Thanks ondoho. That may well be the case (that they're silent). But maybe there's something to Rick's 'gst-plugins-bad' suggestion?

Thanks hydrurga. Hmm. That's probably the case (they're silent). I guess it just seemed like the roller coaster one would have yelling and screaming. But if they're silent, they're silent. Which is kind of weird though. I mean, not all .mp4 files are silent, are they?

And I'm wondering about Rick's suggestion of the gst-plugins-bad.

It's all kind of confusing.

No, most mp4's have an audible audio track. These stock videos don't though. The idea is that you add your own audio, and additional graphics if desired, to create your final video. Or, alternatively, you just use them as silent "moving wallpaper".

Here's a sample mp4 video: http://techslides.com/demos/sample-videos/small.mp4

Play it in your browser. Then right-click on it, save it to your computer and double-click on it to play it. In both cases you should hear audio, although not very loud for this particular video. If so, then you have an AAC codec on your computer and do not need to install any other packages.

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Great, hydrurga. Thanks! I downloaded your .mp4 and it worked fine. Yeah, I've seen a lot of those videos with like musical or sound-effect backgrounds, and that's what I'll do too.

And it's good to know the computer is working properly.

It's weird though, some of the .mp4s play back properly in VLC and Openshot video editor, and some are hurky-jurky. Hmm.

Hi Gregg ... I can understand your trepidation ... But I can assure you that there is nothing dangerous about installing the gst-plugins-bad package ... Believe it or not, some of the other codecs are included in packages called gst-plugins-good and even gst-plugins-ugly ! I think someone has a sense of humour ...

Anyway, some applications expect one or several of these packages to be installed. So I would try it and if it doesn't improve the situation, you can either leave it there or remove it. I know I require both "bad" and "ugly" for various functionalities on my system.

Hope this helps - let us know - Cheers !

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Thanks Rick. I thought everything was working good on that computer, but although the .mp4s played well on the website, they were jerky on VLC and Openshot video. (I just tested the same .mp4 on this computer--the newer one--and it works fine on VLC and Openshot.) So that other computer needs some help still. I'll install the gst-plugins-bad package when I get home tonight and report back. Appreciate it!

No problem - hope it solves the issue - let us know !

Cheers,

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Rick, I went to install the gst-plugins-bad package but this time I couldn't find it in Synaptic. (screenshot) Which is weird because I found it there yesterday.

I ran an update/ugrade/autoremove on 4/29/17 but yesterday was 4/30/17. <scratching head>

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for $DEITY's sake learn to search.
first of all, synaptic's proper search function is accessed through the magnifying glass, there make sure yiou choose "name and description".
then, remove the hyphens and make it search for 3 words instead of 1: "gst plugin bad" should give more results.
i suspect versions 0.10 and/or 1.0 are available.

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Hey Gregg,

I admit to being unfamiliar with Synaptic or GUI tools in general for package management. Even the odd time I do use a Debian derivative, I usually just use apt from the command line.

I did a quick search online and, if you have the 1.0 version of gstreamer installed, the "bad" plugin package is called gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-videoparsers. Depending on what you already have installed, don't be surprised if it installs some dependencies.


Hope that helps.

Cheers :-)

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There's older ways that still kind of apply for debian based things. Although probably phased out someday.

$ sudo apt-get install dselect
$ sudo dselect update

$ dpkg-query --load-avail -l '*gst*plug*bad*'

Oddly more useful IMO than the modern approach.

$ apt-cache search --names-only gst | grep -i plug | grep -i bad

The dselect stuff is to populate the old school available so --load-avail has stuff to work with. Which used to just be:

$ dpkg -l '*gst*plug*bad*'

But not nearly as functional these days in a near miss kind of way. At least ubuntu 16.04 finally added apt-file.

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Okay, ondoho. I just thought it was odd that the gst-plugins-bad would be there (with the regular search) one day and be gone the next.

I have to wait till I get home (the problem is on my home computer) but I'll search with the magnifying glass then. Thanks.

Thanks Rick. I don't remember seeing anything with 'videoparsers' but I'll check into it when I get home. (I think the gstreamer is installed.)

Thanks shadow. Interesting. (The old school vs modern approach. I didn't know there was such a difference.) I'll check things out when I get on that problematic computer.

Gregg, there are loads of gstreamer-related packages.

If you're worried about it then paste the results of dpkg -l '*gst*' | grep "^ii" and I'll compare what you've got against what I've got.

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