Video refuses to play.

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

Quantumstate: Checked your web site on my installation and the AP videos played perfectly.

dibl: I'm not sure what's going on, but there is still one difference between you install and mine (other the the 64-32 bit difference). I have Java 1.6.0_06-b02. I can't see how that would make the difference, but thought I'd mention it. Otherwise, perhaps it is, in fact, the 64 bit version.

Incidentally, I re-tested all sites today after upgrading Firefox to RC1 from beta5. All is still working well, with the exception of a strange thing under the BBC World News Live. When I run that and select Windows Media Player, the stream runs correctly. When I select Realplayer, the audio plays, but the video doesn't. But when I launch the separate player with Realplayer selected as my preference, it runs correctly.

I'd argue that this is likely a small glitch in the BBC site.

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

Konqueror seems unable to use the gecko-mediaplayer plugin. I think that's because Konqueror isn't a gecko browser. Firefox 3 is.

So that explains your problem with Konqueror. It won't work.

But I think you must have the Flash plugin installed in order for Firefox to play your AP videos. I don't know about the 64 bit version of Flash (dibl might help there).

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

OK, further experiments:

@Q, YES, your video.syndication.msn.com site play perfectly.

So, I added the following packages, and got these results at Elsevier:

Java sun-java-jre6 -- Nope.

ia32libs -- Nope.

gnash and gnash-common -- Nope.

Mysterious! I think I'm gonna open my Win XP VM and run IE and see if I can figure out what it takes.

EDIT: Aha! I opened IE and attempted to open the Elsevier site, and it immediately says I need to install "WMV-9 VCM RTW, publisher Microsoft Corporation". So, there you go -- that's what it is designed to play in -- a proprietary Microsoft media player -- new version to make sure Linux users (mostly) can't play it. Nice! :P

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

I opened IE and attempted to open the Elsevier site, and it immediately says I need to install "WMV-9 VCM RTW, publisher Microsoft Corporation". So, there you go -- that's what it is designed to play in -- a proprietary Microsoft media player -- new version to make sure Linux users (mostly) can't play it. Nice!

But I don't see that answering the question as to why you can't play Elsevier video and I can. WMV-9 codecs are in Linux and play under mplayer software. The gecko-mediaplayer is using gnome-player to play the videos on my computer. And it's launching the videos from the Elsevier site. That's suggesting that I have something you don't, or you have something I don't.

There could be any number of differences between our systems, obviously, from laptop manufacturer to drivers to so many possibilities. But I still suspect the 64 bit version of Kubuntu, since that is the most obvious difference.

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

But I don't see that answering the question as to why you can't play Elsevier video and I can. WMV-9 codecs are in Linux and play under mplayer software. The gecko-mediaplayer is using gnome-player to play the videos on my computer. And it's launching the videos from the Elsevier site. That's suggesting that I have something you don't, or you have something I don't.

Yeah, I know, I know. :P

OK, here's a tidbit. I looked at my Firefox plugins again, and it said "Gecko ... invoking mplayer" (I don't remember reading that yesterday, but maybe I missed it". I did NOT deliberately install mplayer, so Gecko must have pulled it in. I remembered your earlier post:

Instead, it invokes your mplayer plugin by default.

One of the hardest things to get Firefox to do, I think, is to use one plugin over another. In my experience, it seems to want to use the mozilla-mplayer plugin.

So, I opened Adept Manager and sure enough, mplayer (but not mozilla-mplayer) was installed. I uninstalled it and restarted Firefox, and checked plugins. Hmmmmmm, no Gecko now, and no media players either! Took another look in Adept Manager, and Gecko is now NOT installed. Read the "fine print" for Gecko, and it says "Gecko Media Player is a browser plug-in that uses Gnome MPlayer and Mplayer to play media in a browser. It uses the NS4 API and is therefore compatible with all NS4 derived browsers: Firefox, Iceape, Epiphany, Galeon, Midbrowser, etc." Clicked "Details" and found that Gecko depends on gnome-mplayer, a "GUI front end for mplayer", and gnome-mplayer, of course, depends on mplayer.

Sooooooo ... perhaps this is a 64-bit architecture issue -- I may not have the WMV 9 codec, but 32-bit might have it. Can you check your Firefox plugins and Gecko package and see whether it has different dependencies? Or else if it does not, then I'm really confused about how your Gecko can play Elsevier with no mplayer installed. :P

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

I'm not sure how I led you to think that I wasn't using mplayer, but if I did, I apologize. Gecko indeed uses the gnome-mplayer (which, as a Kubuntu user I wouldn't normally be using). But mplayer makes sense. The difference between Gecko and mozilla-mplayer is not the mplayer. Both use that. The difference is the compatibility of Gecko with these browsers (the ones you mention). Mozilla-mplayer has never been very good as a plugin. It always had trouble invoking any mplayer (for most Kubuntu users, probably mplayer directly or Kmplayer) for these embedded sites. Gecko is a breakthrough for users of the NEW Firefox.

At this point, I'd have to agree that your problem lies in the 64 bit architecture. I don't know why, but either mplayer or something else doesn't like it vis a vis the Elesevier site.

But I think you've already found that on most sites, Gecko is a better plugin that mozilla-mplayer.

So that's something, I guess.

Again, sorry if I misled you about mplayer. Certainly wasn't intentional.

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

But I think you've already found that on most sites, Gecko is a better plugin that mozilla-mplayer.

So that's something, I guess.

Again, sorry if I misled you about mplayer. Certainly wasn't intentional.

Yes, Gecko is better -- I appreciate learning that!

No problem -- not knowing any better, I assumed you meant "mozilla-mplayer plugin + mplayer" were not being used by your Firefox + Gecko, but that was my error. Thanks for showing me Gecko!

We can still wonder how Elsevier played here the first time I hit it ... that was a brand new Kubuntu installation, with a brand new Firefox 3 Beta -- just installed that morning, along with gnash, flashplugin-nonfree, and the mozilla plugins (but not Gecko). I think maybe something I installed later must have disabled the capability, but I don't know what it would be, and it's a long list of packages and configuration items. I'm almost, but not quite curious enough to repeat that process -- takes too darned long to configure everything after a clean installation. :P

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

Post Script:

The "backup" system to my Kubuntu desktop is a sidux 64-bit installation, which I try to keep updated weekly. Today after I updated it, I remembered this little snafu with the x-mplayer2 stream and the Elsevier.nl site, so I checked the Iceweasel browser, and it does not have the Gecko plugin (Gecko isn't available in the sidux repos for German legal reasons). It only has flashplugin-nonfree. I opened the Elsevier site, attempted to run the player, and was amazed and delighted to see it play beautifully.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

This is one odd situation -- that's all I can state with any confidence. :P

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

What player is it using in Sidux? Do you think that the problem is still 64 bit in Kubuntu?

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

I don't see how it can be JUST the 64-bit architecture, because my sidux installation is all 64-bit.

Here's the list of installed player-related packages, from Synaptic:

flashplugin-nonfree
gnash
gnash-common
mozilla-mplayer
mozilla-plugin-gnash
mozilla-plugin-vlc
mozplugger
mplayer
vlc

That's it. So why does that combination work just fine in sidux, but not in Kubuntu?

By the way, in Kubuntu, there is no error message. It appears to load the stream and gets to a point where it announces "Done". But of course there no video.

[randcoop]

Re: Video refuses to play.

We're at a dead end, I guess. It's a frustrating problem, to say the least. Why does gecko-mediaplayer run gnome-mplayer on the site for me and not work for you under Kubuntu 8.04? Why does mozilla-mplayer run mplayer for you under Sidux on the site, but not under Kubuntu 8.04 for you?

There's obviously something about your Kubuntu installation that's slightly off for this one web site, but I can't imagine what it is. There may be developers out there who could figure this out, but it's out of my league.

Who knows, maybe under 8.10, it will work.

[dibl]

Re: Video refuses to play.

Yep, that's about it.

The first day I installed Kubuntu 8.04, when the FF3 installation was brand new, it worked once, with a similar configuration of players as I have on the sidux installation. Since that was "Installation Day", I suspect that something I installed or configured later disabled the capability. I would have to repeat that sequence to narrow down the culprit that disabled it -- could have been something about Amarok and xine or something like that. It's too much work to do all of that -- besides, everything else that I care about plays just fine.

But I've bookmarked the Elsevier.nl site as the "acid test" for media players.

[Goofy_2]

Re: Video refuses to play.

Could not play the video's from www.elsevier.nl/video/ (Kubuntu 8.04).
Renewed these codecs in /usr/lib/win32/ :
* wma9dmod.dll
* wmadmod.dll
* wmsdmod.dll
* wmspdmod.dll
* wmv9dmod.dll
* wmvadvd.dll
* wmvdmod.dll
* wvc1dmod.dll
All *.dll: chown root:root and chmod 644.
Copy them from your windows partition or from another popular distro.
After the renewal I could play the video's with Firefox / Seamonkey and mplayer-plugin.
And mplayer could play some *.wmv and *.asf which was not possible before.
No idea why it works !

[HermanDegenhart]

Re: Video refuses to play.

The point is it worked. Alright then. Question solved.

[HermanDegenhart]

Re: Video refuses to play.

For those still struggling with the problem, try this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683 , it might help you.
Good luck.