comparison DOCS/formats.html @ 7814:988498df1996

<B>MPlayer</B> ---> MPlayer

7813:76940a39405a

  2GB, but there exists an extension allowing bigger files called
  <B>OpenDMS</B>. Microsoft currently strongly discourages its use and
  encourages ASF/WMV. Not that anybody cares.</P>

<P>There is a hack that allows AVI files to contain an Ogg Vorbis audio
  stream, but makes them incompatible with standard AVI. <B>MPlayer</B>
  supports playing these files. Seeking is also implemented but severely
  hampered by badly encoded files with confusing headers. Unfortunately the
  only encoder currently capable of creating these files, NanDub, has this
  problem.</P>

<P><B>Note:</B> DV cameras create raw DV streams that DV grabbing utilities
  convert to two different types of AVI files. The AVI will then contain either
  separate audio and video streams that <B>MPlayer</B> can play or the raw DV
  stream for which support is under development.</P>

<P>There are two kinds of AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>Interleaved:</B> Audio and video content is interleaved. This is the
    standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create 
    non-interleaved AVIs with bad sync. <B>MPlayer</B> detects these as
    interleaved, and this climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking.
    These files should be played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE>
    option).</LI>
  <LI><B>Non-interleaved:</B> First comes the whole video stream, then the whole
    audio stream. It thus needs a lot of seeking, making playing from network or
    CD-Rom difficult. (should be played with the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option)</LI>
</UL>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>bps-based</B>: It is based on the bitrate/samplerate of the video/audio stream. This
    method is used by most players, including <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">avifile</A>
    and Windows Media Player.
    Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not with a

<P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two
  variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (Windows
  Media Player and Windows Media Encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published
  and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it
  is just another legal game). <B>MPlayer</B> supports only v1.0, as nobody has
  ever seen v2.0 files :). Note that ASF files nowadays come with the extension
  .WMA or .WMV.</P>


<H4><A NAME="mov">2.1.1.4 QuickTime/MOV files</A></H4>

  section. QDesign Music audio currently cannot be played.</P>


<H4><A NAME="vivo">2.1.1.5 VIVO files</A></H4>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The biggest disadvantage
  of the format is that it has no index block, nor a fixed packet size or sync
  bytes and most files lack even keyframes, so forget seeking!</P>

<P>The video codec of VIVO/1.0 files is standard <B>h.263</B>. The video codec
  of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263v2</B>. The audio is the

<H4><A NAME="fli">2.1.1.6 FLI files</A></H4>

<P><B>FLI</B> is a very old file format used by Autodesk Animator, but it is a
  common file format for short animations on the net. <B>MPlayer</B> demuxes
  and decodes FLI movies and is even able to seek within them (useful when
  looping with the <CODE>-loop</CODE> option). FLI files do not have keyframes,
  so the picture will be messy for a short time after seeking.</P>


<H4><A NAME="real">2.1.1.7 RealMedia (RM) files</A></H4>

<P>Yes, <B>MPlayer</B> can read (demux) RealMedia (.rm) files. Seeking works,
  but you have to explicitly specify the <CODE>-forceidx</CODE> option
  (the format supports keyframes). Here are the lists of the supported
  <A HREF="codecs.html#realvideo">RealVideo</A>
  and <A HREF="codecs.html#realaudio">RealAudio</A> codecs.</P>


<H4><A NAME="nuppelvideo">2.1.1.8 NuppelVideo files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="http://mars.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo">NuppelVideo</A>
  is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). <B>MPlayer</B> can read its .NUV files (only
  NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12, YV12+RTJpeg
  compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed frames.
  <B>MPlayer</B> decodes them all (and also <B>encodes</B> them with
  <B>MEncoder</B> to DivX/etc!). Seeking works.</P>


<H4><A NAME="yuv4mpeg">2.1.1.9 yuv4mpeg files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net">yuv4mpeg / yuv4mpeg2</A> is a file

<H4><A NAME="ogg">2.1.1.12 OGG/OGM files</A></H4>

<P>This is a new file format from <A HREF="http://www.xiph.org">Xiphophorus</A>.
  It can contain any video or audio codec, CBR or VBR. You will need to
  have <CODE>libogg</CODE> and <CODE>libvorbis</CODE> installed
  before compiling <B>MPlayer</B> to be able to play it.</P>


<H4><A NAME="sdp">2.1.1.13 SDP files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2327.txt">SDP</A>

  libraries are required.)</P>


<H3><A NAME="audio_formats">2.1.2 Audio formats</A></H3>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> is a <B>Movie</B> and not a <B>Media</B> player, although
  it can play some audio file formats (they are listed in the sections below).
  This is not a recommended usage of <B>MPlayer</B>, you better use
  <A HREF="http://www.xmms.org">xmms</A>.</P>


<H4><A NAME="mp3">2.1.2.1 MP3 files</A></H4>

<P>You may have problems playing certain MP3 files that <B>MPlayer</B> will
  misdetect as MPEGs and play incorrectly or not at all. This cannot be fixed
  without dropping support for certain broken MPEG files and thus will remain
  like this for the foreseeable future. The <CODE>-demuxer</CODE> flag
  described in the man page may help you in these cases.</P>

7814:988498df1996

  2GB, but there exists an extension allowing bigger files called
  <B>OpenDMS</B>. Microsoft currently strongly discourages its use and
  encourages ASF/WMV. Not that anybody cares.</P>

<P>There is a hack that allows AVI files to contain an Ogg Vorbis audio
  stream, but makes them incompatible with standard AVI. MPlayer
  supports playing these files. Seeking is also implemented but severely
  hampered by badly encoded files with confusing headers. Unfortunately the
  only encoder currently capable of creating these files, NanDub, has this
  problem.</P>

<P><B>Note:</B> DV cameras create raw DV streams that DV grabbing utilities
  convert to two different types of AVI files. The AVI will then contain either
  separate audio and video streams that MPlayer can play or the raw DV
  stream for which support is under development.</P>

<P>There are two kinds of AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>Interleaved:</B> Audio and video content is interleaved. This is the
    standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create 
    non-interleaved AVIs with bad sync. MPlayer detects these as
    interleaved, and this climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking.
    These files should be played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE>
    option).</LI>
  <LI><B>Non-interleaved:</B> First comes the whole video stream, then the whole
    audio stream. It thus needs a lot of seeking, making playing from network or
    CD-Rom difficult. (should be played with the <CODE>-ni</CODE> option)</LI>
</UL>

<P>MPlayer supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:</P>
<UL>
  <LI><B>bps-based</B>: It is based on the bitrate/samplerate of the video/audio stream. This
    method is used by most players, including <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">avifile</A>
    and Windows Media Player.
    Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not with a

<P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two
  variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (Windows
  Media Player and Windows Media Encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published
  and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it
  is just another legal game). MPlayer supports only v1.0, as nobody has
  ever seen v2.0 files :). Note that ASF files nowadays come with the extension
  .WMA or .WMV.</P>


<H4><A NAME="mov">2.1.1.4 QuickTime/MOV files</A></H4>

  section. QDesign Music audio currently cannot be played.</P>


<H4><A NAME="vivo">2.1.1.5 VIVO files</A></H4>

<P>MPlayer happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The biggest disadvantage
  of the format is that it has no index block, nor a fixed packet size or sync
  bytes and most files lack even keyframes, so forget seeking!</P>

<P>The video codec of VIVO/1.0 files is standard <B>h.263</B>. The video codec
  of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263v2</B>. The audio is the

<H4><A NAME="fli">2.1.1.6 FLI files</A></H4>

<P><B>FLI</B> is a very old file format used by Autodesk Animator, but it is a
  common file format for short animations on the net. MPlayer demuxes
  and decodes FLI movies and is even able to seek within them (useful when
  looping with the <CODE>-loop</CODE> option). FLI files do not have keyframes,
  so the picture will be messy for a short time after seeking.</P>


<H4><A NAME="real">2.1.1.7 RealMedia (RM) files</A></H4>

<P>Yes, MPlayer can read (demux) RealMedia (.rm) files. Seeking works,
  but you have to explicitly specify the <CODE>-forceidx</CODE> option
  (the format supports keyframes). Here are the lists of the supported
  <A HREF="codecs.html#realvideo">RealVideo</A>
  and <A HREF="codecs.html#realaudio">RealAudio</A> codecs.</P>


<H4><A NAME="nuppelvideo">2.1.1.8 NuppelVideo files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="http://mars.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo">NuppelVideo</A>
  is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). MPlayer can read its .NUV files (only
  NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12, YV12+RTJpeg
  compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed frames.
  MPlayer decodes them all (and also <B>encodes</B> them with
  MEncoder to DivX/etc!). Seeking works.</P>


<H4><A NAME="yuv4mpeg">2.1.1.9 yuv4mpeg files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net">yuv4mpeg / yuv4mpeg2</A> is a file

<H4><A NAME="ogg">2.1.1.12 OGG/OGM files</A></H4>

<P>This is a new file format from <A HREF="http://www.xiph.org">Xiphophorus</A>.
  It can contain any video or audio codec, CBR or VBR. You will need to
  have <CODE>libogg</CODE> and <CODE>libvorbis</CODE> installed
  before compiling MPlayer to be able to play it.</P>


<H4><A NAME="sdp">2.1.1.13 SDP files</A></H4>

<P><A HREF="ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2327.txt">SDP</A>

  libraries are required.)</P>


<H3><A NAME="audio_formats">2.1.2 Audio formats</A></H3>

<P>MPlayer is a <B>Movie</B> and not a <B>Media</B> player, although
  it can play some audio file formats (they are listed in the sections below).
  This is not a recommended usage of MPlayer, you better use
  <A HREF="http://www.xmms.org">xmms</A>.</P>


<H4><A NAME="mp3">2.1.2.1 MP3 files</A></H4>

<P>You may have problems playing certain MP3 files that MPlayer will
  misdetect as MPEGs and play incorrectly or not at all. This cannot be fixed
  without dropping support for certain broken MPEG files and thus will remain
  like this for the foreseeable future. The <CODE>-demuxer</CODE> flag
  described in the man page may help you in these cases.</P>