Gnash full screen playback plus Shrinkta

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aloniv

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Hello fellow Trisquel users,

First I'd like to say that I love the look of Trisquel and it's actually working quite well on my old AMD 64 bit computer. The only issue I have encountered so far concerns Gnash and choppy full screen playback on Youtube.

Full screen playback is better when using Gnome-MPlayer via Gecko-Mediaplayer with Linterna Magica, however this method doesn't work on Youtube. I also noticed that Gecko-Mediaplayer was missing from the repositories (as it is part of the multiverse repository) yet MPlayer and Gnome-MPlayer appear in the repositories. Perhaps it could be added to Trisquel's repositories. It would also be nice to have the front-end SMplayer in the repositories.

I tried to install Shrinkta from the repositories but it depends on Transcode which is in the multiverse repository and thus not available in Trisquel. Adding Transcode to the repositories (or removing Shrinkta) should resolve this issue.

Handbrake was suggested to be added to the repositories. I'd also suggest Avidemux (video editor), Mediainfo (displays video and audio tags) and Sigil (ebook editor).

Cheers,

Alon.

ivaylo
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aloniv:
> Full screen playback is better when using Gnome-MPlayer via Gecko-Mediaplayer
> with Linterna Magica, however this method doesn't work on Youtube.

Can you explain that in detail? Do you have problem with Linterna Mágica and full-screen in YouTube (only)? If you problem is that Linterna Mágica does not work in YouTube, then try the newest (0.8-2) version.

aloniv

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Thanks, the latest version of Linterna Magica fixed the Youtube problem.

Now I only need to manage to record audio from my Lifeview 2000 card using VLC and get my Genius webcamera working (the product id is 0x7007 but I couldn't install the driver from here http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html).

ivaylo
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aloniv:
>and get my Genius webcamera working (the product id is 0x7007 but I couldn't install the driver from here http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html).

Do you really need to install that driver? It is part of the kernel. I have a A4 Tech model (Vimicro Vendor ID:0x0ac8 Product ID:0x303b). According to the site the only difference is the sensor. It should work out of the box, unless the code for the sensor is brand new and not in Trisquel / linux-libre. Start a program that can access the camera (cheese for example) and test it.

$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 005: ID 0ac8:303b Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. ZC0303 Webcam

$ dmesg
425756.103151] gspca: probing 0ac8:303b
[425758.045111] zc3xx: probe 2wr ov vga 0x0000
[425758.105113] zc3xx: probe sensor -> 0011
[425758.105120] zc3xx: Find Sensor HV7131R(c)
[425758.113252] gspca: probe ok

$ lsmod |grep -E "spca|zc"
gspca_zc3xx 49253 0
gspca_main 25031 1 gspca_zc3xx
videodev 40550 7 gspca_main,tvaudio,tuner,cx8800,cx88xx,v4l2_common

$ uname -a
Linux dreamland 2.6.32-27-generic #49trisquel1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 4 23:04:27 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

aloniv

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Cheese can access the camera, but I only see a black screen so I assume it isn't working. lsusb of course recognizes the camera. Here is the log of the same commands in case it helps.

$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0458:7007 KYE Systems Corp. (Mouse Systems) VideoCAM Web

$ dmesg
[ 249.450467] gspca: probing 0458:7007
[ 251.313334] zc3xx: probe 2wr ov vga 0x0000
[ 251.446405] zc3xx: probe 3wr vga 1 0x8000
[ 251.451406] zc3xx: probe sensor -> 0014
[ 251.451412] zc3xx: Find Sensor CS2102K?. Chip revision 8000
[ 251.455563] gspca: probe ok

$ lsmod |grep -E "spca|zc"
gspca_zc3xx 49253 0
gspca_main 25031 1 gspca_zc3xx
videodev 40550 4 gspca_main,tuner,saa7134,v4l2_common

$ uname -a
Linux computername 2.6.32-27-generic #49trisquel1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 4 23:04:27 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

ivaylo
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aloniv:
>Cheese can access the camera, but I only see a black screen
>so I assume it isn't working.
[cut]

>[ 251.451406] zc3xx: probe sensor -> 0014
>[ 251.451412] zc3xx: Find Sensor CS2102K?. Chip revision 8000

It looks like sensor issue. The driver's web page states Tas5130C as
sensor. It is possible that the driver does not detect the right
sensor. It might be fixed in newer versions. You could try to force
the sensor, but I am not sure about the consequences. I see only a
black screen if I force my camera to another sensor. *I don't know if
this could break/fry something somehow. Do it only if you are
comfortable with the idea that it might get bricked.*

$ modinfo gspca_zc3xx
[cut]
parm: force_sensor:Force sensor. Only for experts!!! (int)

$ modprobe -r gspca_zc3xx
$ modprobe gspca_zc3xx force_sensor=16 # 0-18; -1 autodetect

There are currently 19 sensors in the source code. Variations of
Tas5130C are defined as 16, 17 and 18. If you wish, you could try
them all (0-18).

If something you find a working sensor, you can add this in /etc/modprobe.d/gspca_zc3xx.conf:
options gspca_zc3xx force_sensor=16# if 16 is working

I don't know are you aware of this, sorry if you are.

I doubt the problem is cheese related, because programs use the V4L2
interface. Anyway you could try with mplayer, assuming /dev/video1 is
the web camera:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video1:width=240:height=120

All this is just to avoid using the latest driver from the project
page, for which you did not say what exactly is the problem.

aloniv

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The sensor displays video now when I choose the value 16, but the colors are bad (everything is purple/pink). Is there any way to fix this?

Installing the driver didn't work as it wouldn't build probably because it was designed for an older kernel (I installed the build-essential package and changed the location of the kernel source folder but it didn't help. Perhaps I need to install another package as well?).

ivaylo
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aloniv:

> The sensor displays video now when I choose the value 16, but the
> colors are bad (everything is purple/pink). Is there any way to fix
> this?

I don't know how you can fix this. So, only number 16 produces
picture?

>Installing the driver didn't work as it wouldn't build probably
>because it was designed for an older kernel

The "old kernel" part got me thinking. Then I saw the last release
date - 2007. I am almost sure that the driver on the page you
mentioned earlier is deprecated. There is a gpsca v2 driver. That one
is in the kernel. Have in mind that the driver might have non-free
blobs and/or firmware. Better install newer Linux-libre kernel (they
provide a deb repository).

aloniv

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Yes only number 16 is working. On Windows of course the colors are fine. I will probably wait for a future release of the kernel (I only found .deb files for 32 bit computers, and I can't really be bothered to manually download and install software anymore - admittedly I've become spoiled since I started using GNU/Linux).

I managed to record audio from my TV card (Lifeview Flyvideo 2000) by simply selecting Rec. in Capture and in Line in GNOME ALSA mixer. Mencoder seems to record the audio and video in sync as well (or at least much better than VLC).

aloniv

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I noticed that Midori seems to work with WebM on Youtube and Theora on Dailymotion. The only issues are video tearing (especially noticable when viewing videos in fullscreen mode in Youtube) and some URLs that seem to work in Midori but not in Web Browser (e.g. non official content like this video http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zkpz_richard-stallman-free-software-song_music). Is there any way to play a video like this one in Web Browser (Web Browser recommends installing missing plugins but can't find any)?

ivaylo
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aloniv:
>and some URLs that seem to work in Midori but not in Web Browser

Midori uses WebKit which has support for MPEG4/H264, that is why you can see the video. Web Browser is rebranded Firefox and uses Gecko which does not have support for H264. And probably will never have (patent issues). WebKit is mainly developed by Apple. They have some legal rights over H264 and that is why there is such support in WebKit. WebKit is free software.

> Is there any way to play a video like this one in Web Browser

If you switch HTML5 off in Dailymotion Linterna Mágica will detect the flash object and replace it, so you will be able to watch it.

Daemonax
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Joined: 09/30/2009

I'm confused, is there some legal loop trickery with patents that allows
webkit to be considered free-software even though parts of it can't be
used in other software, which free-software is meant to allow?

On Fri, 2011-01-14 at 14:56 +0100, name at domain wrote:
> aloniv:
> >and some URLs that seem to work in Midori but not in Web Browser
>
> Midori uses WebKitt which has support for MPEG4/H264, that is why you can see
> the video. Web Browser is rebranded Firefox and uses Gecko which does not
> have support for H264. And probably will never have (patent issues). WebKitt
> is mainly developed by Apple. They have some legal rights over H264 and that
> is why there is such support in WebKitt. WebKitt is free software.
>
> > Is there any way to play a video like this one in Web Browser
>
> If you switch HTML5 off in Dailymotion Linterna Mágica will detect the flash
> object and replace it, so you will be able to watch it.

ivaylo
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Daemonax writes:

> I'm confused, is there some legal loop trickery with patents that allows
> webkit to be considered free-software even though parts of it can't be
> used in other software, which free-software is meant to allow?

First of all I am not a lawyer!

WebKit started as a fork of KHTML, the HTML render engine of the KDE
project. KHTML is licensed under the LGPL, so WebKit had to use the same
license. Some parts of WebKit are licensed under BSD-style license.

The problem with patents is that the patent holders might force the
developers of the free software program to stop distributing and or
developing it anymore. I think similar issues are valid for many free
software mp3 encoders/decoders. We are just lucky that the patent
holders did not do anything about it.

As far as I know there is no problem for a program to be free software
and implement patented technology. The problem is that the patent
holders have the legal right to make the program nonexistent.

I don't know what part of H264 is in WebKit, but Apple's proprietary
browser Safari uses it and the full H264 support might be there. But the
link Alon (aloniv) was referring to was definitely MPEG4 file.

Mampir
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To put it simply, a program is still considered free software even if it works with patent-encumbered formats. It's just that some developers choose not to implement such formats, for one or another reason.

One reason is not wanting to pay for licenses and being afraid of getting sued. Another reasons is not wanting to support the use of patent-encumbered formats.

aloniv

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If you switch HTML5 off in Dailymotion Linterna Mágica will detect the flash object and replace it, so you will be able to watch it.

Unfortunately, I can't watch regular (flash) Dailymotion videos at all.

An older version of Gnash with or without Linterna Magica (can't remember at the moment) could handle them (albeit poorly in normal screen mode) in IceCat in gNewSense, but I didn't have any luck with Gnash and/or Linterna Magica in Web Browser in Trisquel regarding Dailymotion flash videos.

Of course, now that Linterna Magica is working with Youtube and Google Video (normal screen mode is not visible in the latter but full screen works), I could replace Gnash by Swfdec (or by something else) and that might solve the problem. Swfdec seems to work better with some flash websites (e.g. viewing live scores on atpworldtour.com partially works. Is there any way to view the live scores properly?).

Did you manage to play the Dailymotion videos with Linterna Magica with or without Gnash?

Also, how did you know the video format of the link I posted? Is there an equivalent plugin to Unplug for Midori or did you use some URL sniffing software like Wireshark?

Thanks for your answers.

ivaylo
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aloniv:
> Unfortunately, I can't watch regular (flash) Dailymotion videos at all.
>Did you manage to play the Dailymotion videos with Linterna Magica with or without Gnash?

There are definitely some issues with Dailymotion. Maybe part of them are cookies related, because I am able [1] to watch some videos while cookies are cleared or turned off. I will try to find a solution for this for the next release of Linterna Mágica. If it was unclear until now, I am the developer of Linterna Mágica.

> Of course, now that Linterna Magica is working with Youtube and Google Video (normal screen mode is not visible in the latter but full screen works)

That seems like it is Web Browser specific. I am able to play videos in Google Video with Epiphany. In Web Browser it just stays at "Loading" and the video plugin does not start. If I click the download link in Linterna Mágica it is loaded and starts. I assume you are experiencing this.

> Also, how did you know the video format of the link I posted? Is there an equivalent plugin to Unplug for Midori or did you use some URL sniffing software like Wireshark?

Developing Linterna Mágica I know some "tricks" and where to look for links (even in unusual and not obvious places). Usually one can see the link in the source of the page or the DOM tree representation of it. In Midori/Epiphany there is a web inspector (from WebKit) that is helpful in browsing the DOM tree and viewing single elements. The Firebug add-on provides similar functionality to Web Browser. For some flash sites it is extremely hard to find the links if they are not placed directly. HTML5 comes with the video link in the page *every time*, there is no binary flash object to hide it. I just downloaded the clip and saw what information mplayer outputs for it. To use tcpdump/wireshark a loading video is needed, so most of the time it is not an option. Gnash is also able to log to file debugging information, where one can find URLs for video clips if the flash player loads.

[1] http://e-valkov.org/linterna-magica/dailymotion-images/abrowser-no-cookies.png

aloniv

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ivaylo, than you for your replies.

Here is a screenshot of Google Video in regular (not fullscreen) mode using Linterna Magica and Gecko-Mediaplayer. As you can see the video isn't watchable, but fullscreen playback works fine.

I deleted the cookies in Web Browser, but Dailymotion only shows me a blue screen when trying to play flash videos with Linterna Magica.

Screenshot.png
aloniv

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Just to follow up: flash videos on Dailymotion work in Web Browser if I delete cookies between every video. They are encoded in H.263 with MP3 audio (at least the ones I tried).

aloniv

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Another very nice video about free software that works in Midori but not in Web Browser is this one:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74yqa_stephen-fry-free-software_tech