diff --git a/sys/xvimage/xvcontext.c b/sys/xvimage/xvcontext.c
index b240cc839..56dee97e0 100644
--- a/sys/xvimage/xvcontext.c
+++ b/sys/xvimage/xvcontext.c
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 /* for XkbKeycodeToKeysym */
 #include <X11/XKBlib.h>
 
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (gst_debug_xv_context);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_context);
 #define GST_CAT_DEFAULT gst_debug_xv_context
 
 void
diff --git a/sys/xvimage/xvimage.c b/sys/xvimage/xvimage.c
index e0295bc69..837306e65 100644
--- a/sys/xvimage/xvimage.c
+++ b/sys/xvimage/xvimage.c
@@ -23,25 +23,11 @@
 
 #include "xvimagesink.h"
 
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_context);
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_image_pool);
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_image_sink);
 
 static gboolean
 plugin_init (GstPlugin * plugin)
 {
-  if (!gst_element_register (plugin, "xvimagesink",
-          GST_RANK_PRIMARY, GST_TYPE_XV_IMAGE_SINK))
-    return FALSE;
-
-  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_context, "xcontext", 0,
-      "xcontext miniobject");
-  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_image_sink, "xvimagesink", 0,
-      "xvimagesink element");
-  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_image_pool, "xvimagepool", 0,
-      "xvimagepool object");
-
-  return TRUE;
+  return GST_ELEMENT_REGISTER (xvimagesink, plugin);;
 }
 
 GST_PLUGIN_DEFINE (GST_VERSION_MAJOR,
diff --git a/sys/xvimage/xvimagepool.c b/sys/xvimage/xvimagepool.c
index fb87c7bfa..6e9a57d63 100644
--- a/sys/xvimage/xvimagepool.c
+++ b/sys/xvimage/xvimagepool.c
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 #include <gst/video/gstvideopool.h>
 
 
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (gst_debug_xv_image_pool);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_image_pool);
 #define GST_CAT_DEFAULT gst_debug_xv_image_pool
 
 /* bufferpool */
diff --git a/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.c b/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.c
index aded234fe..352648982 100644
--- a/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.c
+++ b/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.c
@@ -132,7 +132,10 @@
 /* for XkbKeycodeToKeysym */
 #include <X11/XKBlib.h>
 
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (gst_debug_xv_image_sink);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (gst_debug_xv_context);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (gst_debug_xv_image_pool);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (gst_debug_xv_image_sink);
+
 #define GST_CAT_DEFAULT gst_debug_xv_image_sink
 GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_STATIC (GST_CAT_PERFORMANCE);
 
@@ -213,7 +216,13 @@ G_DEFINE_TYPE_WITH_CODE (GstXvImageSink, gst_xv_image_sink, GST_TYPE_VIDEO_SINK,
         gst_xv_image_sink_video_overlay_init);
     G_IMPLEMENT_INTERFACE (GST_TYPE_COLOR_BALANCE,
         gst_xv_image_sink_colorbalance_init));
+#define _do_init \
+  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_context, "xcontext", 0, "xcontext miniobject");\
+  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_image_sink, "xvimagesink", 0, "ximagesink element");\
+  GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_INIT (gst_debug_xv_image_pool, "xvimagepool", 0, "ximagepool object");\
 
+GST_ELEMENT_REGISTER_DEFINE_WITH_CODE (xvimagesink, "xvimagesink",
+    GST_RANK_PRIMARY, GST_TYPE_XV_IMAGE_SINK, _do_init);
 
 /* ============================================================= */
 /*                                                               */
diff --git a/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.h b/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.h
index 9bf4d79c8..6f5ffa156 100644
--- a/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.h
+++ b/sys/xvimage/xvimagesink.h
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ struct _GstXvImageSinkClass
 };
 
 GType gst_xv_image_sink_get_type (void);
+GST_ELEMENT_REGISTER_DECLARE (xvimagesink);
 
 G_END_DECLS
 #endif /* __GST_XV_IMAGE_SINK_H__ */