[gst-devel] Proposal for XML Description File for Plugins

[Darren Blaser]

> Even if gstreamer cannot access any file type information from a file 
> if the appropriate plugin is not installed, it could perhaps at least 
> be able to handle some of the most common error cases like "This file 
> ends in (.mov/wmv/mpg), check gstreamers plugin status table page for 
> a list of plugins that may support this type of data(container 
> format)." Once basic container format errors are handled in some 
> fashion the next step would be to beef it up a bit by also mentioning 
> the exact missing codec(s) and such. There may be file type libraries 
> around that may be able to help out with this if gstreamer can't deal 
> with it internally. Whether this is functionality is dealt with by 
> gstreamer or perhaps by a seperate library that all gstreamer based 
> apps could link against is mostly a question for the various core 
> developers...

I was thinking of a sort of 
GetErrorMessageOnFailedFile(path/to/failed/file) call that apps could 
make if they try to play a file and it fails...  btw thanks for your 
comments Ronald.