When I use totem to play .MOV videos shot on recent versions of iOS, it gives the error: “Unable to play the file. meta/x-gcc-fourcc-mebx is required to play the file, but is not installed.”
Totem and nautilus both show the file’s video codec as “H.265 (Main Profile)” and the audio codec as “MPEG-4 AAC.”
These files play fine in VLC. Despite the error, they play in Totem after the error is dismissed, although the playback can be a bit jumpy.
Is there any codec I can install that will enable these to play normally in Totem?
An example of inspecting such a video file with mediainfo shows that the mebx codec is contained in separate streams from the main video content:
$ mediainfo IMG_1548.MOV
General
Complete name : /home/exampleuser/Videos/IMG_1548.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 0000.00 (qt )
File size : 27.9 MiB
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 17.1 Mb/s
Frame rate : 27.016 FPS
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
Writing library : Apple QuickTime
com.apple.quicktime.location.accuracy.ho : XX.XXXXXX
com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709 : +XX.XXXX-XXX.XXXX+XXXX.XXX/
com.apple.quicktime.make : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.model : iPhone 14
com.apple.quicktime.software : 17.2.1
com.apple.quicktime.creationdate : 2024-01-20T02:30:48-0700
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L4@Main
HDR format : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, Profile 8.4, dvhe.08.04, BL+RPU, no metadata compression, HLG compatible
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Bit rate : 16.9 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Rotation : 90°
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 27.016 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 24.000 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.301
Stream size : 27.5 MiB (98%)
Title : Core Media Video
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : HLG
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Metas : 3,4,5
Codec configuration box : hvcC+dvvC
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Source duration : 13 s 723 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 180 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 299 KiB (1%)
Source stream size : 301 KiB (1%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
Other #1
ID : 3
Type : meta
Format : mebx
Codec ID : mebx
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Title : Core Media Metadata
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
Duration_FirstFrame : -12468
Other #2
ID : 4
Type : meta
Format : mebx
Codec ID : mebx
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Title : Core Media Metadata
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
Other #3
ID : 5
Type : meta
Format : mebx
Codec ID : mebx
Duration : 13 s 657 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Title : Core Media Metadata
Encoded date : 2024-01-20 09:30:48 UTC
Tagged date : 2024-01-20 09:31:02 UTC
If you need to play these files in Totem, then you may have to demux the first video stream and audio streams apart from those mebx stereoscopic streams. This will require ffmpeg to retranscode while selecting only the first video stream and audio stream.