[MPlayer-users] 2 questions

[Phil Rhodes]

The version of mplayer that comes on the eee-pc is horribly crippled - won't 
play back h.264, although you need to be conservative with what you ask that 
hardware to decode anyway.

I presume it's some sort of licensing restriction. Unfortunately, the eee 
also suffers from the standard Linux issue that what's in the default 
available-software list is basically what's already installed. This means 
that getting a full-bore mplayer going is, by Windows standards, a rather 
painful experience involving much swearing and cursing, following obscure 
partially-complete online guides, being told ur a n00b lus3r in IRC 
channels, hacking at obscure text files, and in our case doing the 
factory-reset thing several times.

We did eventually get it to go but I have no memory of how and nothing 
approaching a note on the subject. The only advice I can give you is this: 
absolutely never, ever, under any circumstances, no matter what anyone tells 
you, should you type "apt-get upgrade."

P