[MPlayer-users] video out device problem

[Ambrosius Nihilo]

I installed mplayer on ubuntu linux. It works fine with audio files but 
refuses to do video. The error message is

The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec

no matter whether I want it to play a DVD or a video file.

If I type
mplayer -vo help

it gives me the following options for video_out devices:

MPlayer 1.0pre8-4.0.3 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz (Family: 6, Model: 9, Stepping: 
5)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2

Available video output drivers:
fbdev Framebuffer Device
fbdev2 Framebuffer Device
cvidix console VIDIX
null Null video output
mpegpes Mpeg-PES to DVB card
yuv4mpeg yuv4mpeg output for mjpegtools
tga Targa output
pnm PPM/PGM/PGMYUV file
md5sum md5sum of each frame

I can try them by typing, for example,

mplayer filename.MOV -vo null

which works fine because null means no video output at all. All I hear is 
the sound.

My question is: how can I install another video_out device that will work? 
Or do I need to tweak the ones that I have?

I am using an IBM Thinkpad, and I had mplayer working on it before with a 
lower version of ubuntu

--evaristegalois