GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 764980
Cannot play MP3 files anymore
Last modified: 2016-04-13 12:14:18 UTC
I'm running Arch Linux. Yesterday I upgraded from 1.6.3 to 1.8.0 and suddenly applications using GStreamer (Banshee, Totem) cannot play MP3 files anymore. I'm using the "good" and "bad" plugins. Do I now have to add "ugly", too? If so, why the sudden change? Otherwise, what else could be the problem, and what more information can I provide? Thanks a lot in advance!
How does it fail? What error (if any) does this show? $ gst-play-1.0 /path/to/file.mp3
$ gst-play-1.0 test.mp3 Now playing /tmp/test.mp3 WARNING No decoder available for type 'audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, mpegaudioversion=(int)1, layer=(int)3, rate=(int)44100, channels=(int)2, parsed=(boolean)true'. WARNING debug information: gsturidecodebin.c(939): unknown_type_cb (): /GstPlayBin:playbin/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0 ERROR Your GStreamer installation is missing a plug-in. for file:///tmp/test.mp3 ERROR debug information: gsturidecodebin.c(1006): no_more_pads_full (): /GstPlayBin:playbin/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0: no suitable plugins found: gstdecodebin2.c(4562): gst_decode_bin_expose (): /GstPlayBin:playbin/GstURIDecodeBin:uridecodebin0/GstDecodeBin:decodebin0: no suitable plugins found: Missing decoder: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (MP3) (audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, mpegaudioversion=(int)1, layer=(int)3, rate=(int)44100, channels=(int)2, parsed=(boolean)true)
You may need to add the 'ugly' plugins too, yes. If you used the libmpg123 mp3 decoder (mpg123audiodec), it moved from -bad to -ugly in 1.8. Also make sure you have the mpegaudioparse element from -good (gst-inspect-1.0 mpegaudioparse).
Ah, OK. Any particular reason for the move? Also, are there any alternatives in "good" or "bad"? I'd like to avoid adding "ugly", if possible. mpegaudioparse is present, yes. In any case, thanks a lot for the help!
Why do you want to avoid ugly? "ugly" is like "good" but for plugins where restrictions may apply (e.g. may be patent encumbered like mp3 still is). "bad" is a mixed bag of everything. So the move from bad to ugly was a promotion :) There are no mp3 decoders in good.
Possible mp3 decoders are: mad in -ugly mpg123audiodec in -ugly avdec_mp3 from gst-libav (via ffmpeg)
Installed "gst-libav" and it works fine again. Thanks a lot! I generally try to avoid non-free software as much as possible, and I thought "bad" also was free-only. Since that doesn't seem the case after all, if I understand you correctly, the whole point is moot, of course. But maybe I'll try whether I actually need "bad". In any case, that's why I wanted to avoid "ugly". Anyways, this resolves the issue for me. Thanks a lot again!
ugly does not mean it's non-free (depending on your definition of it). mpg123 is LGPL, mad is GPL. mad is in ugly because of the GPL license, and both are also in ugly because various parties claiming patents on MP3 itself. For the latter, gst-libav is not going to help you much either (and it's also LGPL).
All GStreamer modules are Free Software.