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Xine Gets Native Sorenson3 Decoding

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."

40 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Applaude for 2 reasons by AlabamaMike · · Score: 4, Informative

    1: One less reason to run a Windows platform. 2: No more annoying "don't you want to buy this" ad when you're trying to watch a new trailer.
    -A.M.

    --
    Pimpin' all the Karma Hoes!
    1. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by elid · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, Mac doesn't seem to have much of a problem with Quicktime!

    2. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by axxackall · · Score: 3, Insightful
      One less reason to run a Windows platform

      One less reason to run a Intel platform.

      --

      Less is more !
    3. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by JebusIsLord · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just don't confuse legality with morality, and you'll be able to sleep at night just fine.

      --
      Jeremy
    4. Re:Applaude for 2 reasons by LittleBigLui · · Score: 3, Informative

      but the default decryption mode of libdvdcss uses the legit player keys (which can be reverse-engineered from any encrypted dvd), which is perfectly legal (no encryption broken), since the player keys aren't protected by copyright but are simply trade secrets and can be reverse engineered legally.

      on the other hand, libdvdcss provides two fallback methods which actually break the encryption of the dvd. by the use of those you agree to some serious butt-rape in a DMCA-gulag of the plaintiffs' choice.

      --
      Free as in mason.
  2. 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Give Totem a try if you're looking for a GTK+ (2.x) interface. Much nicer than the normal XINE interface :).

    2. Re:xine by Newtonian_p · · Score: 5, Informative
      Actually, xine is split into 2 components: xine-gui and xine-lib. If you do not like the xine-gui, you could look for alternate guis but keep the xine-lib part (and therefore the native Sorenson 3 support).

      One alternate gui I know is Kxine, a kde/qt based gui for xine. I think it looks nice.

      --

      There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't

    3. Re:xine by Compenguin · · Score: 3, Informative

      I tried totem but i had issues with some file formats that regular xine handeled fine and the only soultion i got was run gnome-mime-data from cvs

    4. Re:xine by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Looks like KXine hasn't been touched in over half a year. KPlayer and KMplayer, on the other hand, seem to be progressing nicely. I won't be happy until some backend issues are fixed, though, like smooth seeking/rewind/fastforward and single frame advance/rewind. Seems like no linux media player is interested in tackling these issues. Quicktime is the only player that gets it right. But it is windows/macos only and has annoying advertisements and Flash-like "features". I want my movie player to just play movies, not be a "media center" where "media" is defined as "whatever stuff AOL/Time Warner/Disney/Sony/etc. want you to be paying for today".

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  3. My question by ABetterRoss · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does it work on OS X?

    Oh wait... I've got quicktime. Sorry.

  4. x86 by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny
    This means that you're finally able to watch the latest quicktime trailers on any xine supported hardware platform, not just on x86.

    Yes, all those macos-on-ppc people are having so much trouble with that.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:x86 by beerits · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you don't like the Apple supplied QuickTime Player why don't you try one of the many replacement players.

  5. Mplayer uses ffmpeg by Newtonian_p · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I know that Mplayer comes with ffmpeg and uses it as its divx/mpeg1/2/4 deconding engine

    Could droping in its source tree the new version ffmpeg in lieu of the one that comes with it make Mplayer support native Sorenson 3 too? Or would some additionnal modifications be needed in the Mplayer source?

    --

    There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't

    1. Re:Mplayer uses ffmpeg by glitch! · · Score: 5, Informative

      Could droping in its source tree the new version ffmpeg in lieu of the one that comes with it make Mplayer support native Sorenson 3 too?

      Yep, if your code uses the libavcodec call av_register_all(), then when you use av_find_stream_info(), it will "just work". I tried yesterday's libavcodec out of CVS on the Quicktime Animatrix movie, and the video quality was pretty good. Pity about not having the QDesign audio codec, though...

      --
      A dingo ate my sig...
  6. yeah but does it embed in a browser? by 7-Vodka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most movie trailers and stuff that i'd need quicktime for are embeded in webpages. It's a pain in the ass sometimes to find the url for the file you want and download it so you can play it.

    --

    Liberty.

    1. Re:yeah but does it embed in a browser? by bogie · · Score: 4, Informative

      Mplayer with the Mplayer plugin usually does a pretty decent job with that. Maybe its not 100%, but when the big two web media companies(Microsoft, Apple) are trying to block you from entering their markets its not always a trival task.

      http://mplayerplug-in.sourceforge.net/

      btw screw you apple and microsoft for not providing media players for linux.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    2. Re:yeah but does it embed in a browser? by Darf+Bobo · · Score: 5, Informative

      In mozilla you can use 'View Page Info' and choose the 'Media' tab. URLs for video, etc have the 'Embed' type. Just pass the URL to mplayer if you have the bandwidth.

  7. Re:not on x86 by fwankypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think you read the article wrong... Whis is a native implementation of Sorensen 3 that can run on all supported platforms (including x86). It used to be that watching a Sorensen 3 encoded video involved the use of Win32 DLLs (either through WINE, or later by directly accessing the DLL). Now it isn't needed. So indeed one _can_ watch a Sorensen 3 video on x86 using the lates version of xine without any nutty DLL hacks.

    --
    The time of day is 29:33.
  8. 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
  9. 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Reverse engineering the format is the interesting part. Hiding from the patent lawyers is the exciting part.

    2. Re:Who, and how? by fireman+sam · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think they may be using SCO proprietry code to get to an enterprise level so quickly. Call in the laywers!

      --
      it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
  10. But the important question... by ca1v1n · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

    1. Re:But the important question... by vivek7006 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes it will ....

      I had downloaded the matrix reloaded trailer but could not get the adio working for mplayer. Someone on slashdot suggested to download and install faad2 libraries, but I could never get mplayer to play the audio in the matrix reloaded trailer.

      But the good news is that with this new version of xine, you can play the matrix reloaded trailer with full audio support. Its cool!! especially because you cannot play it in fullscreen mode in win2k using quicktime (It only allows to double the image size, but no full sceen mode).

      BTW installation was a breeze. Just downlaod the lib and ui source and do the following for both of them. ./confure
      make
      make install

  11. Re:More open source fragmentation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    First of all, Xine is not a web calendar written in PHP. It's written in Perl.

    And Mplayer isn't free, you have to download it.

    Sheesh.

  12. What has xine done by Fefe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    to get all this free publicity? The ffmpeg and xvid people do all the hard codec work and the mplayer people support every codec, container format and play even severely broken files, setting new records for tweakability to get it to excel even in really bad circumstances (it can play DVD in real-time on my EPIA-M 9000, using software AC-3 with stereo downmix; go ahead and read all the reviews that say it can't be done even under Windows where they have hardware MPEG-2 acceleration and use an external S/PDIF decoder).

    xine is always lagging behind. Their main "innovation" is that unintuitive and ugly GUI. WTF were they thinking when they created a GUI that is unusable without all those tool-tips?

    I have no idea whom the xine people had to bribe to get all this slashdot exposure, because it sure as hell didn't earn it on technical merit.

    1. Re:What has xine done by vlad_petric · · Score: 3, Informative
      For one, they have an audio/video sync code that works fine with the crappy soundcard drivers that linux has (see mplayer article on freshmeat).

      Trust me, once you watch starwars 2 on mplayer and the flying cars (Jedi council window) are like Queen Elizabeth's guards (i.e. they don't go smoothly at all) you switch to xine immediately. (yeah, I know -autosync. Hasn't improved much on my system). Don't get me wrong, mplayer is great - just not on my system. And I'm not going to pay 34$ to get commercial oss drivers.

      --

      The Raven

    2. Re:What has xine done by uhmmmm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      IIRC the native decoder for Sorenson video 1 was from xine, and ffmpeg imported it from them, so it's not entirely one-sided.

  13. Re:More open source fragmentation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, lame troll... Xine has much better performance on older PC's, and also has much better synchronization for NTSC MPEG-2 such as DVD's. Mplayer is more of a bleeding edge player, is great for transcoding/encoding stuff, and gets new codecs before Xine, but it is really jerky on NTSC MPEG-2 (dunno 'bout PAL). I prefer Mplayer for encoding DVD's to AVI's in Linux, and watching DIVX and DV AVI files, and I prefer Xine for DVD's and its support for DTS passthrough. But, if I'm going to use a separate program for file/DVD playback, I might as well just use Ogle for DVD's, since it now supports DTS and Dolby Digital passthrough. Xine supports seeking in streams though, so it has one advantage over Ogle.

    You know what? All the programs are great, and I really like having a choice. Now if only I could figure out if it's legal to sell HTPC's that have Open Source DVD software pre-installed (with source code included).

    Oh, BTW, all three are Free and free.

  14. Re:Illegal? by mythr · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's only breaking the law in countries where idiocy is encouraged in leaders. That means you're safe... Um... So, um... yeah, it probably is. :/

  15. Re:More important by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Install apt-get for rpm, or configure urpmi, or just get debian, or emerge. Then do one of the following: apt-get install xine urpmi.install xine emerge xine Wait, you now have xine. Xine has long since been packaged well enough by third parties to make install a snap.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  16. whining about no official linux quicktime player by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "btw screw you apple and microsoft for not providing media players for linux"

    Says the PFY as he fires up MPlayer(having downloaded the illegally-distributed Windows DLLs from the mplayer authors) to watch The Matrix trailer. I seem to be saying this a lot on slashdot lately, but, get a grip!

    Linux has half a percent of the desktop market. Apple, with MacOS, has something like 4-5%, I think? Maybe 8% tops? Why exactly -should- Apple give a hoot about Linux? They're not THAT big a company, and they're busy as hell(have you stopped to think about how many software products they now produce? OSX, OSX Server, Quicktime Streaming Server, Quicktime, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and Final Cut Pro, iDVD and DVD Studio Pro, iCal/iSync...the list is ENORMOUS.) They don't, quite frankly, have the time to screw around with, essentially, something that can't even be called "competition"(Apple's products have always represented the complete antithesis of Linux - coherence, ease of use, simplicity, elegance...)

    I've owned Macs for years, and no-official-quicktime-or-wmp-player doesn't bother me. Why? Because there are clever(if sometimes annoying) people out there who figure out how to do it themselves. While Apple hasn't released a player, their normally vicious legal department has, by its lack of action, practically applauded mplayer for using the quicktime-for-windows DLLs. Apple's not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, basically. They get their cake(quicktime support on linux for those who really want it) and they get to eat it too(nothing to develop, maintain, or even support). Besides, the DLLs are getting used the same way a Windows application would use them- about the only thing Apple could get the mplayer guys on would be distributing the DLLs alone and without license.

    You say, "oh, but Apple just doesn't care enough". Apple cares about lots of little things, including people making themes that look like Aqua. Their legal department has no qualms about making a mountain out of a molehill if something displeases them(this is actually one of the things I hate about Apple the most- their legal department head is a total psycho-policy-bitch, completely the wrong thing for a cute-and-cuddly computer company. Lady, get a job at MS or something, you may be making a hit in the legal world, but you're pissing off thousands of Apple customers and techies with every move you make.)

  17. Re:Illegal? by greenrd · · Score: 4, Informative
    In some countries, no reverse engineering is legal. Even in the United States, reverse engineering for "interoperability purposes" is legal. So yes, this is legal. (Assuming that they haven't stolen any code.)

  18. Re:Compress in Soreson by PhoenixK7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This would be great considering that the alternative would be to use expensive Apple software on a Mac.

    You mean $30 for quicktime pro?

    Certainly you can pay more for better encoders from sorenson, but I'd hazzard a guess that if there are ffmpeg encoders for sorenson they're probably not even on par with apple's basic one since its only just been announced.

  19. Re:Mozilla Plugin? by canwaf · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Xine's website there is a Mozilla plugin in the works that provides embedded stream playback. Until then, if you install gxine it comes with a Mozilla plugin that all you need to do 'ln -s' it into your ~/.mozilla/plugins... this will launch gxine and start playing with a nicer interface.

  20. open? by DreadSpoon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't think Sorenson has ever been an open standard. QuickTime is, I believe; but then, it's quite possible to encode a movie in QuickTime _without_ using Sorenson. Sorenson is just one of the many possible codecs usable in the QuickTime "wrapper" format. Same goes for AVI and several other formats; they just wrap the several sub-encodings together. So you can encode both audio and video using two wholly unrelated formats, or whatever. (not a multimedia format expert...)

  21. Re:mplayer leaderless by Rufus211 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You could not possibly be more wrong. The current generation mplayer (G1) will probably die soon, but there still is work going on. A'rpi, who was the driving force behind mplayer, has decided to start a complete rewrite from the base up, for now called mplayer G2 (yeah, mplayer has a thing with bad names). From what I've been reading, it seems to be going fairly well. Check out the current status on the (all of week-old) mailing list here:
    http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-g2-de v/

  22. Re:whining about no official linux quicktime playe by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Informative
    Says the PFY as he fires up MPlayer(having downloaded the illegally-distributed Windows DLLs from the mplayer authors)

    Um, they aren't illegally distributed. Apple themselves distribute them for free - they'd be hard pressed to argue in court that while it's OK for random multimedia CDs and websites to redistribute QuickTime, it's not ok for the MPlayer guys to do it.

    Linux has half a percent of the desktop market. Apple, with MacOS, has something like 4-5%, I think?

    Er, what? You need to get a handle on statistics dude! Nobody knows how big the market share of Linux is, but it's easily 2-3% - companies like IDC say this, not some random joe off the net. Apples market share has been declining steadily for some time now, go read OSNews, they have reported on it several times, and it's now hovering slightly above 2%. So you're smoking some serious stuff if you think MacOS is a long way in front of Linux in terms of market share - it may even be the other way around .

    They don't, quite frankly, have the time to screw around with, essentially, something that can't even be called "competition"

    Apples biggest competitor is Linux by a long, long way. It's the only OS that also appeals to the UNIX-minded user base and can be installed on Apple hardware. No, Windows basically targets a different market at this level. I suspect this is the biggest reason they aren't doing anything - if you look at their contributions to free software, they've done basically what the licenses forced them to do and no more. They're happy to use free software to further their own ends, but aren't really happy to actually take part in the community.

    their legal department head is a total psycho-policy-bitch, completely the wrong thing for a cute-and-cuddly computer company

    Apple aren't cute and cuddly, not even close. You might like to think they are, but go through and learn about their history, Jobs' working style, you clearly already know about their legal tendancies. They're a company out to make the biggest buck they can, and the "cute and cuddly" feeling is a glow projected by their fearsome marketing department, not by their actions.

  23. Mplayer also plays SVQ3 natively by Replicant7 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Both of xine and MPlayer use FFmpeg, which now supports native SVQ3 decoding. Ever since this weekend my CVS version of MPlayer has been able to play SVQ3 natively.