[MPlayer-dev-eng] [updated draft] MPlayer quickstart guide

[Diego Biurrun]

Hi!

According to your suggestions I have updated the quickstart guide to
include instructions for the Win32 codecs and mention required
libraries.  Mentioning stuff like xvid is overkill inand different vo devices

Questions:
- To compile a basic MPlayer you only need xfree-devel and for the gui
  gtk-devel, right?
- Is it better to say "unpack and put contents in" or give the example
  commands that can be used to accomplish this?
- Quick enough?  Too quick?  Understandable?

Diego

_________________________
MPlayer Quickstart Guide:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to MPlayer, the Unix movie player.  It can play most standard video
formats out of the box and almost all others with the help of external codecs.

This document is for getting you started in a few minutes.  It cannot answer all
your questions.  If you have problems, please read the documentation.  It is
extensive and should answer most of your questions.  Start by reading the manpage
and DOCS/documentation.html.


____________________________
STEP1: Compiling the sources
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You need to have the XFree86 development packages installed.  Otherwise this is
straightforward.  Unpack the sources and then run

  ./configure
  make
  make install

For the last step you need to have root privileges as usual.  Configure has a
lot of options, run './configure --help' to see them.

If you run Debian you can build a proper deb package with one command:

  fakeroot debian/rules binary

If you want a GUI, enable it with './configure --enable-gui' and install the GTK
development packages.


____________________________________________
STEP2: Installing the onscreen display fonts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To enable onscreen status display and DVD subtitles you need some fonts.  Get
them from our homepage.

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html

Unpack the archive and choose one of the available font sizes.  Then create the
directory ~/.mplayer/font/ and copy the font files into that directory.


______________________________
STEP3: Installing the GUI skin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to have a GUI in addition to the command line, you need a skin.
Download a skin from the download page

  http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html

unpack it and put the contents in ~/.mplayer/Skin/default/.


______________________________
STEP4: Installing Win32 Codecs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is only necessary if you want to play ASF and WMA movies.  The builtin
codecs are much faster when playing divx and mpeg files.
Grab the codecs archive from the download page

  http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html

unpack it and put the contents in /usr/lib/win32/.


______________________
STEP5: Running MPlayer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You should be able to start playing movies now.  On the command line, try

  mplayer <moviefile>

or for a GUI

  mplayer -gui <moviefile>
  gmplayer <moviefile>

See 'mplayer --help' and 'man mplayer' for further options.  'mplayer -vo help'
will show you the available video output drivers.  Experiment with the '-vo'
switch to see which one gives you the best performance.