[MPlayer-users] How to identify missing video-codec?

[The Wanderer]

Bernt Christandl wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> i'm using mplayer since years and from time to time i've upgraded the
> version and the codecs up to now "...pre4" (or "pre7" my laptop)
> Nevertheless i'm only an unexperienced user.

pre7try2 is nearly nine months old, and is officially not supported;
sometimes answers will be provided, but the official response to any
help requests involving it is "use the CVS version".

pre4 is nearly two *years* old, and your chance of getting any help with
it is virtually zero unless you can provide a Very Very Good reason why
it is impossible for you to use a more recent version.

> These days i see more and more *.mov cinema-trailers that do not work
> with my "incarnation" of mplayer, e.g. from
> 
> http://www.moviemaze.de/media/trailer/2610/basic-instinct-neues-spiel-fuer-catherine-tramell.html
> 
> i can download and play the "left" trailers (in german) with the date
> from 20. Feb 2006, but not the "right" ones (with the date from 9.
> Feb 2006) When i try one of those mplayer starts (see below)
> complaining that it can't find a useful video-codec, but it does find
> a useful audio-codec...
> 
> My question is now: how can i find out which video-codec is missing
> and even more, whether this missing codec is available for linux and
> mplayer? (Isn't quicktime quicktime? Are there {many???} versions?)

I think that there are in fact multiple versions - and even if not, it
is possible to encounter problems with even the same version of a codec
if it is identified in different ways in the container.

I've got limited time before I have to leave for work, so I haven't
tested to see whether my own (up to date as of yesterday) MPlayer can
handle the file you specify; if no one else has checked it when I get
back to my computer, I'll give it a look.

-- 
       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.