[MPlayer-users] install mplayer on fedora core 4, which way to go?

[P. W.]

Hi,

I am new to the whole mplayer world. I just installed
mplayer version 1.0pre8 by downloading and running the
rpm packages from the following site

http://rpm.greysector.net/mplayer/

Then, I run into another site that talks about
installing mplayer on Fedora

http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mplayer-fedora.html

which describes downloading tar files and use "make"
to install. 

My questions are:
1. how are these two ways different?
2. when should a certain way be followed to install?
3. For the rpm install, where are the installed files
located or how to find them? I can use the commands
like mplayer, mencoder after the installation, but how
all the codec source, etc.?

Well, sorry if these questions have been asked before,
but they are ones in front of me.

Thanks for any feedback,

PW