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#1 2012-07-17 11:30:01

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

The "suddenly" happened a few months ago, when I did a

pacman -Syu

Everything went well, apparently, but afterwards VLC suddenly could no longer play MKV, MP4, FLV and possibly some other formats I forgot about, which were all fine before. Meanwhile I just used mplayer and xine instead, but I'd like to use VLC again, so I hope that someone has an idea how to fix it.
Thanks!

Last edited by Jindur (2012-07-18 01:23:38)

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#2 2012-07-17 12:15:27

x33a
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 4,587

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

It would have been better had you posted this earlier.

Anyway try deleting these folders

~/.config/vlc/
~/.cache/vlc/

and reinstall it.

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#3 2012-07-17 13:54:13

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Tried it but didn't solve it hmm
I looked in more detail, it seems the following formats are affected: FLV (no message at all, vlc just terminates instantly without a word), VP80 video, MP4a (MP4/mkv audio).

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#4 2012-07-17 14:11:12

x33a
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 4,587

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Try launching it from a terminal and see what error messages it gives. Also, i assume you are using the latest version.

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#5 2012-07-17 14:28:57

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Should be latest, because I did "sudo pacman -S vlc" -> and it said it reinstalled vlc.

Terminal output with an FLV file:

VLC media player 2.1.0-git Rincewind (revision 1.3.0-git-1038-g2eccf89)
[0x8c5e8f0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.

..and just doesn't play it when I click the play button. *Nothing* happens. No further terminal output either.

Terminal output with an MP4 file:

VLC media player 2.1.0-git Rincewind (revision 1.3.0-git-1038-g2eccf89)
[0x9f5d8f0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[0xb28017f8] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `mp4a'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
[0xb28017f8] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `h264'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

and with an MKV file:

VLC media player 2.1.0-git Rincewind (revision 1.3.0-git-1038-g2eccf89)
[0x9b148f0] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
MKV/Ebml Parser: m_el[mi_level] == NULL
MKV/Ebml Parser: Up cannot escape itself
MKV/Ebml Parser: m_el[mi_level] == NULL
MKV/Ebml Parser: Up cannot escape itself
[0xb250a3f0] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `h264'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
[0xb250a3f0] main decoder error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `mp4a'. VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

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#6 2012-07-17 14:43:13

x33a
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2009-08-15
Posts: 4,587

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Well for starters latest vlc version is 2.0.2. So where have you installed vlc from? Try using the version in the extra repo. If you haven't installed it from AUR or somewhere else, it could be due to an outdated mirror.

So first update the system properly, install vlc 2.0.2. Delete the above directories again, and then post the result here.

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#7 2012-07-17 14:54:13

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

x33a wrote:

Well for starters latest vlc version is 2.0.2. So where have you installed vlc from? Try using the version in the extra repo. If you haven't installed it from AUR or somewhere else, it could be due to an outdated mirror.

So first update the system properly, install vlc 2.0.2. Delete the above directories again, and then post the result here.

I got it from vlc git repository iirc.
As I said, I deleted the folders and did

sudo pacman -S vlc

and it said "reinstalling vlc". Can I reinstall it in a different way than like this?

Do I need to search through all /usr/bin etc folders for 'vlc' files that might be left over and delete those manually?
I removed vlc files from /usr/local/bin (which were from Feb), keeping only those in /usr/bin (which are from 30th June), but "vlc --help" still says 2.1.0, so did pacman not overwrite /usr/bin/vlc on reinstallation?

Last edited by Jindur (2012-07-17 15:12:04)

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#8 2012-07-17 15:11:48

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Do you have some third-party repo? What is the output of "pacman -Si vlc"?

Last edited by anonymous_user (2012-07-17 15:13:08)

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#9 2012-07-17 15:13:39

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Name           : vlc
Version        : 2.0.2-2
URL            : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Licenses       : LGPL2.1  GPL2
Groups         : None
Provides       : None
Depends On     : a52dec  libdvbpsi  libxpm  libdca  qt  libproxy  sdl_image  libdvdnav  libtiger  lua  libmatroska  zvbi  taglib  libmpcdec  ffmpeg  faad2  libupnp  libshout
                 libmad  libmpeg2  libmodplug  libass  xcb-util-keysyms  ttf-freefont
Optional Deps  : avahi: for service discovery using bonjour protocol
                 libnotify: for notification plugin
                 ncurses: for ncurses interface support
                 libdvdcss: for decoding encrypted DVDs
                 lirc-utils: for lirc plugin
                 libavc1394: for devices using the 1394ta AV/C
                 libdc1394: for IEEE 1394 plugin
                 kdelibs: KDE Solid hardware integration
                 vdpau-video: vdpau back-end for nvidia
                 libva-driver-intel: back-end for intel cards
                 libbluray: for Blu-Ray support
                 flac: for Free Lossless Audio Codec plugin
                 oss: for OSS audio support
                 portaudio: for portaudio support
                 twolame: for TwoLAME mpeg2 encoder plugin
                 projectm: for ProjectM visualisation plugin
                 libcaca: for colored ASCII art video output
                 libgme: for libgme plugin
                 librsvg: for SVG plugin
                 gnome-vfs: for GNOME Virtual File System support
                 libgoom2: for libgoom plugin
                 vcdimager: navigate VCD with libvcdinfo
                 xosd: for xosd support
                 aalib: for ASCII art plugin
                 libmtp: for MTP devices support
                 fluidsynth: for synthesizer MIDI FluidSynth
                 smbclient: for SMB access plugin
                 libcdio: for audio CD playback support
Required By    : None
Conflicts With : vlc-plugin
Replaces       : vlc-plugin
Installed Size : 40280.00 KiB
Packager       : Giovanni Scafora <giovanni@archlinux.org>
Architecture   : i686
Build Date     : Sat 30 Jun 2012 03:19:23 PM CEST
Install Date   : Tue 17 Jul 2012 04:25:00 PM CEST
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : Yes
Description    : A multi-platform MPEG, VCD/DVD, and DivX player

I got it from vlc's git repo back then.

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#10 2012-07-17 15:17:40

anonymous_user
Member
Registered: 2009-08-28
Posts: 3,059

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

You could try vlc-git: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=16084

And see if it still happens. Otherwise, maybe you could link to a sample video so others can test for themselves?

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#11 2012-07-17 15:19:51

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Hm, this is odd!

I just did "pacman -R vlc" and it said "removing vlc 2.0.2.2".
Afterwards typing "vlc" gave unknown command ("no such file or directory") error, so it was gone.
Then I did "pacman -S vlc", it installed it again, and now if I type "vlc --help" it says "version 2.1.0" again.  ???
Just what is pacman doing there.

Last edited by Jindur (2012-07-17 15:22:02)

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#12 2012-07-17 15:22:32

windscape
Member
Registered: 2010-04-30
Posts: 69

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Hi,

My guess is that pacman did not overwrite /usr/bin/vlc because of the existing older copy from the VLC git repo. That is another reason why it is a bad idea to directly install apps without using pacman. I suggest deleting /usr/bin/vlc (and /usr/local/bin/vlc if you have it) and re-install vlc using pacman. You aren't using the [testing] Arch repo, are you? If all that fails, then post the output of ldd /usr/bin/vlc

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#13 2012-07-18 01:22:26

Jindur
Member
Registered: 2011-09-29
Posts: 184

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

Aaaalright, here are my latest results. Actually all of your advice was somehow useful.
It seems the vlc-related files in /usr/local/.. were interfering, because they were preferred over the ones in /usr/.. for some reason. For example vlc would message that certain libavcodec or other .so files were "corrupted".
So I deleted all vlc*.* files in /usr/local/.. and uninstalled vlc, so that no trace of any vlc*.* remained, I also deleted those libav.. and other stuff in /usr/local/..
Then when I reinstalled VLC via pacman -S vlc I finally had version 2.0.2-twoflower.
However, this version was working, but it couldn't use crystalhd! So I installed the AUR vlc-git. This was version 2.10-rincewind again, but even a newer build than my weird broken previous version, and it works fine as in it plays all file formats again (same as the normal pacman version) AND it can utilize crystalhd (with --codec crystalhd simply). So that's SOLVED!
Thanks everyone. smile

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#14 2013-07-03 09:38:07

newbeginboy
Banned
Registered: 2013-07-03
Posts: 1

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

The following is a step by step guide on How to Solve "VLC Not Playing MP4" Issue? at <link redacted - Trilby>

Last edited by Trilby (2014-10-29 21:13:29)

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#15 2013-07-03 14:39:34

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: VLC suddenly stopped playing most video formats [SOLVED]

newbeginboy,

Welcome to Arch Linux.  Be aware that this thread is almost a year old -- I would not be surprised if you don't hear back from anyone smile


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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