Cannot watch videos

[hiro]

I seem to be having a problem watching any sort of video on my system, I have tried Kaffeine, Mplayer, VLC and Okle for dvd's and i have also installed a bunch of codecs. All the players have the same problem, sound but no video whatever the format (avi mpeg etc.) even when playing a proper dvd in Okle.
The only clue may be i THINK i did watch an mpeg clip on VLC before i installed the codecs (listed below) but nothing ever since.

gstreamer0.8-plugins
gstreamer0.8-lame
gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg
ffmpeg
mjpegtools

Can anyone help with this mystery? Hiro

[arochester]

Re: Cannot watch videos

The things you have installed are appropriate to Ubuntu, but unfortunately not Kubuntu.

There is a clue in "gstreamer". G for Gnome.

Have a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats . Look carefully and see the difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

Look at the whole page. You will also need libdvdcss2 to decode any encrypted DVDs

[hiro]

Re: Cannot watch videos

Thats annoying, i got the list of codecs to install from the sticky at the top of this forum and as it is a kubuntu forum i assumed they would be correct!
From the link you posted i got the following list:

libxine-extracodecs
w32codecs
libarts1-mpeglib
libarts1-xine
libakode2-mpeg

I installed all but the w32 codecs which i am currently downloading and will try next but still no joy. I will also follow the instuctions on your post for installing libdvdcss2 although my player will not even show the video on unencrypted discs at the moment although it does play the audio.
Will update again later and thanks for the help.

[hiro]

Re: Cannot watch videos

I have now installed all the listed codecs and the dvd decrypter but still have the same problem. No matter what program i use or what type of file i try to play it all i see is a dark blue screen but i can hear the audio perfectly. I have even deinstalled the codecs i had installed for gnome but still no go. Would anyone have any ideas?

[thomax]

Re: Cannot watch videos

download VLC, it will always work, should be in your apt repository

Install the latest stable version
Graphical way

Open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager). In Settings -> Repositories, make sure you have a "universe" repository activated.

Search for vlc and install it. You should also install vlc-plugin-esd.
Command line way

You need to check that you have a "universe" mirror in your /etc/apt/sources.list.

  % sudo apt-get update
  % sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd
[code/]

[hiro]

Re: Cannot watch videos

Cheers Thomax but as i stated in the original post i already have VLC and it does not work! It has the same problem as all the rest of the players. Good sound but no picture at all.

[rolodiaz]

Re: Cannot watch videos

Exact same problem here. Help!

[Tynach]

Re: Cannot watch videos

I think that sometimes the graphics driver can be blamed. If the audio works, then the decoders and codecs are fine. So are the video players themselves. But the driver for your graphics card may need updating.

What graphics card do you have?

[hiro]

Re: Cannot watch videos

I have managed to solve my problem and it was not software related at all. The computer i used was an old athlonxp1800 based machine which has faulty on board cache. If the cache is enabled in the bios the computer is very unstable if it is disabled the computer is stable but slightly slower than normal.
However video must be intensive on the cache as i could not watch video with it disabled but could with it enabled.
All the programs i used to watch video with the cache disabled showed a blue screen and a couple of years ago i had a windoze box and capture card which showed a blue screen when capturing but when i upgraded it showed the video being captured.
I assume that when a player cannot cope with demande they all just show blue. If anyone else has this blue screen problem i would suggest maybe a check of hardware may be in order.
Many thanks to all who helped, Hiro.

[rolodiaz]

Re: Cannot watch videos

My computer is old too (Acert Travelmate 510 Series, with 256 MB RAM). Maybe that´s the cause of th blue screen. I will check. Is anyone having the same problem with a more up-to-date computer?

Thanks a lot for the help!