[Solved]Ubuntu 16.04 Video Problem

A Former User

Facebook and twitter videos are on h264 nowadays, so installing flash does not help.
For the rest, please read the post on my signature.

maydin95

maydin95

In Ubuntu 18.04 there is only version 75 for ffmpeg extras while latest stable Opera uses 73. I cannot even downgrade or find version 73 of extras because it is impossible to install Ubuntu 18.04 since it depends higher glibc version.

Also I break my package system while trying to install glibc and cannot even change Opera version

I don't know, this stupid thing always happens and still no solution. If there is no codecs then Opera shouldn't update itself, or at least inform that my Ubuntu doesn't have codecs.

A Former User

Same problem here today on Mint 19.1

Ran the latest stable update, now no videos play on youtube.

And as with the above poster, chromium ffmeg codecs are installed but version 75.0.3770.90 so cannot downgrade to version 73

A Former User @maydin95

@maydin95 said in Ubuntu 16.04 Video Problem:

Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (x86_64; XFCE)
Opera 60.0.3255.170
Chrome 73.0.3683.103

Yes. I'm using Linux Mint, and Update Manager just yesterday offered a Chromium codecs upgrade to version 75.0.3770.90. Opera stable is that far behind.

In other threads, people have said that the snap package of Opera stable does not have this problem. Another option might be to use a version of Opera beta that matches your OS's Chromium codecs. The latest Opera beta is 62.0.3331.14, and has Chromium 75.0.3770.80.

Another option -- if it's alright to mention Vivaldi here. They have the same problem. Their browser uses your OS's h.264 codecs. If there's a mismatch, no h.264 videos. But they have a built-in fix : open the terminal, type vivaldi, and it figures out what to do. It then provides you with a long command-line thing that you copy and paste into the terminal window, it fetches the right codecs, installs them, and then you have the h.264 videos. I wish Opera would have something like that.

A Former User

It seems that, once more, you are all at the situation "new chromium ffmpeg codecs, old opera". Wait until opera updates, or install opera 62, which is now on the beta channel.

Btw, I have a feeling that opera stable will jump from 60 straight to 62, as it did last time and jumped from 58 to 60, in order to keep up with chromium's upstream development.

maydin95

maydin95 @Guest

@jimunderscorep Yeah I installed Opera Beta but it is completely fresh install. It could be better if it shared same user settings/tabs etc.

A Former User

Copying opera's stabel configuration file to opera's beta one may help.

cd .config/
rm -r opera-beta/
cp -r opera/ opera-beta/

Removing the opera-beta folder will result to losing ALL configuration made to opera beta.

Also moving (= renaming) the opera file in there from "opera" to "opera-beta" will work, but you will lose all opera and opera-beta settings, in case you want to keep them both
Symlinking it will also work, but do not blame me for any side effects.

Needless to say that all the above must done with opera and opera-beta NOT running.

A Former User @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Ubuntu 16.04 Video Problem:

Also moving (= renaming) the opera ~~file~~ folder in there from "opera" to "opera-beta" will work

Small typo.

A Former User

Why can't Opera do something like this :

HTML5 Proprietary Media on Linux

"... start Vivaldi from a Terminal using the command 'vivaldi'. The output printed on the terminal will include steps on how to install a support file. The output provided will be tailored to the version of Vivaldi you run, and take into account your distribution and architecture."

Also here is a page with test videos, which explains the h.264 problem :

HTML5 Video Test Page

maydin95

maydin95 @Guest

@jimunderscorep said in Ubuntu 16.04 Video Problem:

Copying opera's stabel configuration file to opera's beta one may help.
cd .config/
rm -r opera-beta/
cp -r opera/ opera-beta/
Removing the opera-beta folder will result to losing ALL configuration made to opera beta.

Also moving (= renaming) the opera file in there from "opera" to "opera-beta" will work, but you will lose all opera and opera-beta settings, in case you want to keep them both
Symlinking it will also work, but do not blame me for any side effects.

Needless to say that all the above must done with opera and opera-beta NOT running.

I am pretty sure Opera will cry for non-existent setting parameters inside old config, so I wont try

But thanks for help, I knew this problem for literally years and I just figure out after this topic even though I asked before.

Thanks again.

A Former User

@utmo
I have complained in the past for opera's obsolete help pages, which are from the presto era. There seems to be no rush to update or remove them at least.
As for the test page, I rely on html5test.com for any type of playback I want to check.

@maydin95
Actually, the opposite is more likely to happen. Configurations from a newer version of chromium (or a chromium based browser) is more likely to be incompatible with the older one.

maydin95

maydin95

Btw installing below fixed my problem without doing anything else. I couldn't find this when I searched first time.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/xenial/amd64/chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra/73.0.3683.75-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

A Former User

@maydin95
Good work. If you do not have chromium installed too, pin it so that apt won't upgrade it to the version from the repo

sudo apt-mark hold chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

And npin it when opera stable reaches 62 like so

sudo apt-mark unhold chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra