[MPlayer-users] [updated draft] MPlayer quickstart guide

[Diego Biurrun]

On Mon, May 27, 2002 at 01:34:43PM +0200, Arpi wrote:
> 
> I can't find it mroe clear :(
> 
> Imho, it would be clear, if you start with win32 codec download and
> libavcodec _before_ telling the user to do './configure'

OK, redesigned.  Hope you like this version better.

> > My idea was to provide a very quick introduction to MPlayer.  Something
> html doc is also very quick

We have a different idea of quick here.  I wanted something much quicker
than html.

> > I guess you do not want to have the information duplicated across two
> > manuals.  This would partially be true for the moment, but
> no, i don't want duplicate dstuff. i said: move and convert that to txt. not
> 'copy' and convert.

I already got that point.  I'm not clear about the details, though, so let
me pose a few specific questions:

- Do you want the README to include the overview section?
- Do you want the README to include the history section?
- Do you want the README to include the software requirements, short codecs
  descriptons, supported graphics and sound cards subsections?
- Do you want documentation.html to start with chapter 2, once the README is
  finished?

I guess we are inching closer to a solution.  Here comes the next try.

Diego
-------------- next part --------------
Welcome to MPlayer, the Unix movie player.  MPlayer 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.


To compile MPlayer you need to have the XFree86 development packages installed,
for the GUI you also need the GTK development packages.


To take advantage of the onscreen display, the GUI or simply play some additional
movie types like DivX and WMA, you have to take a few extra steps before
compiling.


____________________________________________
STEP1: 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.


____________________________
STEP2: Installing a GUI skin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to use the GUI you need a skin.  Download one from the download page

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

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


___________________________________
STEP3: Installing FFmpeg libavcodec
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The FFmpeg project provides libavcodec, a very portable MPEG4/DivX codec with
excellent speed and quality.  It is the preferred codec of MPlayer and used to
be included in the MPlayer CVS tree.  This is no longer the case and you have to
get libavcodec directly from the FFmpeg CVS server.  If you are using an official
release tarball, skip this step, it includes libavcodec.

Remove the libavcodec subdirectory of the MPlayer sources and employ the following
commands in a separate directory to get the FFmpeg sources

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous at cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous at cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg/libavcodec

Then move (symlinking does not suffice) the freshly downloaded libavcodec
directory back into the MPlayer source tree.  The libac3, liba52 and mpglib
subdirectories are not required, you may delete them if you wish.  Keep the
FFmpeg CVS subdirectories to be able to update from their CVS server.


______________________________
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/.


________________________
STEP4: Compiling MPlayer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The remainder is pretty straightforward.  Run

  ./configure

to configure MPlayer with the options you installed above.  GUI support has to be
enabled separately, run

  ./configure --enable-gui

if you want to use the GUI.  Configure has many more options, see them by running

  ./configure --help

Now you can start the compilation by typing

  make

You can install MPlayer with

  make install

provided that you have root privileges.


If you run Debian you can configure, compile and build a proper deb package with
only one command:

  fakeroot debian/rules binary



That's it for the moment.  To start playing movies, open a command line and 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.  Questions you may have
are probably answered in the rest of the documentation.  The place to start
reading is DOCS/documentation.html.