Hello,
I’m a new user of opensuse. I tried it some years ago, and I retried it just now. I remember last time to play video was the most difficult thing to do. Now I found that is the same. But this time I succeded to install well packman version of codec and video works well. But I would ask why standard codec of tumbleweed works only with mpeg2? What is the technical reason, and there is a possible way to play them with standard codec of tumbleweed rpm?
Thank you very much.
It is not a technical but an ethical reason. SUSE is a pure open source company but many codecs involve proprietary elements, some of which are subject to specific laws in particular countries. Packman includes the proprietary elements which SUSE declines to include but it is also up to you to ensure that you are not breaking the local law by downloading them. If you stick to the (open)SUSE codecs, you do not risk any proprietary elements or breaking the law in your country.
I agree the ethical reason, and it is the reason because I would like to use only openSuse open-source package and not Packman. But my question wasn’t what is the reason because Packman isn’t inside openSuse, but why the package inside openSuse cannot play mpeg4 video. They aren’t locked or protected video. I’ve some video encoded by x264 (I did on windows by meGUI) by myself some time ago, and they didn’t work. In every forum section I see all talking about changing to Packman repo, but no one say anything about how play mpeg4 video with openSuse package only. There is a way to play video without change package to Packman repo?
When I read MPEG-4 - Wikipedia , I wonder why you say so. But I think it is more of a legal discussion (for which most of us are not entitled). In any case, openSUSE has decided to what they think is a save way to go. And IMHO they are following developements here, because some time ago some patents expired (IIRC it was MP3) and from that moment on it was supported from the OSS repo (and dropped by Packman).