Movie File Grief

grimsbymatt

I've recently been having a bit of a nightmare trying to get xvid (divx?) movie files to play on my SuSE 9.2 installation.

I'm very much a Linux newbie, and have been scrabbling around with it for a week or so!

Anyhoo, latest developments happened last night when I found and installed the w32codec-all-20050216-0.pm.0.i586.rpm package from rpm.pbone.net. Now I can play some .avi files, but not others (also .mpeg files, which are also xvid files, apparently). I assume this is due to there being different versions of codecs (I have seen xvid 3 & 4 mentioned on websites) but don't know how to check which I have installed or not.

Does anyone know of a single rpm I can use to install all up to date codecs without spending hours of my life fannying about???!!! Otherwise, any practical solution will do. Please bear in mind that, despite a Computer Science degree, my linux knowledge is extremely basic and clear instructions would be a great help.

All help will be very much appreciated.

uberwolf

I saw VLC player recommended for teh Mac which is what I'm using now. I'm pretty sure there was a linux version alongside as a version. Check that out

scojones

Xine or Mplayer (make sure you get the GUI front-end for mplayer [gmplayer]).

grimsbymatt

As far as I understand it(!), it isn't the player that's the problem. It's a lack of relevant codec(s). The players that I currently have installed are Kaffeine and Totem, both of which, I think, are based on xine. They both play the audio of the file, but produce an error message stating that the video codec cannot be found. As said previously, installation of a codecs rpm enabled me to play some .avi files, but not others - so, how do I go about installing all the latest codecs?

scojones

Well I'm using the current version of mplayer and I have never encountered a codec problem, so maybe try installing mplayer and see if that works. I'll cross my fingers for ya..

Syth

AFAIK Totem is based on mplayer.

If you download mplayer you might get a whole bunch of codecs with it. Or you could just go to the site, they have lots of codecs there. Maybe download just the codecs. Don't mind the mplayer team's current anti-Irishness.

Fenster

Mplayer will play anything. Just grab the source and the codecs from here. Install the codecs to /usr/local/lib/codecs (ie, untar to there) and then compile for source (you can get compiled binaries, but I've always had hassle with anything but compiling it from source myself). Voila, it will play nigh unto anything.

Giblet

I use VLC, and have had no problems yet.

grimsbymatt

Giblet wrote:

I use VLC, and have had no problems yet.

I downloaded vlc last night, and spent about an hour resolving dependencies(!), but still couldn't get a picture!!!

Fenster wrote:

Mplayer will play anything. Just grab the source and the codecs from here. Install the codecs to /usr/local/lib/codecs (ie, untar to there) and then compile for source (you can get compiled binaries, but I've always had hassle with anything but compiling it from source myself). Voila, it will play nigh unto anything.

This sounds like a promising gambit, however I don't know how to compile from source in linux. Any tips?

Ste-

Read the readme and install files in the package.
They tell you everything.

grimsbymatt

Ste- wrote:

Read the readme and install files in the package.
They tell you everything.

What a splendiferous suggestion.

Ste-

When I briefly used Suse 9.2 I found this helpfull for installing mplayer.

Good Luck.

Giblet

grimsbymatt wrote:

I downloaded vlc last night, and spent about an hour resolving dependencies(!), but still couldn't get a picture!!!

URPMI rocks for Mandrake in that respect, it will get all the required packages.

Have a look into YaST and/or aptget for SuSE.

http://www.suseroot.com/suse-linux-tweaks/yast.php?section=Software


Basically, you type in the name of the packages (say VLC) and then it looks for it, or anything with a similar name, you just select the one you want, and it will ask you to download all the dependancies along with it. Very handy. What you want is for it to check the CD's and online for the packages (online is better because you are more likely to get the new versions there and satisfy all dependancies)

grimsbymatt

Mplayer appears to have dealt with the matter.

Cheers guys!

grimsbymatt

grimsbymatt wrote:

Mplayer appears to have dealt with the matter.

Cheers guys!

Now, how to zoom the picture...?

I can make Mplayer go fullscreen, but the picture stays the same size.

Syth

There is a command line option to mplayer called video out. Specified with -vo. mplayer -vo xv <file> will play it in a resizable window for me. Fullscreening mplayer makes the video larger. mplayer -vo x11 <file> sounds like what you have. Try different video output devices. You can get a list of devices with mplayer -vo help

grimsbymatt

Syth wrote:

There is a command line option to mplayer called video out. Specified with -vo. mplayer -vo xv <file> will play it in a resizable window for me. Fullscreening mplayer makes the video larger. mplayer -vo x11 <file> sounds like what you have. Try different video output devices. You can get a list of devices with mplayer -vo help

Excellent!!! You guys are the greatest [sob].

rsynnott

grimsbymatt wrote:

As far as I understand it(!), it isn't the player that's the problem. It's a lack of relevant codec(s). The players that I currently have installed are Kaffeine and Totem, both of which, I think, are based on xine. They both play the audio of the file, but produce an error message stating that the video codec cannot be found. As said previously, installation of a codecs rpm enabled me to play some .avi files, but not others - so, how do I go about installing all the latest codecs?

If you're on a 386y thing, get MPlayer's package of Windows codecs. Otherwise, you'll have to hunt down and install the open-source equivalents.

pickarooney

Also, the -fs and -zoom switches for mplayer will fill your screen with visual joy.

nadir

im not saying rtfm

but basically, the mplayer man page is great, mplayer is amazing
it can do all sorts of wonderful things

pickarooney

Can someone put me out of my misery? I was convinced there was a hotkey to switch aspect ratios on-the-fly in mplayer, but can't find it anywhere in the man page or by hitting random keys.
I can open a file with the -aspect 16:9 switch and it plays in widescreen, but it's not the handiest way when you have several files in widescreen.

nadir

I wasnt aware of a way to do that. Oo

pickarooney

I think it must have been bsplayer then, hitting the A key switched from one format to another. Ah well.

hostyle

nadir wrote:

im not saying rtfm

but basically, the mplayer man page is great, mplayer is amazing
it can do all sorts of wonderful things

I agree. The mplayer man page is the perfect thing to print out in full and leave hanging off the towel rail in the jacks for a weekend morning.

pickarooney

Anyone use a GUI for mplayer? I gave up a while back as the official one is so terminally banjaxed, but there a few alternatives.

nadir

yeah the gui is pitiful ok.

dunno, I just use my file browser (xfe)
but mainly command line.
I like the way you can do stuff like stream realmedia off the web and encode it on the fly to a format which doesn't suck so hard

pickarooney

nadir wrote:

I like the way you can do stuff like stream realmedia off the web and encode it on the fly to a format which doesn't suck so hard

I can't get real media to work at all. Streams open up a real player window but don't play anything. Likewise when I open RP with a filename as a parameter it just opens and sits there waiting for me to tell it to open the file again.
If I knew how to get mplayer to deal with real I could chuck the whole thing (and it's bastard cousin helix player) off my system. Is it easy to set up?

parasite

it should work if you have the rp9(8)codecs package extracted to the right place, no?
*shrug*

pickarooney

RP10 even, but no, copying them into the same folder as the older ones doesn't make mplayer read them (and definitely doesn't make it stream them)

parasite

i said 8/9 as I don't see rp10 codecs listed here http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/
mehh

works fine for me, YMMV

nadir

install gentoo and follow this link http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Rip_Streams_With_MPlayer

sorry for being such a gentoo enthusiast, seems to be kinda unpopular atm, it must be because stuff works in gentoo nice and easy, which seems to be against the general principle of other linux distros and their respective fanboys

pickarooney

If it's possible in gentoo it's surely possible in other distros. But looking at that I need to recompile mplayer which has always been an impossible task for me.
OTOH I upgraded my win32-codecs and recopied the Real 10 codecs into /usr/lib/win32 and mplayer seems to be playing Real media OK now, though I noticed a slight a/v asynch at first. Time will tell.

nadir

pickarooney wrote:

If it's possible in gentoo it's surely possible in other distros. But looking at that I need to recompile mplayer which has always been an impossible task for me.

that's my point, in gentoo its easy, emerge mplayer
no pain. lotsa gain.