Multimedia - Streaming Gone Mad - Big Trouble
 

Hello.

I posted this question hours ago on the Newbies Forum, but nobody seems to be looking. I really need to find some sort or an answer, so I'm asking here.

I'm running Ubuntu 5.10 (Gnome).

I've had a lot of trouble getting streaming to work.

Sometimes something works directly on Firefox...usually not.

I have the following programs installed:

gmplayer
gxine
mplayer
Totem
VLC
xine
XMMS

QUESTION 1.
For a while, VLC could play most any radio stream. It seems to have gone nuts. Now, whatever I ask it to play, it just keeps running up and down the playlist and is unable to do anything. OR, if asked to play a specific stream, it looks for a few seconds like it's trying and then goes blank...and occasionally hangs.

I discovered that XMMS could play all of the streams. I was listening to one, when I tried to save a playlist. From that moment on, it hasn't been able to play anything. If I try to open a stream, it might momentarily show the address it's trying to get (without playing anything), but, more often, it just sits there looking at me. System Monitor says it's sleeping!

Mplayer and xine usually say they can't find a plugin, although I think I've installed every one known to man.

What on earth is the matter with these Linux programs? One minute, everything's fine...and the next, Goodbye!

QUESTION 2.

Right now, I can't play anything unless Firefox feels up to it.

If it's any help, the plugins Firefox says it has are:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


gxine starter plugin

File name: gxineplugin.so
will start external gxine media player for embedded media streams
------------------------------------------
Shockwave Flash

File name: libflashplayer.so
Shockwave Flash 7.0 r25
------------------------------------------
VLC multimedia plugin

File name: libvlcplugin.so
VLC multimedia plugin
------------------------------------------
OpenOffice.org Plug-in

File name: libnpsoplugin.so
------------------------------------------
Totem Mozilla Plugin

File name: libtotem_mozilla.so
------------------------------------------
Google VLC multimedia plugin 1.0

File name: mplayerplug-in-gmp.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
QuickTime Plug-in 6.0

File name: mplayerplug-in-qt.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
RealPlayer 9

File name: mplayerplug-in-rm.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
Windows Media Player Plugin

File name: mplayerplug-in-wmp.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
mplayerplug-in 3.05

File name: mplayerplug-in.so
mplayerplug-in 3.05
-------------------------------------------
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_05-b05

File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.5.0_05
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just tried to view a streaming TV feed that was working previously (in Firefox - gxine picked it up). Now it doesn't work.

Mainly, all the media programs have stopped working. Even if I go out of Firefox and try to open the location in the local programs..one after the other...nothing works.

As far as I can tell, this happened spotaneously. I didn't install any media programs, new plugins, codecs, or anything. UNLESS some install (or attempted install), unrelated to multimedia, wiped out some dependencies or something.

I haven't a clue where to start to try and sort this out.

At this point the only thing I can do is boot back into Windows (all these streams are up and working fine, by the way).

Do I have to reconstruct Ubuntu from scratch?

Anyone have any ideas on any of this?

Thanks.

Looks like you have three different video plugins...

They are probably fighting over which to choose.
Disable all but your favorite (I would use mplayer) and see if it works...

Another possibility is that one app clobbered the config file used by the other. If all are talking to xine, this might easily have happened.

Try creating a new userid and see if things work the way you want, then you may be able to use that ID's config files to replace yours. Just an idea...

-Alan