apt-get dist-upgrade doesn't fix 'The following packages have been kept back'

Question

I'm on ubuntu 12.04.Running sudo apt-get dist-upgrade is not upgrading some packages. I can't upgrade them with graphical Update Manager too.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  libavdevice53 libavformat53 libpostproc52 libswscale2
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.

LSB Version:    core-2.0-ia32:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-ia32:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release:    12.04
Codename:   precise

Answer 1

That means they've been kept back for a more difficult reason than new dependencies or needing the removal of other packages. Try apt-get install libavdevice53, which will try a bit harder to upgrade that package. You may find that it wants to remove something you don't want removed.