Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Xine Gets Native Sorenson3 Decoding

Posted by timothy on from the one-less-thing-to-gripe-about dept.

gooofy writes "Freshly (im)ported from ffmpeg, xine 1-beta12 finally has native support for Sorenson SVQ3 video. This means that you're finally able to watch the latest quicktime trailers on any xine supported hardware platform, not just on x86. Other goodies in this release include support for ogg/theora, playback of cd/dvd over the network, improved handling of mpeg-2 files (resyncing) and many detail improvements."

18 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. xine by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Great! Now all it needs is an interface that doesn't suck majorly. Have you tried to use their configuration dialog? What were they thinking?

    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    1. Re:xine by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Every current media player out there has a UI that is really unresponsive. Some have buttons that often take half a second or more to do anything when they're pressed. Most have seek bars that move smoothly under the mouse but aren't connected to the video while moving, or only seek to discrete points that are quite far apart. Most lack small-step seeking controls. I often find myself wanting to take a closer look at a part of a video or wanting to position a video at a particular point before playing, but finding the point is nearly impossible due to the horrible seek controls, button delays, and lack of small-step seeking both forward and back. VCRs have an excuse for being unresponsive, they are based on physical tape that must move. Software video players have no such excuse. I think once you used a player with an extremely responsive UI, you would wonder how you ever used any other player.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  2. Mplayer by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will mplayer be able to take advantage of these native sorensen codecs also? While mplayer plays quicktime files, they are not native and they aren't great, (specifically once you play 1 mplayer will crash if you attempt to play a second). Also, I am pretyt hooked on mplayer by now.

    --
    I do security
  3. Who, and how? by CoughDropAddict · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Who are these guys? I'm amazed at what they're pulling off, encoding and decoding all these proprietary formats. This isn't the kind of stuff that some bored college student can churn out on a lazy Sunday afternoon. And how do they manage to decode a format like Sorenson that isn't even publically documented (AFAIK)?

    1. Re:Who, and how? by 1000StonedMonkeys · · Score: 2, Interesting

      All of the major codecs that ffmpeg/libavcodec can decode are based on mpeg4 (well, except ms mpeg4 v1/2/3 which doesn't quite meet the mpeg4 spec), so it's really far less work than you make it out to be. It's just a matter of tweaking their mpeg4 codec to deal with the idiosyncracies whatever mpeg4 codec the video uses.

      Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but from what I can pull up from sorenson's site, SVQ3 also appears to be an MPEG4 codec.

      Of course, this is not to belittle what the ffmpeg guys have done. Libavcodec is my decoder of choice on both windows on linux because it's just plain faster than anything else out there.

  4. But the important question... by ca1v1n · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will it play the audio on the trailer for The Matrix Reloaded?

    --
    WARNING: there is a trojan on your
  5. How does it do on progressive DVD benchmarks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Apparently, there is a lot of complexity to correctly showing interlaced video on on non-interlaced screens (like computer monitors).

    Does any one know how it ranks on progressive DVD benchmarks?

    This benchmark has lots of screen shots of correct and bad behavior: DVD Benchmark

  6. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    You can always compile it without css support if you wanted to stay legal...

    Yea, but then I can't watch my DVDs. :-) I've yet to come upon a DVD that didn't have CSS encryption... maybe porn doesn't, but anything from Hollywood seems to. I realize it's probably the moral equivalent of j-walking, but there seem to be some pretty hefty consequences in the eyes of the law if someone chooses to make an example out of you.

  7. Re:yeah but does it embed in a browser? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The vast majority I've seen embedded in webpages in the last, oh, 6 months or so, finally allow you to save the quicktime movie to your harddrive.

    I think they finally realized that bandwidth costs real money when you make people download something over and over again. :)

    Normally, you just let the Quicktime fully load, then you can 'Save as Quicktime Movie'.

    Yay.

  8. Old News by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I emerged that package 2 weeks ago for my Gentoo box. My wife was thrilled that the Maxtrix trailer seemed to play back better under Linux than XP.

    I like the new lib because it finally does full-screen DVD playback right.

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  9. DVD Navigation by vandan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My favourite part of xine is the plugins for DVD nagivation.

    Personally I prefer using mplayer because it's faster and higher quality. It's also got DirectFB and Vidix drivers so I can output the signal to my TV while not in X.

    However my girlfriend isn't overly keen on typing a long list of switches to activate mplayer with the right video driver, input source, chapter and track, and xine's DVD Navigation shines in this area.

    I don't know why the mplayer developers insist that it is virutally impossible to incorporate dvd navigation into mplayer. Maybe they are right and it is really hard to do.

    Anyway I just read that xine supports Vidix and Vesa drivers, so hopefully it actually works on mine AND dvd navigation also works without X. Anyone (Radeon users pissed-off at no tv-out under X) gotten xine working in this way yet?

  10. Patents by yerricde · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Even in the United States, reverse engineering for "interoperability purposes" is legal.

    Not if the end result is unauthorized distribution of an implementation of a patented invention; then, it's called "patent infringement". Or do you claim that Sorenson owns no valid patents on methods used in its codec?

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  11. Re:Illegal? by evilviper · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interestingly enough, this WOULD be legal, if it weren't released under the GPL...

    The GPL says you can't redistribute the program if it has any restrictions, just as patents covering it. So, if you are in some location (such as the USA) where these video codecs are patented, it would be a violation of the GPL to release any changes, or even to redistribute the package...

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  12. A few Questions by GrimReality · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Before I ask, I have to say that I did STBM --went through their webpages and looked at the stuff, FAQ, Documentation etc.

    The webpage says that it supports formats such as RealMedia, WMV7 etc. See their documentation.

    They also seem to be interested only in opensource codecs etc. See this FAQ entry.

    Correct me if I am wrong, aren't RealMedia and WMV7 format proprietary? As far as I know, Microsoft or RealNetworks haven't released any open-source codecs of the above. Nor do they seem to have released proper format specifications (as Adobe does for PostScript or PDF).

    How do they then support these formats?

    They do not seem to be interested in MPlayer like hacked-up binaries or the use of Windows DLLs (see the FAQ entry referred to above).

    Plus, I just downloaded the source. It is a measly 600KiB-ish. How do they manage to put all this in here.

    If I examin the soruce may be I could get some of these questions answered, but I have to post these questions before the Slashdot story dies out and no-one reads the post.

    Thank you
    GrimReality
    2003-05-12 04:05:00 UTC (2003-05-12 00:05:00 EDT)

  13. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by norweigiantroll · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, should be one less reason to run a proprietary platform/software.

  14. Re:My question by unclebulgaria · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is the difference between the mac and windows version? On my iBook it seems exactly the same, the same annoying nag screen asking you to upgrade to quicktime pro, as well as the inability to play in full screen mode included. I just use video lan client or mplayer osx.

  15. Re:Videolan and Mplayer are better than QuickTime by Halo1 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Why on earth was this modded insightful?
    With QuiclTime it is not possible to play a movie full screen (that is, if you dont want to pay $30 for the pro version).
    Correction: with Quicktime Player, that is not possible. There are plenty of free alternatives that allow you to view any Quicktime content fullscreen for free..
    If you want to play a DVD in QuickTime, you have to pay other $20.
    Who on earth watches DVD's in Quicktime Player? What do you think /Applications/DVD Player is for? It plays DVD's full screen and on top lets you view the menu's and extra's.
    I LOVE the keyboard shortcuts in Mplayer, especially navigating forward and backward with the arrow keys, I can skip whathever stuff I want withot using the mouse.
    Quicktime Player does support arrow keys for navigation. It doesn't allow you to skip large parts however (and there doesn't seem to be a shortcut that allows you to do that), it only does a fast-forward which is indeed annoying sometimes.
    Another shortcoming of QuickTime: if you want to play an Xvid or Divx file you have to convert it first.
    If it's embedded in an avi and has an mp3 audio track, at least.
    Also, unlike Videolan, QuickTime does not play .ogm (ogg) movies
    Not out of the box, I'll grant you that. You can get an Ogg Quicktime component though.

    That said, I by no means want to say mplayer and video lan client are bad, I use them regularly myself (for divx/xvid avi's with mp3 audio tracks). They're not as stable as Quicktime Player though, and fast-forwarding or rewinding doesn't always work (there seem to be points in some movies you just can't get by except at normal playing speed, both in mplayer and vlanc). Switching from full screen back to windowed mode doesn't always work either in vlanc (afterwards, the window is often black until you switch back to fullscreen mode).

    --
    Donate free food here
  16. Nope by Replicant7 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    MPlayer (G1 - let's call it that) is not likely to die anytime soon. In fact we will soon release another stable version, 0.91 and 1.0 will most likely come from the main development branch and not from G2.