My understanding is that autovideosink does not act like synchronization for the video itself, it just acts like an end-to-end autodetection: it will find the right receiver for use by searching the registry for available receivers.
Thus, although autovideosink itself can receive and transmit on any type of video stream, the final receiver that actually sends probably needs to be converted to a supported format.
For example, on my Ubuntu 14.04 computer, working with the provided pipeline causes the autovideosink data to be transferred to a xvimagesink , whose receiver has more specific requirements:
Capabilities: video/x-raw-rgb framerate: [ 0/1, 2147483647/1 ] width: [ 1, 2147483647 ] height: [ 1, 2147483647 ] video/x-raw-yuv framerate: [ 0/1, 2147483647/1 ] width: [ 1, 2147483647 ] height: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
Edit:
In particular, note that xvimagesink supports raw YUV and raw (24 bits per pixel) RGB, while vertigotv can only supply BGRx and RGBx (i.e. 32 bits per pixel: 8 red bits, 8 green bits, 8 blue bits and 8 ignored bits). Therefore, videoconvert needed to make them play well together.
You can get more information about which autovideosink descendant autovideosink delegated and why it does not work, by including with advanced debugging (I annotated the corresponding lines):
$ gst-launch-0.10 --gst-debug=3 --verbose videotestsrc ! vertigotv ! autovideosink 0:00:00.000249935 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_INIT gstquery.c:107:_gst_query_initialize: init queries 0:00:00.000986921 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_INIT gstmessage.c:73:_gst_message_initialize: init messages 0:00:00.001303128 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:350:_gst_plugin_initialize: registering 0 static plugins 0:00:00.001442586 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:255:gst_plugin_register_static: registered static plugin "staticelements" 0:00:00.001465363 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:257:gst_plugin_register_static: added static plugin "staticelements", result: 1 0:00:00.001492124 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REGISTRY gstregistry.c:1672:ensure_current_registry: reading registry cache: /home/gabriel/.gstreamer-0.10/registry.x86_64.bin 0:00:00.011542619 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REGISTRY gstregistrybinary.c:614:gst_registry_binary_read_cache: loaded /home/gabriel/.gstreamer-0.10/registry.x86_64.bin in 0.010022 seconds 0:00:00.011640443 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REGISTRY gstregistry.c:1522:scan_and_update_registry: Validating plugins from registry cache: /home/gabriel/.gstreamer-0.10/registry.x86_64.bin 0:00:00.012164072 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REGISTRY gstregistry.c:1634:scan_and_update_registry: Registry cache has not changed 0:00:00.012188670 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REGISTRY gstregistry.c:1707:ensure_current_registry: registry reading and updating done, result = 1 0:00:00.012205838 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_INIT gst.c:805:init_post: GLib runtime version: 2.40.2 0:00:00.012221254 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_INIT gst.c:807:init_post: GLib headers version: 2.39.1 0:00:00.012253325 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PIPELINE gstparse.c:334:gst_parse_launch_full: parsing pipeline description 'videotestsrc ! vertigotv ! autovideosink ' 0:00:00.015690495 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:859:gst_plugin_load_file: plugin "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstvideotestsrc.so" loaded 0:00:00.015738624 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_FACTORY gstelementfactory.c:376:gst_element_factory_create: creating element "videotestsrc" 0:00:00.016500598 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:728:gst_element_add_pad:< GstBaseSrc@0xe26090 > adding pad 'src' 0:00:00.017049197 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:859:gst_plugin_load_file: plugin "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgsteffectv.so" loaded 0:00:00.017083649 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_FACTORY gstelementfactory.c:376:gst_element_factory_create: creating element "vertigotv" 0:00:00.017275409 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:728:gst_element_add_pad:< GstBaseTransform@0xe2a180 > adding pad 'sink' 0:00:00.017320686 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:728:gst_element_add_pad:< GstBaseTransform@0xe2a180 > adding pad 'src' 0:00:00.017507420 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:859:gst_plugin_load_file: plugin "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstautodetect.so" loaded 0:00:00.017534322 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_FACTORY gstelementfactory.c:376:gst_element_factory_create: creating element "autovideosink" 0:00:00.017679118 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:728:gst_element_add_pad:< GstAutoVideoSink@0xe2d040 > adding pad 'sink' 0:00:00.018056697 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:859:gst_plugin_load_file: plugin "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstcoreelements.so" loaded 0:00:00.018088912 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_FACTORY gstelementfactory.c:374:gst_element_factory_create: creating element "fakesink" named "tempsink" 0:00:00.018241424 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:728:gst_element_add_pad:< GstBaseSink@0xe061e0 > adding pad 'sink' 0:00:00.018298351 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:975:gst_element_get_static_pad: found pad tempsink:sink 0:00:00.018321334 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:1978:gst_pad_link_prepare: trying to link sink:proxypad0 and tempsink:sink 0:00:00.018340322 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:2161:gst_pad_link_full: linked sink:proxypad0 and tempsink:sink, successful 0:00:00.018381640 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_FACTORY gstelementfactory.c:376:gst_element_factory_create: creating element "pipeline" 0:00:00.018470159 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PIPELINE ./grammar.y:569:gst_parse_perform_link: linking videotestsrc0:(any) to vertigotv0:(any) (0/0) with caps "(NULL)" 0:00:00.018497440 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstutils.c:1698:gst_element_link_pads_full: trying to link element videotestsrc0:(any) to element vertigotv0:(any) 0:00:00.018518953 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstutils.c:1032:gst_pad_check_link: trying to link videotestsrc0:src and vertigotv0:sink 0:00:00.018797589 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstutils.c:1596:prepare_link_maybe_ghosting: videotestsrc0 and vertigotv0 in same bin, no need for ghost pads 0:00:00.018860383 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:1978:gst_pad_link_prepare: trying to link videotestsrc0:src and vertigotv0:sink 0:00:00.019111071 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:2161:gst_pad_link_full: linked videotestsrc0:src and vertigotv0:sink, successful 0:00:00.019158154 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PIPELINE ./grammar.y:569:gst_parse_perform_link: linking vertigotv0:(any) to autovideosink0:(any) (0/0) with caps "(NULL)" 0:00:00.019179561 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstutils.c:1698:gst_element_link_pads_full: trying to link element vertigotv0:(any) to element autovideosink0:(any) 0:00:00.019201500 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstutils.c:1032:gst_pad_check_link: trying to link vertigotv0:src and autovideosink0:sink 0:00:00.019477327 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstutils.c:1596:prepare_link_maybe_ghosting: vertigotv0 and autovideosink0 in same bin, no need for ghost pads 0:00:00.019510644 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:1978:gst_pad_link_prepare: trying to link vertigotv0:src and autovideosink0:sink 0:00:00.019734010 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PADS gstpad.c:2161:gst_pad_link_full: linked vertigotv0:src and autovideosink0:sink, successful Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... 0:00:00.019859833 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_STATES gstelement.c:2460:gst_element_continue_state:<tempsink> completed state change to NULL 0:00:00.019886786 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstpad.c:1750:gst_pad_unlink: unlinking sink:proxypad0(0xe300c0) and tempsink:sink(0xe28550) 0:00:00.019911274 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstpad.c:1795:gst_pad_unlink: unlinked sink:proxypad0 and tempsink:sink 0:00:00.019930233 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PARENTAGE gstbin.c:1465:gst_bin_remove_func:<autovideosink0> removed child "tempsink" 0:00:00.019955357 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REFCOUNTING gstelement.c:3064:gst_element_dispose:<tempsink> dispose 0:00:00.019972245 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_ELEMENT_PADS gstelement.c:847:gst_element_remove_pad:<tempsink> removing pad 'sink' 0:00:00.020004575 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REFCOUNTING gstelement.c:3088:gst_element_dispose:<tempsink> parent class dispose 0:00:00.020023265 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REFCOUNTING gstelement.c:3119:gst_element_finalize:<tempsink> finalize 0:00:00.020039132 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_REFCOUNTING gstelement.c:3130:gst_element_finalize:<tempsink> finalize parent 0:00:00.021132401 28239 0xd13e00 INFO GST_PLUGIN_LOADING gstplugin.c:859:gst_plugin_load_file: plugin "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-0.10/libgstxvimagesink.so" loaded