I confirm this bug. It has no ffmpeg support compiled in. It's not very useful.

But the reported version is 0.7.2. I report it to 0.8.6a

0.7.2 refers to the version of arch

I also confirm this bug

Same here.

Note that ffmpeg needs a recompile for faad2 to operate for 100% again. Recompiling vlc against the current ffmpeg will not work, and is probably also the reason it didn't compile with ffmpeg support.

@JGC: So, if I understand it correctly:
1) ffmpeg needs to be updated
2) faad2 needs to be rebuilded against the new ffmpeg
3) VLC needs to be rebuilded against the new ffmpeg and faad2

Am I right?
Should we file a bug report against ffmpeg instead? Because VLC looks pretty useless without playback support for MPEG4 videos!

faad2 has been updated, which breaks pretty much everything that links to it. As ffmpeg uses faad2...

What we're gonna do with this now ... it's still not working.I upgraded faad2 with the last one and nothing happen.

I fix min by recompile vlc with ffmpeg enabled and it's working now.

ffmpeg was recently updated, breaking VLC. The changes in ffmpeg's libavcodec library was what broke VLC. VLC was updated to fix this issue; however, it was only fixed because it is not longer linked to libavcodec at all.

As slee said, a simple recompile should fix VLC.

VLC is useless without ffmpeg because it can pretty much only play elementary mpegs etc.

A secondary fix is needed for ffmpeg. The latest version of ffmpeg requires that you also update VLC. Perhaps a note should be displayed when upgrading ffmpeg because I'm not sure that pacman supports forcing other packages to upgrade to prevent breaks.

I think I get what you're saying, but... I have the latest VLC package, as well as the latest FFMPEG package, since both were installed in the course of upgrading everything. I suppose I could very well recompile vlc, but I don't really get why the latest vlc wasn't compiled against the ffmpeg which is in extra, which I assume we all have installed. Isn't that the only thing that recompiling vlc with support for ffmpeg, myself, would do for me?

Exactly right ploxiln.

Temporary Fix: The user should recompile VLC with support for ffmpeg.

Permanent Fix: Package maintainers fix the VLC package in 'extra' by recompiling VLC with support for ffmpeg.

the PKGBUILD has typing error - it says on first line in ./configur --enable-madi - should be --enable-mad

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-madi \
--enable-ffmpeg --disable-rpath --enable-wxwindows --enable-faad \
--enable-alsa --enable-skins2 --enable-livedotcom --enable-dvb \
--enable-dmo --with-livedotcom-tree=/usr/lib/live-media \
--with-ffmpeg-faac --with-ffmpeg-vorbis --with-ffmpeg-dts \
--with-ffmpeg-ogg $EXTRAFEATURES

I changed this and built the package and i could see movies, dunno about divx, though, but all other browser plugins are disabled, with the msg: "An error occurred - could not decode stream".

I tried your suggestion linfan, and it didn't seem to fix the DIVX problem.

I changed the configure parameters to:

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-mad \
--enable-ffmpeg --disable-rpath --enable-wxwindows --enable-faad \
--enable-alsa --enable-skins2 --enable-live555 --enable-dvb \
--enable-dmo --with-live555-tree=/usr/lib/live-media \
--with-ffmpeg-faac --with-ffmpeg-vorbis --with-ffmpeg-dts \
--with-ffmpeg-ogg --enable-shared --enable-shared-pp --enable-pp \
--enable-gpl $EXTRAFEATURES

The reason I have the extra few on the end was because of the instructions on this site:
http://wiki.videolan.org/Common_Problems

Quote:
"When you run ./configure for ffmpeg, make sure that at least the following flags are set (descriptions of these avaliable from ./configure --help )

./configure --enable-shared --enable-shared-pp --enable-pp --enable-gpl"

Even after all that, it still refuses to play standard xvid/divx/etc videos.

well, try to recompile and be sure to add --with-ffmpeg - you should have both --enable-ffmpeg and --with-ffmpeg - just add that and then try. Otherwise, leave it as it is.

Regards,

linfan

I now installed vlc with the ffmpeg-svn from AUR.

Changed the PKGBUILD:
___

# $Id: PKGBUILD,v 1.42 2007/01/19 23:02:08 tobias Exp $
# Maintainer:
# Contributor: Sarah Hay <sarahhay@mb.sympatico.ca>

pkgname=vlc
pkgver=0.8.6a
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="VideoLAN Client is a multi-platform MPEG, VCD/DVD, and DivX player."
depends=('libmad>=0.15.1b-2' 'libmpeg2>=0.4.0b-3' 'ffmpeg-svn' \
'wxgtk>=2.6.3' 'hal>=0.5.8.1-2' 'libid3tag>=0.15.1b-2' 'bash>=3.1' \
'libdvbpsi4>=0.1.5' 'fribidi>=0.10.7' 'sysfsutils>=2.0.0' \
'libdvdnav>=0.1.10-2' 'libdvdread>=0.9.4-3' 'xvidcore>=1.1.0-2' \
'libmatroska>=0.8.0' 'libxv>=1.0.1' 'libcdio>=0.78' 'desktop-file-utils
')
arch=(i686 x86_64)
license=(GPL)
url="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"
#Note: These build plugins, so I guess they'd be runtime depends
makedepends=('live-media' 'gnome-vfs' 'mesa' 'sdl_image' 'libmpcdec' 'speex')
install=vlc.install
source=(http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/$pkgver/$pkgname-$pkgver.t
ar.bz2 \
vlc.desktop)
md5sums=('80217c4513bb15cd071ef8cb782513f6' '48038dfc1096c38e99b687ecc30ff621')

build() {
cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
sed -i -e 's:#include <vlc\/vlc.h>:#include <vlc/vlc.h> \n #include <locale.h>
: ' src/misc/charset.c
sed -i -e 's:/truetype/freefont/FreeSerifBold.ttf:/TTF/VeraBd.ttf:' modules/mi
sc/freetype.c

# features that won't build on x86_64
[ "$CARCH" = "i686" ] && EXTRAFEATURES="--enable-loader"

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-mad \
--enable-ffmpeg --disable-rpath --enable-wxwindows --enable-faad \
--enable-alsa --enable-skins2 --enable-livedotcom --enable-dvb \
--enable-dmo --with-livedotcom-tree=/usr/lib/live-media \
--with-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-faac --with-ffmpeg-vorbis --with-ffmpeg-dts \
--with-ffmpeg-ogg $EXTRAFEATURES
make || return 1
make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install || return 1

for res in 16 32 48; do
install -D -m644 share/vlc${res}x${res}.png \
$startdir/pkg/usr/share/icons/hicolor/${res}x${res}/apps/vlc.png || return
1
done

install -D -m644 $startdir/src/vlc.desktop \
$startdir/pkg/usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop || return 1

rm -rf ${startdir}/pkg/usr/lib/mozilla
}
______________________-

linfan

While we're at it, can we compile vlc with x264 support? (needs a rebuild of x264 with --enable-shared, see bug #6033).

Also note that some of the configure flags need to be updated, I had the following warnings while recompiling vlc:

WARNING: --{en|dis}able-wxwindows is deprecated. Use --{en|dis}able-wxwidgets instead.

WARNING: --{en|dis}able-livedotcom is deprecated. Use --{en|dis}able-live555 instead.

(and --with-livedotcom-tree=... should now be --with-live555-tree=...)

Ok, compiled with these changes, but the x264 i did not understand what it is all about, so I omitted that one :)

What I am more concerned about is to get the plugin into mozilla, but I do not know what to put into the PKGBUILD. There seems to be something more than --enable-mozilla and/or --with-mozilla.

Has anybody gotten it to work in mozilla? Please, in that case, paste the entire PKGBUILD here.

Regards,

linfan

the x264 comment was for the devs -- if you are trying to get help building an updated vlc on your machine it might be better to discuss it on the arch forums.

Hi all,

Here is the modify PKGBUILD to build vlc with the mozilla plugin, it work for me (you need ffmpeg-svn)
You have to install the plugin by hand, I'm not sure how to install it automatically, if someone can correct the PKGBUILD

______________________

# $Id: PKGBUILD,v 1.42 2007/01/19 23:02:08 tobias Exp $
# Maintainer:
# Contributor: Sarah Hay <sarahhay@mb.sympatico.ca>

pkgname=vlc
pkgver=0.8.6a
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="VideoLAN Client is a multi-platform MPEG, VCD/DVD, and DivX player."
depends=('xulrunner' 'libmad>=0.15.1b-2' 'libmpeg2>=0.4.0b-3' 'ffmpeg-svn' \
'wxgtk>=2.6.3' 'hal>=0.5.8.1-2' 'libid3tag>=0.15.1b-2' 'bash>=3.1' \
'libdvbpsi4>=0.1.5' 'fribidi>=0.10.7' 'sysfsutils>=2.0.0' \
'libdvdnav>=0.1.10-2' 'libdvdread>=0.9.4-3' 'xvidcore>=1.1.0-2' \
'libmatroska>=0.8.0' 'libxv>=1.0.1' 'libcdio>=0.78' 'desktop-file-utils')
arch=(i686 x86_64)
license=(GPL)
url="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"
#Note: These build plugins, so I guess they'd be runtime depends
makedepends=('live-media' 'gnome-vfs' 'mesa' 'sdl_image' 'libmpcdec' 'speex')
install=vlc.install
source=(http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/$pkgver/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.bz2 \
vlc.desktop)
md5sums=('80217c4513bb15cd071ef8cb782513f6' '48038dfc1096c38e99b687ecc30ff621')

build() {
[ "MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH" = "" ] && . /etc/profile.d/mozilla-common.sh

cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
sed -i -e 's:#include <vlc\/vlc.h>:#include <vlc/vlc.h> \n #include <locale.h>: ' src/misc/charset.c
sed -i -e 's:/truetype/freefont/FreeSerifBold.ttf:/TTF/VeraBd.ttf:' modules/misc/freetype.c

sed -i -e 's/mozilla-config/xulrunner-config/g' configure.ac || return 1
sed -i -e 's/xulrunner-config.h/mozilla-config.h/g' configure.ac || return 1
sed -i -e 's:/usr/lib/mozilla:`${MOZILLA_CONFIG} --prefix`/lib/firefox:g' configure.ac || return 1
#Fix speex includefile location
sed -i -e 's/speex.h/speex\/speex.h/g' configure.ac || return 1

# features that won't build on x86_64
[ "$CARCH" = "i686" ] && EXTRAFEATURES="--enable-loader"

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-mad --enable-mozilla \
--enable-ffmpeg --disable-rpath --enable-wxwidgets --enable-faad \
--enable-alsa --enable-skins2 --enable-live555 --enable-dvb \
--enable-dmo --with-live555-tree=/usr/lib/live-media \
--with-ffmpeg-faac --with-ffmpeg-vorbis --with-ffmpeg-dts \
--with-ffmpeg-ogg $EXTRAFEATURES

make XPIDL_INCL=-I/opt/mozilla/share/idl/xulrunner-`xulrunner-config --version` CFLAGS+=-I/usr/include/speex || return 1
make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg plugindir=${MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH} vlcintf_xptdir=${MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH} install || return 1

for res in 16 32 48; do
install -D -m644 share/vlc${res}x${res}.png \
$startdir/pkg/usr/share/icons/hicolor/${res}x${res}/apps/vlc.png || return 1
done

# Install the vlc plugin [ NOT SURE ABOUT THIS LINE, you can do it by hand if it didn't work ]
# install -D -m644 $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver/mozilla/libvlcplugin.so $startdir/pkg/${MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH}/libvlcplugin.so || return 1

install -D -m644 $startdir/src/vlc.desktop \
$startdir/pkg/usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop || return 1

rm -rf ${startdir}/pkg/usr/lib/mozilla
}
________________________________________

Olivier, this build did not install the plugin in my mozilla - wonder if it is coz of the last faac update? I used the latest ffmpeg-svn trunk 7796.

I could try install the ffmpeg with the earlier faac.

linfan

Have you put the libvlcplugin.so in /opt/mozilla/lib/plugins/ by hand ? the PKGBUILD don't do it (the line
is commented because I'm not if it's good).

I use the yesterday nightly Subversion snapshots of ffmpeg (because the svn it very slow).

ok, got it to work, but it won't play quicktime. installed all the *.so from codec but then it just kept crashing. Now I have installed Mediaplayerconnectivity in firefox and have no plugins at all. This is much better. I have uninstalled all -svn's and use vlc for streaming radio as it doesn't show any movies as it is.

Good luck in your further work.