[MPlayer-users] MPlayer works like a charm, just need a few tips!

[Kris Kielhofner]

Hello all,

	MPlayer is the coolest thing that I have ever seen!  Because of it, I 
am finally able to make use of my dual processor AMD Athlon MP machine. 
  I have no complaints, but I am wondering how to do a couple of things:

1) I have several Divx files that I have created with the mpeg4 codec of 
libavcodec.  The problem is, the video is in 4:3 format with the stupid 
black bars.  I want to crop the video without having to re-encode the 
AVI file (thus resulting in a loss of quality), so that the aspect ratio 
of the output file is 16:9 like it should be.  I have run mplayer -vop 
cropdetect to determine the proper cropping parameters.  I understand 
that MPlayer doesn't use -vop options with -dumpstream.  I also 
understand that Mencoder doesn't use -vop options with -ovc copy and 
-oac copy.  So what can I do to crop these AVI files that I already made 
without losing quality?

2)  Is there any way to make Mencoder SMP aware?  Right now I have no 
problem with running two instances of it to use my hardware to it's full 
potential, but I have to maintain two seperate working directories for 
encoding.  Not a big deal, but would be nice.

3)  What is the best way to handle combining dual sided and or double 
disc DVD's (DVD's where the movie actually spans more that one side, ie 
Goodfellas)?  I have tried ripping each side, then cat'ing each of those 
files into mplayer with streamdump and - (to use stdin).  It seems to 
work (output file is about the size it should be), except that I am 
unable to seek in the file, and the audio doesn't work.  I have tried 
corresponding options for Mencoder, as well as rebuilding the index 
(does that make a difference with MPEG2 video like DVD's)?  I have also 
tried Mencoder with -ovc copy -oac copy into yet another file, but it 
still doesn't work.


I should also mention that I have several friends that are thinking of 
converting to Linux just so that they can use MPlayer! (Who can blame them)?


Thanks a lot guys!

Kris Kielhofner