MPlayer Developers Interviewed 220
cruocitae writes "Three of the MPlayer developers just gave an interview, talking about the "mysterious" versioning system of their software and shared a few secrets about the upcoming releases, for example some words about the long-awaited Windows GUI, and of course, DVD menus. Project integrity also was a subject.."
For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone tried both more recently?
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:3, Informative)
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:5, Informative)
Choice: Media Player Classic (MPC)
Reasoning:
1. I've never had CPU issues playing video, so I can't say that program X or program Y are more efficient.
2. Feature for feature, I've never seen any players with as many abilities as MPC. If you're leet and wanna dabble with the decoders, they let you do all kinds of thing with DirectShow. They accelerate output on DX9, The inbound codecs can be anyones. I use ffdshow, MPC, or even the official vendor codecs for things like format decoding/splitting/etc. I have the control to rewire them at my leasure if I like one over another. My experience with DVD playback is flawless.
3. Configuration is easy and straight forward for those that know how to use it. For those that don't, the default installation (with 3rd party directshow codecs installed) requires no config.
The only reservation I have with it is that sometimes I notice a cleaner picture with the powerdvd filters and I hate mapping the powerdvd filters into MPC to play it just to switch back later.
Say what you will about hating windows based technologies, but once I've tuned to my likes, it works amazingly well and I can't think of any platform media player / tech that I like more than MPC / DirectShow.
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
You are talking about two issues. (Score:3, Informative)
However, BSPlayer is a much better parser of video container formats (ASF, WMV, AVI, OGM) and MPEG transport streams than most other play
Re:You are talking about two issues. (Score:2)
Granted I don't know that the windows version supports all this, but it will eventually. My only fear is that they will become depen
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
BSplayer annoyed me when I first tried it, but then again it also kinda struck me as spyware the first time around. My mistake.
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
While mplayer does have the ability for key remaping, one thing it lacks over winamp is that nice 3rd mouse scroll feature. Default scroll wheel is volume, 3rd button and scroll is jump forward and back. Mplayer is nice but i've not managed to figure out how to define anything beyond mouse buttons. While I do have a wirele
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
MPlayer has lower CPU usage than any other video player I've ever tried on Windows. It really uses around half the CPU time to play videos as something like MPC does. Frankly, I really don't understand how Windows can be so terrible at multimedia, and why people aren't more upset about something like DVD playback using 50% of their multi-GHz CPU.
As for usability, there are several 3rd party MPlayer GUIs
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
Playing back a DVD uses less than 1/3 of my Athlon XP 2500+ using PowerDVD 5 (no, I don't have the fancy subpixel video scaler turned on, I have a CRT.)
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
And playing back a DVD averages less than 5% of my Athlon XP 2000+ using MPlayer.
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
Re:For Windows at least- BSplayer instead (Score:2)
I checked out what WhenU does. According to what I read, it downloads a bunch of ads from their server, and then the program running on the user's machine decides what ads are appropriate to display. It apparently does not send browsing info back to the central se
"misterious"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Guys, If you want to be taken seriously, take the time to correct stupid mistakes such as this.
*Rubs eyes in disbelief*
Re:"misterious"? (Score:2)
Misterious? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Misterious? (Score:2)
And yes, I do speak more than a language. That's *precisely* the reason why I am allowed to make such commen
Re:Misterious? (Score:2)
When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2, Informative)
MPlayer is very sensitive to compiler version and optimization flags. Try a different compiler, or a different version of the same compiler.
-:sigma.SB
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
While that is certainly literally true, it's worth pointing out that codecs are bits of code that are pushed hardest to extract every bit of performance out of them. Such hyper-optimization tends to result in other qualities of the code taking longer to catch up when compared to a more normal type of program, such as "stability" and "re
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:5, Informative)
Segfaults are very, very rare. If you are seeing one, you should report it: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.h
Major problems like that, always get fixed quickly.
As I said, segfaults are very rare these days. Most of the time segfaults are reported, it's buggy hardware (hot CPU, RAM, videocard, etc.) or a known-buggy version of GCC (2.96, 3.3, etc).
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not surprised. I hacked mplayer once. And I do mean hacked, not programmed.
For starters, mplayer.c is 4000 lines long. Apparently only one man really knows what's going on in there, and he's not taking a look at it. Making sense of it was beyond what my cursory overview of the code could muster. Near as I could tell most of it was written to deal with bugs.
The main developers are from eastern europe, I think. They have a pechant for three letter variables
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
No, actually FAST code is preferred to READABLE code.
There's good reason why, when you hear stories about people watching DVDs on their 133MHz systems, they're always using MPlayer...
MPlayer plays MPEG-1/2/4 videos at 720x480 on my 1.6GHz system using LESS THAN 1% CPU TIME. I can play back 1080 videos on this system in realtime with any codec around (h.264 drops a few frames, but that's all).
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
I'm using an AMD64 3500 and mplayer chugs away 5-10% cpu (as measured by top) with a significant ~5% CPU usage increase in X, a total CPU usage of 5-11% at anyone moment throughout the movie in front of me. (I suppose a better way to benchmark it would be to play the whole 90 minute movie and then checkout the cpu time utilised by the end but i'm throwing ballparks here). I'm also playing PAL which doesn't require a
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
From the increase in X CPU usage, it sounds like you're perhaps using a junky on-board videochip (or perhaps something with lowsy drivers), or using an output method like x11 instead of one of the many overlay outputs (which hardly even involve X). I'm just using an ultra-cheap, 4 year-old GeForce4 AGP c
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, cryptic, three character variable names like "osd_show_percentage", "stream_dump_type", "too_fast_frame_cnt" and "frame_time_remaining". How cryptic! Whatever could those mean?!?
Bullshit. I just checked. mplayer.c has 3 pointers to void, and one pointer to pointer of void. A quick search through some other files found zero void pointers. The code in the loader section does have a few, but it's hardly the most common datatype.
The only part of your post that's even remotely true is "All that said, the program is fantastic." On that we agree. mplayer kicks ass.
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
mplayer.c is quite readable with good names for variables,I didn't notice abuse of void* nor unreadable code.
The only bad parts is that the main function is huge and the file itself is big, but this is not the disaster the GP said.
Diclaimer: I've only looked to mplayer.c not the other files.
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:3, Interesting)
vf_instance_t* vf_add_before_vo(vf_instance_t **vf, char *name, char **args) {
vf_instance_t *vo, *prev = NULL, *new;
for (vo = *vf; vo->next; vo = vo->next)
prev = vo;
new = vf_open_filter(vo, name, args);
if (prev)
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, mplayer can get ornery when it can't grab as much memory as it wants. Closing an app or two usually does the trick...
Re:When will it stop segfaulting? (Score:2)
Perhaps that's the reason, and perhaps you just still are using the release from nearly one year ago (pre7), and not a CVS version.
DVD Menus & XMBC (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:DVD Menus & XMBC (Score:3, Interesting)
No, definately not. MPlayer dvdnav was wholely written by Ötvös Attila (http://dcxx.fw.hu/)
The dvdnav patch has been publicly available (in it's unstable form) for quite a while now. It's almost certain that the XBMC guys just grabbed the patch and applied it to their sources.
Re:DVD Menus & XMBC (Score:2)
Regardless, I'm sure they've had to make some additional changes and modifications to fit XMBC's architecure and the Xbox's contraints. Hopefully they have pushed some of those back upstream when applicable.
GUI? Windows? Mplayer? (Score:2)
GMPlayer doesn't count for this example. Don't ask me why.
I love MPlayer but... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Don't get me wrong. There is documentation. It is scattered, and often incomplete, and carries the same attitude I had seen elsewhere, but it is there. An example of that attitude, taken verbatim from the FAQ:
Q: I compiled MPlayer with libdvdcss/libdivxdecore support, but when I try to start it, it says: error while loading shared libraries: lib*.so.0: cannot load shared object file: No such file or directory
I checked the file and it is there in
A: What are you doing on Linux? Can't you install a library? Why do we get these questions? It's not MPlayer specific at all! Add
Perhaps instead of taking the time to flame the person asking the question, the smart aleck could have simply answered the question graciously, then spent the time saved by skipping the flames fixing bugs in the installation script."
Re:I love MPlayer but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I love MPlayer but... (Score:2)
The answer, however, even two years ago read, "Add /usr/local/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig."
Mind you, the whole post is a cut and paste troll taken from some old web pages, so really I'd just ignore the dickhead.
Justin.
Video on Linux (Score:2, Informative)
First choice: VLC
Second Choice: Mplayer
Third Choice: Xine
Fourth Choice: Boot into Windoze
Re:Video on Linux (Score:2)
MEncoder is fantastic (Score:3, Informative)
MEncoder, on the other hand is amazingly powerful. It's also a pain in the butt to use. I also have to say, the support, at least on the MEncoder forum is very lacking. When I first started using it, I was largely derided for not knowing all about video encoding to begin with and got more than one RTFM response.
The documentation is extensive, but the organization could definitely use some work and a few more real world examples would be helpful.
That said, after a month or so of struggling with it, I am pretty competent with it now and have yet to find a situation where it can't do what I want it to do. Convert from one format to another, resync video, make DVD compatible MPEGS (though it doesn't compose DVDs), etc. It's got a variet of filters, including I think 4 just for de-interlacing (I do a lot of TV captures to raw MPEG that need to be converted to AVI).
So the program itself is excellent. The support however, could definitely use some work. If you want to see some newbie bashing, the mencoder mailing list definitely a good place to hang out.
Re:MEncoder is fantastic (Score:2)
You've obviously never heard of gmplayer, which is the offical GUI, and comes included with MPlayer.
No, you were probably derided because you were making mistakes very clearly covered in the appropriate section of the docs.
Re:transcode (Score:2)
No, mencoder only drops exactly identical frames.
If you were seeing a problem, it was a symptom of something else, and had nothing to do with the dropped frames.
Mencoder also has -noskip, -mc 0, -skiplimit 0, to prevent skiped frames (due to A/V sync issues), and to prevent "duplicate frames" from being dropped, you can use -vf harddup.
None of which will fix your problem though
Yeah ... (Score:2)
mencoder is more like: I just want you to convert this into this with this restriction and I don't care how you do it.
Of course, sometimes it guesses wrong about what you want it to do. Getting it do things a certain way can require black magic and animal sacrifice.
Re: (Score:2)
What is happening to the Mac OS X port? (Score:3, Informative)
I use MPlayer all the time on Mac OS X.
The problem is seeing any visible progress on this port. Or even fixing major bugs and releasing a build.
The current release is the MPlayer-dev-CVS-050904.dmg (i.e. September 4th 2005). This release had a massive bug that rendered the playlist an unusable -- you could add items to it. And the menu bar was not being hidden in full screen mode on the default video renderer. I'd label both of these showstoppers (breaks major functionality) and would expect a fix. It's now 8 months later and not even a dev CVS build.
So I continue to the use the MPlayer-dev-CVS-050724.dmg version.
I've never been able to find nightly builds of the Mac OS X port, either. Not through lack of trying but maybe I missed something.
Is any active development taking place on the Mac version?
Re:What is happening to the Mac OS X port? (Score:3, Informative)
There was a major hardware failure, which took down the main server for several months. Development has continued on CVS, and you can grab a snapshot any time you wish. This hasn't just stopped OS X development. If you were a bit more observant, you'd see there haven't been new releases on the server for ANY architecture for nearly a year.
There are at least 2 MPlayer devs with PPC/OS X machines, who continue to find and fix bugs. I'm sure you'll see n
Viva La MPlayer! (Score:3, Informative)
For those of you who might have stuck with Xine based players and haven't played around much with MPlayer, there are a few reasons I really like it:
The largest reason is that it plays bloody everything. I've personally never come across a file that I couldn't open with MPlayer. The worst I've ever run into is in some files that are slightly corrupted I've had to use the -idx flag to reindex the file so that I can gracefully skip over bad sections of the file instead of the video just stopping playing. I find this particularly handy when I'm downloading television shows off bittorrent and the seeders all go away when I'm at like 90%.
Mplayer also seems more lightweight ot me than Xine. Most of the time, if I'm watching video at my computer, it's because I'm doing something that's taking long enough that I'm sitting at the desk waiting for it to finish (compiling a lot of software, doing 3D rendering, etc.) so it's nice to be able to dedicate more cycles to whatever real work is getting done while still being able to relax with a video.
complete modularity of proprietary/patented bits (Score:2)
the reason ive heard of is containing of patented stuff if mplayer core that can not be easily modularised.
now, im not sure anybody qualified to give information will see this, but it would still be nice if some information could be given regarding this problem.
having mplayer included (probably as default media player) in more linux distribution could help it's usage enormously.
oh, another thing... last release has happened in q
Re:complete modularity of proprietary/patented bit (Score:2)
Yes, pretty much ALL audio and video codecs you've ever heard of, or used are covered by numerous patents which require payment of royalties by the program maker. Companies like RedHat/Suse don't want to pay $10 in license fees for each user which downloads the distro.
It certainly can't be modularized, for performance reasons, nor would you want it to be, as MPlayer with 1 video codec is just as usele
Re:complete modularity of proprietary/patented bit (Score:2)
Re:complete modularity of proprietary/patented bit (Score:2)
It's usually okay if you want Mencoder, too, but occasionally a major mencoder bug will slip in and not get fixed for a few days.
Re:complete modularity of proprietary/patented bit (Score:2)
Coloured subtitles (Score:2)
Everytime I rip a dvd with subtitles they appear white reguardless of the colour of the actual subtitles (in a standalone dvd player). This is because mplayer/mencoder changes only the luminance channel (so only brightness changes). However, the other day I ripped a dvd. The resulting avi had yellow subtitles. I have been unable to reproduce this, even with the same dvd.
Weird.
mmm :-/ (Score:2)
If you check the
Your
mplayer is a good effort (Score:2)
Also, last time I used mplayer, the required that you compile everything from source (no binaries available) for legal reasons. When I did this, by default a bunch of support for various codecs wasn't turned on by default. I remember
Re:mplayer is a good effort (Score:2)
Different design goals for different audiences.
VLC is designed to work. All the time. When you download the binary.
MPlayer is designed to be fast. When you compile it with the correct options for your hardware. So you can get the best possible performance. Even if you're doing something silly like playing a high def XviD on a Pentium Pro that doesn't even have a GUI on it.
Version numbers (Score:2)
I can't tell whether the interviewees are simply trying to sound l33t or really
Re:Version numbers (Score:2)
mplayer rocks BTW, nothing else I've ever tried works as well, on everything that gets thrown at it.
(yes, possibly some work involved, but most likely it WILL work when nothing else available will)
Mplayer works great on low end computers (Score:2, Interesting)
MPlayer - let's not forget A'rpi! (Score:2)
M4V Support? (Score:2)
Re:VLC or MPlayer (Score:4, Interesting)
I use VLC for my IPTV-provider, because RTSP sucks in mplayer (at least for me). For the rest, I am a mplayer-fan, with support for as many codecs as possible.
Eventhough, I don't think this mainly is about VLC vs. MPlayer. Both applications uses many of the same libraries, but with different implementation. MPlayer also gets its "hands dirty" with DeCSS and WMV "support" in *nix.
Re:VLC or MPlayer (Score:2)
And, importantly for some, provides plugin support for a whole crapload of stuff - especially on amd64 where realplayer seems not to want to go. With no mplayer I coudn't listen to BBC raido unless I wanted to muck around with the 32 bit bin version of firefox.
Xine can be used as a library (Score:5, Insightful)
Xine [xinehq.de] and its corresponding library Xine-lib [xinehq.de], on the other hand, can be used as libraries inside other frontend applications such as Kaffeine [sourceforge.net] and AmaroK [kde.org]. This allows the frontend apps to focus on what they do best: GUI, usability and eyecandy, while the multimedia-intensive parts can be neatly accessed through an API.
Re:Xine can be used as a library (Score:2)
You either don't know what you're talking about, or you're trolling.
No, mplayer can't be used as a library, but most of it's functionality comes directly from ffmpeg/libavcodec, which CAN be used as a library, and IS used by a HUGE number of projects.
Re:Xine can be used as a library (Score:2)
Re:Xine can be used as a library (Score:2)
Xine-lib is right in the middle. At the low-end is libavcodec, then xine-lib, then at the ultra-easy end is MPlayer in slave-mode, which is also used extensively by many programs.
Re:Xine can be used as a library (Score:2)
Of course, working with an embedded instance of MPlayer would be just stupid. What people do instead, is using the library associated with MPlayer : FFMpeg.
Now go look everywhere, you will see lots of projects using ffmpeg (like gstreamer).
So your argument about xine-l
Re:VLC or MPlayer (Score:2)
MPlayer uses the live555.com library for RTSP support, which is exactly the same thing VLC uses. Your problems are likely local issues (perhaps a binary package without live555 support?), and not actually problems with MPlayer.
DeCSS was a Windows program. The Unix version was css-auth. Shortly after, libdvdcss was reverse-engineered to give legal DVD pl
Re:VLC or MPlayer (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:3, Informative)
Neither do I. I have xine called from my myth box, which doesn't have a keyboard.
xine doesn't play many files I try, and I don't want to figure out how to fix it.
I haven't had any problems with VOBs, MPGs, AVIs, ISOs.
mplayer plays video files on slow machines smoother than xine.
Subjective. I've had smooth dvd playback on a pIII 550 ( coppermine ).
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
How lazy of you! FYI: all you need to do [xinehq.de] is download the codecs and place them in
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2, Informative)
I'll agree that xine is better for DVDs, though!
Is xine relevant? (Score:5, Funny)
Or am I missing something?
Re:Is xine relevant? (Score:2)
Re:Is xine relevant? (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, I thought that was a feature.
Re:Is xine relevant? (Score:2)
It would be if it just went straight to the movie!
Half the time it just shows the copyright warning and exits.
Quarter of the time it shows the movie studio logo and exits
a tenth the time it shows some previews and exits.
the rest it actually plays the movie.
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:5, Informative)
Xine is much slower, has a terrible interface, supports fewer audio/video codecs, takes longer to get support for newer codecs, doesn't do ANY encoding at all, doesn't support a fraction as many output audio/video devices. Doesn't have a fraction of the great video/audio filters that MPlayer does. Uses far, far more CPU-time than MPlayer. Has a god-awful interface, and no simple command-line version. Murders puppies. Doesn't include options like allowing you to output JPEGs out of every 100ths frame. Doesn't allow you to process the video, then output to yuv4mpeg for encoding with other programs. etc.
The difference between XINE and MPlayer are really the difference between Windows and Unix... Do you want a monolithic program, which can't be scripted, and has many, many restrictions imposed on it, or a small, simple tool that you can script to manipulate and modify data any way you choose?
OH! OH OH! ME ME ME! (Score:2)
No, wait ... Number Two!
Wait wait wait ... oh, damn, I was sure I had it right. Can't I have both?
I can? Oh, well that's fine then.
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Feel free to try and dispute any of the facts above, rather than just bitching and whining.
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Speed, speed, and more speed...
Using external libraries incures a performance penalty, so the default is to compile everything static. You can use external versions of most libs if you specify them during configure.
If you want a library, use libavcodec. If you want to use MPlayer, that's exactly what "Slave Mode" is for.
Personally, I love the binary monolith, if only because it keeps me from having
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
the mplayer-plugin works to a degree, but is hopelessly unreliable.
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Atm plugins are being recognised fine according to "about:plugins" but simply do not load on websites, go into stop mode, and don't issue any errors in the terminal.
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:3, Informative)
Under absolutely ALL circumstances. MPlayer has been heavily optimized for speed, while XINE hasn't. I've never before seen ANYONE claim Xine was EVER faster.
If you're actually seeing something like that, and not just trolling, either you got a poorly made binary package, or you were doing something like using the wrong output method for your system.
Also something I have NEVER heard from ANYONE, ANYWHERE. MPlaye
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Yes, well... Either something is very wrong with your system, you're completely mistaken, or you're just making things up. I find the latter to be most likely.
Posting at +1, UID of almost 900,000, no details or info to back-up your extremely vague claims that fly in the face of all logic.
If you've got files that crash MPlayer and not Xine, upload a sample somewhere so it can be verified.
If MPlayer is insanely slow for
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
If he had posted any evidence to back-up his claims, it wouldn't have mattered at all.
However, in the case of bald-faced assertions that go against all logic, with no evidence, the UID and lack of karma bonus will usually tell you whether or not you're just seeing some 13 year old who doesn't know what he's talking about, some troll with a nice new account, etc.
Looking
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Yes. It makes absolutely no sense at all that MPlayer, which has been heavily optimized with hand-written assembler in speed-critical places (including imported libraries) would be slower than Xine, which has not recieved much performance tuning, and certainly doesn't have the hand-optimized code that MPlayer does.
Extrodinary claims require extrodinary proof. I'll believe it when I see someon
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
is xine relevant? why not just use mplayer and be done with it? from what everyone knows as a fact (not just what i've seen), mplayer does everything that xine does, and more (like works properly on windows since forever, plays *everything*, comes with an awesome encoder), so why bother?
i really love these type of questions. nobody is forcing you to use mplayer. if you love xine
Re:Is mplayer relevant? (Score:2)
today's word: "sarchasm: the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it"
you gotta love irony. it's so... ironic.
Re:MPlayer in Windows (Score:2)