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I don't understand why the mplayer plays the .mp4 with H.264 codec while Totem (the default video player of Gnome) requires absolutely 3rd parties gstream libs.

From what I read: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=52086

And mplayer or audacious for music, either one will play anything. But the same can be said for Amarok, Exaile, Rhythmbox, Totem. Some apps you will need the proper gstreamer plugins ther wills use ffmpeg or xine plugins,

After reading this, I thought that the Totem uses the non-free 3rd parties decoders. But then I read the below two opposite opinions and now I'm officially confused.

I guess the patent holders are happy to have us use content created with their formats, regardless of what software is used for playback, but they object to unauthorized creation of content using those codecs.

VS.

H264 decoders must have a license from MPEG LA and Fraunhofer has explicitly stated that distributing even MP3 decoders without their license is infringing on their patents

Both of the players doesn't seem to rely on the same libs. Does this mean that the decoder on which mplayer relies to playback the MP4 format is Open Source and the Totem one is not? If yes, why would Totem rely on the one that is not Open Source?

binarytrails
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  • "open source" and "patent free" are orthogonal issues -- being open source does not make code free of patented technology or vice versa. – Jussi Kukkonen Jul 22 '15 at 10:18

1 Answers1

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GStreamer uses FFmpeg's H.264 decoder (ffdec_h264, part of the gst-ffmpeg module) for decoding H.264 content (the typical video codec used in modern MP4 files), and so does mplayer. So they use the same code, and it's licensed under the LGPLv2.1. Mplayer doesn't care about patents, and GStreamer decides to make a big deal about it, possibly because some GStreamer developers work(ed) for companies that try to sell commercial plugins for which patent royalties have been paid.

Ronald S. Bultje
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