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<P><B><A NAME=2.1>2.1. Video Formats, Audio &amp; Video Codecs</A></B></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.1>2.1.1. Supported input formats</A></B></P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> can read/play from the following devices/formats:<BR>
<UL>
<LI> VCD (Video CD) directly from CD-ROM or from CDRwin's .bin image file
<LI> DVD, directly from your DVD disk, using libdvdread for decryption
<LI> MPEG 1/2 System Stream (PS/PES/VOB) and Elementary Stream (ES) file
     formats
<LI> RIFF AVI file format
<LI> ASF/WMV 1.0 file format
<LI> QT/MOV file format with (un)compressed headers
<LI> VIVO format (.viv files)
<LI> supports reading from file, stdin, or network via HTTP
</UL></P>

<P>Note: about realmedia (.ra/.rm) support read the FAQ!</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2>2.1.2. Supported audio &amp; video codecs</A></B></P>

<P>See <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html">http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html</A> for the complete,
daily generated list!!!</P>

<P>The most important video codecs:<BR>
<UL>
<LI>MPEG1 (VCD) and MPEG2 (DVD) video</LI>
<LI>DivX ;-), OpenDivX (DivX4), 3ivx and other MPEG4 variants</LI>
<LI>Windows Media Video 7 (WMV1) and 8 (WMV2) used in .wmv files</LI>
<LI>Intel Indeo codecs (3.1,3.2,4.1,5.0)</LI>
<LI>MJPEG, ASV2 and other hardware formats</LI>
<LI>XAnim codecs</LI>
</UL></P>

<P>The most important audio codecs:<BR>
<UL>
<LI>MPEG layer 2, and layer 3 (MP3) audio (native code, with MMX/SSE/3DNow! optimization)</LI>
<LI>AC3 dolby audio (native code, with SSE/3DNow! optimization)</LI>
<LI>Ogg Vorbis audio codec (native lib)</LI>
<LI>Voxware audio (using directshow DLL)</LI>
<LI>alaw, msgsm, pcm and other simple old audio formats</LI>
</UL></P>

<P>If you have a codec not listed here, and not supported yet, just read <A
HREF="#2.1.3">section 2.1.3</A> to get info about how to help us adding support
for it!</P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2.1>2.1.2.1. DivX4</A></B></P>

<P>This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of
<A HREF="http://www.projectmayo.com">ProjectMayo</A>. Their first available alpha version was the OpenDivX 4.0
alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was/is included in <B>MPlayer</B>, and built by
default. We used to use its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual
quality of MPEG1/2 movies. Now we use our own.</P>

<P>The new generation of this codec can even decode movies made with the
infamous DivX codec! And it's not everything, it's MUCH faster than the
traditional Win32 DivX DLL's. See below for configuration. The only
disadvantage of this codec is that it's currently closed-source. :(</P>

<P>The codec can be downloaded from the following URL:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://download2.projectmayo.com/dnload/divx4linux/divx4linux-20010718.zip">http://download2.projectmayo.com/dnload/divx4linux/divx4linux-20010718.zip</A></P>

<P>Unpack it, and run <CODE>./install.sh</CODE> as root.</P>

<P>Note: do NOT forget to add /usr/local/lib to your /etc/ld.so.conf !</P>

<P><B>MPlayer</B> autodetects if DivX4 is (properly) installed, just compile
as usual. If it doesn't detect it, you didn't install it exactly as above,
and/or has fucked up config (see last question of 5.1 section).</P>

<P>Using it is a bit tricky. As it conflicts with the old OpenDivX (it's API is
very similar to OpenDivX's), OpenDivX code is disabled, and the OpenDivX
driver calls this library too.</P>

<P>Generally we can pinpoint this issue to that you have two options to use
this codec:</P>

<P><TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>-vc&nbsp;odivx</TD><TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
<TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>using divx4 codec as a new version of OpenDivX.
in this case it produces YV12 image in its own buffer,
and <B>MPlayer</B> (libvo) does colorspace conversion. (<B>RECOMMENDED!</B>)</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD VALIGN=top><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>-vc&nbsp;divx4</TD><TD></TD>
<TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>using divx4 codec's colorspace conversion.
in this mode, you can use YUY2/UYVY too.</TD></TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P>The 'odivx' method is usually faster, due to the fact that it transfers
image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much less
bandwidth on the bus. For packed YUV modes (YUY2, UYVY) use the 'divx4'
method. For RGB modes you can choose freely, their speed is same, maybe
differ according to the current bpp.</P>

<P>Note: it supports postprocessing too, but range of values is strange: (TODO UPDATE)</P>

<P><TABLE BORDER=0>
<TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD><TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>0</TD><TD>&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
<TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>no postproc</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>10 .. 20</TD>
<TD></TD><TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>postprocessing, normal (like level 2 with divxds)</TD><TR>
<TD></TD><TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>30 .. 60</TD>
<TD></TD><TD><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>hard prostprocessing, eats many CPU (like level 4 with divxds</TD><TR>
</TABLE></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2.2>2.1.2.2. ffmpeg's DivX/libavcodec</A></B></P>

<P>Beginning with version 0.4.2 , <A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">ffmpeg</A> contains an <B>opensource</B> DivX codec,
which is compatible with the traditional DivX. <B>MPlayer</B> supports this codec,
and this makes it possible to <B>watch DivX/DivX4 movies on non-x86 platforms</B>,
and gain much faster <B>DivX/DivX4</B> decoding speed than the Win32 codecs and
the original DivX4 library has!<BR>
It was removed from <B>MPlayer</B>'s cvs tree, you have to download it
manually directly from <B>FFmpeg</B>'s tree:</P>

<P><CODE>
  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login<BR>
  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg
</CODE></P>

<P>Note: <I>if you copy with CVS subdirs, next time it's enough to do
'cvs update'.</I></P>

<P>Now, move the newly downloaded ffmpeg source's <B>libavcodec</B> directory,
(with all it's subdirectories) to <B>MPlayer</B>'s tree, so it will look
like this:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>main/libavcodec</CODE></P>

<P>Symlinking is NOT enough, you have to copy/move it!!!</P>

<P>./configure detects if it can be built. The codec also <B>supports
postprocessing!</B></P>

<P>In order to use it, refresh your codecs.conf file, and do as the manpage,
or the example.conf says (the -vfm option).</P>

<P>To achieve the <B>greatest speed</B> on my K6, I remove the
<CODE>ffmpeg12</CODE> section from codecs.conf (this codec isn't optimized, and
libmpeg2 is twice as fast), and place <CODE>vfm=5</CODE> in my config file.
Then <B>MPlayer</B> always uses <B>ffdivx/ffodivx</B> to decode
<B>DivX/DivX4</B> files, and libmpeg2 for MPEG1/2 . With this and my Matrox G400, I can view even the
highest resolution DivX/DivX4 movies on my K6/2 500, without framedrop.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2.3>2.1.2.3.  Hardware AC3 decoding</A></B></P>

<P>You'll need an AC3 capable soundcard, with digital out (SP/DIF). The
card's driver must support the AFMT_AC3 format (like SB Live! does).
Connect your AC3 decoder to the SP/DIF output, and use the '-ac hwac3'
option. It may or may not work (experimental). (probably won't...)</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2.4>2.1.2.4.  XAnim codecs</A></B></P>

<P>Foreword: using (some) XAnim codecs with other program than XAnim, is
<B><I>ILLEGAL</I></B>. It is <B>YOUR</B> responsibility to read its license,
and do accordingly. The authors of <B>MPlayer</B> can't be held responsible for
any unlawful act of the user.</P>

<P>So yes, <B>MPlayer</B> can use XAnim's codecs for decoding. It's very
easy to enable them:</P>

<P>
<UL>
  <LI>download the codecs you wish to use from the
  <A HREF="http://xanim.va.pubnix.com">XAnim site</A>. The <B>3ivx</B> codec
  isn't there, so download it from the <A HREF="http://www.3ivx.com">3ivx site</A>.</LI>

  <LI>use the <CODE>--with-xanimlibdir</CODE> option to tell configure where
  it can find the xanim codecs. By default, it checks them at <CODE>/usr/lib/xanim/mods</CODE> .</LI>
</UL>
</P>

<P>They are video codec family number 10, so you may want to use <CODE>-vfm 10</CODE>
option to tell <B>MPlayer</B> to use them if possible.</P>

<P>Tested codecs are: <B>Indeo 3.2</B>, <B>4.1</B>, <B>5.0</B>, <B>CVID</B>, <B>3ivX</B>, <B>h263</B>.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.2.5>2.1.2.5.  libmad support</A></B></P>

<P><A HREF="http://mad.sourceforge.net">libmad</A> is a multiplatform MPEG audio
decoding library. If you don't know why is it good, you probably don't need it.</P>

<P>To enable support, compile with the <CODE>--enable-mad</CODE> configure
option.</P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.3>2.1.3. Codec importing howto</A></B></P>

<P><B><A NAME=2.1.3.1>2.1.3.1. VFW codecs</A></B></P>

<P>VfW (Video for Windows) is the old Video API for Windows. Its codecs have
the .DLL or (rarely) .DRV extension.
If <B>MPlayer</B> fails with your AVI:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>UNKNOWN video codec: HFYU (0x55594648)</CODE></P>

<P>It means your AVI is encoded with a codec which has the HFYU fourcc (HFYU =
HuffYUV codec, DIV3 = DivX Low Motion, etc...). Now that we know this, we'll
have to find out which DLL Windows loads in order to play this file. In our
case, the system.ini contains this (with many others):</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>VIDC.HFYU=huffyuv.dll</CODE></P>

<P>So we'll need the huffyuv.dll file. Note that the audio codecs are specified
with the MSACM prefix:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>msacm.l3acm=L3codeca.acm</CODE></P>


<P>This is the MP3 codec.
So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, codec file, sample AVI), submit
your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:</P>

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<CODE>ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/</CODE></P>


<P><B><A NAME=2.1.3.2>2.1.3.2. DirectShow codecs</A></B></P>

<P>DirectShow is the newer Video API, which is even worse than its predecessor.
Things are harder with DirectShow, since
<UL>
<LI>system.ini doesn't contain the needed information, instead it's stored in
the registry :(
<LI>we'll need the GUID of the codec.
</UL></P>

<P>So let's search that goddamn registry..
<UL>
<LI>Start 'regedit'
<LI>press ctrl-f, disable the first two checkbox, and enable the third. Type
the fourcc of the codec. (for ex.: TM20)
<LI>you should see a field which contains the path and filename
(for ex. : C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TM20DEC.AX)
<LI>now that we have the file, we'll need the GUID. Try searching again, but
now we'll search for the codec's name, not the fourcc. Its name can be acquired
when Media Player is playing that file, by checking File/Properties/Advanced.
If not, bad luck ;) Try guessing.
(for ex. search for : TrueMotion)
<LI>if found (in registry), there should be a FriendlyName field, and a CLSID
field. Write down that 16 byte of CLSID, this is the GUID required by us.
</UL></P>

<P>NOTE: if searching fails, try to enable all the checkboxes.. you may have
false hits, but maybe you'll have the right, too...</P>
<P>NOTE: dump that M$ shit.</P>


<P>So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, GUID, codec file, sample AVI),
submit your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:<BR>
ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/</P>

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author	gabucino
date	Sun, 04 Nov 2001 17:35:29 +0000
parents	aadd16c5d6eb
children	62bcea66003e