[SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

Krypton · 2020-07-04 09:52:40

Hi everyone,

Problem:
I get the error message

 H.264 (high profile) decoder is required to play the file, but is not installed

in Totem, when I want to play a video (.mp4) file. The audio is working correctly. I also cannot play the video with VLC.

Attempts:
After some search I found that it is suggested to install gst-libav (also mentioned in the Codecs and Containers), however, this is not helping me. It was already installed and also a reinstallation did not change anything. I also had a look which libs are installed: in /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/codec I have libx26410b_plugin.so and libx264_plugin.so and in /usr/lib there are libx264.so and libx264.so.159, so it seems to me that the codecs are there. Finally,

pacman -Qi totem vlc

gives me the following output me:

Name            : totem
Version         : 3.34.1-2
Description     : Movie player for the GNOME desktop based on GStreamer
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Videos
Licenses        : GPL2  custom
Groups          : gnome
Provides        : None
Depends On      : totem-plparser  iso-codes  libpeas  clutter-gtk  clutter-gst  grilo  gsettings-desktop-schemas  dconf  python-gobject  python-xdg  gnome-desktop  gst-plugins-base  gst-plugins-good  gst-plugins-bad
Optional Deps   : gst-plugins-ugly: Extra media codecs
                  gst-libav: Extra media codecs [installed]
                  grilo-plugins: Media discovery [installed]
                  python-dbus: MPRIS plugin [installed]
Required By     : None
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : totem-plugin
Replaces        : totem-plugin
Installed Size  : 6.88 MiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <jan.steffens@gmail.com>
Build Date      : Sun 08 Mar 2020 07:26:39 AM CET
Install Date    : Mon 09 Mar 2020 05:27:32 PM CET
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

Name            : vlc
Version         : 3.0.11-1
Description     : Multi-platform MPEG, VCD/DVD, and DivX player
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Licenses        : LGPL2.1  GPL2
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : a52dec  libdvbpsi  libxpm  libdca  libproxy  lua  libidn  libmatroska  taglib  libmpcdec  ffmpeg  faad2  libupnp  libmad  libmpeg2  xcb-util-keysyms  libtar  libxinerama  libsecret  libarchive  qt5-base  qt5-x11extras
                  qt5-svg  freetype2  fribidi  harfbuzz  fontconfig  libxml2  gnutls  libplacebo  wayland-protocols  aribb24
Optional Deps   : avahi: service discovery using bonjour protocol [installed]
                  aom: AOM AV1 codec [installed]
                  gst-plugins-base-libs: for libgst plugins [installed]
                  dav1d: dav1d AV1 decoder [installed]
                  libdvdcss: decoding encrypted DVDs
                  libavc1394: devices using the 1394ta AV/C [installed]
                  libdc1394: IEEE 1394 access plugin [installed]
                  kwallet: kwallet keystore [installed]
                  libva-vdpau-driver: vdpau backend nvidia
                  libva-intel-driver: video backend intel [installed]
                  libbluray: Blu-Ray video input [installed]
                  flac: Free Lossless Audio Codec plugin [installed]
                  twolame: TwoLAME mpeg2 encoder plugin [installed]
                  libgme: Game Music Emu plugin [installed]
                  vcdimager: navigate VCD with libvcdinfo
                  libmtp: MTP devices discovery [installed]
                  systemd-libs: udev services discovery [installed]
                  smbclient: SMB access plugin [installed]
                  libcdio: audio CD playback [installed]
                  gnu-free-fonts: subtitle font 
                  ttf-dejavu: subtitle font [installed]
                  libssh2: sftp access [installed]
                  libnfs: NFS access [installed]
                  mpg123: mpg123 codec [installed]
                  protobuf: chromecast streaming [installed]
                  libmicrodns: mDNS services discovery (chromecast etc)
                  lua-socket: http interface
                  live-media: RTSP input
                  libdvdread: DVD input module [installed]
                  libdvdnav: DVD with navigation input module [installed]
                  libogg: Ogg and OggSpots codec [installed]
                  libshout: shoutcast/icecast output plugin [installed]
                  libmodplug: MOD output plugin [installed]
                  libvpx: VP8 and VP9 codec [installed]
                  libvorbis: Vorbis decoder/encoder [installed]
                  speex: Speex codec [installed]
                  opus: opus codec [installed]
                  libtheora: theora codec [installed]
                  libpng: PNG support [installed]
                  libjpeg-turbo: JPEG support [installed]
                  librsvg: SVG plugin [installed]
                  x264: H264 encoding [installed]
                  x265: HEVC/H.265 encoder [installed]
                  zvbi: VBI/Teletext/webcam/v4l2 capture/decoding [installed]
                  libass: Subtitle support [installed]
                  libkate: Kate codec [installed]
                  libtiger: Tiger rendering for Kate streams [installed]
                  sdl_image: SDL image support
                  srt: SRT input/output plugin [installed]
                  aalib: ASCII art video output [installed]
                  libcaca: colored ASCII art video output [installed]
                  libpulse: PulseAudio audio output [installed]
                  alsa-lib: ALSA audio output [installed]
                  jack: jack audio server [installed]
                  libsamplerate: audio Resampler [installed]
                  libsoxr: SoX audio Resampler [installed]
                  chromaprint: Chromaprint audio fingerprinter [installed]
                  lirc: lirc control
                  libgoom2: Goom visualization
                  projectm: ProjectM visualisation
                  ncurses: ncurses interface [installed]
                  libnotify: notification plugin [installed]
                  gtk3: notification plugin [installed]
Required By     : None
Optional For    : obs-studio
Conflicts With  : vlc-plugin
Replaces        : vlc-plugin
Installed Size  : 58.75 MiB
Packager        : Felix Yan <felixonmars@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Tue 16 Jun 2020 03:51:03 PM CEST
Install Date    : Sat 04 Jul 2020 10:36:31 AM CEST
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

Additional (maybe irrelevant) Information:
Although I don't know if this is relevant or another problem I would also like to mention that I also cannot play most videos with firefox (youtube is working, others are not). These Videos cannot be started at all (also no audio). With Chrome and Opera I can run all videos.

Please let me know if you need additional informations.

Thanks for any help!

Last edited by Krypton (2020-07-04 12:08:01)

V1del · 2020-07-04 10:25:56

Custom ffmpeg that hasn't been rebuilt for updates? What do you get for

pacman -Qs x264
pacman -Qs ffmpeg

FWIW for totem gst-plugins-ugly and gst-plugins-bad should suffice and provide built in decoders for h264 which will perform better than forcing over ffmpeg.

Last edited by V1del (2020-07-04 10:27:23)

Krypton · 2020-07-04 12:04:29

You were right, it had something to do with ffmpeg.

The output of

pacman -Qs x264 && pacman -Qs ffmpeg

was

local/x264 3:0.159.r2999.296494a-1
Open Source H264/AVC video encoder
local/ffmpeg 2:4.2.3-2
Complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video
local/gst-libav 1.16.2-2
GStreamer open-source multimedia framework FFmpeg plugin
local/opera-ffmpeg-codecs 83.0.4103.116-1
additional support for proprietary codecs for opera

I also installed gst-plugins-ugly, but with no success.

Solution
I ran

 ffmpeg

and got the message

 ffmpeg: error while loading shared libraries: libaom.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

So I installed aom with

 pacman -S aom

where I got a conflict with libaom. With aom installed everything works fine! It also solves my side problem that I could not watch videos in firefox.

This makes sence, since aom is a "video coding format designed for video transmissions over the Internet". Thanks a lot for directing me in the right direction. I never would have thought of it. Most probably it would also be possible to not force totem to use ffmpeg and use the built in decoders as an alternative solution.

V1del · 2020-07-04 14:26:43

aom is a hard dep of the ffmpeg package, you shouldn't be able to not have this unless you installed ignoring dependencies (or via partial updates, which also aren't supported). You better check through your pacman.log for similar incorrect operations and fix them as necessary. And maybe run a complete system update to be sure.

Krypton · 2020-07-05 08:31:36

Ok, thanks for your advice. I normally regularly do system updates. Could it be that the dependency was fulfilled with the libaom package, which was flawed? I found in the aftermath that there also is a quite recent ticket on that topic.

Last edited by Krypton (2020-07-05 08:32:51)

Arch Linux

#1 2020-07-04 09:52:40

[SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

#2 2020-07-04 10:25:56

Re: [SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

#3 2020-07-04 12:04:29

Re: [SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

#4 2020-07-04 14:26:43

Re: [SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

#5 2020-07-05 08:31:36

Re: [SOLVED] No Video only Audio - H.264 error message

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