[MPlayer-users] Re: Trying to view an .mpg file using mplayer but can't view the video

Sat May 7 18:32:19 CEST 2005

Hi.

On Thursday, 05 May 2005 at 04:13, Mauriat wrote:
> > > http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mplayer-fedora.shtml
> > > MPlayer - Fedora Guide
> > 
> > Please do not recommend guides with so many errors and bad
> > recommendations.
> 
> I'd love for you to point out any errors you feel are so detrimental
> and which recommendations are bad. I'm not looking for endorsement,
> but I would like to improve it if possible.

OK, let's take it apart, bit by bit.

General comment: sometimes you say a library can be installed via RPMs
and sometimes you don't (even if there are RPMs available). Why?

1. DivX. There's no sane reason to recommend installing DivX. Both libavcodec
and XviD are far superior to the Linux version of DivXNetworks' codec.
It might be mentioned for completeness sake, but certainly not right at the
beginning.

2. LAME. There are RPMs for LAME, for example in my repository.

3. RealPlayer 10. AFAIK MPlayer plays all RP10 media now.

4. LIVE.com. There are RPMs for LIVE.com, for example in my repository.

5. MPlayer add-ons. You do *not* need the raster fonts pack if you have
freetype. You only need the essential codecs package. One skin must be
installed in a directory called "default".

6. Building MPlayer. Recommending --disable-gcc-checking isn't well received
around here. It's better to use a recommended compiler, like gcc-3.2.x, which
is available for RedHat 7.3, for example here:
http://apt.kde-redhat.org/kde-redhat/kde-redhat/7.3/RPMS.stable/

7. Recommending to install codecs.conf is very bad, as it is known to cause
mysterious problems. You should advise to delete all leftover codecs.conf
files instead.

That's about it.

Regards,
R.

-- 
MPlayer RPMs maintainer: http://rpm.greysector.net/mplayer/
"I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey.
 We stand between the darkness ... and the light."
        -- Delenn in Grey Council in Babylon 5:"Babylon Squared"