How to install h.264 decoder?

Question

I tried playing videos in movie player but only the audio could be heard. I tried playing the video with dragon player but here also only the audio could be heard.

A message box appeared showing the following message:

Python (v2.7) requires to install plugins to play media files of the following type: H.264 decoder

I tried installing the plugin but it couldn't be installed. It isn't available in the software center too. How can I get this plugin?

Solution 1

If you want the H.264 encoder, then

sudo apt-get install h264enc

will install H.264 in your system.

Solution 2

In order to play H.264 encoded videos the corresponding decoder comes with the following library:

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-libav

Solution 3

The package that fixed it for me on 16.04 is the gstreamer plugins bad. I got a message about Python-3.5 minimal wanting to install some MPEG-4 AAC plugin, which did not do anything. To fix: In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad

If you still can't get it to work somehow, you can try VLC as a workaround, installable by:

sudo apt-get install vlc

I did not unclick the restricted software, that may work but may disable other codecs. By the way, movie player or Video is the Totem video player.

Solution 4

I think this is part of the package gstreamer-plugins-bad. If you search for this in Software Center it should show up. It might be that you have to activate the multiverse repository (start Software & Sources and tick the appropriate box for this).

After you have installed the package, Movie Player should be able to play the file.

Solution 5

The audio-only gstreamer bug can easily be resolved

Hearing only audio on H.264 playback with an otherwise black video screen was reported as gstreamer1.0 bug #1562875.

Luckily, this bug can easily be resolved by issuing the following command once:

$ rm -R ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0

This will take effect after restarting the application.

View more solutions

Comments

[Sukupa91]

which video format you are trying to play?? and by the way have you installed Ubuntu-restricted-extras??

[sonakshi]

yes the restrictd packages are installd

[Sukupa91]

install h264enc causing the error as mentioned by rajagenupula..

[strpeter]

The reader of this question might also want to have a look at the question askubuntu.com/q/214421/217269 (about multimedia decoders)

[sonakshi]

the gstreamer-plugin that u mentiond is n being able to b instald..it shows some eror like this isnt availble in ur software

[sonakshi]

i tried aftr d whole procedure,postfix configuration popped up..but nothing hapened

[sonakshi]

i tried something and now finally i can c d video...thnx alot everyone for ur help..:)

[fohswe]

The package was probably not available because you hadn't activated the multiverse repository, as I wrote you might have to do :)

[HarlemSquirrel]

Isn't this the encoder, not the decoder?

[mc0e]

h264enc is "A shell script which makes it easy to encode DVDs or video files to the H.264/AVC/MPEG-4 Part 10 video format using MEncoder from the MPlayer project". That doesn't sound like the codec that's wanted, but converting the videos might be a fallback option.

[Craig S. Anderson]

Tried sudo apt-get install h264enc, but Ubuntu says it is not available. Tried apt-cache search h264enc but got nothing.

[mx7]

@CraigS.Anderson make sure you have "multiverse" repository enabled. packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=h264enc

[Alex]

I installed all kinds of packages to no effect, and this is the only thing that worked.

[Ahmad Javadi Nejad]

finally , only thing that worked.

[Sephethus]

*DEcoder not ENcoder

[Sephethus]

This doesn't actually work. Every website says to do this, but in Ubuntu 20.0.4, this will not work.

[egvo]

It says: Package 'gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg' has no installation candidate

[Organic Marble]

Worked on 20.04

[Admin]

VLC worked for me, mp4 videos were playing randomly, now everything looks correct with VLC. Thanks!