Chromium can't play h.264, even though chromum-ffmpeg is installed

[I_A]

actuelly youtube is the perfect place to test codecs go to this page
https://www.youtube.com/html5
and see your browsers capabilities
I had to disable webm to force google to stream in mp4
http://i.imgur.com/Y3GZ2cD.png

1 - Change libavcodec56 package Packman Repository to Main Update repository. Yes, one single package.

that single package will break multimedia some things might work others might not do not use mixed multimedia packages

you said something about sound not working, plasma 5 remembers per application volume settings you might have muted sound in chromium
do a full vendor change and if you still have sound issues make a new thread about them

[wolfi323]

@I_A

actuelly youtube is the perfect place to test codecs go to this page
https://www.youtube.com/html5
and see your browsers capabilities

That only checks what the browser announces that it supports though.
It doesn’t test whether the browser is actually able to play it correctly or at all.

[noisegroundbr]

@I_A

actuelly youtube is the perfect place to test codecs go to this page
https://www.youtube.com/html5
and see your browsers capabilities
I had to disable webm to force google to stream in mp4

that single package will break multimedia some things might work others might not do not use mixed multimedia packages

you said something about sound not working, plasma 5 remembers per application volume settings you might have muted sound in chromium
do a full vendor change and if you still have sound issues make a new thread about them

I am not a new user.

I know how to add the Packaman repository. I know how to install every package needed to have the codecs working on my system.

No, no problem with the sound volume.

The problem was that Chromium 55 changed the specifications of the chromium.spec file to fit using the system’s ffmpeg instead of chromium-ffmpeg. And if it is not from the Packman repository it does not load the required codec.

So if a new user comes to search Google or here in the forum, he will know that he has to check that the packages referring to ffmpeg are all from the Packaman repository.

That’s the simple tip here.

[noisegroundbr]

@wolfi323

Well, Google Chrome has all built in, it doesn’t use the system’s library.
They can do that because Chrome is proprietary, closed-source software.

That doesn’t mean that what I wrote was wrong.
Basically any (open source) media player uses ffmpeg and its codecs, and will be unable to play certain codecs if you don’t install the packages from Packman.

I’m not completely sure about Firefox, previous versions used gstreamer (which you also need to install from Packman to have full codec support), but I do think it also uses the system’s ffmpeg now.
Firefox is not a “media player” anyway though…

No, the same problem would be with everything that uses ffmpeg.

Adding a repo will not install any packages.
You need to do that manually.

There is no libavcodec6 (yet).

But yes, the libavcodec57 from the Main update repository is crippled for legal reasons, as mentioned.

You need to replace it with Packman’s for full codec support (and not only for chromium).
And again, you should better do a full switch to Packman (as recommended again and again here in the forums), and not just switch single packages (unless you perfectly know what you are doing).

If you already installed libavcodec57 from Packman, the package management will not switch back to the one from the Main Update repo automatically, unless you tell it explicitly to do that.

SMPlayer, VLC, etc (media players) works fine with livavcodec56 from Main Update repository. Read again chromium.spec file (line 536).

It is this file that causes Chromium to have a problem with some non-Packman ffmpeg package.

Firefox and Google Chrome may have other specs. Media players too.

It’s not because Chromium does not work with a Main Update package that other browsers or media players will not work. This depends on the specifications of each program of which codec to use and how to use it.

[wolfi323]

@noisegroundbr

SMPlayer, VLC, etc (media players) works fine with livavcodec56 from Main Update repository.

Well, they may “work fine”, but they won’t be able to play back all multimedia files with the libavcodec from the Main Update repository.

At least vlc-codecs does require an unrestricted libavcodec though, so you won’t even be able to install the one from the Main Update repository if you install vlc-codecs.

And btw, you are talking about libavcodec56 now, when before you stated that just switching libavcodec57 is enough.
If an application uses libavcodec56, it of course doesn’t matter where from you installed libavcodec57.

So if you have libavcodec57 from the Main Update repo but libavcodec56 from Packman, Chromium (using libavcodec57) will not work although vlc (using libavcodec56) does.

Another reason why it is recommended to do a full switch.

Read again chromium.spec file (line 536).

Do you actually know what a .spec file is for?

It specifies how to build an application.
The part you mention adds a line to some config file so that chromium is actually able to use restricted codecs.
Without that, chromium wouldn’t even be able to play back restricted codecs if you installed libavcodec57 from Packman.

And this is done when building chromium, not when you install or run it.

It is this file that causes Chromium to have a problem with some non-Packman ffmpeg package.

No, it isn’t.

It is the fact that openSUSE comes with a crippled ffmpeg package for legal reasons that causes Chromium to “have a problem” with openSUSE’s ffmpeg package.
(actually it doesn’t have a problem, it just cannot play back certain codecs)

Firefox and Google Chrome may have other specs. Media players too.

Of course they do.
Every package has a different .spec.

It’s not because Chromium does not work with a Main Update package that other browsers or media players will not work.

No.
But Chromium and media players will not “work” with the package from the Main Update repo, because that package just doesn’t support non-free codecs.

This depends on the specifications of each program of which codec to use and how to use it.

That’s nonsense.
It only depends on how a program is written and whether it uses (the system’s) ffmpeg or not.

[noisegroundbr]

@wolfi323

Well, they may “work fine”, but they won’t be able to play back all multimedia files with the libavcodec from the Main Update repository.

At least vlc-codecs does require an unrestricted libavcodec though, so you won’t even be able to install the one from the Main Update repository if you install vlc-codecs.

And btw, you are talking about libavcodec56 now, when before you stated that just switching libavcodec57 is enough.
If an application uses libavcodec56, it of course doesn’t matter where from you installed libavcodec57.

So if you have libavcodec57 from the Main Update repo but libavcodec56 from Packman, Chromium (using libavcodec57) will not work although vlc (using libavcodec56) does.

Another reason why it is recommended to do a full switch.

Do you actually know what a .spec file is for?

It specifies how to build an application.
The part you mention adds a line to some config file so that chromium is actually able to use restricted codecs.
Without that, chromium wouldn’t even be able to play back restricted codecs if you installed libavcodec57 from Packman.

And this is done when building chromium, not when you install or run it.

No, it isn’t.

It is the fact that openSUSE comes with a crippled ffmpeg package for legal reasons that causes Chromium to “have a problem” with openSUSE’s ffmpeg package.
(actually it doesn’t have a problem, it just cannot play back certain codecs)

Of course they do.
Every package has a different .spec.

No.
But Chromium and media players will not “work” with the package from the Main Update repo, because that package just doesn’t support non-free codecs.

That’s nonsense.
It only depends on how a program is written and whether it uses (the system’s) ffmpeg or not.

This topic is getting very long.

Yes, I know what a .spec file means.

Yes, I know it’s to build the Chromium package.

I’ve never talked about libavcodec57 here. This is because libavcodec57 does not exist in the Main Update repository.

http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/42.1/oss/x86_64/

If libavcodec57 does not exist in Main Update, then there can be no confusion in the Leap 42.1 Sofware Update. I do not know why the system did this. It happened and I decided to post this tip here. Only that.

OK, my system LEAP 42.1 “Frankenstein” works fine with media player VLC and SMPlayer with libavcodec56 from Main Update repository. I have tested this in practice. Not in theory.

In my first post on the libavcodec56 package I posted the problem and also the solution. So why is this topic getting long?

I finished here. Cheers.

[wolfi323]

@noisegroundbr

I’ve never talked about libavcodec57 here. This is because libavcodec57 does not exist in the Main Update repository.

Right, you didn’t.
I started with libavcodec57, must have mixed up something.
Sorry.

You did mention libavcodec6 though in one post…

OK, my system LEAP 42.1 “Frankenstein” works fine with media player VLC and SMPlayer with libavcodec56 from Main Update repository. I have tested this in practice. Not in theory.

The question is with what files you tested it though.
Of course they “work”.
But the openSUSE libavcodec56 definitely does not contain any non-free codecs. And both VLC and SMPlayer use the system’s libavcodec.

vlc-codecs (and MPlayer probably too) does also contain plugins that do not use libavcodec56 though (but other libraries like libx264 directly), in that case it won’t matter where libavcodec56 comes from of course.

In my first post on the libavcodec56 package I posted the problem and also the solution. So why is this topic getting long?

Because that is not a full (or general) solution, even if it may have helped in your special case.
And apparently you don’t want to accept that.

The recommended way is to do a full switch to Packman, only this makes sure that all necessary stuff comes from Packman.
As I (and I_A too) repeatedly wrote.

Recommending to only switch libavcodec56 will only cause further threads with people having problems after they “followed the advise found in a thread here”.