KPhotoAlbum Video Support: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:01, 8 October 2010

KPhotoAlbum has support for categorizing videos along with its usual support for categorizing images. Getting KPhotoAlbum to show thumbnails for videos and actually showing the videos can be tricky. This page will give you some hints. For sound, KPhotoAlbum uses Phonon. It is possible to change the Phonon backend, but it is usually better to stick with the backend that your distro has configured.

Building Thumbnail Support

KDE has packages for generating the thumbnails for videos. If the correct packages are installed then you should see the thumbnails. KPhotoAlbum uses mplayerthumbs, so you must have this package installed.

Note

The entry for your distribution may be considerably out of date. If you are able to add newer information that is a great help to other users.

Below is a list of packages required for different distributions:

Kubuntu/Ubuntu:

Note

Ubuntu is a Debian which has been slightly modified (apt-get for example, is the killer-app coming from Debian). So maybe try the Debian advice below if you can't see videos on your system.

In Ubuntu 10.04 the package phonon-backend-xine along with libxine1-all-plugins appears to be working.

With Ubuntu 10.10 it is worth trying phonon-backend-gstreamer if the video is not good.

Naturally appropriate codecs must also be installed.

Debian:

Required:

libarts1-xine
kmplayer-plugin

Showing Videos

KPhotoAlbum will show the videos in the viewer if the right support packages are installed (Again KPhotoAlbum doesn't do the real work of showing the videos, but relies on the KDE subsystem to do so). Below you can see which package are needed for your system:

(K)Ubuntu

See Setting up Restricted formats

Still Doesn't Play Videos?

If you believe you have all the right packages installed, and it still doesn't play videos, then itis time to check your KDE configuration.

Open up Konqueror, choose Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> File Associations tab. Open up the Video branch, and choose the item you can't get working (e.g mpeg). The screen now shows a tab widget for configuring that item. First check that the extension you have in mind is listed in the Filename Patterns.

Next choose the Embedding tab, and check that it shows any services in the "Service Preference Order" listbox.

What Do the Errors Really Mean?

One way to get to this page is from trying to play a video, with the result that KPhotoAlbum shows you an error box with the different actions it tried before failing. Here is a list of the possible failures:

Finding mime type
Getting a KPart for the mime type
Getting a library for the part
Instantiating Part
Fetching Widget from part

If any of these fails it is very likely that you need to go back up and look carefully at the settings in the previous section. If you see one of these fail, and fix it. Please add a bit of description above to help other users..

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <languages />
 <translate>
-The upcoming [[Special:myLanguage/KPhotoAlbum|KPhotoAlbum]] has support for categorizing videos along with its usual support for categorizing images. Getting '''KPhotoAlbum''' to show thumbnails for videos and actually showing the videos can be tricky. This page will give you some hints.  For sound, '''KPhotoAlbum''' uses [[Special:myLanguage/Phonon|Phonon]].  It is possible to change the '''Phonon''' backend, but it is usually better to stick with the backend that your distro has configured.
+[[Special:myLanguage/KPhotoAlbum|KPhotoAlbum]] has support for categorizing videos along with its usual support for categorizing images. Getting '''KPhotoAlbum''' to show thumbnails for videos and actually showing the videos can be tricky. This page will give you some hints.  For sound, '''KPhotoAlbum''' uses [[Special:myLanguage/Phonon|Phonon]].  It is possible to change the '''Phonon''' backend, but it is usually better to stick with the backend that your distro has configured.
 ==Building Thumbnail Support==
@@ Line 9: / Line 10: @@
 {{Note|1=The entry for your distribution may be considerably out of date.  If you are able to add newer information that is a great help to other users.}}
 Below is a list of packages required for different distributions:
 ===Kubuntu/Ubuntu:===
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 * kmplayer-plugin
-{{Note|In one version it was found that if you installed [[Special:myLanguage/Kaffeine|Kaffeine]] in addition, then '''KPhotoAlbum''' opened a black screen with just the sound for the video. Next time the user opened the search dialog, '''KPhotoAlbum''' crashed violently. Simply removing '''Kaffeine''' cured his problem:{{Input|1=apt-get remove kaffeine --purge}}It is not know whether this is still an issue.}}
-===OpenSUSE:===
-==Improved Thumbnail Support==
-The real problem with the thumbnail package which comes with KDE is that it takes the first image in the video sequence and uses that as the thumbnail. This is often just an intro screen which do not reveal the content of the video. An alternative is '''[http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=41180 MPlayerThumbs]''' which works great with '''KPhotoAlbum'''.
 ==Showing Videos==
@@ Line 44: / Line 37: @@
 See [https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats Setting up Restricted formats]
 ==Still Doesn't Play Videos?==
@@ Line 50: / Line 44: @@
 Open up [[Special:myLanguage/Konqueror|Konqueror]], choose <menuchoice>Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> File Associations tab</menuchoice>. Open up the <menuchoice>Video</menuchoice> branch, and choose the item you can't get working (e.g '''mpeg'''). The screen now shows a tab widget for configuring that item. First check that the extension you have in mind is listed in the Filename Patterns.
 [[Image:Kphotoalbum_fileformat.jpg|center]]
 Next choose the <menuchoice>Embedding tab</menuchoice>, and check that it shows any services in the "Service Preference Order" listbox.