Bug#708137: H.264 playback problems: `main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `h264'.` (works with Totem and MPlayer)

[Benjamin Drung]

Am Mittwoch, den 15.05.2013, 12:04 +0200 schrieb Paul Menzel:
> Am Montag, den 13.05.2013, 16:34 +0200 schrieb Paul Menzel:
> > Am Montag, den 13.05.2013, 15:20 +0200 schrieb Benjamin Drung:
> > > Am Montag, den 13.05.2013, 15:06 +0200 schrieb Paul Menzel:
> > > > (By the way, is the above a mediathekview bug to not use `cvlc`?
> > > 
> > > I think that you want the full VLC player with all the controls.
> > >
> > > > Should I install another package or VLC fall back to use the FFmpeg
> > > > codecs too?
> > > 
> > > Have you installed the "vlc" package that ships the libavcodec plugin?
> > 
> > Looking at mediathekview it recommends the package `vlc` and therefore
> > it should have been installed.
> 
> Installing the package `vlc` manually fixes the problem and I can play
> the videos just fine.
> 
> > Not sure how I ended up with `vlc-nox`. I’ll check when I have access
> > to the system again.
> 
> So `vlc-nox` was installed already due to the package `k3b`. Does
> `vlc-nox` provide `vlc` in any way?

No. vlc is a superset of vlc-nox.

> I only could find
> 
>     Replaces: vlc (< 1.1.0)
> 
> which should not have to do anything with it, right?

Yes, it's unrelated. The "Replaces" is for a file move from vlc to
vlc-nox.

> > > PS: Yes, the libavcodec plugin should be in vlc-nox (see bug #671407).
> > 
> > Good to know. So either this bug is about mediathekview for some reason
> > just pulling in `vlc-nox` instead of `vlc` or about the issue you
> > referenced. I’ll report back in the next days.
> 
> So, I would make this bug about the problem, that `vlc` is not
> installed, when `vlc-nox` is already installed.
> 
> Looking at the recommends again, I see `mplayer` in there. I also have
> the MPlayer package installed. Might that be the reason?

Yes. vlc was not installed because you had mplayer installed, which
satisfied the alternative recommendation "vlc | mplayer | mplayer2".

> Then the bug is about, that when `vlc-nox` and `mplayer` is installed,
> mediatheview does not use MPlayer but VLC. Then this bug should be
> reassigned to mediathekview.

Yes or you call it a misconfiguration by the user. The user installed
vlc-nox, but not all needed video codec plugins of VLC that are needed.

> Some solutions might be, to try MPlayer before VLC by default or just
> recommend the package `vlc` and demote `mplayer` and `mplayer2` as
> suggests(?), so mediathekview works out of the box.

I came to different solution suggestions:

1) Mediathekview should show a proper error message instead of "garbage"
in the terminal. The user should see "main decoder error: VLC does not
support the audio or video format "h264". Unfortunately there is no way
for you to fix this." error message from VLC.

2) VLC should be better integrated into the system and know that the
h264 decoder is in the "vlc" package. Then VLC should tell the users to
install "vlc" when they try to play a h264 video.

3) The h264 video decoder should be moved back to vlc-nox (bug #671407).

-- 
Benjamin Drung
Debian & Ubuntu Developer