Using MATLAB 2012a VideoReader function on Fedora 17 and Ubuntu 12.04

I update my Linux distribution at least once a year. As detailed in my previous post, I always encounter a problem when using a recent MATLAB version on my updated Linux distribution: the VideoReader (mmreader) function does not work "out of the box" (this is also true for the VideoWriter function). To open compressed video on Matlab, you need to have the proper gstreamer plugins installed.  Otherwise, you'll get an error message when opening the video file with the VideoReader function: 

>> video = mmreader('videofile.avi')
??? The file requires the following codec(s) to be installed on your system:
    video/x-huffyuv

The message will be slightly different depending on the codec used by the video file you are trying to open.

Matlab 2012a now ships with a version of libstdc++ that seems to be compatible with the one found on recent Linux distribution such as Fedora 17 and Ubuntu 12.04. This means that it is no longer necessary to change the Matlab's version of libstdc++ for the system's one (see my previous post). The only thing that has to be done is to install the proper plugins for gstreamer (the backend used by the Linux version of Matlab to read and write compressed videos):

• On Ubuntu 12.04
  sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

• On Fedora 17
  sudo yum install gstreamer-ffmpeg gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-bad-free gstreamer-plugins-bad-nonfree gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-good-extras gstreamer-plugins-ugly

I hope this will help!

Using MATLAB's mmreader function on Kubuntu

A problem I always encounter when using a recent MATLAB version on a recent Kubuntu version is that the mmreader function does not work "out of the box" (this is also true for the related functions VideoReader, VideoWriter, mmfileinfo, and mmcompinfo).  These MATLAB functions are used in order to read and write video files that are supported by the underlying operating system. On a fresh installation of Kubuntu, I always get the following error when I try to open a video file with the mmreader function on MATLAB 2010b and 2011a:

>> video = mmreader('videofile.avi')
??? The file requires the following codec(s) to be installed on your system:
    video/x-huffyuv

This error happens  with all video files, even if the needed codec is actually installed on the system. This error is due to the fact that MATLAB is shipping its own version of libstdc++, which seems to be incompatible with the version that is installed on a fresh Kubuntu installation.  Thus, MATLAB cannot use the multimedia backend on Kubuntu (GStreamer) since MATLAB uses it own version of libstdc++ while GStreamer uses the system version of libstdc++. The solution is to make MATLAB use the system version of libstdc++. This can be done by performing the following operations (for MATLAB 64 bits on Kubuntu 64 bits):

1. First, open a terminal and change the current directory to the following directory:
   
   cd ${MATLAB}/sys/os/glnxa64/
   
   where ${MATLAB} must be replaced with the path to the actual MATLAB installation on the system (on my system, MATLAB is installed in /opt/matlab2011a)
   
   
2. Next, make a backup of the files libstdc++.so.X and libstdc++.so.X.Y.Z as follows:
   
   sudo mv libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.bkp
   sudo mv libstdc++.so.6.X.Y libstdc++.so.6.X.Y.bkp
   
   where X and Y must be replaced according to the file in the current directory (on my system, this file is libstdc++.so.6.0.10)
   
   
3. Finally, make a symbolic link to the system version of libstdc++ as follows:
   
   sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.X.Z libstdc++.so.6
   
   where X and Y must be replaced according to the file located in the /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ (on Kubuntu 11.04, this file is libstdc++.so.6.0.14)
   

Now the video file should open correctly in MATLAB:

>> video = mmreader('videofile.avi')

Summary of Multimedia Reader Object for 'videofile.avi'.

  Video Parameters:  30.00 frames per second, RGB24 1024x768.
                     339 total video frames available.

On Kubuntu, some packages must be installed on the system so that MATLAB can handle different file formats and video codecs:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

I hope this post will be useful!

First post

I will post on this blog what I think could be useful to other people on subjects related to computer vision, general programming, Linux configuration and tweaking, etc.  For instance, I might post solutions for problem I encountered while developing computer vision algorithms in programming languages such as C/C++, MATLAB, and Python. I might also post on issues related to the installation and/or the use of the tools needed to develop computer vision algorithm (e.g. OpenCV and others). I am a Linux user since 1998,  so I might share my experiences with configuring or trying new software on this awesome operating system. Of course, I will post on other subjects that I think will be of interest to programmers, Linux fans, and computer vision experts.

I already have an idea for 2 or 3 posts that will be of interests for the future readers of this blog.  Now I just need to find the time to write them...