After the trouble with swfdec and gstreamer, I found out the source of the issue (the fluendo mp3 plugin, see below), and can now use swfdec with gstreamer.
Warning: Do not use the mp3 plugin from fluendo.com
swfdec does not always work with the binary mp3 plugin from fluendo.com, at least not in Ubuntu 8.04 64bit. It works with the version shipped in Ubuntu (gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3) and with the mad plugin in gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly. An example is http://youtube.com/watch?v=CSp7jsV7oG0
Installation of missing gstreamer plugins
This works on both, Debian and Ubuntu, provided gnome-app-install is installed (default in Ubuntu). Simply open a youtube video, and you will be asked for searching the missing codecs. This also works in almost any other gstreamer application, like rhythmbox or totem.
Builds of the development branch
I will provide builds of the 0.7.1 git versions of swfdec and swfdec-mozilla in my PPA soon. This version even supports fullscreen mode in youtube! The PPA will build versions for hardy and intrepid.
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