[MPlayer-users] Some remaining problems w/ multimedia on Linux

[The Wanderer]

On 12/23/2005 08:18 PM, Reshat Sabiq wrote:

> Thanks in advance for any feedback on these:
> 
> My main problems w/ multimedia on Linux as of today are are:
> 1. i can understand MS websites requiring IE (kinda), but would like
> to at least be able to view Yahoo news video:
> http://news.yahoo.com/video
> (this should work, but my actual URL was cookied i guess:)
> http://news.yahoo.com/video;_ylt=ApfLeznHAl6hLWst8b3IseSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2MnU4czRtBHNlYwNzbg--
> Maybe there's another trick someone already is using for this (like
> -afm dmo i just was told about)?

I'm afraid I wouldn't know anything about that.

> 2. mplayerplug-in doesn't appear to support seeking (left-right
> arrows don't have any effect).

That would be because (unless I've misunderstood how mplayerplug-in
operates) it's playing a stream, not a file, and seeking is not possible
in streamed data.

> Of course there's sporadic crashing related to seeking even in
> mplayer, and mplayer seeking isn't very friendly (especiall from the
> UI), but that is kinda tolerable.

Sporadic crashing related to seeking? What are you talking about? Have
you sent in bug reports? For that matter, what version are you using?

I haven't noticed any seeking-related crashes - or at least I don't
think I have, and if so there was only one so long ago that I've
completely forgotten the details.

> My guess is that somebody has to contribute that code to the plug-in,
> correct? Can anything else be done in the meantime?

Sure, something can be done - exactly what I always do anyway: download
the file to your local system before playing it. This has the additional
advantages of completely avoiding buffering issues and permitting you to
control when your screen (in the case of "fullscreen by default") and/or
your audio (in any case) are taken over by the stream involved. (It has
the disadvantage of requiring an additional step first, but I find the
trade-off to be worth it.)

> 3. mplayerplug-in stops video play-back about 5 seconds before the
> end of the stream (almost always in the videos i've watched), and
> audio play back around 1 (maybe 2) seconds before the end (apparently
> only sometimes).

If true, this is most likely a bug in mplayerplug-in (which is not part
of MPlayer, and so is not developed here). Might I inquire how you know
where the end of the stream is, to be able to tell that mplayerplug-in
is stopping too soon?

> 4. mplayerplug-in URL copy cannot be pasted into gnome-terminal using
> Shift+insert, and one has to right-click and do Paste.

I don't quite understand what you're trying to do here, but in any case
it does not appear to be a problem related to MPlayer.

> 5. the killer: DRM'ed streams. ;)

My understanding is that these are intentionally not supported - both
for "we don't want to get sued/arrested" legal reasons, and because we
don't want to provide support to those who want to put media under DRM.

> I understand 5. is a major pain in the neck, but hopefully 1-thru-4
> could be resolved in some near future. I'd contribute to plug-in
> myself, but unlikely to have the time to do so soon.

You would do well to go to the mplayerplug-in development lists, then -
it is not part of MPlayer, and is not handled here. See
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mplayerplug-in-devel
for more details.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.