Opensuse Leap 16.0: cannot play MP4-files with VLC

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21

@osleap-mak
post:
zypper se -s vlc

You have to install the vlc-codecs:
zypper in -f vlc-codecs

22

… plus file coding being H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) does not describe a codec problem.
Rather I wonder if you tweaked VLC preferences in a way that crippled something, or if your system has a bottleneck or memory constraint somewhere.
Things to try:

  • reset VLC preferences
  • disable HW decoding (counter-intuitive, but might work)
  • check another video output module
  • increase caching to 1000-2000 ms

(but the list gets tricky after the first two lines…)

23

I agree vlc from the OSS repository should be able to handle H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) .

It might be worth to play with the vlc-setting:

Tools → Preferences → Video → Output modules → Video output module

Although my vlc is set to Automatic you might need a different setting.

1 Like
24

Try mpv.

(the ui needs more than 10 characters)

25

It seems that MPlayer might not be a good replacement for VLC.

26

MPlayer is not in a good shape, the current alternative is mpvplus smplayerif you want a richer interface. Please note that mpvmight need ffmpeg from Packman to work at its best (HW acceleration, h265 decoding etc.).

27

you can use opi:

opi codecs

This will install all necessary codecs packages and packman repository

28

Please do not advertise opi. Or volunteer to handle all the issues it causes that are reported here. That will mean you have to cancel your job and whatever you do in your spare time.

opiis the best tool to introducing numerous 3rd party repos and hence guaranteed breakage !!!

2 Likes
29

@osleap-mak

Have you made sure to also install vlc-codecs then?

To be noticed:

  • vlc-codecs is NOT available by pool, but it IS by Packman or Videolan.
  • AFAIK vlc-codecs is NOT installed automatically when you install VLC: you have to add it explicitly.
  • (you don’t need vlc-codecs generally — but for some formats it is needed: I tried my collection of videos with pool release of VLC, and thus without vlc-codecs, I couldn’t watch many of them — when switched to Videolan (Packman would work, too, but I prefer Videolan in order to avoid Packman dependency issues…) it worked with vlc-codecs having installed.)
  • (a way to watch codec info of media files easily is https://software.opensuse.org/package/mediainfo )
30

Please read previous posts folks, what is reported here is most likely not a codec issue (at least until we get more feedback from the OP).

1 Like
31

@OrsoBruno Which specific posts do you mean? What have I missed?

32

@osleap-mak, by any chance, is it an optimus laptop? What’s your GPU? Since 16.0 upgrade I have the same issue with Intel but it works with nvidia using switcheroo-ctl.
What does inxi -G show? And:

This is probably not the full output. What come when switching vlc off? Could be like this?

kasi@pluto:~> vlc
VLC media player 3.0.23 Vetinari (revision 3.0.23)
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d2d5c80] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d2d5c80] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d2d5c80] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d2d5c80] no frame!
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d39f640] get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d39f640] thread_get_buffer() failed
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d39f640] decode_slice_header error
[h264 @ 0x7feb0d39f640] no frame!

The warnings in the brackets [h264... come when switiching it off, here. It might be a totally different issue, though.

33

zypper se -s vlc generates 85 lines of output of which one states that vlc-codecs is installed.

34

@osleap-mak, OK - it is fixed here, now. libva-vdpau-driver was not installed and apparently required. After installing the issue here is gone. So, worth a try for your setup.

And thanks, BTW, for giving me the push to work on the issue. I have been too lazy, before… :flushed:

35

#12
#15
#16
#22
#23

36

My favorite new app for this is mpv - if you like command line things.

You can also explore adding codec support from packman to openSUSE:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Installing_codecs_from_Packman_repositories

37

Which, as said quite often is not needed.

1 Like
38

I confirm. I only installed vlc-codecs from packman.
I did not replace the opensuse version of VLC.

Becarefull from adding a repo. Some opensuse packages, who has nothing to do with VLC, can silently be replaced by those in packman repo. I diminish the priority of packman repo to 110.
Yes, priority 110 is less than priority 99.