Can confirm this solved the issue for me.
I figured out how to use snap library, as @mr-matt-eastwood suggested.

On Manjaro Linux 20, opera directory is /usr/lib/opera.
You don't have to delete original libffmpeg.so file, but just rename it to whatever (including extension).

Steps:

# If you cannot use sudo -i, then just prefix your commands with sudo
sudo -i 
# Close your browser by hand. Following command will ensure no Opera processes are running in the background
killall opera
cd /usr/lib/opera
# Some software automatically loads any .so/.dll file that is present. Not sure for Opera, but just in case
mv libffmpeg.so libffmpeg.so_original
snap install chromium-ffmpeg
# Please note that chromium-ffmpeg-95241 path might differ. Just pickup one with highest number. 
ln -sf /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/current/chromium-ffmpeg-95241/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so libffmpeg.so

Works like charm.

@xzero said in Solving the problem of the Opera browser with video playback in Ubuntu and similar distributions (Linux Mint, KDE neon):

My previous solution still works, but you might lose the changes (symlink) when Opera gets updated. At least that happened in my case. Applying the solution manually every time is a pain.
You can use this handy script to fix ffmpeg support for you, whenever it gets broken.

Fetch the always up to date script from here, or simply use this command to directly download the script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xZero707/opera-fix-ffmpeg/master/opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh -o opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

Remember: When downloading the script from the internet, it is always a good idea to inspect the script first.

Run with:

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

or

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation

or

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation /path/to/your/snap/binary

The script will install or update snap chromium-ffmpeg and create a symlink to the latest bundled ffmpeg.so, in your opera directory.

Note that sudo is required.
Tested and working on Linux Manjaro. Should work for other Linux distros as well.
Disclaimer: This script is provided as-is. Use at your own responsibility.

The script has been updated. It is now moved to the repository here: https://github.com/xZero707/opera-fix-ffmpeg

Instructions have been also updated in the quote.

@rgplayzmc Please check it out and let me know if this is the fix you expected.

My script seems to brick the most recent versions of Opera. I am working on a resolution. Until then, a warning is added to the script.

If you ended up with your Opera bricked, you can restore the backup of the changed file:

cd /usr/lib/opera/
cp -v libffmpeg.so.bak libffmpeg.so

My previous solution still works, but you might lose the changes (symlink) when Opera gets updated. At least that happened in my case. Applying the solution manually every time is a pain.
You can use this handy script to fix ffmpeg support for you, whenever it gets broken.

Fetch the always up to date script from here, or simply use this command to directly download the script:

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/xZero707/ff2d5a76544c84e33086ed94092c0263/raw -o opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

Remember: When downloading the script from the internet, it is always a good idea to inspect the script first.

Run with:

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

or

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation

The script will install or update snap chromium-ffmpeg and create symlink to latest bundled ffmpeg.so, in your opera directory.

Note that sudo is required.
Tested and working on Linux Manjaro. Should work for other Linux distros as well.
Disclaimer: This script is provided as-is. Use at your own responsibility.

@linuc It is not (or hardly) possible. Modifying system libraries is absolutely out of scope for a browser extension.

@alex1real to you and all folks here that keep complaining: Opera is a free web browser generously offered to the world by it's authors. You can't really expect, nor you should complain for missing functionality due to legal issues. Be grateful for what you got here, as it's far more than you "pay" for.

@xzero said in [Solved]Solving the problem of the Opera browser with video playback in Ubuntu and similar distributions (Linux Mint, KDE neon):

Can confirm this solved the issue for me.
I figured out how to use snap library, as @mr-matt-eastwood suggested.

On Manjaro Linux 20, opera directory is /usr/lib/opera.
You don't have to delete original libffmpeg.so file, but just rename it to whatever (including extension).

Steps:

# If you cannot use sudo -i, then just prefix your commands with sudo
sudo -i 
# Close your browser by hand. Following command will ensure no Opera processes are running in the background
killall opera
cd /usr/lib/opera
# Some software automatically loads any .so/.dll file that is present. Not sure for Opera, but just in case
mv libffmpeg.so libffmpeg.so_original
snap install chromium-ffmpeg
# Please note that chromium-ffmpeg-95241 path might differ. Just pickup one with highest number. 
ln -sf /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/current/chromium-ffmpeg-95241/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so libffmpeg.so

Works like charm.

This works on Fedora (38 Workstation tested) as well, but paths are slightly different.
chromium-ffmpeg snap: /var/lib/snapd/snap/chromium-ffmpeg/current/chromium-ffmpeg-111306/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so
Opera install dir: /usr/lib64/opera

ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap/chromium-ffmpeg/current/chromium-ffmpeg-111306/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib64/opera/libffmpeg.so

chromium-ffmpeg version might differ, so make sure to find the directory with the highest number by using:

ls -al /var/lib/snapd/snap/chromium-ffmpeg/current/

As always, make sure to backup original libffmpeg.so file, as I had experience where Opera would refuse to start with new file - probably incompatible version.

My script seems to brick the most recent versions of Opera. I am working on a resolution. Until then, a warning is added to the script.

If you ended up with your Opera bricked, you can restore the backup of the changed file:

cd /usr/lib/opera/
cp -v libffmpeg.so.bak libffmpeg.so

@xzero said in Solving the problem of the Opera browser with video playback in Ubuntu and similar distributions (Linux Mint, KDE neon):

My previous solution still works, but you might lose the changes (symlink) when Opera gets updated. At least that happened in my case. Applying the solution manually every time is a pain.
You can use this handy script to fix ffmpeg support for you, whenever it gets broken.

Fetch the always up to date script from here, or simply use this command to directly download the script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xZero707/opera-fix-ffmpeg/master/opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh -o opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

Remember: When downloading the script from the internet, it is always a good idea to inspect the script first.

Run with:

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh

or

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation

or

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation /path/to/your/snap/binary

The script will install or update snap chromium-ffmpeg and create a symlink to the latest bundled ffmpeg.so, in your opera directory.

Note that sudo is required.
Tested and working on Linux Manjaro. Should work for other Linux distros as well.
Disclaimer: This script is provided as-is. Use at your own responsibility.

The script has been updated. It is now moved to the repository here: https://github.com/xZero707/opera-fix-ffmpeg

Instructions have been also updated in the quote.

@rgplayzmc Please check it out and let me know if this is the fix you expected.

@linuc It is not (or hardly) possible. Modifying system libraries is absolutely out of scope for a browser extension.

@rgplayzmc Thank you for keeping me in the loop, I was inactive lately. I will fix the script and post an updated version as soon as ready.

I have tested a bit.

• On Ubuntu 20.04, snap opera works out of the box. Opera deb from the official website doesn't, but my script fixes it just fine by supplying Opera path as argument '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera'.

I'll test more on Pop OS and other distros.
In meanwhile, make sure to close the Opera before running the script, as that could cause issues.

@Firigion Can you post script output?
Weird that it doesn't work, because it does work for me every time I need it. But again, I use Manjaro which is very different from Ubuntu/Debian. I'll try testing this script more in different distributions VM-s.

@drpeppercan Can you send the script output? It feels like it didn't do everything it should have done.

• Script creates backup of libffmpeg.so by renaming it
• Script then installs new version of libffmpeg through snap and creates symbolic link named "libffmpeg.so" that points to the newly installed libffmpeg snap.
• Script is basically wrapper of multiple solutions found in this thread.

@firigion My script supports overriding default directory. You just shall call it like so:

sudo /bin/bash opera-fix-ffmpeg.sh /path/to/your-opera-installation

Not sure how to work around snap Opera though. You see, snap is by default just an image that provides all dependencies to Opera. Naturally so, you cannot modify it, therefore read-only directory.

@annevance This explains why my script doesn't work for you. I doubt any solution here will work for Snap packaged Opera, unless you can make Opera load the library from somewhere else.

@alex1real to you and all folks here that keep complaining: Opera is a free web browser generously offered to the world by it's authors. You can't really expect, nor you should complain for missing functionality due to legal issues. Be grateful for what you got here, as it's far more than you "pay" for.

@annevance Give a try to my script above (very last post).