=player under my applications. What did I do wrong?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

if you press ALT+F2 and type:

swf-player

does it open an app?

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#4

> "GStreamer encountered a general supporting library error"

Well, that is a userfriendly and helpful message.

#1
swfdec isn't further developed anymore.
http://blogs.gnome.org/otte/2008/12/18/on-loneliness/

swfdec-gnome is a transitional package for upgrading to gnash.
http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/swfdec-gnome
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=default&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=swfdec

Standalone app would be gnash.

#2
Since you didn't tell your Ubuntu version.
On Lucid Totem plays flash.
Packages installed are:
$ dpkg -l |egrep "totem|ffmpeg|gstreamer0.10"|grep ^ii|awk '{print $2,$3}'

gstreamer0.10-alsa
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
gstreamer0.10-gnonlin
gstreamer0.10-nice
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
gstreamer0.10-tools
gstreamer0.10-x
libavcodec52
libavformat52
libavutil49
libgstreamer0.10-0
libpostproc51
libswscale0
libtotem-plparser17
totem
totem-common
totem-dbg
totem-mozilla
totem-plugins

Revision history for this message
Bob Kieffer (r7) said : 		#5

All those packages are installed but still cannot open a .swf movie?
Ubuntu ver 10.04
GNOME ver 2.30.2

Revision history for this message
Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131) said : 		#6

Try: https://launchpad.net/~gstreamer-developers/+archive/ppa

Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#7

Thanks for the info Bob,
after review, the video file which Totem plays here is a .flv not .swf,
http://www.answers.com/topic/flash-video-1

You'll find those messages in .xession-errors (hidden file in /home/user)
Output from Totem
** Message: Error: GStreamer encountered a general supporting library error
Please send a bug report.
gstffmpegdemux.c(1243): gst_ffmpegdemux_open (): /GstPlayBin2:play/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0/GstDecodeBin2:decodebin20/ffdemux_swf:ffdemux_swf0:
Input/output error

and VLC with .swf:
[swf @ 0x1b96e10]Compressed SWF format not supported
[0xf72bc8] avformat demux error: av_open_input_stream failed

Unfortunately there is a bug report from 2007, status 'fix committed', explanation about bug status is there:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status

Just click on 'Does this bug affect you' on bug report page.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Bob Kieffer for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.