Great video but no audio on .mp4 files
 

The video is great but there is absolutely no sound in the .mp4 files I'm downloading. I'm running Xubuntu 16.04LTS and have played them in VLC, Parole, and Videos. All have perfect video but no audio. I've checked that the sound is at 100% and that the mute button isn't clicked.

Any ideas? Thanks.

How are you downloading them? Can you give an example mp4 on the net that you're having problems with?

Are you getting sound out of your machine otherwise?

Got handbrake ? you could try re-sampling one of them and change the audio defaults add one and change its out put to a different encoder.

i will venture a guess that they have sound, but it doesn't playback.

do you have sound at all?

how are the videos encoded?

open them with mplayer or mpv, and post the terminal output.

btw, you've been here long enough to know that you should have provided more info in your OP.

Default sound chip setting probably. In VLC settings. Or Pulse Audio. Google should take it from there.

Thanks hydrurga. I got the .mp4 (I'm having problems with all .mp4s though) from Pexels. Here's the link:

https://08-lvl3-pdl.vimeocdn.com/01/...18187fe692276e

And sound works fine on all other files (Youtube, browser-stuff, .wmv files, .mp3 files etc).

Btw Installed the 'unrestricted extras' too. That made no difference.

Thanks BW. I do have Handbrake but that sounds like a pretty complicated solution. I'll keep it in mind if nothing simpler turns up.

Thanks ondoho. Yes, have sound. It plays on movies, browser videos, .mp3 files etc.

I don't know how they are encoded. I tried to track that down and got as far as the screenshot, then didn't know which to download.

I don't know how to open them with mplayer or mpv. I checked in the terminal and neither program is installed, but I wouldn't know how to open them there anyway.

Yep, will provide more info. next time.

Thanks rokytnji. I had issues with PulseAudio using a webcam, so when you mentioned it I checked PulseAudio but couldn't see anything wrong there.

And I checked the audio settings in VLC. Some of the .mp4s have 'stereo/left/right/reverse stereo' settings but changing them makes no difference.

And I don't know what a 'chip setting' is or where to look for it. (Couldn't find anything for 'chip setting' in Google.)

Use avprobe or ffprobe to verify that the video has audio.

$ avprobe file.mp4

$ ffprobe file.mp4

I had an issue like this recently, I needed something for mp3 audio to be installed. mpg321, libmpg123-0, it's been a while.

Hey Gregg_Bell ... I believe you need the proper AAC codec which is part of the gst-plugins-bad package. Could you check if that is installed on your system ? In many distros it is not by default.

Cheers,

i'm not getting audio on this either.
not in the browser, and not when playing it with mpv.
and i NEVER have problems witht mp4s.
mediainfo says there is an audio track, and it's it's AAC encoded.
My system is definitely capable of playing that.
therefore i surmise that this video has an audio track which is SILENT.

Of the sample I tried, none of those Pexels videos have audio (well they do have an AAC audio track but there appears to be nothing on it).

I think that may be how they are supposed to be, being stock video clips.

Thanks Shadow. I'm not sure I did this right. The .mp4 file is on the Desktop. Anyway here's the avprobe file.mp4 results:

Thanks Rick. I checked Synaptic. I don't have it but it's there. I was a little hesitant installing something called "bad" though. (LOL) I read the description in Synaptic and part of it went: 'GStreamer Bad Plug-ins is a set of plug-ins that aren't up to par compared to the rest.' Are you sure I'm not going to screw anything up by installing it?

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.

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 !

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,

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>

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.

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 :-)

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.

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.

Okay, I searched in the magnifying glass for "gst plugins bad" and this is what came up. So do I need to choose any of those available ones? Thanks.

Thanks Rick. So according to this Synaptic take, I've got all I need, right? (Since I already have the videoparsers one.) But if that's the case, then I need something else because the video still isn't working right. :(

Thanks shadow. Here's what my latest search turned up. (attachment)

Thanks hydrurga. Here's what my "gst plugins bad" search in Synaptic's magnifying glass turned up. (attachment)

And here's what your command turned up:

Okay, I did a little test. (I don't know if this will give any clues.)

The .mp4s play terrible in OpenShot video editor and Parole.
They play at about 75% quality in VLC.
About 90% quality in Videos.
And 100% quality in Xine.

I could obviously watch videos in Xine but I'd like to edit them in Openshot.

Ok. I'm not sure whether this will have any effect (some of the gstreamer packages could have well been pulled in as dependencies of other packages I have installed), but the additional packages I have, apart from my having a lot of gstreamer 0.1 packages as well as the 1.0 packages and also some i386 packages, are:

gstreamer1.0-alsa
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps
gstreamer1.0-tools

I notice from your list that you already have the bad plugins installed.

Just a quick comment that the subject of this thread has morphed from one problem to another. You might consider setting up a new thread.

Complete list:

Hi Gregg,

OK - you've got the bad plugins, alright. Odd that it still isn't working. I personally have the entire set of plugins installed for gstreamer (good, bad, ugly, etc,.,,) ... perhaps whatever filter or codec you are missing is in one of the packages you don't have ..

Along the lines of what hydrurga is suggesting, perhaps you haven't got the required set of dependencies installed. This should normally be taken care of by your package management system, but perhaps something went wrong and you are missing components.

I would look for anything to do with gstreamer 1.0 and install whatever is not already installed.

Thanks hydrurga. I checked and I have all those (gstreamer packages) you suggested on this computer (in Synaptic). I'll check on the other computer tonight (that's the problematic one). I do wonder why xine works so much better than all the others though. And good idea on the new thread. I'll close this one and open a new one.

Okay, Rick, thanks. I have to admit (see screenshot) I'd be a little scared to install all those gstreamer packages, esp. as they affect different programs that I use (and work properly). I will start with hydrurga's suggested installs, but then are you really suggesting I install all of those gstreamer packages that are unchecked? And I'm going to close this thread and open a new one under something like: Openshot editor video not working properly.

Hey Gregg,

There aren't that many, in actuality. You are either using version 0.10 or (more likely) 1.0. Your list has both, since you likely searched for gstreamer without the 1.0 qualification. That said, your approach to go about it more granually is probably more prudent, so by all means, do that.

Just as a comparative reference, here is a list of what I have installed on one of my Arch Linux systems :

Keep us in the loop - don't give up !

My bad, Rick. I didn't notice the 0.1 1.0 distinction. And yes, I'll go gradually.