H264 Codec

[Teroedni]

Theres coming a newc codec with improved quality. The article is here
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25057

My question is if anybody knows if this codecs will be availbe to linux , or will we be shut out??

[pmj]

h.264 is another mpeg-4 codec. It is patent encumbered and I'm guessing that it won't be legal to support it out of the box.

Same as with earlier mpeg-4 standards, there are free implementations. I have no idea if they work in Linux right now, but if XviD came to Linux I'm sure h.264 will as well. It's possible that vlan and mplayer can play a few h.264 videos already.

Edit: x264 is available for Linux: http://developers.videolan.org/x264.html

[sapo]

In order to play Full High Definition 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24-30 FPS you will need a MAC machine only. You actually need dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster computer with at least 512MB of RAM and a 128MB or greater video card.

OMFG ](*,)

[NoTiG]

At this time there is no graphic card hardware acceleration for this fancy codec.

.

[Hamman]

.
x264 is under heavy development. You can use it with mencoder or avidemux (to mention a few), And yes, h264 requires a lot of cpu-power, I don't think any current mainstream CPU can decode a 1080p stream. Hopefully acceleration will be built in to new graphic cards.

[Nylira]

Ok now this is getting quite annoying. Seems everyone in windows land is starting to jump on the H264 codec band wagon. Because people that use that tend to have a ton hardware needed for their OS the nix users pay the price.

From the looks of it the H264 is being tested/beta-ed in VLC 0.8.2 and Mplayer pre7. Both of which are probably not gonna be in ubuntu for a while :???:

This is a royal pain. Does anyone have any good guesses when H264 support will be in Ubuntu? I can probably already guess the answer will be: when its done.

Which means I guess that I start destabilizing my machine will compiled beta stuff. *sigh*

[Ampersand]

I think VLC 0.8.2 is in Breezy now...

[wantilles]

Xine-lib 1.1.0 supports x264/H264.

So when it gets into Totem, it will be supported in Ubuntu.

Right now, Totem has Xine-lib 1.0.1.

I am also using Gentoo, and I know.

[CompShrink]

been trying to get this to work, and just wanted to share with everyone gstreamer-ffmpeg (along with totem-gstreamer of course) plays my h264 mkvs.

It doesn't however let me select subtitles. Xine seems to have the best subtitle suport, including mkv subtitles. But as mentioned, the xine in ubuntu doesn't support h264/x264. I tried getting it in through aliening some mandrake packages, but just had to keep getting more stuff from mandrake, didn't work out.

So, now I've got playback of h264 at least, but without subs. Heh, forcing me to put my language skills to the test...

[Lovechild]

Call me when Project Schrondinger (Dirac) is ready

[BoyOfDestiny]

In breezy vlc handles it fine. In dapper I've tested mplayer with it... However, I've only played lower res fansubs (704x396), and it barely uses any cpu (I have an opteron 144, it's almost 4 years old :) ) running with 64-bit and a dell inspiron laptop with 1.8ghz centrino plays them as well (breezy 32)...

I'm glad people are using this.
I greatly dislike wmv's, even when I had windows I disliked it... Anyway don't fret

[Malphas]

Speaking of x264, anyone know of a native Linux application with similar fuctionality to MeGUI?

Edit: Failed to notice how old this thread is. I thought it was kinda odd that H.264 was being announced as a new codec.

[joplass]

Avidemux plays all my H264 files. The picture quality is unbelievable. Best I have seen \\:D/ \\:D/ \\:D/ .

[Sirin]

Ah, well, the OSS community will develop an imitation of the codec with a strange name, like "hdlinuxCodecOSSi386intelx86".

[WildTangent]

At this time there is no graphic card hardware acceleration for this fancy codec.
The Geforce 6 and 7 series can decode/encode h.264 in hardware. nvidia hasnt released a driver update supporting it yet.

-Wild

[joplass]

The Geforce 6 and 7 series can decode/encode h.264 in hardware. nvidia hasnt released a driver update supporting it yet.

-Wild
huh my ATI handles h.264 with no hicups. Let me just say that besides playing H.264 files, Avidemux encode them to other formats as well.

[WildTangent]

huh my ATI handles h.264 with no hicups. Let me just say that besides playing H.264 files, Avidemux encode them to other formats as well.
But you're using software decoding, in other words: your CPU is handling it. With the next driver update, Geforce 6 and 7 series will be able to do it with the GPU itself, thus saving your CPU alot of work.

-Wild

[CompShrink]

Personally, the VLC in the default Breezy repositories (including universe & multiverse of course) cannot playback h264 for me.

And my previous post... well now I found my first test video was lucky. Most videos using totem-gstreamer & gstreamer-ffmpeg have bad audio/video sync issues.

mplayer from CVS debs from this thread work great though: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=85190

Can't wait for hardware decoding/encoding for it!

[erk]

But you're using software decoding, in other words: your CPU is handling it. With the next driver update, Geforce 6 and 7 series will be able to do it with the GPU itself, thus saving your CPU alot of work.

-Wild

Nvidia just anounced the Windows drivers yesterday, hopefully it wont be too long for linux support.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/03/nvidia_ship_h264_purevideo/

Mind you the real fun would be getting the GPU to do H.264 encoding, it is sooo slow using the CPU to do it.

[Malphas]

Ah, well, the OSS community will develop an imitation of the codec with a strange name, like "hdlinuxCodecOSSi386intelx86".
You mean x264.

[ketsugi]

So is there a way yet to get h264 support in Totem, on Dapper? I can play my x264-encoded .mp4 files in mplayer and VLC just fine, but Totem just crashes.

It isn't really a big issue; I'd just like to get some thumbnailing in for those files.

[MattCarp]

I have the same question/problem. I'm not sure where the right place is for this discussion, but I found this thread. So:

How can I enable full H.264 support with Totem? I'm trying to play a video and get this message:

Video codec 'Advanced Video Coding (H264)' is not handled.

Of course, I added all of the restricted format codecs listed in the wiki.

Or, should I go with another media viewer?

It does appear to me that exactly what codecs you have installed is as just as opaque as Windows Media Player - it's not clear which ones I have installed, or which ones I need.

[BoyOfDestiny]

I have the same question/problem. I'm not sure where the right place is for this discussion, but I found this thread. So:

How can I enable full H.264 support with Totem? I'm trying to play a video and get this message:

Video codec 'Advanced Video Coding (H264)' is not handled.

Of course, I added all of the restricted format codecs listed in the wiki.

Or, should I go with another media viewer?

It does appear to me that exactly what codecs you have installed is as just as opaque as Windows Media Player - it's not clear which ones I have installed, or which ones I need.

If you are running dapper, I can vouch for gstreamer .10.

EDIT: NM my h264 files won't play in totem anymore. Even those that had made thumbnails... Maybe there was some update that broke it...

EDIT: Again, ran an update, made sure all the ugly and multiverse gstreamer.10 was in. Now it works, and rethumbnailed...

Anyway don't know about the wiki (I just use what's in the repos enable universe and multiverse if you haven't), but gstreamer plugins have a description, it's not hidden like windows. As to which you need... Only you really get to know that...

On the "plus" side, they added those fluendo plugins for mp3 and mpeg2...
Not a huge deal, but if I ever sell any machines with ubuntu on it, now I don't have to risk going to jail/getting fined (whatever the horrible consequences are) for including mp3 and dvd playback...

[jdong]

Dapper has h264 support in all the major media player packages, as well as mencoder/x264-bin for creating h.264's.

This is truly an amazing video format. I can use bitrates 40-50% lower than xvid/divx and still get similar quality :)

The clear downside is CPU usage. H264 is extremely heavy on CPU... I would not try using anything slower than a P4 equivalent to play the average H.264... and the hi-def ones will require a hefty high-end processor (preferably a dual-core or multiprocessor)

[MattCarp]

If you are running dapper, I can vouch for gstreamer .10.

EDIT: NM my h264 files won't play in totem anymore. Even those that had made thumbnails... Maybe there was some update that broke it...

EDIT: Again, ran an update, made sure all the ugly and multiverse gstreamer.10 was in. Now it works, and rethumbnailed...


Thanks - I definitely appreciate the help, but I'm still having trouble with this video: http://mp3.geekbrief.podshow.com/gbtv.adam.001.mov

I hate to send anyone on a quest for a silly vidcast, but I do happen to this this chick is hot.

I've got the following repositories enabled:

Dapper Updates (source) - official, restricted
Dapper Updates (binaries) - official, restricted
Dapper Drake (binaries) - official, restricted, universe, multiverse
Dapper Drake (source) - official, restricted
Backports (binary) - official, restricted, universe, multiverse
Security Updates - official, restricted

I just ran the following updates:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

And I still get the error, "Video codec 'Advanced Video Coding (H264)' is not handled." from Totem...

[jdong]

xine with totem works for sure...

[MattCarp]

xine with totem works for sure...

I am a noob - that might have something to do with it.

However, I just installed mplayer (to play with LiVES) and was able to view the video in mplayer!

EDIT: the progress bar doesn't correctly scale to reflect the progress of the playback, but it does advance the video properly, but hey, that's a different issue

Anyway, don't they use the same codecs?

[jdong]

No; many of the different players have different codecs that they use, though most of them share the ffmpeg decoders.

As far as my totem content, try installing the totem-xine package, which turns the totem player backend from gstreamer to xine. I've had better general luck with xine.

[samir85]

I've some h.264 encoded videos here and they play with totem-gstreamer flawless.
I wonder why it's not working for you ...

[MattCarp]

hmmm... Totem's Help > About reports that I'm already using xine:

"Movie Player using xine-lib version 1.1.1"

To be sure, Synaptic shows that I do havethe totem-xine package installed, version 1.4.1-0ubuntu4.

I suppose since I can play these with mplayer, this isn't a big issue, but I'd like to better understand you the video setup works and fix it. It would probably be helpful for other newbies who don't take the trouble to install mplayer.

[c-m]

who gives codecs these h.??? names.?

Could create a codec and call it bad hairy *** codec, and get it patented or something, or would someone then come along and say this is now h.???

[pmj]

hmmm... Totem's Help > About reports that I'm already using xine:

"Movie Player using xine-lib version 1.1.1"

To be sure, Synaptic shows that I do havethe totem-xine package installed, version 1.4.1-0ubuntu4.

I suppose since I can play these with mplayer, this isn't a big issue, but I'd like to better understand you the video setup works and fix it. It would probably be helpful for other newbies who don't take the trouble to install mplayer.

I haven't had much luck with h.264 in xine (or totem-xine) either. To use gstreamer with totem, just install totem-gstreamer (sudo apt-get install totem-gstreamer).

[icaughtfire818]

I haven't had much luck with h.264 in xine (or totem-xine) either. To use gstreamer with totem, just install totem-gstreamer (sudo apt-get install totem-gstreamer).



sudo apt-get install totem-gstreamer worked for me ^.^

thanks luvvies <3

[jdong]

I have my entire movie collection in H.264+AAC/MP4 and every media player that ships with Feisty can play it fine. Look at that progress :)