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1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
2 <HTML>
3
4 <HEAD>
5 <TITLE>FAQ - MPlayer - The Movie Player for Linux</TITLE>
6 <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="default.css">
7 <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
8 <STYLE TYPE="text/css">
9 dt {
10 font-weight : bold;
11 }
12 </STYLE>
13 </HEAD>
14
15 <BODY>
16
17
18 <H1><A NAME="faq">5. FAQ</A></H1>
19
20 <UL>
21 <LI><A HREF="#compilation">5.1 Compilation</A></LI>
22 <LI><A HREF="#general">5.2 General questions</A></LI>
23 <LI><A HREF="#playback">5.3 Playback problems</A></LI>
24 <LI><A HREF="#driver">5.4 Video/audio driver problems (vo/ao)</A></LI>
25 <LI><A HREF="#dvd">5.5 DVD playback</A></LI>
26 <LI><A HREF="#features">5.6 Feature requests</A></LI>
27 <LI><A HREF="#encoding">5.7 Encoding</A></LI>
28 </UL>
29
30
31 <H2><A NAME="compilation">5.1 Compilation</A></H2>
32
33 <DL>
34
35 <DT>Q: Compilation stops with an error message similar to this one:
36 <PRE>
37 In file included from mplayer.c:34:
38 mw.h: In function `mplMainDraw':
39 mw.h:209: Internal compiler error in print_rtl_and_abort, at flow.c:6458
40 Please submit a full bug report,
41 with preprocessed source if appropriate.
42 </PRE>
43 </DT>
44 <DD>A: This is a known problem of gcc 3.0.4, upgrade to 3.1 to solve the
45 problem. How to install gcc is described in the
46 <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#gcc">gcc 2.96</A> section.</DD>
47 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
48
49 <DT>Q: Configure ends with this text, and MPlayer won't compile!<BR>
50 <CODE>"Your gcc does not support even i386 for '-march' and '-mcpu'."</CODE>
51 </DT>
52 <DD>A: Your gcc isn't installed correctly, check the <CODE>config.log</CODE>
53 file for details.</DD>
54 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
55
56 <DT>Q: What does "No such file or directory" mean?</DT>
57 <DD>A: Probably there is no such file or directory.</DD>
58 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
59
60 <DT>Q: What's the problem with gcc 2.96?</DT>
61 <DD>A: <B>We strongly discourage the use of gcc 2.96!</B><BR>
62 Read <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#gcc">this</A> document for
63 details about why Red Hat released gcc 2.96 and what the problems are all
64 about. If you still really really want to use it, be sure to get the latest
65 release and give the <CODE>--disable-gcc-checking</CODE> option to
66 configure. Remember that you are on your own from this point. Do <B>not</B>
67 report bugs, do <B>not</B> ask for help on the mailing lists. We will
68 <B>not</B> provide any support in case you run into problems.</DD>
69 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
70
71 <DT>Q: Great, I have gcc 3.0.1 from Red Hat/Mandrake, then I'm fine!</DT>
72 <DD>A: No, since there have been/are issues with these compilers as well.
73 To check the status of current compilers' MPlayer support, see the
74 <A HREF="documentation.html#installation">Installation</A> section.</DD>
75 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
76
77 <DT>Q: I tried to compile MPlayer, but I got this output:
78 <PRE>
79 In file included from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/std_cwchar.h:42,
80 from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/fpos.h:40,
81 from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/char_traits.h:40,
82 from /usr/include/g++-v3/bits/std_string.h:41,
83 from /usr/include/g++-v3/string:31,
84 from libwin32.h:36,
85 from DS_AudioDecoder.h:4,
86 from DS_AudioDec.cpp:5:
87 /usr/include/wchar.h: In function Long long int wcstoq(const wchar_t*,
88 wchar_t**, int)':
89 /usr/include/wchar.h:514: cannot convert `const wchar_t* __restrict' to
90 `const
91 </PRE>
92 </DT>
93 <DD>A: Upgrade your glibc to the latest release. On Mandrake, use 2.2.4-8mdk.</DD>
94 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
95
96 <DT>Q: ... gcc 2.96 ... (Yes, some people are STILL flaming about gcc 2.96!)</DT>
97 <DD>A: Quoted from a
98 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2001-October/005351.html">mail</A>
99 A'rpi sent to the
100 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
101 list (the word 'ideg' is described below):
102 <BLOCKQUOTE>
103 <P>And we have idegs. And our idegcounter overflowed again and again.</P>
104
105 <P>Unfortunately MPlayer is out of our control. It's used by lamers, Linux
106 users who can't even use Windows, and never tried to compile a kernel. They
107 installed (with default options) Mandrake or Red Hat or SuSE, and without
108 RTFM'ing they send messages saying 'it doesn't work! help me! please! i'm
109 new to Linux! help! oh! help me!'. We can't stop them, but at least we try
110 to force them to RTFM and to read the messages of ./configure and MPlayer.</P>
111
112 <P>And you clever guys come and flame us with gcc 2.96 and binary packages.
113 Instead of helping users or making patches to help solve problems.</P>
114
115 <P>Half of our spare/free time is spent by answering silly mails here and
116 making newer tricks and checks to configure to avoid such mails.</P>
117
118 <P>And there is a balance. On the one side are you, clever guys, saying we
119 are very bad because we don't like buggy gcc 2.96, and on the other side
120 there are the 'new to Linux' guys who are showing us gcc 2.96 is buggy.</P>
121
122 <P>Conclusion: We can't be good. Half the people will always say we are bad.</P>
123
124 <P>Maybe we should close the project, make it closed source, commercial, and
125 provide install support for it. then we could leave current work, so
126 development could go faster, and we could earn lots of money with it and buy
127 a big house, etc etc. Do you really want it? It seems.</P>
128 </BLOCKQUOTE>
129 </DD>
130 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
131
132 <DT>Q: SDL output doesn't work or compile. The problem is ...</DT>
133 <DD>A: It was tested to work with SDL 1.2.x and may run on SDL 1.1.7+.
134 It does <B>not</B> work with any previous version. So if you choose to use
135 such a version, you are on your own.</DD>
136 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
137
138 <DT>Q: I am still having trouble compiling with SDL support. gcc says
139 something about "undefined reference to `SDL_EnableKeyRepeat'". What
140 now?</DT>
141 <DD>A: Where did you install the SDL library? If you installed in /usr/local
142 (the default) then edit the top level config.mak and add
143 "-L/usr/local/lib" after "X_LIBS=". Now type make. You're done!</DD>
144 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
145
146 <DT>Q: It doesn't compile, and it misses uint64_t inttypes.h and similar
147 things ...</DT>
148 <DD>A: Copy etc/inttypes.h to the MPlayer directory
149 (<CODE>cp etc/inttypes.h .</CODE>) and try again ...</DD>
150 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
151
152 <DT>Q: I have Linux running on a Pentium III but <CODE>./configure</CODE>
153 doesn't detect SSE ...</DT>
154 <DD>A: Only kernel versions 2.4.x support SSE (or try 2.2.19 or newer, but
155 be prepared for problems).</DD>
156 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
157
158 <DT>Q: I have a G200/G400, how do I compile/use the mga_vid driver?</DT>
159 <DD>A: Read the <A HREF="video.html#mga_vid">mga_vid documentation</A>.</DD>
160 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
161
162 <DT>Q: Are there rpm/deb/... packages of MPlayer?</DT>
163 <DD>A: You can make a .deb package for yourself, check the
164 <A HREF="documentation.html#debian">Debian packaging</A> section.
165 There are links to official Red Hat RPM packages available on our
166 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html">download page</A>.</DD>
167 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
168
169 <DT>Q: During 'make', MPlayer complains about X11 libraries. I don't
170 understand, I DO have X installed!?</DT>
171 <DD>A: ... but you don't have the X development package installed. Or not
172 correctly. It's called XFree86-devel* under Red Hat, and xlibs-dev under
173 Debian. Also check if the <CODE>/usr/X11</CODE> and <CODE>/usr/include/X11</CODE>
174 symlinks exist (this can be a problem on Mandrake systems). They can be
175 created with these commands:<BR>
176 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>$ ln -sf /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11</CODE><BR>
177 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>$ ln -sf /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11</CODE><BR>
178 Your distribution may differ from the
179 <A HREF="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/">Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</A>.</DD>
180 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
181
182 <DT>Q: I can't compile SVGAlib. I'm using kernel 2.3/2.4 ...</DT>
183 <DD>A: You have to edit SVGAlib's Makefile.cfg and comment
184 <CODE>BACKGROUND = y</CODE> out.</DD>
185 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
186
187 <DT>Q: I compiled MPlayer with libdvdcss/libdivxdecore support, but when
188 I try to start it, it says:<BR>
189 <CODE>&gt; error while loading shared libraries: lib*.so.0: cannot load
190 shared object file: No such file or directory</CODE><BR>
191 I checked up on the file and it IS there in <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> ...</DT>
192 <DD>A: Add <CODE>/usr/local/lib</CODE> to <CODE>/etc/ld.so.conf</CODE> and run
193 <CODE>ldconfig</CODE>.</DD>
194 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
195
196 <DT>Q: Hmm, strange. When loading the mga_vid.o kernel module, I found this in
197 the logs:<BR>
198 <CODE>Warning: loading mga_vid.o will taint the kernel: no license</CODE></DT>
199 <DD>A: The latest kernel modutils require a flag indicating the license
200 (mainly to avoid kernel hackers debugging closed source drivers).
201 Upgrade your kernel, modutils and MPlayer.</DD>
202 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
203
204 <DT>Q: When compiling MEncoder, it segfaults at linking!</DT>
205 <DD>A: This is a linker problem. Upgrading binutils should help (2.11.92.*
206 or newer should be good). Since it is not our fault, please do <B>not</B>
207 report!</DD>
208 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
209
210 <DT>Q: MPlayer dies with segmentation fault upon pthread check!</DT>
211 <DD>A: chmod 644 /usr/lib/libc.so</DD>
212 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
213
214 <DT>Q: I'd like to compile MPlayer on Minix!</DT>
215 <DD>A: Me too. :)</DD>
216
217 </DL>
218
219
220 <H2><A NAME="general">5.2 General questions</A></H2>
221
222 <DL>
223
224 <DT>Q: How do I create a proper patch for MPlayer?</DT>
225 <DD>A: We made a <A HREF="tech/patches.txt">short document</A> describing
226 all the necessary details. Please follow the instructions.</DD>
227 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
228
229 <DT>Q: How can I support MPlayer development?</DT>
230 <DD>A: We are more than happy to accept your hardware and software
231 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/donations.html">donations</A>.
232 They help us in continuously improving MPlayer.</DD>
233 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
234
235 <DT>Q: How can I become an MPlayer developer?</DT>
236 <DD>A: We always welcome coders and documenters. Read the
237 <A HREF="tech/">technical documentation</A> to get a first grasp. Then you
238 should subscribe to the
239 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-dev-eng">mplayer-dev-eng</A>
240 mailing list and start coding.</DD>
241 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
242
243 <DT>Q: Can I run multiple instances of MPlayer?</DT>
244 <DD>A: Yes. Some video out drivers like xv, dga or (x)mga are exclusive, some
245 are exclusive in combination with certain graphics boards and drivers. You
246 will not be able to run more than one instance of MPlayer with one of those
247 video out drivers. To a lesser degree this also applies to audio drivers.
248 Not all allow playback of multiple streams on the same device.</DD>
249 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
250
251 <DT>Q: There is a timer in the upper left corner. How can I get rid of it?</DT>
252 <DD>A: Press <CODE>o</CODE> and try the <CODE>-osdlevel</CODE> option.</DD>
253 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
254
255 <DT>Q: The <CODE>-xy</CODE> or <CODE>-fs</CODE> option doesn't work with the
256 x11 driver (<CODE>-vo x11</CODE>) ...</DT>
257 <DD>A: It does, but you have to explicitly specify software scaling (very
258 slow) with the <CODE>-zoom</CODE> option. You better use XF86VidMode
259 support: You must specify the <CODE>-vm</CODE> and the <CODE>-fs</CODE>
260 option, and you're done. Make sure you have the right modelines in your
261 XF86Config file, and try to make the <A HREF="video.html#dga">DGA driver</A>
262 and <A HREF="video.html#sdl">SDL's DGA driver</A> work for you.
263 It's much faster. If SDL's DGA works, use that, it'll be even faster.</DD>
264 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
265
266 <DT>Q: What is the meaning of the numbers on the status line?</DT>
267 <DD>A: Example:
268 <CODE>A: 2.1 V: 2.2 A-V: -0.167 ct: 0.042 57/57 41% 0% 2.6% 0 4 49%</CODE>
269 <UL>
270 <LI>A: audio position in seconds</LI>
271 <LI>V: video position in seconds</LI>
272 <LI>A-V: audio-video difference in seconds (delay)</LI>
273 <LI>ct: total A-V sync correction done</LI>
274 <LI>frames played (counting from last seek)</LI>
275 <LI>frames decoded (counting from last seek)</LI>
276 <LI>video codec cpu usage in percent (for slices and DR this includes
277 video_out)</LI>
278 <LI>video_out cpu usage</LI>
279 <LI>audio codec cpu usage in percent</LI>
280 <LI>frames needed to drop to maintain A-V sync</LI>
281 <LI>current level of image postprocessing (when using <CODE>-autoq</CODE>)</LI>
282 <LI>current cache size used (around 50% is normal)</LI>
283 </UL>
284 Most of them are for debug purposes and will be removed at some point.</DD>
285 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
286
287 <DT>Q: What if I don't want them to appear?</DT>
288 <DD>A: Use the <CODE>-quiet</CODE> option and read the man page.</DD>
289 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
290
291 <DT>Q: Why is video_out cpu usage zero (0%) for some files?</DT>
292 <DD>A1: It's not zero, but it's called from the codec and thus cannot be
293 measured separately. You should try to play the file using
294 <CODE>-vo null</CODE> and then <CODE>-vo ...</CODE> and check the
295 difference to see the video_out speed.</DD>
296 <DD>A2: You are using Direct Rendering,
297 where the codec renders to the video memory itself. In this case, the
298 decoding percentage contains the display percentage, too.</DD>
299 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
300
301 <DT>Q: There are error messages about file not found
302 <CODE>/usr/lib/win32/</CODE> ...</DT>
303 <DD>A: Download the Win32 codecs from our
304 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/">codecs page</A>
305 (avifile's codec package has a different DLL set) and install it.</DD>
306 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
307
308 <DT>Q: Are there any mailing lists on MPlayer?</DT>
309 <DD>A: Yes. See the bottom of the info page on
310 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/info.html">our homepage</A> to
311 subscribe.</DD>
312 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
313
314 <DT>Q: I've found a nasty bug when I tried to play my favorite video!
315 Who should I inform?</DT>
316 <DD>A: Please read the <A HREF="bugreports.html">bug reporting guidelines</A>
317 and follow the instructions.</DD>
318 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
319
320 <DT>Q: I have problems playing files with the ... codec. Can I use them?</DT>
321 <DD>A: Check the
322 <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html">codec status</A>,
323 if it doesn't contain your codec, read the
324 <A HREF="codecs.html">codec documentation</A>, especially the
325 <A HREF="codecs.html#importing">codec importing HOWTO</A> and contact us.</DD>
326 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
327
328 <DT>Q: Umm, what is "IdegCounter"?</DT>
329 <DD>A: A combination of a Hungarian and an English word. "Ideg" in Hungarian
330 means the same as "nerve" in English, and is pronounced as something like
331 "ydaegh". It was first used to measure the nervousness of A'rpi, after some
332 (umm) "mysterious" disappearance of CVS code ;)</DD>
333 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
334
335 <DT>Q: And what is "Faszom(C)ounter"?</DT>
336 <DD>A: "Fasz" is a Hungarian word you don't want to know, the others are
337 connected to the perverted minds of the MPlayer developers.</DD>
338 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
339
340 <DT>Q: LIRC doesn't work, because ...</DT>
341 <DD>A: Are you sure you are using <CODE>mplayer</CODE> instead of
342 <CODE>mplayer_lirc</CODE>? Note that it was <CODE>mplayer_lirc</CODE> for a
343 long time, including the 0.60 release, but it was recently changed back to
344 <CODE>mplayer</CODE>.</DD>
345 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
346
347 <DT>Q: Subtitles are very nice, the most beautiful I've ever seen, but they
348 slow down playing! I know it's unlikely ...</DT>
349 <DD>A: After running <CODE>./configure</CODE>, edit <CODE>config.h</CODE> and
350 replace <CODE>#undef FAST_OSD</CODE> with <CODE>#define FAST_OSD</CODE>.
351 Then recompile.</DD>
352 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
353
354 <DT>Q: The onscreen display (OSD) is flickering!</DT>
355 <DD>A: You use a vo driver with single buffering (x11,xv). With xv,
356 use the <CODE>-double</CODE> option. Also try <CODE>-vop expand</CODE></DD>
357 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
358
359 <DT>Q: What exactly is this libavcodec thing?</DT>
360 <DD>A: See the <A HREF="codecs.html#libavcodec">libavcodec section</A>.</DD>
361 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
362
363 <DT>Q: But configure tells me "Checking for libavcodec ... no"!</DT>
364 <DD>A: You need to get libavcodec from FFmpeg's CVS. Read the instructions in
365 the <A HREF="codecs.html#libavcodec">libavcodec section</A>.</DD>
366 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
367
368 <DT>Q: Icewm's taskbar keeps covering the movie in fullscreen mode!</DT>
369 <DD>A: This shouldn't happen anymore, if it still does use the
370 <CODE>-fstype layer</CODE> option and report it to the
371 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
372 mailing list.</DD>
373 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
374
375 <DT>Q: I can't access the GUI menu. I press right click, but I can't access
376 any menu items!</DT>
377 <DD>A: Are you using FVWM? Try the following:<BR>
378 Start -&gt; Settings -&gt; Configuration -&gt; Base Configuration<BR>
379 Set "Use Applications position hints" to "Yes".</DD>
380 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
381
382 <DT>Q: How can I run MPlayer in the background?</DT>
383 <DD>A: Use: <CODE>mplayer &lt;options&gt; &lt;filename&gt; &lt; /dev/null &amp;</CODE></DD>
384
385 </DL>
386
387
388 <H2><A NAME="playback">5.3 Playback problems</A></H2>
389
390 <DL>
391
392 <DT>Q: I can play certain AVIs but I get no sound and this kind of error:
393 <PRE>
394 Detected audio codec: [divx] afm:4 (DivX audio (WMA))
395 Requested audio codec family [divx] (afm=4) not available (enable it at
396 compile time!)
397 </PRE>
398 </DT>
399 <DD>A: Probably the audio uses a codec not natively supported by
400 MPlayer. Install the Win32 codec package as described in the README
401 or in the <A HREF="documentation.html#installation">Installation</A> section.</DD>
402 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
403
404 <DT>Q: ... works with avifile/aviplay but doesn't with MPlayer.</DT>
405 <DD>A: MPlayer is not avifile.
406 The only common thing between these players is the Win32 DLL loader.
407 The codecs (DLL) set, synchronization, demultiplexing etc is totally
408 different and shouldn't be compared.
409 If something works with aviplay it doesn't mean that MPlayer will
410 work and vice versa.</DD>
411 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
412
413 <DT>Q: Audio goes out of sync playing an AVI file.</DT>
414 <DD>A: Try the <CODE>-bps</CODE> or <CODE>-nobps</CODE> option. If it does not
415 improve, read <A HREF="bugreports.html">this</A> and upload the file to FTP.</DD>
416 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
417
418 <DT>Q: MPlayer exits with some error when using l3codeca.acm.</DT>
419 <DD>A: Check <CODE>ldd /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE> output. If it contains<BR>
420 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>libc.so.6 =&gt; /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4???????)</CODE><BR>
421 where "?" is any number then it's OK, the error is not here. If it is:<BR>
422 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>libc.so.6 =&gt; /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00??????)</CODE><BR>
423 then there is a problem with your kernel/libc. Maybe you are using some
424 security patches (for example Solar Designer's OpenWall patch) which
425 forces loading libraries to very low addresses.
426 Because l3codeca.acm is a non-relocatable DLL, it must be loaded to
427 0x00400000, we can't change this. You should use a non-patched kernel,
428 or use MPlayer's <CODE>-afm 1</CODE> option to disable using
429 l3codeca.acm.</DD>
430 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
431
432 <DT>Q: My computer plays M$ DivX AVIs with resolutions ~ 640x300 and stereo
433 mp3 sound too slow. When I use -nosound option, everything is OK (but
434 quiet).</DT>
435 <DD>A: Your machine is too slow or your soundcard driver is broken. Consult
436 the documentation to see if you can improve performance.</DD>
437 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
438
439 <DT>Q: MPlayer dies with "MPlayer interrupted by signal 4 in module:
440 decode_video".</DT>
441 <DD>A: Try running MPlayer on the machine you compiled on. Or recompile
442 with runtime CPU detection
443 (<CODE>./configure --enable-runtime-cpudetection</CODE>). Don't
444 use MPlayer on a CPU different from the one it was compiled on,
445 without using the feature mentioned just now.</DD>
446 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
447
448 <DT>Q: I have problems with [your window manager] and fullscreen
449 xv/xmga/sdl/x11 modes ...</DT>
450 <DD>A: Read the <A HREF="bugreports.html">bug reporting guidelines</A> and
451 send us a proper bug report.</DD>
452 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
453
454 <DT>Q: I got this playing MPEG files: Can't find codec for video format
455 0x10000001!</DT>
456 <DD>A: You have an old version of codecs.conf at <CODE>~/.mplayer/</CODE>.
457 Upgrade it from <CODE>/etc/</CODE>.<BR>
458 <B>OR</B> you have the <CODE>vc=</CODE> option or something similar in your
459 config file(s).</DD>
460 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
461
462 <DT>Q: When starting MPlayer under KDE I just get a black screen and nothing
463 happens. After about one minute the video starts playing.</DT>
464 <DD>A: The KDE arts sound daemon is blocking the sound device. Either wait
465 until the video starts or disable the arts-daemon in kontrol center. If you
466 want to use arts sound, specify audio output via our native arts audio
467 driver (<CODE>-ao arts</CODE>). If it fails or isn't compiled in, try SDL
468 (<CODE>-ao sdl</CODE>) and make sure your SDL can handle arts sound. Yet
469 another option is to start MPlayer with artsdsp.</DD>
470 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
471
472 <DT>Q: I have an AVI that produces a gray screen when played with
473 <CODE>-vc odivx</CODE> and a green one with <CODE>-vc divx4</CODE>.</DT>
474 <DD>A: It's not a DivX file, but an M$ MPEG4v3. Update your codecs.conf.</DD>
475 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
476
477 <DT>Q: When I play this movie I get video-audio desync and/or MPlayer crashes
478 with the following message:<BR>
479 <CODE>DEMUXER: Too many (945 in 8390980 bytes) video packets in the buffer!</CODE></DT>
480 <DD>A: This can have multiple reasons.
481 <UL>
482 <LI>Your CPU <B>and/or</B> video card <B>and/or</B> bus is too slow.
483 MPlayer displays a message if this is the case (and the dropped
484 frames counter goes up fast).</LI>
485 <LI>If it is an AVI, maybe it has bad interleaving. Try the
486 <CODE>-ni</CODE> option.</LI>
487 <LI>Your sound driver is buggy, or you use ALSA 0.5 with <CODE>-ao oss</CODE>.
488 See the <A HREF="sound.html">sound card section</A>.</LI>
489 <LI>The AVI has a bad header, try the <CODE>-nobps</CODE> option, and/or
490 <CODE>-mc 0</CODE>.</LI>
491 </UL></DD>
492 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
493
494 <DT>Q: I have an MJPEG file which works with other players but displays only a
495 black image in MPlayer.</DT>
496 <DD>A: Disable the Windows DLL in <CODE>codecs.conf</CODE>, or use the
497 <CODE>-vc ffmjpeg</CODE> option (compile MPlayer with libavcodec for this
498 to work).</DD>
499 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
500
501 <DT>Q: When I try to grab from my tuner, it works, but colors are strange.
502 It's OK with other applications.</DT>
503 <DD>A: Your card probably misreports its colorspace capacity. Try with YUY2
504 instead of default YV12 (see the <A HREF="documentation.html#tv">TV input
505 documentation</A>).</DD>
506 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
507
508 <DT>Q: When I start playing, I get this message but everything seems fine:<BR>
509 <CODE>Linux RTC init: ioctl (rtc_pie_on): Permission denied</CODE></DT>
510 <DD>A: You need root privileges or a
511 specially set up kernel to use the new timing code. For details see the
512 <A HREF="documentation.html#rtc">RTC section</A> of the documentation.</DD>
513 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
514
515 <DT>Q: I have A/V sync problems. Some of my AVIs play fine, but some play with
516 double speed!</DT>
517 <DD>A: You have a buggy sound card/driver. Most likely it's fixed at 44100Hz,
518 and you try to play a file which has 22050Hz audio. Try the resample audio
519 plugin.</DD>
520 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
521
522 <DT>Q: All the WMV (or other..) files I play create a green/gray window and
523 there is only sound! MPlayer prints:<BR>
524 <CODE>Detected video codec: [null] drv:0 (NULL codec (no decoding))</CODE></DT>
525 <DD>A: Update your <CODE>codecs.conf</CODE>.</DD>
526 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
527
528 <DT>Q: I get very strange percentage values (way too big) while playing files
529 on my notebook.</DT>
530 <DD>A: It's an effect of the power management / power saving system of your
531 notebook (BIOS, not kernel). Plug the external power connector in
532 <B>before</B> you power on your notebook. You can also try whether
533 <A HREF="http://www.brodo.de/cpufreq/">cpufreq</A> (a SpeedStep interface
534 for Linux) helps you.</DD>
535 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
536
537 <DT>Q: The audio/video gets totally out of sync when I run MPlayer as root on
538 my notebook. It works normal when i run it as a user.</DT>
539 <DD>A: This is again a power management effect (see above). Plug the external
540 power connector in <B>before</B> you power on your notebook or use the
541 <CODE>-nortc</CODE> option.</DD>
542
543 </DL>
544
545
546 <H2><A NAME="driver">5.4 Video/audio driver problems (vo/ao)</A></H2>
547
548 <DL>
549
550 <DT>Q: I have no sound when playing a video and get error messages similar to
551 this one:
552 <PRE>
553 AO: [oss] 44100Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian)
554 audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy
555 couldn't open/init audio device -&gt; NOSOUND
556 Audio: no sound!!!
557 Start playing...
558 </PRE>
559 </DT>
560 <DD>A: Are you running KDE or GNOME with the ARTS or ESD sound daemon? Try
561 disabling the sound daemon or use the <CODE>-ao arts</CODE> or
562 <CODE>-ao esd</CODE> option to make MPlayer use ARTS or ESD.</DD>
563 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
564
565 <DT>Q: What about the DGA driver? I can't find it!</DT>
566 <DD>A: <CODE>./configure</CODE> autodetects your DGA driver. If
567 <CODE>-vo help</CODE> doesn't show DGA, then there's a problem with your X
568 installation. Try <CODE>./configure --enable-dga</CODE> and read the
569 <A HREF="video.html#dga">documentation</A>. Alternatively, try SDL's DGA
570 driver with the <CODE>-vo sdl:dga</CODE> option.</DD>
571 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
572
573 <DT>Q: OK, <CODE>-vo help</CODE> shows DGA driver, but it complains about
574 permissions. Help me!</DT>
575 <DD>A: It works only if running as root! It's a DGA limitation.
576 You should become root (<CODE>su -</CODE>), and try again.
577 Another solution is making MPlayer SUID root, but it's
578 <B>not recommended!</B><BR>
579 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>chown root /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
580 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
581 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>chmod +s /usr/local/bin/mplayer</CODE><BR>
582 <BLOCKQUOTE>
583 <B>Warning: security risk</B><BR>
584 This is a <B>big</B> security risk! <B>Never</B> do this on a server or
585 on a computer that you do not control completely because other users can
586 gain root privileges through SUID root MPlayer. <B>You have been
587 warned.</B>
588 </BLOCKQUOTE>
589 </DD>
590 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
591
592 <DT>Q: When using Xvideo, my Voodoo 3/Banshee says:<BR>
593 <CODE>X Error of failed request: BadAccess (attempt to access private
594 resource denied)<BR>
595 &nbsp;&nbsp;Major opcode of failed request: 147 (MIT-SHM)<BR>
596 &nbsp;&nbsp;Minor opcode of failed request: 1 (X_ShmAttach)<BR>
597 &nbsp;&nbsp;Serial number of failed request: 26<BR>
598 &nbsp;&nbsp;Current serial number in output stream:27</CODE></DT>
599 <DD>A: The "tdfx" driver in XFree86 4.0.2/4.0.3 had this bug. This was solved
600 by <A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/cvs/changes_4_1.html">bugfix #621 of the
601 XFree86 4.1.0 CVS log</A>. So upgrade to XFree86 4.1.0 or later.
602 Alternatively, either download (at least) DRI version 0.6 from the
603 <A HREF="http://dri.sourceforge.net">DRI homepage</A>, or use CVS DRI.</DD>
604 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
605
606 <DT>Q: OpenGL (<CODE>-vo gl</CODE>) output doesn't work (hang/black window/X11
607 errors/...).</DT>
608 <DD>A: Your OpenGL driver doesn't support dynamic texture changes
609 (glTexSubImage). It's known not to work with nVidia's binary mess.
610 It's known to work with Utah-GLX/DRI and Matrox G400 cards. Also with
611 DRI and Radeon cards. It won't work with DRI and other cards.
612 it will not work with 3DFX cards because of the 256x256 texture size limit.</DD>
613 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
614
615 <DT>Q: I have an nVidia TNT/TNT2 card, and I have a band with strange colors,
616 right under the movie! Whose fault is this?</DT>
617 <DD>A: This is a bug of nVidia's binary X driver. These bugs appear ONLY with
618 the TNT/TNT2 cards, and we can't do anything about it. To fix the problem,
619 upgrade to the latest nVidia binary driver version. If still bad, complain
620 to nVidia!</DD>
621 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
622
623 <DT>Q: I have an nVidia XYZ card, and when I click on the GUI's display window
624 to toggle displaying the GUI panel, a black square appears where I clicked.
625 I have the newest driver.</DT>
626 <DD>A: Yes, nVidia corrected a previous bug (above), and introduced a new one.
627 Let's congratulate them. UPDATE: According to
628 <A HREF="users_against_developers.html#nvidia">nVidia</A>, this has already
629 been fixed.</DD>
630 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
631
632 <DT>Q: When I use the GUI with SDL video output, a second video window is
633 created.</DT>
634 <DD>A: Known, don't use SDL for the GUI yet.</DD>
635 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
636
637 <DT>Q: Oh the world is cruel ...! SDL has only <CODE>x11</CODE> target, but
638 not <CODE>xv</CODE>!</DT>
639 <DD>A: Try that <CODE>x11</CODE> target again. Now try
640 <CODE>-vo x11 -fs -zoom</CODE>. See the difference? No?! OK, here comes the
641 enlightenment: SDL's <CODE>x11</CODE> target uses xv when available, you
642 don't have to worry about it ... Note: you can force/disable Xv via SDL
643 using <CODE>-forcexv</CODE> and <CODE>-noxv</CODE></DD>
644
645 </DL>
646
647
648 <H2><A NAME="dvd">5.5 DVD playback</A></H2>
649
650 <DL>
651
652 <DT>Q: What about DVD navigation?</DT>
653 <DD>A: Support for dvdnav in MPlayer is currently broken, normal playback
654 does work, though. If you want to have fancy menus, you will have to use
655 another player like <A HREF="http://xine.sourceforge.net">xine</A> or
656 <A HREF="http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/">Ogle</A>. If you care
657 about DVD navigation, send a <A HREF="tech/patches.txt">patch</A>.</DD>
658 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
659
660 <DT>Q: While playing a DVD, I encountered this error:<BR>
661 <CODE>mplayer: ifo_read.c:1143: ifoRead_C_ADT_internal: Assertion
662 nfo_length / sizeof(cell_adr_t) &gt;= c_adt-&gt;nr_of_vobs' failed.</CODE></DT>
663 <DD>A: This is a known libdvdread 0.9.1/0.9.2 bug. Use <B>libmpdvdkit2</B>,
664 which is present in MPlayer source, and used by default.</DD>
665 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
666
667 <DT>Q: Can I compile libdvdread and libdvdcss on my sweet SPARC under
668 Solaris?</DT>
669 <DD>A: Who knows ... It's said to work, so please test it and send feedback.
670 Refer to the documentation of libdvdread and its homepage as well. We're not
671 the authors of libdvdread. Use <B>libmpdvdkit2</B>, which is present in
672 MPlayer source, and used by default.</DD>
673 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
674
675 <DT>Q: What about subtitles? Can MPlayer display them?</DT>
676 <DD>A: Yes. See the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#dvd">DVD chapter</A> of the
677 documentation.</DD>
678 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
679
680 <DT>Q: How can I set the region code of my DVD-drive? I don't have
681 Windows!</DT>
682 <DD>A: Use the
683 <A HREF="http://www.linuxtv.org/download/dvd/dvd_disc_20000215.tar.gz">regionset tool</A>.</DD>
684 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
685
686 <DT>Q: Do I need to be (setuid) root/setuid fibmap_mplayer to be able to play
687 a DVD?</DT>
688 <DD>A: No, only for old-style DVD support. However you must have
689 the proper rights on the DVD device entry (in <CODE>/dev/</CODE>).</DD>
690 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
691
692 <DT>Q: Where can I get libdvdread and libdvdcss packages?</DT>
693 <DD>A: You don't need to. Use <B>libmpdvdkit2</B>, which is present in the
694 MPlayer source, and used by default. You can get the mentioned packages
695 from the
696 <A HREF="http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/">Ogle site</A>.</DD>
697 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
698
699 <DT>Q: Is it possible to play/encode only selected chapters?</DT>
700 <DD>A: Yes, try the <CODE>-chapter</CODE> option.</DD>
701 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
702
703 <DT>Q: My DVD playback is sluggish!</DT>
704 <DD>A: Use the <CODE>-cache</CODE> option (described in the man page)
705 and try enabling DMA for the DVD drive with the hdparm tool (described in
706 the <A HREF="cd-dvd.html#cd">CD chapter</A> of the documentation).</DD>
707
708 </DL>
709
710
711 <H2><A NAME="features">5.6 Feature requests</A></H2>
712
713 <DL>
714
715 <DT>Q: If MPlayer is paused and I try to seek or press any key at all,
716 MPlayer ceases to be paused. I would like to be able to seek in the
717 paused movie.</DT>
718 <DD>A: This is very tricky to implement without losing A/V synchronization.
719 All attempts have failed so far, but patches are welcome.</DD>
720 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
721
722 <DT>Q: I'd like to seek +/- 1 frames instead of 10 seconds.</DT>
723 <DD>A: This won't be done. It was, but then it messed up A/V sync. Feel free
724 to implement it, and send a patch. Don't ask for it.</DD>
725 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
726
727 <DT>Q: Where is the Windows version?</DT>
728 <DD>A: It's not released, and won't be. Look around the Windows scene (open
729 source ASF parsers, open source ASF encoders, etc) and you'll know why. We
730 don't want to go to jail. BTW you can compile it yourself, under
731 <A HREF="documentation.html#cygwin">Cygwin</A>.</DD>
732 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
733
734 <DT>Q: How can I make MPlayer remember the options I use for this
735 particular file?</DT>
736 <DD>A: Create a file named <CODE>movie.avi.conf</CODE> with the
737 file-specific options in it and put it in <CODE>~/.mplayer</CODE> or in
738 the same directory as the file.</DD>
739 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
740
741 </DL>
742
743
744 <H2><A NAME="encoding">5.7 Encoding</A></H2>
745
746 <DL>
747
748 <DT>Q: How can I encode?</DT>
749 <DD>A: Read the MEncoder <A HREF="encoding.html">documentation</A>.</DD>
750 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
751
752 <DT>Q: How can I create VCDs?</DT>
753 <DD>A: Try the <CODE>mencvcd</CODE> script from the <CODE>TOOLS</CODE>
754 subdirectory. With it you can encode DVDs or other movies to VCD or SVCD
755 format and even burn them directly to CD.</DD>
756 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
757
758 <DT>Q: How can I join two video files?</DT>
759 <DD>A: This has been discussed to no end on mplayer-users. Go search the
760 <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/cgi-bin/htsearch?restrict=/mplayer-users/">archives</A>
761 for a complete answer. This is a complicated topic and your mileage may
762 vary a lot depending on the kind of files you want to merge. MPEGs can be
763 concatenated into a single file with luck. For AVIs there are two tools,
764 <A HREF="http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/">avidemux</A>
765 and avimerge (part of the
766 <A HREF="http://www.theorie.physik.uni-goettingen.de/~ostreich/transcode/">transcode</A>
767 tool set), available that might do the job. You can also try MEncoder if
768 you have two files sharing the same dimensions and codec. Try<BR>
769 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>cat file1 file2 &gt; file3</CODE><BR>
770 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>mencoder -ovc copy -oac copy -o out.avi -forceidx file3.avi</CODE></DD>
771 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
772
773 <DT>Q: My tuner works, I can hear the sound and watch the video with MPlayer,
774 but MEncoder doesn't encode audio!</DT>
775 <DD>A: TV audio encoding for Linux is currently unimplemented, we're working
776 on it. At the moment it works only on BSD.</DD>
777 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
778
779 <DT>Q: I can't encode DVD subtitles into the AVI!</DT>
780 <DD>A: You have to specify the <CODE>-sid</CODE> option correctly!</DD>
781 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
782
783 <DT>Q: MEncoder segfaults on startup!</DT>
784 <DD>A: Upgrade DivX4Linux.</DD>
785 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
786
787 <DT>Q: How can I encode only selected chapters from a DVD?</DT>
788 <DD>A: Use the <CODE>-chapter</CODE> option correctly, like:
789 <CODE>-chapter 5-7</CODE></DD>
790 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
791
792 <DT>Q: I'm trying to work with 2GB+ files on a VFAT file system. Does it work?</DT>
793 <DD>A: No, VFAT doesn't support 2GB+ files.</DD>
794 <DD>&nbsp;</DD>
795
796 <DT>Q: Why is the recommended bitrate printed by MEncoder negative?</DT>
797 <DD>A: Because the bitrate you encoded the audio with is too large to fit the
798 movie on any CD. Check if you have libmp3lame installed properly.</DD>
799
800 </DL>
801
802 </BODY>
803 </HTML>