Mercurial > mplayer.hg
view DOCS/faq.html @ 6385:65ceb2d07a71
Q/A about mencoder printing negative recommended bitrate
(Diego, don't you wanna enhance the FAQ?)
| author | gabucino |
|---|---|
| date | Tue, 11 Jun 2002 16:31:43 +0000 |
| parents | 99f941806029 |
| children | 039065ac8625 |
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<HTML> <HEAD> <STYLE TYPE="text/css"> .text {font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size : 14px;} </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR=white> <FONT CLASS="text"> <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><FONT CLASS="text">5.1 Compilation</A></B></P> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What does "No such file or directory" mean? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Probably there is no such file or directory. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD> </TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What's the problem with gcc 2.96? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> <B><I>We strongly discourage the use of gcc 2.96!!!</I></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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Great, I have gcc 3.0.1 from Red Hat/Mandrake, then I'm fine--! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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 3.0.x (starting at 3.0.2) if you want to use a 3.0.x version. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> ... gcc 2.96 ... (Yes, some people are STILL flaming about their gcc 2.96!!) </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Where can I find information about gcc 2.96 bugs? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> <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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> SDL output doesn't work or compile. The problem is ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> It doesn't compile, and it misses uint64_t inttypes.h and similar things ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I have Linux running on a Pentium III but <CODE>./configure</CODE> doesn't detect SSE ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I have a G200/G400, how do I compile/use the mga_vid driver? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Are there rpm/deb/... packages of <B>MPlayer</B>? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> During 'make', MPlayer complains about X11 libraries. I don't understand, I DO have X installed!? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> ... 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What about the DGA driver? I can't find it!!! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> <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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I can't compile SVGAlib. I'm using kernel 2.3/2.4 ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> When compiling <B>MEncoder</B>, it segfaults at linking!!! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I'd like to compile <B>MPlayer</B> on Minix! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Me too. :) </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD COLSPAN=3><B><A NAME="5.2"><FONT CLASS="text">5.2 General questions</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What is the meaning of the numbers on the status line? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Example: <CODE><FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What if I don't want them to appear? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Use the <CODE>-quiet</CODE> option and read the man page. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Why is video_out cpu usage zero (0%) for some files? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> There are error messages about file not found <CODE>/usr/lib/win32/</CODE> ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Are there any mailing lists on MPlayer? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I have problems playing files with the ... codec. Can I use them? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Umm, what is "IdegCounter"? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> And what is "Faszom(C)ounter"? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> "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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> LIRC doesn't work, because ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> The OSD is flickering! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What exactly is this libavcodec thing? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> But configure tells me "Checking for libavcodec ... no"! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Icewm's taskbar keeps covering the movie in fullscreen mode! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> How can I run MPlayer in the background? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Use: <CODE>mplayer <options> <filename> < /dev/null &</CODE> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD COLSPAN=3> <B><A NAME="5.3"><FONT CLASS="text">5.3 File playing problems</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> ... works with avifile/aviplay but doesn't with MPlayer. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> <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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Audio goes out of sync playing a .avi file. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> MPlayer exits with some error when using l3codeca.acm. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> MPlayer dies with "MPlayer interrupted by signal 4 in module: decode_video". </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I have problems with [your window manager] and fullscreen xv/xmga/sdl/x11 modes ... </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> But it works with avifile! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> So what? </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Then avifile is better! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Then use avifile, it has a nice GUI and nice C++ code :) </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I got this playing mpeg files: Can't find codec for video format 0x10000001! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Update your <CODE>codecs.conf</CODE>. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I get very strange percentage values (way too big) while playing files on my notebook. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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"><FONT CLASS="text">5.4 Video/audio driver problems (vo/ao)</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> OK, <CODE>-vo help</CODE> shows DGA driver, but it complains about permissions! Help me! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> OpenGL (<CODE>-vo gl</CODE>) output doesn't work (hang/black window/X11 errors/...). </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> When I use the GUI with SDL video output, a second video window is created. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Known, don't use SDL for the GUI yet. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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"><FONT CLASS="text">5.5 DVD playback</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">Can I compile libdvdread and libdvdcss on my sweet SPARC under Solaris? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">What about subtitles? Can MPlayer display them? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">How can I set the region code of my DVD-drive? I don't have Windows! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">Where can I get libdvdread and libdvdcss packages? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">Is it possible to play/encode only selected chapters? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">Yes, try the <CODE>-chapter</CODE> option. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH="100%"><B> <FONT CLASS="text">My DVD playback is sluggish! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD> <FONT CLASS="text">Use the <CODE>-cache</CODE> option (described in the manpage) 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"><FONT CLASS="text">5.6 Feature requests</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I'd like to seek +/- 1 frames instead of 10 seconds. </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Where is the Windows version? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> What card do you suggest me to buy? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A0:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> It's for your information only but our criteria are: </TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A1:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A2:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A3:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> <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 COLS=5 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"><FONT CLASS="text">5.7 Encoding</A></B> </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> How can I encode? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Read the <B>MEncoder</B> <A HREF="encoding.html">documentation</A>. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I can't encode DVD subtitles into the AVI! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> You have to specify the <CODE>-sid</CODE> option correctly! </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> MEncoder segfaults on startup! </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> Upgrade DivX4Linux. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD><TR> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> How can I encode only selected chapters from a DVD? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> I'm trying to work with 2GB+ files on a VFAT file system. Does it work? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> No, VFAT doesn't support 2GB+ files. </TD><TR><TD COLSPAN=3> </TD> <TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">Q:</TD><TD WIDTH=100%><B><FONT CLASS="text"> Why is the recommended bitrate printed by MEncoder negative? </B></TD><TR><TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT CLASS="text">A:</TD><TD><FONT CLASS="text"> 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>