Re: [Ekiga-list] How can I get non-free video codecs. ekiga 3.2.7 ubuntu 10.10

[Eugen Dedu <Eugen Dedu pu-pm univ-fcomte fr>]

On 10/01/11 10:27, Gérard Vidal wrote:
> Le 09/01/2011 17:00, Eugen Dedu a écrit :
> > On 09/01/11 01:22, Gérard Vidal wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > I have to communicate through H323 with h263-1998 codec ( to join a
> > > meeting on a codian bridge).
> > > I have installed ekiga 3.2.7 on my ubuntu maverick (Dell precision
> > > M2400), it works fine but displays only codec H261 and Theora. I have
> > > read informations on this page
> > > http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/HowTo_install_Ekiga_packages but it
> > > seems to be outdated.
> > > I have tried many things including full rebuild of latest version but
> > > nothing works.
> > >
> > > Does anybody have a solution or any track to follow.
> >
> > Your case is not simple.  First, because there are some bug reports
> > about H323 not working in ekiga in some cases, see bugzilla.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=product%3A%22ekiga%22+h323 
 There are some posts in this mailing list too.

> > Also, because for these non-free codecs you need tom compile ffmpeg
> > yourself, because distributions strip them out.
> >
> > Finally, because h263-1998 crashes when using ffmpeg last version, see
> > bugzilla again (bug for H263); however, if you choose a repository for
> > ffmpeg of about 1.5 years ago, it should work, see the same bug report.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=606265  I forgot to say that 
h263 does not crash for me if I compile ffmpeg with some option, see the 
upstream bug specified in the bug above.  I think this is the best 
option for you, instead of compiling an older ffmpeg.

> > Are you motivated to test it?
> Thank-you Eugen for the answer and the understanding of my situation !
> As you describe it, I have experienced H323 unstability, it worked well
> few hours ago from home (with ekiga 3.3.0 and ffmpeg 0.6.1) and now it
> freezes after the first ring then hangs up and returns to local
> situation, when I try to place an h323 call from my office.

For freezes/crashes, we need the gdb backtrace, see 
http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Debugging_Ekiga#How_to_get_a_stack_backtrace_from_a_crash_or_freeze 
 However, I do not use H323, so it is not sure that I can help.

> I have made many compilation tests with various versions of ekiga and
> various versions of ffmpeg a few more will not be a problem ;-) .
>
> I am motivated but I need guidance :
> As I have pulse installed with my Maverick I suppose that I need to
> choose at least 3.3.0 version or git. Am I right and in that case which
> one will be the best?

I would suggest you to use 3.3.0 (with pulse) or, better, git repository 
for ekiga, see http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Download_Ekiga_sources. 
Note that presence does not work with 3.3.x.  If you need it, use 3.2.7 
and alsa.

> I am now used to compile ffmpeg but I have noticed problems with the
> companion libraries of the "libav* family" to avoid them I try to drop
> the results in /usr/local tree but that may not be convenient  to
> achieve what you are proposing. Let me know what to do and which version
> of ffmpeg to use.

If using the option to current ffmpeg does not work, as specified in my 
comment above, then use ffmpeg with the date specified at 
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=596006#c1.  If it still does 
not work, use yet another 6 months before (2 years ago).

> Finally to finish up the complexity frame I am using ffmpeg to encode in
> mp4  our conferences and I need libx264. I noticed that h264 was always
> excluded by ekiga and I have seen that in the log  it "failed to load
> x264_encoder_open"  that may be due to the fact that from what I have
> seen the x264 encoder carries now its version number for exemple
> x264_encoder_open_112 for the last version. This might be modified in Ekiga.

This is not sufficient, see 
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=596006.

--
Eugen Dedu
http://eugen.dedu.free.fr