codecs for Linux

[O-pos]

Hello,

I have mplayer on my ubuntu 6.10. I downloaded video codecs as it was described on the side http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Main_Page

But big part of the videos still don't work. flv-s cannot be recognized at all by mplayer. other vidos like mpg and wmv, most are recognized and played, but with bad quality, large pixels of images remain during several seconds and interfere to see what happens.

Is there any possibility to fully solve this problem?

Thanks

[UncasMS]

have you tried VLC yet?

[O-pos]

VLC is good player, but not very best. VLF videos can be played with VLC, but there's no possibility to loop - I mean to skip forward or back. with other videos (wmv, mpg) there's the same problem as I described for mplayer.

[anonymez]

How did you go about installing mplayer? The recommended method is

- Enable all repositories in synaptic (you can leave out source code if you don't do any compiling)

- Run the terminal and do a

sudo apt-get update

- Run Synaptic, seach for mplayer and install (make sure to remove any version you have already installed)

It should play FLV and basically everything else.

other vidos like mpg and wmv, most are recognized and played, but with bad quality, large pixels of images remain during several seconds and interfere to see what happens.

Either bad drivers or wrong video output module (or both). Go into preferences and change the video playback driver. IIRC for some reason mplayer/ubuntu defaults to xmga, try xv.

Feisty 7.04, which is released on the 19th, does automatic codec installation; not needed for mplayer, but works wonderfully.

[celtic_druid]

The package installed via apt-get is probably old. Newer mplayer builds support flv playback via internal decoders (libavcodec) including VP62. My advice would be to compile your own SVN build.

[O-pos]

Thanks for the advices, but I'm very new in Linux and I don't understand this sophisticated terminology

How did you go about installing mplayer?

I put a question in this forum what would be best video player for linux to install, and noone replied and someone even deleted the thread. Then I've read reviews for players and thought that mplayer would be best choise. would you recommend something else? which player are you using?

I've installed this according to ubuntuguide.org. then I repeated the procedure according to guidelines of http://www.debianadmin.com/install-mplayer-ubuntu.html

Yesterday night I updated the codecs according to the same website guides and basically everything works ok, and the pixel problems disappeared. but what I don't like is that while watching flv videos, you can't skip forward or backward, you can watch everything only once from the beginning to the end. I didn't find a player for Linux yet, which can skip playback forward or backward while watching flv videos.

For sure I'll update edgy to 7.04

[anonymez]

I put a question in this forum what would be best video player for linux to install, and noone replied and someone even deleted the thread

I had moved it before replying, it was in the wrong forum. If you lose a thread and miss it in Email/User CP, are several ways to find it again, either under User CP-->List subscriptions or the search function by looking for threads started by your username. Link.

didn't find a player for Linux yet, which can skip playback forward or backward while watching flv videos.

mplayer uses hotkeys for most functions. Try the arrow keys and Page Up & Down.

[O-pos]

I see yes, I found your reply where you recommend VLC and mplayer. I personally think that vlc is not flexible enough.. On the other side, when I saw the screenshots of mplayer, I got very impressed how professional and powerful it looked and decided to test it.

Thanks for the tip, I'll take a look whether this works with mplayer regardinf flv files and come back...

[O-pos]

no, it didn't work it just makes skip from one files to the other, but I meant skip inside the file, like scrollbar does. for example, if I like one moment in a music video, and I want to view this moment, I have to wait and watch everything before that - it's impossible to skip that. (VLC player behaves exactly like this)

Like I said this is a problem for flv files only. avi, wmv, mpg etc.. work very well.

[anonymez]

this is a problem for flv files only

I see, it happens here too, didn't notice since I rarely play flv. As celtic suggested you could try compiling a newer build, since the one in the repos is around 6 months old.

[O-pos]

I see, it happens here too, didn't notice since I rarely play flv. As celtic suggested you could try compiling a newer build, since the one in the repos is around 6 months old.

The package installed via apt-get is probably old. Newer mplayer builds support flv playback via internal decoders (libavcodec) including VP62. My advice would be to compile your own SVN build.

Ok, I see. And how would be compiling this build in primitive language? - you know, I'm not good in computers what do I have to do first and and what next?

[anonymez]

Bit of a learning curve... but try here and here. You might want to start off with something easier. Plenty of guides at the forums and basic info in the wiki.

[O-pos]

I tried but it didn't work here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=336706
I got problems at the steps 3g, 3h, 3i. the system was not understanding something and was asking skip?[y]

the link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=187709
here I couldn't even start, because I got the notification:
"bash: svn: command not found"

[O-pos]

Hello again

I updated Ubuntu Edgy Eft to Feisty and indeed, Totem downloads all required codecs itself. However, I somehow like Mplayer better and I installed it again (didn't compile, just installed what it was). It was probably newer version, because there's no problem with skipping inside playback.

However, what the problem is is the audio-video dissociation in flv files. I had the same problem with Edgy, but after I installed codecs there, it resolved. How can I resolve it in Feisty? Where can I download codecs for Mplayer? I found some sites but the latest info there is about Edgy and they ask to enter in sources.list certain adresses for edgy etc...

[anonymez]

It was probably newer version, because there's no problem with skipping inside playback

I'm not so sure it is... in any case, latest SVN works fine with FLV. If you've given up compiling, get a relatively recent build here.