Movie Players in Linux/*NIX

[Calum]

okay. i have red hat 8.
i also have many different movie files made with many different codecs. I have QT4 .mov files and QT2 .mov files, i also have mpegs, divx files and a myriad of other avi files. Plus i have some realmedia files and a few wmv files. I also have an australian DVD, a UK DVD and a US VCD that i would like to be able to play.
So.
My question is, what software can i use (preferably without cost) to play these files? i have installed ogle but it is jerky and has no sound when i try to play the AUS DVD, it seems i can get the individual mpegs off the VCD to play. I installed realplayer also, but i don't really trust or like realplayer so ideally i am hoping there's another player that can handle realmedia files and possibly even decode them into real mpegs.

but what i really want is to know how to play all these and possibly even manipulate them (decode them and encode them into another format et c) in linux. especially the mov files and dvds.

so what software do i need and what tricks should i employ to get it all to work? example, what ELSE do i need to install to make mplayer deal with foreign DVDs, or encrypted ones or whatever, i really don't know anything about DVDs i just want to play them! and can mplayer do .mov and .wmv files too? if so how? and so on.

As you can see, i know little to nothing about this issue in linux and am just hoping for some pointers in the right direction...

thanks and so on in advance!  

[shuiend]

For watching most of those formats i use Mplayer. Which is available from apt-get. For ripping and encoding i use  k3b it can rip and encode dvd's resonably well and has a nice gui for it. I believe kino can change things forats but i am not positive. I do know that it can do alot of video editing this so it should be able to change formats. Thats about all i know in video formats so i hope that helps calum.

[voidmain]

You can do what you want to do with the "Real" stuff using MPlayer/MEencoder, however, not with the stock version you get from freshrpms. You need to get the source RPM and make a slight modification to the spec file and build/install it. Then you need to get the codecs and install them (actually since you have RealPlayer installed it can use the native codecs). There was a thread somewhere around here that I posted how I did it when someone asked about getting RealAudio to work. Should be able to find it in a search.

Also if you have the proper codecs installed you should be able to play any *.mov file. Can't help you with the DVD other than someone mentioned in a reply to your message on my forums that MPlayer can also play DVDs.

And if you didn't know it you start the MPlayer gui with the "gmplayer" command after installing "apt-get install mplayer" or I should say "apt-get source mplayer" in your case because you are going to need to do some fiddling with the spec file to get all the Real support you want. The apt-get command doesn't install the win32 codecs. You need to get those from the MPlayer web site.

[ January 14, 2003: Message edited by: void main ]

[Calum]

well, it looks like realmedia are the fiddliest of the bunch. perhaps i'll familiarise myself with mplayer first and install the other codecs before i go off on one and bite off more than i can chew.

I didn't know that gmplayer thing, no! also, i am now off to their site for some codecs, i just tried to play a .mov and only got the sound (because i am presuming the sound is in mp3 format).

thanks a lot for your responses, i think that's set me on the right track.

[pkd_lives]

I would offer a few words of advise on mplayer. They have a document on their site that explains mplayer and how to install it. It is very long and very detailed, I really cannot stress how good it would be to read it. There are also versions specific to some processors available. Apart from that mplayer seems to offer just about every codec I have heard of and more.

Mplayer documentation

[Calum]

yes i have heard that mplayer docs are not the most userfriendly, which is one reason i have been keeping away from it.

for instance, i saw this on a list while searching:
   

quote:MPlayer site ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu ) provides a special
win32dll-codecs-package at
ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/w32codec-0.50.zip !

The dlls have be in the /usr/lib/win32 - directory (you have to create if it
doesn't exist). This must be done before compil

[pkd_lives]

It is not so much that the documents are unuser-friendly, it is more that there is a lot of information to be gleaned and if you don't pay attention you can easily shoot yourself in the foot.

Now from my experience the avi codec is unnecessary, as I thought it was implemented with the codecs file now, but I could easily be wrong. I use the RPM files and so far have no problems with the basic stuff (it doesn't do DVDs at all well, and there are issues with processor speed etc, that I am looking into). If you install without the codecs in place then you will have to reinstall (compile - whatever you choose to do).

And in answer to your earlier question, it does basically all the proprietary M$ formats (better than M$ in fact), and the Apple QT formats, and open formats, and other closed formats, by using proven cracks of these codecs I think. How they do it is a question to be answered by the experts, but they do do it.

[Calum]

ok, well sounds good. at the moment though i have mplayer installed from the rpms (i used apt for rpm in fact) and i have a bunch of codecs in tar.bz2 form. i know at least some of them need to be installed because i tried to play a .mov earlier and only got the sound. i will try and read their bumph, i expect it will need me to download source of mplayer and recompile. Of course i will need to read up a lot to find out how to compile all the codecs in. well, that's the price you pay i suppose.

thanks once more for the advice!

[voidmain]

The win32 codecs don't get "compiled in". You just create a /usr/lib/win32 directory and stick them in there (after unpacking the archive that is).

[UODU]

G'day Guys,


Prior to my brain injury I was a very good freefall cameraman... or is it person, who before digital non linea video editing became common, read an article that made me decide that I should get into computers ASAP; that was about 8 years ago.

I got to say all this Codex etc. is making my brain hurt... I'll keep an eye on this site/post and hope eventually it will all become clearer or more simplified for me in the meantime I'll continue to investigate my alternative approach... Apple.

Regards
Braindead