I have an issue which has recently presented itself which didn't happen before and I'd really appreciate some help. Unfortunately I cannot trace it back to a specific change I made and my extensive searching has not turned up any solutions.
The issue is when I try and stream a video on a site like youtube, but not limited to youtube. The video loads, but wont play. I can skip through the video and see frames etc but I cannot play it. If there is an Ad before the video, that wont play either.
If I download and open an mp4 video in the default "videos" app, it also wont play in the same way, e.g loads the first frame, I can skip through it but I can't just play it.
However, if I load the same video in VLC it works fine.
I have done a lot of searching, and have tried everything which is recommended but can't solve the issue.
I'm not sure if there is a diagnostic tool which can check for issues with codecs etc. Happy to provide any useful output from tools etc but I'm pulling my hair out abit now.
I'm running Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS.
With the sample mp4 file I am testing with:
In "Videos" app, (totem) the only properties I can see are: "Codec: H.264 (Main Profile)". When I launch from terminal I get the following warning (still with the video first frame loaded, but not playing):
Gtk-WARNING **: 11:40:23.965: Drawing a gadget with negative dimensions. Did you forget to allocate a size? (node slider owner GtkScale)
In VLC I can see it says "Codec: H264-MEPG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
I'm not sure if that means anything to anyone but it's not helped me find the issue!
Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help
EDIT: I've since found this isn't limited to mp4 files and also happens with other formats I have tried.