Bottom controls don't work in Videos (Totem) in Wayland in Buster. They work OK in Xorg. Clicking a video file will start the player, but it's not possible to interact with the progress bar, menu or volume buttons.
I'm not the first to notice this, and its not confined to Debian. The Antergos forum has a post on the issue.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Monday, May 6, 2019
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Firefox to run H.264 video
In a previous post I talked about the future of Flash in Linux, and looked at some of the possible alternatives. I mentioned HTML5 video as a possible alternative, and an issue with HTML5 video adoption: proprietary and non-proprietary formats.
Now Cisco has open sourced the H.264 codec (the proprietary codec used to encode most online video) and Firefox will run H.264 video in "the first half of 2014".
This could "widen support for web-based video chat":
Now Cisco has open sourced the H.264 codec (the proprietary codec used to encode most online video) and Firefox will run H.264 video in "the first half of 2014".
In a surprising twist, the future of open and standard HTML5 video is looking a lot brighter today, with Cisco's announcement of the release of a fully open source implementation of the H.264 codec.Softpedia
The code makes it possible for any open source project to add support for the video codec without paying any fee or signing any restrictive license with the MPEG-LA, the industry group that licenses the technology.
This is a major development, as the situation around the proprietary codec has been an important source of contention among browser makers to date.
Most video found online is encoded with H.264. That's not a problem for Flash video, since Flash Player supports the codec out of the box.
In theory, it's not a problem for HTML5 video either, as long as browsers agree to license the codec. In fact, the license is even free in many cases. But it is incompatible with open source projects like Firefox.
Mozilla refused to add support for H.264, though it could have afforded to pay the license, because it meant that downstream projects, which relied on Firefox, wouldn't have been able to get the entire Firefox source code under an open license.
Google came up with a potential solution, the WebM video format and the VP8 codec, which it open sourced and made available for free. But, several years after that, most videos found online are still encoded with H.264 and won't work in Firefox without external codecs.
Cisco worked with Mozilla to get this done, so it's no surprise that Mozilla is the first to make use of this new open H.264.Softpedia
The browser maker has announced that it will be adding full support for H.264 in Firefox in the first half of 2014.
Mozilla opted not to build the H.264 codec into the Firefox source code. Rather, if needed, the browser will be able to automatically download the binary code that Cisco is making available. Users will be able to disable this feature though.
What this means is that Firefox will be able to run any H.264 video it encounters on the web, plain HTML5 videos or even WebRTC streams, if H.264 becomes part of the WebRTC standard.
This could "widen support for web-based video chat":
WebRTC promises plugin-free video chat in our browsers, but it has been stuck in limbo due to format squabbles -- some companies want royalty-free standards like VP8, while others insist on the wider support of H.264. Today, Cisco is proposing a truce between the two camps. It's planning to open-source its H.264 codec without passing on the royalties it pays to MPEG-LA, effectively making the standard free when used in web conversations.And:
If all goes well, though, we won't have to fret much over the apps and devices we use for our video discussions.engadget
Monday, March 18, 2013
Some useful webcam applications in XFCE
I've been trying out some useful applications in XFCE with my new webcam, a cheap but Linux friendly HP.
The first may not seem an obvious choice, but the only problem I had with the webcam was sound. The webcam has an internal microphone, but in some applications I couldn't hear it. mhWaveEdit is a sound recording application, which was able to record sound from the webcam, proving that the microphone did work. Knowing that it did work, I was able to get all the other applications I tried to work too (with a bit of perseverance!).
I first tried it with Pulseaudio, under which it picked up the microphone immediately, but later when I was investigating sound problems in other applications, I uninstalled Pulseaudio. Under Alsa, I had to enter the name of the webcam microphone, which is hw:1,0. To find the name of the webcam microphone, use this command:
The microphone name is then hw:[card number],[device number].
In Skype the microphone worked under Pulseaudio and Alsa. In Pulseaudio it's just a question of making sure that the webcam microphone is set as the fallback microphone in Pulseaudio Volume Control, because Skype just sees the pulseaudio server; in Alsa, Skype sees the different possible inputs, and it's necessary to select the webcam microphone- fortunately the name in the menu was descriptive, telling me the make and model of the webcam as well as the system name, hw:1,0 again.
In Gnome I could use the webcam to take pictures and record videos with Cheese, and I wondered if I could do the same thing with an application in XFCE. I couldn't find a single application to do both, but it is possible to take pictures and record video.
Camorama is a simple application that let's you view the webcam output and take pictures, and it doesn't bring a cascade of dependencies on XFCE like Cheese.
The application does seem to be affected by a bug which makes it freeze immediately after opening, requiring a forced close, but it works fine if restarted. I am running Debian Testing (Wheezy), so maybe this bug will get fixed before the release. (GUVCView, reviewed later on, is also affected by this bug.)
It's possible to capture webcam video output with VLC, with which Debian XFCE comes installed, so first I gave that a try. There are plenty of tutorials for this on the web. Basically go to Media > Open capture device and select the webcam and microphone. The names in Linux are non-descriptive system names (hw:1,0 again- use the command above to check what the system names belong to). Windows versions of VLC seem to give a descriptive name to each input, telling you it's a webcam, and giving the manufacturer's name, but Linux users are less mollycoddled. To record video, hit the dropdown arrow next to play and select convert.
That's the theory, anyway. I found that video way recorded, but the sound track consisted mostly of scratches and crackles like a badly tuned short wave radio station. Google suggested trying plughw:1,0 instead of hw:1,0, but that didn't work with Pulseaudio.
Later on I tried again with no Pulseaudio and plughw:1,0 worked. A page on VORTEXBOX about the difference between hw and plughw gave me the clue I needed:
The final application I tried is GUVCView. As mentioned before, this application is affected by the same bug as Camorama: when opned, it freezes within a few seconds, requiring a forced close, but when restarted it works without issue.
GUVCView did not work for me with the default settings, but after a lot of fiddling, it did. I had to find the right camera output setting by trial and error and for some reason the avi video format did not work but mkv did. Sound worked with the default or pulse inputs in Pulseaudio and the USB; with ALSA I had to select the HP 2200 USB hw:1,0 input.
The first may not seem an obvious choice, but the only problem I had with the webcam was sound. The webcam has an internal microphone, but in some applications I couldn't hear it. mhWaveEdit is a sound recording application, which was able to record sound from the webcam, proving that the microphone did work. Knowing that it did work, I was able to get all the other applications I tried to work too (with a bit of perseverance!).
I first tried it with Pulseaudio, under which it picked up the microphone immediately, but later when I was investigating sound problems in other applications, I uninstalled Pulseaudio. Under Alsa, I had to enter the name of the webcam microphone, which is hw:1,0. To find the name of the webcam microphone, use this command:
arerecord -l[Correction: the command should be arecord -l]
The microphone name is then hw:[card number],[device number].
In Skype the microphone worked under Pulseaudio and Alsa. In Pulseaudio it's just a question of making sure that the webcam microphone is set as the fallback microphone in Pulseaudio Volume Control, because Skype just sees the pulseaudio server; in Alsa, Skype sees the different possible inputs, and it's necessary to select the webcam microphone- fortunately the name in the menu was descriptive, telling me the make and model of the webcam as well as the system name, hw:1,0 again.
In Gnome I could use the webcam to take pictures and record videos with Cheese, and I wondered if I could do the same thing with an application in XFCE. I couldn't find a single application to do both, but it is possible to take pictures and record video.
Camorama is a simple application that let's you view the webcam output and take pictures, and it doesn't bring a cascade of dependencies on XFCE like Cheese.
The application does seem to be affected by a bug which makes it freeze immediately after opening, requiring a forced close, but it works fine if restarted. I am running Debian Testing (Wheezy), so maybe this bug will get fixed before the release. (GUVCView, reviewed later on, is also affected by this bug.)
It's possible to capture webcam video output with VLC, with which Debian XFCE comes installed, so first I gave that a try. There are plenty of tutorials for this on the web. Basically go to Media > Open capture device and select the webcam and microphone. The names in Linux are non-descriptive system names (hw:1,0 again- use the command above to check what the system names belong to). Windows versions of VLC seem to give a descriptive name to each input, telling you it's a webcam, and giving the manufacturer's name, but Linux users are less mollycoddled. To record video, hit the dropdown arrow next to play and select convert.
That's the theory, anyway. I found that video way recorded, but the sound track consisted mostly of scratches and crackles like a badly tuned short wave radio station. Google suggested trying plughw:1,0 instead of hw:1,0, but that didn't work with Pulseaudio.
Later on I tried again with no Pulseaudio and plughw:1,0 worked. A page on VORTEXBOX about the difference between hw and plughw gave me the clue I needed:
...unsupported sample rates will be converted to a working rate.I tried dropping the sample rate in VLC and found that sound recording started to work. 11025 seems to be the highest that will work: the default is 48000.
The final application I tried is GUVCView. As mentioned before, this application is affected by the same bug as Camorama: when opned, it freezes within a few seconds, requiring a forced close, but when restarted it works without issue.
GUVCView did not work for me with the default settings, but after a lot of fiddling, it did. I had to find the right camera output setting by trial and error and for some reason the avi video format did not work but mkv did. Sound worked with the default or pulse inputs in Pulseaudio and the USB; with ALSA I had to select the HP 2200 USB hw:1,0 input.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
MP4 video doesn't play in Totem on Debian Wheezy
This is an issue I noted when I first tried Debian Wheezy. Tonight my daughter was fixated on watching "Five Little Monkeys", which of course just happened to be an MP4 file. Totem wouldn't play it. I downloaded VLC and that would, but later I decided to see if I could track down the problem.
I found this post on the Ubuntu forum pointing to a Launchpad bug: it seems the problem has been fixed in Ubuntu. I don't know how quickly bug fixes make their way from Ubuntu to Debian, but at least there are some workarounds available: the easiest one obviously being to install VLC.
I found this post on the Ubuntu forum pointing to a Launchpad bug: it seems the problem has been fixed in Ubuntu. I don't know how quickly bug fixes make their way from Ubuntu to Debian, but at least there are some workarounds available: the easiest one obviously being to install VLC.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
WinFF- a GUI for FFmpeg video conversion
I've used FFmpeg to Resize video for Android and now to convert video for the Innotab. I found the command on A Maggid's Musings, along with a nice GUI for FFmpeg, called WinFF. After adding the FFmpeg command as described, you can easily add a bunch of video files and leave WinFF to convert them.
Here's my FFmpeg command for converting video files for the Innotab:
I've modified it to make videos full screen on the Innotab. Although this may involve altering the aspect ratio quite a bit (the Innotab is wide screen), videos seem to be more watchable using all of the screen.
I've also added a volume boost because the audio channel can come out very quite. -vol 512 doubles the volume. The command goes up from zero boost in increments of 256: 256, 512, 768, 1024- but higher levels introduce a lot of distortion.
Incidentally, if Dora the Explorer needs a singing map to tell her that to get to the Library she must cross the troll bridge and climb a bigggg rock, how did she get the eight library books in the first place?
Here's my FFmpeg command for converting video files for the Innotab:
-s 480x272 -aspect 1.777 -vcodec mjpeg -b 1800k -r 15 -acodec pcm_s16le -ar 20050 -ac 1 -vol 512
I've modified it to make videos full screen on the Innotab. Although this may involve altering the aspect ratio quite a bit (the Innotab is wide screen), videos seem to be more watchable using all of the screen.
I've also added a volume boost because the audio channel can come out very quite. -vol 512 doubles the volume. The command goes up from zero boost in increments of 256: 256, 512, 768, 1024- but higher levels introduce a lot of distortion.
Incidentally, if Dora the Explorer needs a singing map to tell her that to get to the Library she must cross the troll bridge and climb a bigggg rock, how did she get the eight library books in the first place?
My new Linux computer
Sadly the software that comes with it to allow download of new games and ebooks is not Linux compatible. Although I eventually got the Learning Lodge Navigator working on PlayOnLinux (Debian has a very old version of Wine- PlayOnLinux downloads the latest version), the USB to the Innotab didn't work.
Looks like I'll be needing to borrow a Windows computer.
I had better luck putting content on the SD card I bought (memory cards are astonishingly cheap now- 8GB for under £4!). Create the directory structure and convert videos as described on A Maggid's Musings. (I added a comment with an alternative parameter to make videos full screen which I used when resizing videos for Android.) I had no problem playing an MP3 file I put on the card, unlike some people.
Of course I had to mount the SD card first. I have an SD slot in my laptop, but it doesn't seem to work in Debian. I must try and get it working, but in the meantime, I bought a £1 card reader from PoundWorld.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Edit and convert GTK-RecordMyDesktop output
Just a link I found useful while experimenting with RecordMyDesktop. Output is in the Ogg format, which Avidemux can't edit. TuxArena Blog has a tip on how to convert the output file to a format Avidemux can handle, and at the same time reduce the size of the file before uploading to a video-sharing website of your choice.
Can't stop GTK-RecordMyDesktop in Gnome 3
RecordMyDesktop is a program for recording screencasts. I was trying it out today when I encountered some unexpected results. I started recording, but couldn't find a way to stop. The program was in the Gnome 3 notification area at the bottom of the screen, but clicking it resulted only in the top Gnome panel disappearing. Fortunately I found a solution on Google before my HD filled up. There seems to be an incompatibility issue, which can be avoided by unticking a couple of (non-essential) options as described in the link.
Here's the screencast of the unstable behaviour. All-in-all a success, despite the hitch. A screencast review of Gnome 3 is a upcoming project.
Here's the screencast of the unstable behaviour. All-in-all a success, despite the hitch. A screencast review of Gnome 3 is a upcoming project.
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