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Quicktime Under Linux With MPlayer
Sark writes: "The latest version of the controversial MPlayer program for
Linux supports Quicktime .mov files with the latest codecs.
Apart from the closed source program Crossover, this is the first
open source program that seems to work. Check out the Mplayer
homepage for more info." According to
formats page, Sorenson
Quicktime is still not gonna happen any time soon.
Xanim's supported Quicktime .mov files forever, just not the Sorensen codec. Of course, many of Xanim's modules don't have source code available either, due to IP issues. Also, its mpeg capabilities are questionable at best. Since I got the DSL line in, I usually just look for mpegs anyway and play them with gtv or plaympeg.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I have to say MPlayer and the folks working on it have done a great job, It is really nice stuff, although I think the project would benifift from a refined build process, building it with all the dependencies can be a bit of fun the first time around, divx, dvd, blah blah blah. I dont know if there is a simpole method of doing this with all the complie options.
I really love the GCC 2.96 RedHat warning, if you havent built it yet, HEED that warning.
Is there no chance the RIAA et al can shut this down being out of hungary? I hope not its becoming a wonderful piece of software.
Congrats to the guys making MPlayer happen !!
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
Why r these guys controversal? I read up on their site, they are trying to do the best they can to make a good movie app for linux... should they not include features b/c they are not fully opensource?? Dont let you politics about open/closed source keep linux out of the video world.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
'Taco's real up on things, can't you tell? I've been playing .mov files (not the sorenson codec) for quite a while now using xanim. Try http://xanim.va.pubnix.com/home.html
Politics, Culture, Food?
You know, if Linux video software would come as Debian packages, I would be really happy. Currently, if I want anything with avifile or something, I need to compile it myself - and I don't want to mess with the source because avifile API isn't exactly solid yet and source that compiled yesterday doesn't work today. Linux video support Isn't Here, dammit.
The mplayer author seems to be aware of the Marillat's unofficial .debs... and now whines that people are violating his "thou shalt not distribute Binaries" lisence.
I don't want to compile the package myself. I want binaries.
Source-only distribution is fine, as long as you let somebody make the pre-built binaries available so that we lazy bastards can use the program. I know I can compile mplayer if I'm positively motivated, but I know my mother couldn't.
This is why I'm considering using VideoLanClient instead of mplayer - at least it's under GPL and I'm able to get "official" Debian packages for it.
It would be news if it supported Sorenson at all. We already have a number of applications to chose from that will play non-Sorenson quicktime back, xanim being the first that I ever knew of. Quicktime for Linux project has all sorts of stuff that is non-Sorenson. Sorenson playback has always been the gotcha that matters.
The only thing I can see is if they can use the Windows binary code to decode the Sorenson without the huge performance hit of running the entire player within a Wine context, and having the added benefit of XVideo availability for Sorenson playback. But it doesn't look like this will be the case.
More noteworthy is the VIVO support and xanim support, the VIVO support is a first (AFAIK) under linux natively, and the xanim support really helps bridge the gap between new and old-school media playback, xanim gets a lot of those files that have been overlooked in the "new wave" of media players for linux...
Also, another nit-pick, the crossover plugin, as such is not so much a player, but a nicely done wine modification within which the Windows Quicktime player runs... You can use the latest Wine CVS repository in much the same way (outside a browser at least).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Apple has released the specs for almost every aspect of the Quicktime (.mov) standard. They rarely write their own codecs though.
The Sorenson codec is owned by Sorenson and Apple pays for it. If you want to get a legal player for a non-Win/Mac platform someone will either have to
1. reverse engineer the codec(legally questionable and hard)
2. write a wrapper that uses another OSs Code (crossover does this)
3. legally licence the code and release a player (anyone?)
4. actually get sorsen to let people have their source(or detailed specs) somehow.
the best thing to do is just start using a codec that already lets people have their source and is on par with the best VP3
I can think of several programs that run under Linux/Unix which will play QuickTime .mov files -- xanim and xmms (plus the QuickTime-xmms plugin) will both play non-sorenson QuickTime files. The problem is, almost nothing worth watching (in the world of things QuickTime) is available in anything other than a Sorenson-encoded version.
.asf, .wmv, and .mpeg files with a variety of options (such as double-size and full-screen), and it will play VideoCDs quite nicely -- I have several movies that were dragged back from China on VCD that look great when run through mplayer. It's a great little video player, but it having the ability to play non-sorenson QuickTime is hardly news.
Sorenson, of course, is owned by Apple, and they are as likely to make it open-source as Microsoft is to release the next Office under the GPL.
Now, mplayer will play
If you want QuickTime under Linux, with the Sorenson codec, your only option is Crossover (which works quite nicely, and has given me many minutes of movie-trailer viewing bliss).
--
I Hit the Karma Cap, and All I Got Was This Lousy
Linux may be "superior" to Windows in one or more ways -- but what matters is being able to get the job done. And if I can't view a client's QT movie under Linux, Linus doesn't get the job done. And that's why it's important that Linux support QT...
All about me
Xine does Quicktime to, has done for quite some time. Doesn't do Sorenson either, but they do support win32 codecs, so dropping in the Quicktime dlls isn't impossible futher down the line.
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
Remember that there are two key components to a movie player -- the file format and the video codec. When the MPEG4 codec is finalized, the Quicktime format (and maybe also WiMP) will support it. With a little luck the Sorenson problem will become irrelevant at that point.
There are several reasons the Quicktime format can be more useful than straight MPEG. One of the best (but sadly underused) features is text tracks, which allows subtitles, descriptors for the disabled, etc. Another is the ability to overlay static sprites (for example, TV channel logos) onto the video layer. This kind of stuff can improve image quality and save bandwidth at the same time.
xine.sourceforge.net
hmmm, I compiled 0.50 some weeks ago with gcc 2.96 (I think the warning is a bit overblown, having to do a --ignore-gcc-whatever *and* having to type 'yeah, gcc 2.96 sucks' or something seems a bit redundant) and it's been working just fine...
While I do not doubt that gcc 2.96 has bugs, in my experience it's not worse than most gcc versions I used during the years, and much better than quite some of them, especially in C++.
I also did a bit of google-ing about this warning in mplayer, and AFAIK some people were a bit angry that 2.96 has been singled out (probably just because it's a RH release) I wonder if the reasons for so prominently warning people about 2.96 are at least in part political...
-- the cake is a lie
One of the very useful (to me) aspects of MPlayer is that it can run console-only. This is very useful on a slow machine with a hardware decoder: I have a P5-133 with a Hollywood+ MPEG2 decoder which can actually playback video, including DVDs. Not bad for a machine that was 'slow' about four or five years ago.
Yes you heard it right. This seems to be good news for Linux users. According to Frank Casanova, the head honcho of Quicktime, Quicktime 6 will de-emphasise Sorenson for MPEG-4. In an interview with Creative:Mac he says
... you'll see our file format of QuickTime is the file format for MPEG-4. As you may remember, [ISO has] selected the QuickTime format as the basis for MPEG-4. And then what we're doing is we're building our own audio and video CODEC, but based on the recipe as published by this standard body, by ISO, for ... video and audio for music and speech. There's a few different CODECs in there. And that's what we're doing going forward. And you can expect to see incredible video quality using these new MPEG-4 CODECs.
... was great for CD-ROM distribution. MPEG-2 ... was targeted at a much higher data rate, much higher quality, and it found its way into areas like DVD playback and for HDTV and for some of the satellite communications where bandwidth is really not constrained. But MPEG-4 is the MPEG for the Internet. It takes lower than MPEG-1 data rates and practically MPEG-2 quality and makes it available for people to stream over the Internet, which is high and to the right, exactly where you want to see this go.
... you can do incredibly good jobs with audio at a much smaller file size and lower data rate and get even better sounding quality than MP3 is providing. I think, over time, we'll see AAC supplant MP3 as the digital audio standard. That's the direction we're headed.
/ ap plequicktimelive0112172.htm
CASANOVA: It's the center of our universe. The Sorenson video CODEC has been an integral part of QuickTime since we had QuickTime 3. Sorenson is exclusive to QuickTime, a proprietary format, that has just produced incredible quality both for download of movie trailers and real-time streaming over the Internet. They've done incredibly well. And we're going to continue working with the Sorenson guys. We're not shutting that off. And people will probably opt to use Sorenson in some cases. But certainly the center of the work we do is going to be around standards.
Everything Apple does--from the Unix bases of OS X, to FireWire being IEEE 1394, to USB to all the various facets of what we do, from AirPort being 802.11--we want to make sure that every piece of our architecture and infrastructure are based on industry standards. QuickTime is no different. Our streaming protocols are RTP/RTSP as defined by the IETS; and now
MPEG-4 continues the lineage of the MPEG family. MPEG-1
And the AAC audio component for music will likely replace MP3 as the default and brand new audio standard on the Web because I'll tell you what,
Earlier [last] week, with Real Networks announcing their support for MPEG-4, we found that to be a sudden and abrupt change in direction for them, but nonetheless a welcome one. We're really happy here at Apple, and as members of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance--the ISMA--we're really happy that Real had decided to make this change in course. Real is a big company, at least from an Internet media streaming perspective, and their stamp of approval on MPEG-4 gives the whole space more momentum.
The rest of the interview can be found here...
http://www.creativemac.com/2001/12_dec/features