Videos fails to play on 1.7.0-beta1

[ExTBH]

Describe the bug
Videos failed to start and VLC reports codec errors
Below are .mkv files

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "hevc" (MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265))
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "eac3" (A/52 B Audio (aka E-AC3))

Different media shows different output
Another file

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "h264" (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10))
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "eac3" (A/52 B Audio (aka E-AC3))

I've tested 1 mp4 file, it played audio without video

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "h264" (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10))

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start Syncplay and click run
2. Load Media by dragging or from menu
3. Error pops up

Expected behavior
Files run as normal

Screenshots
If applicable, add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Version and platform:

• OS: Arcolinux(Arch) Rolling
• Syncplay version and build type: 1.7.0-beta1 AppImage
• Media player and version: VLC 3.0.17.4

Additional context
The errors does not happen on version 1.6.9 it plays as normal and function well

[daniel-123]

Sorry for possibly stupid question, but it's something I'd like 100% confirmed - the videos you are testing with play just fine if you use VLC directly without Syncplay?

[ExTBH]

yes all works fine without SyncPlay(1.7.0-beta)

[jpopesculian]

I have the same issue with the beta with the same error with an mkv file. It also seems to open up a different file picker than when selecting with VLC without Syncplay

[Et0h]

It would be really helpful if you could tell us which OS you are using on which commit it stops working.

[jpopesculian]

hi @Et0h haha woops, sorry, yeah very uninformative, but it was late last night. I didn't build anything from source, just downloaded from the website, but if you'd like, I can also take the latest from master and give it a go...

OS: Ubuntu 22.04.1
Working Version: Syncplay-1.6.9-x86_64.AppImage
Non-Working Version: Syncplay-1.7.0-Beta1-x86_64.AppImage
VLC version: VLC media player 3.0.16 Vetinari (revision 3.0.13-8-g41878ff4f2)

With version 1.6.9:

With version 1.7.0:

[albertosottile]

@jpopesculian Can you try again with the latest AppImage build from the CI, available here https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/actions/runs/3315737387 ? Thanks

[Et0h]

@jpopesculian Can you try again with the latest AppImage build from the CI, available here https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/actions/runs/3315737387 ? Thanks

@ExTBH: It'd also be great if you could also test what Alberto posted to see if it fixes the issue.

[ExTBH]

forgot about it, exam week too busy, it looks the same.

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "hevc" (MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265))
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "eac3" (A/52 B Audio (aka E-AC3))

[jpopesculian]

Same here :( no change with the downloaded AppImage

[Et0h]

@jpopesculian & @ExTBH It'd be helpful if we could track down which commit caused the issue. The oldest commit with a non-expired AppImage is https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/suites/8453162032/artifacts/375010389 from 24th September 2022. Does VLC work in that commit or not? If it works then you can look at the AppImages in the artefacts of more recent commits to help us figure out when things broke. If it doesn't work it tells us the commit was older than 24th September.

[ExTBH]

this also doesnt work

[Et0h]

Thanks for testing. Could you also please test these two tagged releases:

• Snapshot 1 from 28th October 2021 - https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/releases/tag/v1.7.0-snapshot1
• Persistent Rooms Test from 7th November 2021 https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/releases/download/v1.7.0-persistentrooms1/Syncplay-1.7.0-PersistetRoomsTest1-x86_64.AppImage

[ExTBH]

Both of these works

[Et0h]

That helps narrow it down, but I'm still not sure which commit is causing the problem. If anyone wants to help us track down the issue then please build the AppImage using different commits from 7th November onwards using an Ubuntu VM until it breaks and then let us know which commit is breaking it.

[ExTBH]

I was trying to build an app image on a VM but i got stuck there's no build instructions so i was doing similar steps to the app image action, then i remembered i had the source code set up in my Host, i opened it and pulled latest stuff and it works!
Running from source: V1.7.0 beta 1 release 102
VLC: 3.0.18 Vetinari
i don't remember testing from source before, the problem looks like not from SyncPlay but from packaging it?
i did try to get latest app image https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/releases/tag/1.7.0-Beta1 but it was same problem
same version source fine but packaged one broken

[daniel-123]

@ExTBH can you try an AppImage built in newer environment? There is a few in result of this action. I'm particularly hopeful that the one built on Ubuntu 20.04 will work, but the 22.04 might also be a second option worth checking.

[ExTBH]

Both built with 20.04 and 22.04 seg faults

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00007ffff5e0eecb in SbkObject_TypeF () from /tmp/.mount_SyncplKkQZKR/usr/conda/lib/python3.9/site-packages/shiboken2/libshiboken2.abi3.so.5.15

[Et0h]

@ExTBH Can you please try the latest build of Syncplay-1.7.0-ubuntu-18.04-x86_64.AppImage at https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/suites/9912347462/artifacts/479228859 and let me know if it fixes your VLC issues?

[ExTBH]

@Et0h same

Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "hevc" (MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265))
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "trhd" (TrueHD Audio)
Codec not supported:
VLC could not decode the format "a52 " (A52 Audio (aka AC3))

[Et0h]

I just tested that build with Arcolinux on a VM and can confirm the error. I also got errors while trying to to run it with mpv.

This means that until you (or someone else) goes through each commit to figure out which one is causing the problem then Syncplay 1.7.0 doesn't appear to support Arcolinux. Fortunately Syncplay 1.6.9 and 1.7.0 beta 1 are perfectly adequate options for now. In the future the problem might end up getting resolved if we move to a newer base version of Linux in the future.

Alternatively, you could try running Syncplay directly using https://github.com/Syncplay/syncplay/archive/master.tar.gz

[ExTBH]

i do not know how SyncPlay builds app images, but if its a dependency maybe build one of the working versions now and if the dependency if the problem it should error, if its cloned to this repository we could check the history of it and see whats new

[Et0h]

Does this issue also persistent with Syncplay 1.7.0?

[ExTBH]

im not on arco anymore but on Manjaro now, there seem to be an SSL error?

cert is for https://syncplay.pl without https://*syncplay.pl

[Et0h]

im not on arco anymore but on Manjaro now, there seem to be an SSL error?

Please use https://syncplay.pl without the www.

[ExTBH]

still errors when checking for update videos work fine in Manjaro i dont get the original errors

[Et0h]

I've got the same error from the AppImage on Ubuntu 22.0.4.1 LTS which I ran on Windows 10 via Oracle VM VirtualBox.

One way to fix it might be to use code like certContext= ssl.create_default_context(cafile=certifi.where()) in client.py and utils.py and then change the references in urllib.request.urlopen in those files to include the paramater context=certContext.

However, I'd need to code it carefully as that might cause problems on macOS and possibly some other setups, so it'd need to have some fallback (maybe something like certContext = ssl._create_unverified_context()).

While it is also possible that users can resolve the issue by simply updating their certificates, I'm not going to try that on my system as I'm still aiming for a fix which will resolve the issue without the user having to do that.

[Et0h]

I am closing this issue because Syncplay has now discontinued AppImage support. See: #643 for more details. If an issue recurs with the Deb package or Tarball then please re-open this comment and let us know of the details.