1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="default.css">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><B><A NAME=5>5. FAQ section</A></B></P>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#5.1">5.1 Compilation</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.2">5.2 General questions</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.3">5.3 File playing problems</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.4">5.4 Video/audio driver problems (vo/ao)</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.5">5.5 DVD playback</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.6">5.6 Feature requests</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#5.7">5.7 Encoding</A></LI>
</UL>
<TABLE BORDER=0 WIDTH="100%" ALIGN=left>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=3><P><B><A NAME=5.1>5.1 Compilation</A></B></P>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Compilation stops with an error message similar to this one:
<PRE>
In file included from mplayer.c:34:
mw.h: In function `mplMainDraw':
mw.h:209: Internal compiler error in print_rtl_and_abort, at flow.c:6458
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/ for instructions.
</PRE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>As the error message clearly states, this is a compiler problem. Upgrade your
compiler and report the problem to your vendor or the compiler authors.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Configure ends with this text, and MPlayer won't compile!<BR>
<CODE>"Your gcc does not support even i386 for '-march' and '-mcpu'."</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Your gcc isn't installed correctly, check the <CODE>config.log</CODE> file
for details.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What does "No such file or directory" mean?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Probably there is no such file or directory.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What's the problem with gcc 2.96?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD><B>We strongly discourage the use of gcc 2.96!!!</B><BR>
Read <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#gcc">this</A>
document for details. If you still really really want to use it, be sure to get
the latest release, but remember that you are on your own. Do <B>not</B> report
bugs or ask for help on the mailing lists. We will <B>not</B> provide any support
in case you run into problems.
<BR>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Great, I have gcc 3.0.1 from Red Hat/Mandrake, then I'm fine--!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>No, since there have been/are issues with these compilers as well.<BR>
Use the 2.95.x series for reliability (not <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#gcc">2.96</A>).
Use the latest gcc 3.x (starting at 3.0.4) if you want to use a 3.x version.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I tried to compile MPlayer, but I got this output:
<PRE>
In file included from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/std_cwchar.h:42,
from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/fpos.h:40,
from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/char_traits.h:40,
from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/std_string.h:41,
from /usr/include/g++-v3/string:31,
from libwin32.h:36,
from DS_AudioDecoder.h:4,
from DS_AudioDec.cpp:5:
/usr/include/wchar.h: In function Long long int wcstoq(const wchar_t*,
wchar_t**, int)':
/usr/include/wchar.h:514: cannot convert `const wchar_t* __restrict' to
`const
</PRE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Upgrade your glibc to the latest release. On Mandrake, use 2.2.4-8mdk.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>... gcc 2.96 ... (Yes, some people are STILL flaming about their gcc 2.96!!)
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Quoted from a
<A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2001-October/005351.html">mail</A>
A'rpi sent to the
<A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
list (the word 'ideg' is described below):
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>And we have idegs. And our idegcounter overflowed again and again.</P>
<P>Unfortunately MPlayer is out of our control. It's used by lamers, Linux users
who can't even use Windows, and never tried to compile a kernel. They installed
(with default options) Mandrake or Red Hat or SuSE, and without RTFM'ing they
send messages saying 'it doesn't work! help me! please! i'm new to Linux!
help! oh! help me!'. We can't stop them, but at least we try to force them to
RTFM and to read the messages of ./configure and MPlayer.</P>
<P>And you clever guys come and flame us with gcc 2.96 and binary packages.
Instead of helping users or making patches to help solve problems.</P>
<P>Half of our spare/free time is spent by answering silly mails here and
making newer tricks and checks to configure to avoid such mails.</P>
<P>And there is a balance. On the one side are you, clever guys, saying we are
very bad because we don't like buggy gcc 2.96, and on the other side there are
the 'new to Linux' guys who are showing us gcc 2.96 is buggy.</P>
<P>Conclusion: We can't be good. Half the people always will say we are bad.</P>
<P>Maybe we should close the project, make it closed source, commercial, and
provide install support for it. then we could leave current work, so
development could go faster, and we could earn lots of money with it and buy a
big house, etc etc. Do you really want it? It seems.</P>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Where can I find information about gcc 2.96 bugs?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD><A HREF="users_against_developers.html#gcc">This</A>
document describes why Red Hat released 2.96 and other interesting things.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>SDL output doesn't work or compile. The problem is ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It was tested to work with SDL 1.2.x and may run on SDL 1.1.7+.
It does <B>not</B> work with any previous version. So if you choose to use such
a version, you are on your own.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I am still having trouble compiling with SDL support. gcc says something
about "undefined reference to `SDL_EnableKeyRepeat'". What now?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Where did you install the SDL library? If you installed in /usr/local
(the default) then edit the top level config.mak and add
"-L/usr/local/lib" after "X_LIBS=". Now type make. You're done!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>It doesn't compile, and it misses uint64_t inttypes.h and similar things ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Copy etc/inttypes.h to the <B>MPlayer</B> directory (<CODE>cp etc/inttypes.h .</CODE>)
and try again ...
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have Linux running on a Pentium III but <CODE>./configure</CODE> doesn't detect
SSE ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Only kernel versions 2.4.x support SSE (or try 2.2.19 or newer, but
be prepared for problems).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have a G200/G400, how do I compile/use the mga_vid driver?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Read the <A HREF="video.html#2.3.1.7">mga_vid documentation</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Are there rpm/deb/... packages of <B>MPlayer</B>?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You can make a .deb package for yourself, check the <A HREF="documentation.html#6.1">Debian packaging</A> section.
There are RPM packages available on our homepage, don't use other sources!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>During 'make', MPlayer complains about X11 libraries. I don't understand,
I DO have X installed!?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>... but you don't have the X development package installed. Or not
correctly. It's called XFree86-devel* under Red Hat, and xlib6g-dev* under
Debian. Also check if the <CODE>/usr/X11</CODE> and <CODE>/usr/include/X11</CODE>
symlinks exist (this can be a problem on Mandrake systems). They can be created
with these commands:<BR>
<CODE>$ ln -sf /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11</CODE><BR>
<CODE>$ ln -sf /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11</CODE><BR>
Your distribution may differ from the
<A HREF="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I can't compile SVGAlib. I'm using kernel 2.3/2.4 ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You have to edit SVGAlib's Makefile.cfg and comment <CODE>BACKGROUND = y</CODE> out.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I compiled MPlayer with libdvdcss/libdivxdecore support, but when
I try to start it, it says:<BR>
<CODE>> error while loading shared libraries: lib*.so.0: cannot load
shared object file: No such file or directory</CODE><BR>
I checked up on the file and it IS there in <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Add <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> to <CODE>/etc/ld.so.conf</CODE> and run <CODE>ldconfig</CODE>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Hmm, strange. When loading the mga_vid.o kernel module, I found this in the logs:<BR>
<CODE>Warning: loading mga_vid.o will taint the kernel: no license</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>The latest kernel modutils require a flag indicating the license (mainly
to avoid kernel hackers debugging closed source drivers).
Upgrade your kernel, modutils and <B>MPlayer</B>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When compiling <B>MEncoder</B>, it segfaults at linking!!!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This is a linker problem. Upgrading binutils should help (2.11.92.* or newer
should be good). Since it is not our fault, please do <B>not</B> report!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I'd like to compile <B>MPlayer</B> on Minix!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Me too. :)
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3><B><A NAME="5.2">5.2 General questions</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>The <CODE>-xy</CODE> or <CODE>-fs</CODE> option doesn't work with the x11 driver (<CODE>-vo x11</CODE>) ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It does, but you have to explicitly specify software scaling (it's SLOW!) with
the <CODE>-zoom</CODE> option. You better use XF86VidMode support:
you must specify the <CODE>-vm</CODE> and the <CODE>-fs</CODE> switch, and
you're done. Make sure you have the right modelines in your XF86Config file, and
try to make the <A HREF="video.html#2.3.1.3">DGA driver</A> and
<A HREF="video.html#2.3.1.4">SDL's DGA driver</A> work for you.
It's much faster. If SDL's DGA works, use that, it'll be EVEN faster!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What is the meaning of the numbers on the status line?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Example: <CODE>A: 2.1 V: 2.2 A-V: -0.167 ct: 0.042 57/57 41% 0% 2.6% 0 4 49%</CODE><BR>
<UL>
<LI>A: audio position in seconds
<LI>V: video position in seconds
<LI>A-V: audio-video difference in seconds (delay)
<LI>ct: total A-V sync correction done
<LI>frames played (counting from last seek)
<LI>frames decoded (counting from last seek)
<LI>video codec cpu usage in percent (for slices and DR this includes video_out)
<LI>video_out cpu usage
<LI>audio codec cpu usage in percent
<LI>frames needed to drop to maintain A-V sync
<LI>current level of image postprocessing (when using <CODE>-autoq</CODE>)
<LI>current cache size used (around 50% is normal)
</UL>
Most of them are for debug purposes and will be removed soon.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What if I don't want them to appear?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Use the <CODE>-quiet</CODE> option and read the man page.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Why is video_out cpu usage zero (0%) for some files?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It's not zero, but it's called from the codec and thus cannot be measured
separately. You should try to play the file using <CODE>-vo null</CODE> and then
<CODE>-vo ...</CODE> and check the difference to see the video_out speed.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>There are error messages about file not found <CODE>/usr/lib/win32/</CODE> ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Download the <A HREF="ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/w32codec-0.90.tar.bz2">Win32 codecs</A>
from <B>our</B> FTP site (avifile's codec package has a different DLL set) and
install it.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Are there any mailing lists on MPlayer?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Yes! See the bottom of the info page on
<A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/info.html">our homepage</A> to subscribe!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I've found a nasty bug when I tried to play my favorite video!!
Who should I inform?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Please read the <A HREF="bugreports.html">bug reporting guidelines</A> and follow
the instructions.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have problems playing files with the ... codec. Can I use them?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Check the <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html">codec status</A>,
if it doesn't contain your codec, read the
<A HREF="codecs.html#2.1.3">codec documentation</A>, especially the
<A HREF="codecs.html#2.2.3">codec importing HOWTO</A> and contact us.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Umm, what is "IdegCounter"?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>A combination of a Hungarian and an English word. "Ideg" in Hungarian means
the same as "nerve" in English, and is pronounced as something like "ydaegh".
It was first used to measure the nervousness of A'rpi, after some (umm) "mystic"
disappearance of CVS code ;)
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>And what is "Faszom(C)ounter"?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>"Fasz" is a Hungarian word you don't want to know, the others are connected to
the perverted minds of the MPlayer developers.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>LIRC doesn't work, because ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Are you sure you are using <CODE>mplayer</CODE> instead of <CODE>mplayer_lirc</CODE>?
Note that it was <CODE>mplayer_lirc</CODE> for long time, including the 0.60 release, but recently
changed back to <CODE>mplayer</CODE>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Subtitles are very nice, the most beautiful I've ever seen, but they slow
down playing! I know it's unlikely ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>After running <CODE>./configure</CODE> , edit <CODE>config.h</CODE> and replace
<CODE>#undef FAST_OSD</CODE> with <CODE>#define FAST_OSD</CODE>. Then recompile.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>The OSD is flickering!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You use a vo driver with single buffering (x11,xv). With xv,
use the <CODE>-double</CODE> option. Also try <CODE>-vop expand</CODE>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What exactly is this libavcodec thing?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>See the <A HREF="codecs.html#2.2.1.2">FFmpeg section</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>But configure tells me "Checking for libavcodec ... no"!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You need to get libavcodec from FFmpeg's CVS. Read the instructions in
the <A HREF="codecs.html#2.2.1.2">FFmpeg section</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Icewm's taskbar keeps covering the movie in fullscreen mode!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This shouldn't happen anymore, if it still does use the <CODE>-icelayer</CODE>
option and report it to the
<A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
mailing list.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I can't access the GUI menu. I press right click, but I can't access any
menu items!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Are you using FVWM? Try the following:<BR>
Start -> Settings -> Configuration -> Base Configuration<BR>
Set "Use Applications position hints" to "Yes".
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>How can I run MPlayer in the background?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Use: <CODE>mplayer <options> <filename> < /dev/null &</CODE>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3>
<B><A NAME="5.3">5.3 File playing problems</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>... works with avifile/aviplay but doesn't with MPlayer.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD><B>MPlayer</B> != avifile.
The only common thing between these players is the Win32 DLL loader.
The codecs (DLL) set, synchronization, demultiplexing etc is totally
different and shouldn't be compared.
If something works with aviplay it doesn't mean that <B>MPlayer</B> will work
and vice versa.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Audio goes out of sync playing a .avi file.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Try the <CODE>-bps</CODE> or <CODE>-nobps</CODE> option. If it does not improve,
read <A HREF="bugreports.html">this</A> and upload the file to FTP.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>MPlayer exits with some error when using l3codeca.acm.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Check <CODE>ldd /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE> output. If it contains<BR>
<CODE>libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4???????)</CODE><BR>
where "?" is any number then it's OK, the error is not here. If it is:<BR>
<CODE>libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00??????)</CODE><BR>
then there is a problem with your kernel/libc. Maybe you are using some
security patches (for example Solar Designer's OpenWall patch) which
forces loading libraries to very low addresses.
Because l3codeca.acm is a non-relocatable DLL, it must be loaded to
0x00400000, we can't change this. You should use a non-patched kernel,
or use <B>MPlayer</B>'s <CODE>-afm 1</CODE> option to disable using l3codeca.acm.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>My computer plays M$ DivX AVIs with resolutions ~ 640x300 and stereo mp3
sound too slow. When I use -nosound switch, everything is OK (but quiet).
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Your machine is too slow or your soundcard driver is broken. Consult the documentation to see if you can improve
performance.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>MPlayer dies with "MPlayer interrupted by signal 4 in module: decode_video".
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Try running <B>MPlayer</B> on the machine you compiled on. Or recompile. Don't
use <B>MPlayer</B> on a CPU different from the one it was compiled on.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have problems with [your window manager] and fullscreen xv/xmga/sdl/x11 modes ...
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Read the <A HREF="bugreports.html">bug reporting guidelines</A> and send us a
proper bug report.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>But it works with avifile!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>So what?
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Then avifile is better!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Then use avifile, it has a nice GUI and nice C++ code :)
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I got this playing mpeg files: Can't find codec for video format 0x10000001!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You have an old version of codecs.conf at <CODE>~/.mplayer/</CODE>. Upgrade it
from <CODE>/etc/</CODE>.<BR>
<B>OR</B> you have the <CODE>vc=</CODE> option or something similar in your
config file(s).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When starting MPlayer under KDE I just get a black screen and nothing happens.
After about one minute the video starts playing.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>The KDE arts sound daemon is blocking the sound device. Either wait until the
video starts or disable the arts-daemon in kontrol center. If you want
to use arts sound, specify audio output via our native arts audio driver
(<CODE>-ao arts</CODE>). If it fails or isn't compiled in, try SDL
(<CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>) and make sure your SDL can handle arts sound. Yet
another option is to start <B>MPlayer</B> with artsdsp.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have an AVI that produces a gray screen when played with <CODE>-vc odivx</CODE>
and a green one with <CODE>-vc divx4</CODE>.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It's not a DivX file, but an M$ MPEG4v3 . Update your codecs.conf.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When I play this movie I get video-audio desync and/or MPlayer crashes with the following message:<BR>
<CODE>DEMUXER: Too many (945 in 8390980 bytes) video packets in the buffer!</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This can have multiple reasons.<BR>
<UL>
<LI>Your CPU <B>and/or</B> video card <B>and/or</B> bus is too SLOW. <B>MPlayer</B>
displays a message if this is the case (and the dropped frames counter goes up fast).</LI>
<LI>If it is an AVI, maybe it has bad interleaving. Try the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option.</LI>
<LI>Your sound driver is buggy, or you use ALSA 0.5 with <CODE>-ao oss</CODE>.
See the <A HREF="sound.html">sound card section</A>.</LI>
<LI>The AVI has a bad header, try the <CODE>-nobps</CODE> option, and/or
<CODE>-mc 0</CODE>.</LI>
</UL>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have an MJPEG file which works with other players but displays only a black
image in MPlayer.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Disable the Windows DLL in <CODE>codecs.conf</CODE>, or use the
<CODE>-vc ffmjpeg</CODE> option (compile MPlayer with libavcodec for this to work).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When I try to grab from my tuner, it works, but colors are strange. It's OK
with other applications.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Your card probably misreports its colorspace capacity. Try with YUY2 instead
of default YV12 (see the <A HREF="documentation.html#2.5">TV input documentation</A>).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When I start playing, I get this message but everything seems fine:<BR>
<CODE>Linux RTC init: ioctl (rtc_pie_on): Permission denied</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You need root privileges to use the new timing code. For details see the
<A HREF="documentation.html#1.3">installation section</A> of the documentation.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have A/V sync problems. Some of my AVIs play fine, but some play with
double speed!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You have a buggy sound card/driver. Most likely it's fixed at 44100Hz, and
you try to play a file which has 22050Hz audio. Try the resample audio plugin.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>All the WMV (or other..) files I play create a green/gray window and there is
only sound! MPlayer prints:<BR>
<CODE>Detected video codec: [null] drv:0 (NULL codec (no decoding))</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Update your <CODE>codecs.conf</CODE>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I get very strange percentage values (way too big) while playing files on my notebook.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It's an effect of the power management / power saving system of your notebook
(BIOS, not kernel). Plug the external power connector in <B>before</B> you power on your
notebook.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>The audio/video gets totally out of sync when I run MPlayer as root on my notebook.
It works normal when i run it as a user.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This is again a power management effect (see above). Plug the external power
connector in <B>before</B> you power on your notebook or use the
<CODE>-nortc</CODE> switch.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3>
<B><A NAME="5.4">5.4 Video/audio driver problems (vo/ao)</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What about the DGA driver? I can't find it!!!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD><CODE>./configure</CODE> autodetects your DGA driver. If <CODE>-vo help</CODE> doesn't show
DGA, then there's a problem with your X installation.
Try <CODE>./configure --enable-dga</CODE> and read the
<A HREF="video.html#2.3.1.3">documentation</A>.
Alternatively, try SDL's DGA driver with the <CODE>-vo sdl:dga</CODE> option.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>OK, <CODE>-vo help</CODE> shows DGA driver, but it complains about permissions!
Help me!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>It works only if running as root! It's a DGA limitation.
You should become root (<CODE>su -</CODE>), and try again.
Another solution is making <B>MPlayer</B> SUID root, but it's <B>NOT RECOMMENDED!</B><BR>
<CODE>chown root /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
<CODE>chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
<CODE>chmod +s /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
<B>!!!! BUT STAY TUNED !!!!</B><BR>
This is a *BIG* security risk! *NEVER* do this on a server or on a computer
that you do not control completely because other users can gain root
privileges through SUID root MPlayer!!!<BR>
<B>!!!! SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ... !!!!</B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When using Xvideo, my Voodoo 3/Banshee says:<BR>
<CODE>X Error of failed request: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied)<BR>
Major opcode of failed request: 147 (MIT-SHM)<BR>
Minor opcode of failed request: 1 (X_ShmAttach)<BR>
Serial number of failed request: 26<BR>
Current serial number in output stream:27</CODE><BR>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>The "tdfx" driver in XFree86 4.0.2/4.0.3 had this bug. This was solved by
<A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/changes_4_1.html">bugfix #621 of the XFree86 4.1.0 CVS log</A>.
So upgrade to XFree86 4.1.0 or later. Alternatively, either download (at least)
DRI version 0.6 from the <A HREF="http://dri.sourceforge.net">DRI homepage</A>,
or use CVS DRI.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>OpenGL (<CODE>-vo gl</CODE>) output doesn't work (hang/black window/X11 errors/...).
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Your OpenGL driver doesn't support dynamic texture changes (glTexSubImage).
It's known not to work with nVidia's binary mess.
It's known to work with Utah-GLX/DRI and Matrox G400 cards. Also with
DRI and Radeon cards. It won't work with DRI and other cards.
it will not work with 3DFX cards because of the 256x256 texture size limit.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have an nVidia TNT/TNT2 card, and I have a band with strange colors,
right under the movie! Whose fault is this?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This is a bug of nVidia's binary X driver. These bugs appear ONLY with the
TNT/TNT2 cards, and we can't do anything about it. To fix the problem, upgrade
to the latest nVidia binary driver version. If still bad, complain to nVidia!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I have an nVidia XYZ card, and when I click on the GUI's display window to toggle
displaying the GUI panel, a black square appears where I clicked. I have
the newest driver.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Yes, nVidia corrected a previous bug (above), and introduced a new one. Let's
congratulate them. UPDATE: According to
<A HREF="users_against_developers.html#nvidia">nVidia</A>, this has already been
fixed.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>When I use the GUI with SDL video output, a second video window is created.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Known, don't use SDL for the GUI yet.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Oh the world is cruel ...! SDL has only <CODE>x11</CODE> target, but not
<CODE>xv</CODE>!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Try that <CODE>x11</CODE> target again. Now try <CODE>-vo x11 -fs -zoom</CODE>.
See the difference? No?! OK, here comes the enlightenment: SDL's
<CODE>x11</CODE> target uses xv when available, you don't have to worry about
it ... Note: you can force/disable Xv via SDL using <CODE>-forcexv</CODE> and <CODE>-noxv</CODE>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN="3">
<B><A NAME="5.5">5.5 DVD playback</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
While playing a DVD, I encountered this error:<BR>
<CODE>mplayer: ifo_read.c:1143: ifoRead_C_ADT_internal: Assertion nfo_length /
sizeof(cell_adr_t) >= c_adt->nr_of_vobs' failed.</CODE>
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
This is a known libdvdread 0.9.1/0.9.2 bug.
Use libmpdvdkit.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
Can I compile libdvdread and libdvdcss on my sweet SPARC under Solaris?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
Who knows ... It's said to work, so please test it and send feedback. Refer to
the documentation of libdvdread and its homepage as well. We're not the authors
of libdvdread.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
What about subtitles? Can MPlayer display them?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
Yes! See the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html">DVD chapter</A> of the documentation.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
How can I set the region code of my DVD-drive? I don't have Windows!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
Use the
<A HREF="http://www.linuxtv.org/download/dvd/dvd_disc_20000215.tar.gz">regionset tool</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
Do I need to be (setuid) root/setuid fibmap_mplayer to be able to play a DVD?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
No, only for old-style DVD support. However you must have
the proper rights on the DVD device entry (in <CODE>/dev/</CODE>).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
Where can I get libdvdread and libdvdcss packages?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
From the
<A HREF="http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd">Ogle site</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
Is it possible to play/encode only selected chapters?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
Yes, try the <CODE>-chapter</CODE> option.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>
My DVD playback is sluggish!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>
Use the <CODE>-cache</CODE> option (described in the man page)
and try enabling DMA for the DVD drive with the hdparm tool (described in the
<A HREF="cd-dvd.html">DVD chapter</A> of the documentation).
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3>
<B><A NAME="5.6">5.6 Feature requests</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I'd like to seek +/- 1 frames instead of 10 seconds.
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>This won't be done. It was, but then it messed up A/V sync. Feel free to
implement it, and send a patch. Don't ask for it.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> Where is the Windows version?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD> It's not released, and won't be. Look around the Windows scene (open source
ASF parsers, open source ASF encoders, etc) and you'll know why. We don't
want to go to jail.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>What card do you suggest me to buy?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A0:</TD><TD>It's for your information only but our criteria are:
</TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A1:</TD><TD>Speed:<BR>
This parameter can be computed easily:
<OL>
<LI>Which movies do you plan to watch?
<UL>
<LI><B>MPEG1:</B> 320x200@32=256000<BR>
You need only 256*25fps=6.4MB/sec of bandwidth (This format can be played
in real-time on any PC since the times of Pentium-100 + S3Virge).</LI>
<LI><B>MPEG4:</B> 640x480@32=1228800<BR>
You need a video bandwidth of 1.2*25fps=30MB/sec. To watch such a movie
in real-time you need a PC equivalent to a Celeron-450 and a DIMM based
video card.</LI>
<LI><B>MPEG2 (aka DVD or SDTV):</B> 1024x768@32=3145728<BR>
You need a video bandwidth of 3*30fps=90MB/sec. In extreme cases (if your
video card supports IDCT decoding) the hardware requirements are the same
as for MPEG4.</LI>
<LI><B>HDTV (High Definition TeleVision):</B> 2000x2000@32=16000000<BR>
You need a video bandwidth of 16*30fps=480MB/sec. You also need at least
32MB of video memory to watch this stream: 16MB for the RGB area and 16MB
for the YUV area.</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI>The bandwidth of PCI slots is: 33MHz*32Bit=133MB/sec. PCI2.1 has
66MHz*32Bit=266MB/sec which is more than enough for playing any movie (except
HDTV streams which really require an AGP bus).</LI>
<LI>What memory type should be installed on the video card:
<UL>
<LI><B>SIMM</B> - Avoid that.</LI>
<LI><B>DIMM</B> - Good if your video card has 128-bit memory access.</LI>
<LI><B>DDR</B> - Is fast enough for all types.</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</OL>
Note: DGA comparison shows that there is no visible difference between video
cards which have the same type of video memory installed.<BR>
<B>Conclusion:</B> If you have enough CPU power (Celeron-450 or K6-2-500) it
should be enough to buy any video card which has at least 8MB of DIMM or DDR
memory.
</TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A2:</TD><TD>Quality:<BR>
This question was investigated in depth at:
<BR><A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1332&rndr=04132002115140">
AnandTech</a> - Video Card Roundup - DVD Quality, Features & Performance
(October 2000)
</TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A3:</TD><TD><B>Working</B> features under Linux:<BR>
If you are a Win32 user then probably you have support (from driver and DirectX8
side) for any feature your chip has.<BR>
But for <B>Linux</B> users there are currently only a few vendors which have more
or less advanced driver support:<BR><BR>
<TABLE BORDER=1 WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD>
<CENTER>Matrox Gxxx</CENTER>
</TD>
<TD>
<CENTER>ATI m64/r128/radeon</CENTER>
</TD>
<TD>
<CENTER>nVidia tnt/geforce</CENTER>
</TD>
<TD>
<CENTER>S3 Virge/Savage</CENTER>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Driver's provider</TD>
<TD>OEM and enthusiasts</TD>
<TD>OEM and enthusiasts</TD>
<TD>OEM or enthusiasts</TD>
<TD>enthusiasts</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Driver's quality</TD>
<TD>best (X11,kernel)</TD>
<TD>best (X11,GATOS,kernel)</TD>
<TD>buggy/unstable (X11 only)</TD>
<TD>slow (X11 only)</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>VIDEO OVERLAY</TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD></TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>BES and YV2RGB</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>scaling filters</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>adaptive deinterlace</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Video equalizer (hue, contrast, saturation, color correction)</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>GeForce only</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Alpha blending, color and video keys</TD>
<TD>PARTIAL</TD>
<TD>PARTIAL (under development)</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Video capture</TD>
<TD>YES (Marvel)</TD>
<TD>YES (GATOS)</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>TV-out</TD>
<TD>G400 only</TD>
<TD>YES</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
<TD>N/A</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<P>It's a very rough overview of video cards. We should pay attention to video
card models. If for example Matrox G400 drivers support TV-out then G450 and
G550 do not necessarily have this feature.<BR>
Another example: Adaptive deinterlacing exists only for the Rage128 chip and
isn't present on Mach64+ ones. The same goes for 3D features. They are different
from Mach64 to the Radeon 8500 with TRUFORM technology.</P>
<P><B>ANYWAY - THE MPLAYER TEAM DOESN'T ACCEPT ANY CLAIMS IF AFTER READING THIS
MATERIAL YOU BUY A CARD WHICH IS UNSATISFACTORY FOR YOU!!! THIS IS ONLY OUR
POINT OF VIEW.</B></P>
<P><B>Q:</B> If a PCI slot is fast enough for most types of movies then why is
the S3 Virge too slow for them?<BR>
<B>A:</B> Due to its SIMM memory.</P>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD COLSPAN=3>
<B><A NAME="5.7">5.7 Encoding</A></B>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>How can I encode?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Read the <B>MEncoder</B> <A HREF="encoding.html">documentation</A>.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>My tuner works, I can hear the sound and watch the video with MPlayer, but
MEncoder doesn't encode audio!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>TV audio encoding for Linux is currently unimplemented, we're working on it.
At the moment it works only on BSD.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I can't encode DVD subtitles into the AVI!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>You have to specify the <CODE>-sid</CODE> option correctly!
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>MEncoder segfaults on startup!
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Upgrade DivX4Linux.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>How can I encode only selected chapters from a DVD?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Use the <CODE>-chapter</CODE> option correctly, like: <CODE>-chapter 5-7</CODE>
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>I'm trying to work with 2GB+ files on a VFAT file system. Does it work?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>No, VFAT doesn't support 2GB+ files.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B>Why is the recommended bitrate printed by MEncoder negative?
</B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top>A:</TD><TD>Because the bitrate you encoded the audio with is too large to fit the
movie on any CD. Check if you have libmp3lame installed properly.
</TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>
|