playing WMA lossless in Kubuntu 12.10

[inbrick]

I am trying to play WMA lossless files in amarok under Kubuntu 12.10. I have done a lot of googling and searching on this site and have not found anything to help me. Most of the posts are from 2008-2009 and suggest that I am missing a codec. However, I have installed the optional third party codecs and all seems to be well with most file types, including lossy wma files.

However, I still cannot play wma lossless files in amarok. When I try to play them, I get a message "amarok requires an additional plugin to decode this file" saying "Windows Media Audio decoder" is required. I tell it to search for the plugin and an error message appears "no plugins could be found."

From what I've read, it should be possible to play wma lossless in amarok, so why can't I do it? The files are ones that I ripped myself from CDs and so should not be copy protected. I would just re-rip the songs into something linux-friendly, but the discs are stored at my parents' house across the country.

I am still relatively new to troubleshooting in Linux, so detailed instructions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions!

[Snowhog]

Do you have the Medibuntu repository installed and the multimedia codecs from it?

[inbrick]

I'm not sure. How can I check?

[Snowhog]

Medibuntu

You would have had to add this repository. If you don't know about it, then you most certainly did not.

[inbrick]

Ok, I followed the instructions at
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
to install the medibuntu repository. I remember doing a similar process to this when I first installed 11.10 - I definitely remember installing the w32codecs, but I wasn't able to play the lossless wma in 11.10 and eventually gave up. After upgrading to 12.04 and then to 12.10 I decided to tackle this problem again.

Now, with medibuntu repository installed and w32codecs installed, I still get the same message when I try to play the lossless wma in Amarok.

Any other ideas?

[vinnywright]

try installing mplayer (this should pull in mencoder as well) ,vlc,and make shure you have libavutil-extra-51 as well . restart and check again

VINNY

[inbrick]

Thanks for the suggestions vinny. I installed mplayer, mencoder, vlc, and libavutil-extra-51, restarted the OS. But no change. Still get the same message when trying to play the lossless wma in either amarok or dolphin.

[Spadge]

Thanks for the suggestions vinny. I installed mplayer, mencoder, vlc, and libavutil-extra-51, restarted the OS. But no change. Still get the same message when trying to play the lossless wma in either amarok or dolphin.

Does it play in VLC? I mean, now that you've installed it you might as well give it a go.

[HalationEffect]

If VLC does play the files, you could install phonon-backend-vlc, then make that the default Phonon backend in System -> Multimedia -> Phonon -> Backend.

I think you then need to log out & back into KDE to make the change of setting come into effect.

After that, any player that uses Phonon should be able to play any file that VLC can handle.

[inbrick]

Doesn't work in VLC either. It gave a slightly different, potentially more helpful error:
"No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format "WMAL". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this."

Should I believe the error? Is there really no way to fix this? I suppose I've lived without these songs for almost a year now - probably won't kill me to live without them for another 18 months until I can get the discs from my parents house and rip them again. I know one thing - I will never use WMA format again!

[vinnywright]

OK did you install "kubuntu-restricted-extras" if not do that , and next lets try installing ffmpeg and libavcodec ,,,,,restart try again ,,,,,,,do you know of a link to a wmal file somewhere so I can try it ,,,,,,I am sure I have played these before ?

VINNY

[vinnywright]

from ffmpeg -codecs

D A D wmapro Windows Media Audio 9 Professional
DEA D wmav1 Windows Media Audio 1
DEA D wmav2 Windows Media Audio 2
D A D wmavoice Windows Media Audio Voice
DEVSD wmv1 Windows Media Video 7
DEVSD wmv2 Windows Media Video 8
D V D wmv3 Windows Media Video 9
D V D wmv3_vdpau Windows Media Video 9 VDPAU
D V D wmv3image Windows Media Video 9 Image

should do the trick install libavconv as well ,it is the new ffmpeg replacement

VINNY

[luckyone]

I'd have thought that should have taken care of things. I need a nap.

[inbrick]

kubuntu-restricted-extras was already installed

installed ffmpeg from konsole
installed from muon package manager: ia32libs and libavcodec-extra-53 (this required removal of libavcodec53)

I couldn't find libavconv in either konsole or muon package manager

Restarted computer.
No change in function – still can't play the files.
@vinny The files I am trying to play are all locally stored on my computer. I don't want to upload them to a shared site, even though I know it would be really helpful for troubleshooting, as sharing them breaks copyright.

[SteveRiley]

I couldn't find libavconv in either konsole or muon package manager

The package is libav-tools; the utility in the package is avconv.

This command should get you the full set of "-extra" codecs and filters. But let's first run it in simulation mode, just to check:

apt-get -s install libav-tools libavcodec-extra-53 libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavformat-extra-53 libavutil-extra-51 libpostproc-extra-52 libswscale-extra-2