Opera will not play Twitter videos (and others)

Question

Here is an example above. It also does the same thing on other sites with other video players, but I figure this is one of the more well known ones.

Any help?

Answer 1

As others have stated, the main problem is ffmpeg library. To fix that, install Chromium and then copy the ffmpeg.so file that Chromium uses. You can do it like this:

sudo cp /snap/chromium/current/usr/lib/chromium-browser/libffmepg.so /usr/lib/x86-64-linux-gnu/opera/

After that, just restart Opera and the problem will be fixed.

NOTE: Everytime Opera upgrades, you need to copy ffmpeg.so.

Answer 2

Run this command in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get install chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Then restart Opera.

Answer 3

If you are having trouble with videos on the web that are not flash, it is probably a video that uses the H.264 codec. In the past chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra has resolved this (and might again) Unfortunately, Opera has some issues with using the library sometimes, because it's so tightly integrated with chromium. There is no 100% good solution of getting H.264 support in Opera right now.

Basically Opera is having trouble with the licensing. The library that provides many codecs that Opera uses is called ffmpeg. However, they have removed the H.264 part of it, because even though ffmpeg has a free license, the patent pool of H.264 will demand license fees from commercial projects that are using implementations of it, like Opera.

Chromium and Chrome, however, do have support for H.264 in their ffmpeg library, because Google has payed the license fee.

Switching to Google Chrome or perhaps Chromium is highly likely to resolve this issue entirely.(it did for me on both Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 - 64-bit)

The only other option I can suggest even trying is the installation of the Ubuntu Resticted Extras Package Available in the [multiverse repository] which is defined as Unsupported, Closed-Source and Patent-Encumbered Software:

For more on the multiverse repository and how and whether to enable it see this excellent Q & A

Sources:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OperaBrowser

What's the difference between multiverse, universe, restricted and main?

Answer 4

Installation source

dpkg -l | grep -iw Opera       # if it appears : .deb / apt
snap list | grep -iw Opera     # snap 
flatpak list | grep -iw Opera  # flathub

Opera installed from .deb (apt)

Recommended:

Follow instructions in:
https://github.com/Ld-Hagen/fix-opera-linux-ffmpeg-widevine

Alternative:

(might not work in old distributions because of ffmpeg lib dependencies)

# 1. install codecs
sudo snap install chromium-ffmpeg 

# or check if codecs are already installed
snap list | grep chromium-ffmpeg
snap refresh # to update snaps

# 2. find files
find /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/ -name "libff*"

# example output:
#/snap/chromium-ffmpeg/YY/chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so

# 3. symlink using the largest numbers YY and XXXXXX

sudo ln -sf /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/YY/chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/

# 4. Restart opera, if video doesn't work use the next largest number XXXXXX

Opera installed as snap (run step Alternative-1 from .deb)

sources:

• snap forum

• opera forum

Briefly:

snap connections chromium-ffmpeg
# Example output:
# content    -     chromium-ffmpeg:chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX  -

# Use the largest number XXXXXX
snap connect opera:chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX chromium-ffmpeg:chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX

Opera installed from flathub (run Alternative steps 1 and 2 from .deb)

store: gnome-software

# 3. find the original lib
find /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.opera.Opera -name "libf*" | sed 's|\(.*/\).*|\1|'

# example output to use below
# /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.opera.Opera/x86_64/stable/eaa2d5fd...46cd0d/files/opera/

# 4. copy/replace lib, use the largest numbers YY and XXXXXX

sudo cp /snap/chromium-ffmpeg/YY/chromium-ffmpeg-XXXXXX/chromium-ffmpeg/libffmpeg.so /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.opera.Opera/x86_64/stable/eaa2d5fd......8e2846cd0d/files/opera/

DRM issues (Disney+, etc.):

Check for problems in: https://bitmovin.com/demos/drm
Check Widevine in: opera://components
Fix for .deb opera: https://github.com/Ld-Hagen/fix-opera-linux-ffmpeg-widevine

Answer 5

I installed skype for linux then copied skypes libffmpeg.so to opera with the following command. sudo cp /usr/share/skypeforlinux/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so Restart Opera. Videos now play on Opera.