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Mplayer Revisited

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it-slices-it-dices dept.

Joe Barr writes "It's been two years since I first wrote about Mplayer. Maybe the fury of the developers/community reaction to the fact that I dared to criticize them for their treatment of users kept me away. Whatever. Now Mplayer has a pre1 version of release 1.0 out there and it's time for another look." Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.

4 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    any particular reason I would use this? As far as I can tell, Windows Media Player 9.0 seems to do everything I need.

  2. It's free, enjoy it by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: -1, Troll

    Anyone who would criticize an open source tool is a dumbass. The authors have worked hard to create a free tool the community can use. If you don't like it, find something else or write a replacement...but don't be an idiot and put down someone else's hard work.

  3. Why most people will never use Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Windows install:
    run setup.exe

    Linux install:
    "Buried deep in the Mplayer documentation - in the section on installation - are a few lines of text that make the process seem completely trivial. They read as follows:

    Features:

    * Decide if you need GUI. If you do, see the GUI section before compiling.
    * If you want to install MEncoder (our great all-purpose encoder), see the MEncoder section.
    * If you have a V4L compatible TV tuner card, and wish to watch/grab and encode movies with MPlayer, read the TV input section.
    * There is a neat OSD Menu support ready to be used. Check the OSD Menu section.

    Then build MPlayer: ./configure make make install

    At this point, MPlayer is ready to use. The $PREFIX/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf file is needed only when you want to change its properties, as the main binary contains an internal copy of it.

    Actually, there is a little more to it than that.... I created an mplayer directory in my home directory, then used bunzip2 to decompress each of the downloads and then ran tar, which unpacked them and stowed them away in their own directories. For neatness, I created a separate tar directory and moved the tar files themselves there afterwards.

    Then I entered the mplayer-1.0pre1 subdirectory tar had created and ran the configure script with the gui option: ./configure --enable-gui. The script ran, but it complained about not having found a Win32 codecs directory, among a long list (more than 50 items) of other things.

    I had downloaded the Win32 codecs, but they were needed in a directory I didn't have. No problem. I changed to su, created a /usr/local/lib/codecs directory, and moved the win32codecs directory there. Then I ran the configure script again. This time there was no complaint about missing Win32 codecs.

    Then I went through the configure.log and checked every one of the 50 items it had noted as deficient or missing. None of them were critical. Many didn't even apply to me as they were for different platforms completely. So I started make and took a break. " etc etc etc ad nauseum.

  4. Can we call this a review? by smartdreamer · · Score: 1, Troll
    Where is the review?!? Did I miss something or this "5 years Linux user" just wrote some text to prove he doesn't know how to install a software?

    Come on, don't write something like this... please! If you have nothing constructive to say, shut up.
    To be listened by several brings you responsabilities.