can free software flash browser plugins play flv files in-browser?

[boud]

hi samizdat-dev,

On the 2008-05-10 release notes, it is written:
http://samizdat.nongnu.org/


> When "flowplayer" plugin is enabled, Samizdat will display flv and
> mp4/h.264 files inline in the page in addition to the usual download
> link. Flowplayer requires a Flash browser plugin (free Flash
> implementations Gnash and swfdec are reported to work in most cases)
> and JavaScript.

i'm rather puzzled about "most cases", especially for flv files,
since both in debian-etch and debian-unstable i have failed to get
a published flv file to be shown in an iceweasel browser.

i can believe that the non-free macromedia plugin works "in most cases",
but that's a different issue to suggesting that gnash or swfdec work
correctly.

FILE:
i created an flv file with mencoder, it plays fine with mplayer:

libavformat file format detected.
VIDEO:  [FLV1]  320x240  0bpp  30.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffflv] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg Flash video)

i published this on a test samizdat site, let's call the url 
http://localhost/1234

PROGRAMS RELATED TO PLAYING THE FILE:
* gnash says that it doesn't play flv files.
* swfdec has "swf" in its name, suggesting that it aims at swf files, not
  flv files

DEBIAN-ETCH: Iceweasel 2.0.0.16 pointed to http://localhost/1234
crashes with:

The program 'Gecko' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadShmSeg (invalid shared segment parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 26 error_code 155 request_code 144 minor_code 2)


Earlier i had tried swfdec from aptitude, but this just leads to 
a message that the file cannot be played, and moreover, swfdec seems
to have a bug in which it locks up /dev/dsp, preventing other audio 
programs from accessing the sound device until iceweasel is closed.



DEBIAN-UNSTABLE: iceweasel 3.0.1-1 +
mplayer-plugin 3.55 + 
mozilla-plugin-gnash             0.8.3-6 
mozilla-plugin-vlc               0.8.6.h-4

pointed to http://localhost/1234 gives a box and a bar underneath it
which looks a bit like it's something with controls for playing a video.
There are clickable controls from gnash, so it seems like gnash was
chosen to try to display the file, even though it's an flv file, not
a swf file. Or maybe it was running FlowPlayerDark.swf ?

dpkg -l |grep gstreamer
ii  gstreamer0.10-alsa               0.10.20-1       GStreamer plugin for ALSA
ii  gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg             0.10.4-3        FFmpeg plugin for GStreamer
ii  gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3        0.10.7.debian-1 Fluendo mp3 decoder 
GStreamer plugin
ii  gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs           0.10.20-1       GStreamer plugin for 
GnomeVFS
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-base       0.10.20-1       GStreamer plugins from the 
"base" set
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good       0.10.8-4        GStreamer plugins from the 
"good" set
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly       0.10.8-1        GStreamer plugins from the 
"ugly" set
ii  gstreamer0.10-x                  0.10.20-1       GStreamer plugins for X11 
and Pango
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0  0.10.20-1       GStreamer libraries from the 
"base" set
ii  libgstreamer0.10-0               0.10.20-1       Core GStreamer libraries 
and elements

Based on the gnash file  README.Debian, it seems that i have what
is necessary to display flv files.

However, both from in the browser and from the command line (gnash 1234.flv),
gnash fails to play the video.


gnash FlowPlayerDark.swf  does successfully show an image with a bar
at the bottom, as on the web page http://localhost/1234, but it doesn't
help for playing the video itself.



So despite the "most cases", i have failed so far to have in-browser
playing of an flv file with free software, including gnash and swfdec.
Since i don't want to install adobe/macromedia stuff, that means i need
to check someone else's screen in order to see if stuff works. Which is
not very practical for getting stuff done...


Does anyone have any experience regarding what might be needed to play
an flv file published on a samizdat-20080811-1 website inside of 
an iceweasel window, in either etch or sid ?

cheers
boud