VLC isn't recognizing formats

[justinschw]

Hi all,

I have recently installed vlc and finally got the application to actually open without seg faulting. Now I want to be able to open youtube videos by calling Media > Open Network Stream and entering a youtube url. I tried this, and it just stopped and deleted the video from the playlist. I tried opening VLC in the terminal using "vlc -vv" and repeated the process; it gives these messages:


[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: adding item `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY )
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: rebuilding array of current - root Playlist
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: rebuild done - 2 items, index 0
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: processing request item: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY, node: null, skip: 0
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: resyncing on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY is at 1
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: starting playback of the new playlist item
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: creating new input thread
[0x945f368] main input debug: Creating an input for 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY'
[0x93fc628] main input debug: Destroying the input for 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY'
[0x93fc628] main input debug: TIMER input launching for 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' : 401.891 ms - Total 401.891 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 401.891 ms)
[0x92461a0] qt4 interface debug: Adding a new MRL to recent ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY
[0x92461a0] qt4 interface debug: IM: Setting an input
[0x945f368] main input debug: using timeshift granularity of 50 MiB, in path '/tmp'
[0x945f368] main input debug: `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' gives access `http' demux `' path `www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY'
[0x945f368] main input debug: creating demux: access='http' demux='' location='www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' file='(null)'
[0x9405568] main demux debug: looking for access_demux module: 0 candidates
[0x9405568] main demux debug: no access_demux module matched "http"
[0x9405568] main demux debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.298 ms - Total 0.298 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.298 ms)
[0x945f368] main input debug: creating access 'http' location='www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY', path='(null)'
[0x929f450] main access debug: looking for access module: 2 candidates
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: http: server='www.youtube.com' port=80 file='/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY'
[0x929f450] main access debug: net: connecting to www.youtube.com port 80
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: no fetch required for (null) (art currently (null))
[0x929f450] main access debug: connection succeeded (socket = 10)
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: protocol 'HTTP' answer code 200
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Server: wiseguy/0.6.11
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Accepting Cookie: use_hitbox=d5c5516c3379125f43aa0d495d100d6ddAEAAAAw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Accepting Cookie: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=R195oLOhM_U; path=/; domain=.youtube.com; expires=Fri, 15-Feb-2013 05:06:45 GMT
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Accepting Cookie: recently_watched_video_id_list=da471da1992c1bc7c6dc53229c8691cdWwEAAABzCwAAAGhXaFRSU1VreGJZ; path=/; domain=.youtube.com
[0x929f450] access_http access debug: Connection: close
[0x929f450] main access debug: using access module "access_http"
[0x929f450] main access debug: TIMER module_need() : 209.715 ms - Total 209.715 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 209.715 ms)
[0x93fde98] main stream debug: Using stream method for AStream*
[0x93fde98] main stream debug: starting pre-buffering
[0x93fde98] main stream debug: received first data after 0 ms
[0x93fde98] main stream debug: pre-buffering done 1024 bytes in 0s - 21739 KiB/s
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: looking for stream_filter module: 7 candidates
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: no stream_filter module matching "any" could be loaded
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.211 ms - Total 0.211 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.211 ms)
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: looking for stream_filter module: 1 candidate
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: using stream_filter module "stream_filter_record"
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.186 ms - Total 0.186 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.186 ms)
[0x945f368] main input debug: creating demux: access='http' demux='' location='www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' file='(null)'
[0x93fe0f8] main demux debug: looking for demux module: 48 candidates
[0x93fe0f8] ts demux debug: TS module discarded (lost sync)
[0x93fe0f8] avformat demux debug: trying url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY
[0x93fe0f8] avformat demux debug: couldn't guess format
[0x93fe0f8] vobsub demux debug: this doesn't seem to be a vobsub file
[0x93fe0f8] ps demux warning: this does not look like an MPEG PS stream, continuing anyway
[0x93fe0f8] main demux debug: using demux module "ps"
[0x93fe0f8] main demux debug: TIMER module_need() : 32.217 ms - Total 32.217 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 32.217 ms)
[0x93fe710] main demux meta debug: looking for meta reader module: 0 candidates
[0x93fe710] main demux meta debug: no meta reader module matched "any"
[0x93fe710] main demux meta debug: TIMER module_need() : 0.338 ms - Total 0.338 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.338 ms)
[0x945f368] main input debug: `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWhTRSUkxbY' successfully opened
[0x93fe0f8] ps demux warning: garbage at input, trying to resync...
[0x945f368] main input debug: EOF reached
[0x93fe0f8] main demux debug: removing module "ps"
[0x93fe038] main stream debug: removing module "stream_filter_record"
[0x929f450] main access debug: removing module "access_http"
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: dead input
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: changing item without a request (current 1/2)
[0x92543b8] main playlist debug: nothing to play
[0x92461a0] qt4 interface debug: IM: Deleting the input


I googled this and it said something about libavformat being missing. I have been googling this and I can't find a way to install libavformat in gentoo. You can't just run "emerge libavformat." Apparently it is a plugin or something. What can I do? Is this really the problem and if so how would I go about doing this?

[yngwin]

avformat and avcodec are USE flags for vlc that are enabled by default to pull in virtual/ffmpeg (meaning media-video/ffmpeg or its fork libav). So a simple emerge vlc should have given you that.

[justinschw]

Yes it is supposed to work. I've done it before. I found a list of use flags from the vlc website. I will add these and try again.

[justinschw]

I think the problem was I was listing the link as youtube.com/watch?v={video_id} in VLC instead of youtube.com/v/{video_id}, which the earlier should normally work anyways; however it wasn't parsing correctly.. but when I enter the link using the second method I get a different error. A window pops up and says

"VLC can't recognize the input's format:
The format of 'http://www.youtube.com/v/hWhTRSUkxbY' cannot be detected. Have a look at the log for details."

running "vlc -vv" gives this output:
"[0x8cdd1f0] avformat demux debug: detected format: swf
[swf @ 0x8da5520] Compressed SWF format not supported
[0x8cdd1f0] avformat demux error: Could not open : Input/output error"

This is very odd because VLC should support SWF. Am I missing a plugin or something?

[yngwin]

It may be that Youtube updated their webpage and VLC doesn't correctly detect the video stream. It should be an FLV, not SWF. The SWF file is most likely the video player used on the web page.

To make sure you're not missing anything on your side: what are the useflags for vlc and media-video/ffmpeg (or libav if you use that instead)?

You could try if your issue is fixed in one of the live ebuilds of VLC...
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF

[justinschw]

I am using the ffmpeg USE flag; I saw that there is an option for libav as well. But I can only have ffmpeg or libav installed, not both. Perhaps I could switch. Is there a benefit of one to the other? If I uninstall ffmpeg will this break totem as well? Totem is the video player that I have that actually works, but I'd like to use vlc if possible

[yngwin]

I meant the output of `emerge -pv vlc media-video/ffmpeg`
_________________
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." - Abraham Lincoln
Free Culture | Defective by Design | EFF