[solved] Video files no longer playing

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Brock44
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[solved] Video files no longer playing

Post by Brock44 »

I finally quit procrastinating and installed Mint 18.3 dual booted with Win 7 on my laptop about a week ago. It is a bit of a learning curve but so far I am managing to get a bunch of software installed and things customized.

I installed VLC right away and replaced Video Player as the default video player. It played all my videos, all file types and codecs just fine.

Something changed today though and suddenly neither VLC nor Video player will play any videos at all. When I attempt to play any of them I get the message:

"Codec Not Supported: VLC could not decode the format "h264" (H264 MPEG-4 AVC (part 10))"

I get similar messages for all other codec types. If I try to play them with the default video player, it opens, does nothing for a few seconds then closes.

I uninstalled and reinstalled VLC, Now it will play the audio of the files but I still get the same error messages. VIdeo Player still behaves the same.

Yes I have installed other software but am not sure if any of those installations have broken anything.

Mint-meta-codecs is installed. Also I do use Kodi and that plays anything just fine, but i know it contains everything it need to play back any type of file.

Anyone have any idea on what I might try next?

Thank You
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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absque fenestris
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Re: Video files no longer playing

Post by absque fenestris »

I guess: could it be digital rights (DRM)...?
Try to open the videos in an internet browser - simply drag the video with the mouse into the address field of the browser.
Brock44
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Re: Video files no longer playing

Post by Brock44 »

Hi Absque..

No, it's not DRM. There is no DRM in any of my files. Even my own created files (h264/AVC) do not play. Neither do WMV/Divx/HEVC/h265. They all played up until today, for almost a week, in both VLC and Media Player just fine. Now codec errors.

Yes they do play in a browser.
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catweazel
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Re: Video files no longer playing

Post by catweazel »

Brock44 wrote: Sun May 20, 2018 2:13 am Yes they do play in a browser.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install --reinstall mint-meta-codecs
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Try that.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
Brock44
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Re: Video files no longer playing

Post by Brock44 »

Catweasel (haha, love the name)

That worked! I did reinstall Mint-Meta-Codecs before with no effect but I did not know about Ubuntu-restricted extras. I did have to reboot though but now it works again.

Thank you.
I am sure this new Linux adventure will lead to more questions at some point.
Petermint
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Re: [solved] Video files no longer playing

Post by Petermint »

I tested mint-meta-codecs and ubuntu-restricted-extras to make MPEG-2 playable. ubuntu-restricted-extras used only 35 MB and made the videos work. mint-meta-codecs wanted to install 135 MB including adobe-flashplugin. People should test ubuntu-restricted-extras first. Ban Flash!
DaemonCantor

Re: [solved] Video files no longer playing

Post by DaemonCantor »

Thank You Catswell for the info it worked for me on a new install that wasn't playing anything other than .mkv files.
stevedonato
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VLC does not work at all Mint 20 cinnamon

Post by stevedonato »

I did all that on linux Mint 20 latest release cinnamon. VLC does not work at all.
Nothing happens when I try to open with VLC no messages?
What have these developers Done?
Zero regression testing?
Mint 18.3 everything works perfect.
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