MPlayer 1.0rc1 + XvMC Nov 2006

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tempestuous
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MPlayer 1.0rc1 + XvMC Nov 2006

#1 Post by tempestuous »

This compilation is focussed on TV input support, plus optimised video out options, and support for modern codecs.

MPlayer XvMC output now works with nVidia graphics cards. I tested it with an nVidia FX5200 card. It turns out that the Unichrome patches from www.openchrome.org break nVidia compatibility, so I have packaged 2 versions; one for nVidia and Intel i810, and another for VIA Unichrome. If you don't have nVidia/i810/Unichrome graphics then it doesn't matter which version you use. Apart from the xvmc feature, the 2 dotpups are identical.
Get them from Mark's site - http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Multimedia/Mplayer-1.0rc1/

Features:
- "xvmc" video output for accelerated MPEG2 decoding under Xorg with nVidia/i810/Unichrome 3D drivers.
- "xv" video output for optimised playback (hardware-assisted scaling) under Xorg.
- "x11" video output under Xvesa (not as good as xv+Xorg).
- "gl" video output under Xorg+OpenGL (older).
- "dga2" video output (older).
("vesa" video output failed to compile, "fbdev & "directfb" could not be enabled)
- Inbuilt codecs for MPEG2, XviD, H.264, and AAC.
- External opensource Theora codec.
- External Win32 codecs for WindowsMedia9 and RealVideo10.
- DVB input support, for digital TV tuner cards.
- V4L/V4L2 input support, for most analogue TV tuner cards.
- IVTV input support, for "PVR" analogue TV tuner cards.
- network support, to play streaming audio/video from a server.
- infrared remote control support.

Regarding IVTV:
Most IVTV-compatible TV tuner cards contain MPEG2/4 encoding chips, so the the tuned TV signal can be compressed and saved as a file. These cards are usually identified as "PVR" models. The "pvr" option failed to compile in MPlayer-1.orc1, but I believe that it's possible to simultaneously record a TV signal and watch it with MPlayer at the same time by doing this -
code
mkfifo test.mpg
cat /dev/v4l/video0 > test.mpg | mplayer test.mpg

Regarding XvMC:
XvMC acceleration was becoming less significant as processors were becoming ever more powerful. Even without graphics hardware assistance, DVD playback and Standard Definition DTV decoding is possible with a modest Pentium2.
But with the growing popularity of High Definition TV, XvMC is useful once again.
XvMC makes it feasible to build Home Theatre/Personal Video Recorder (HTPC) projects from small and quiet computers with modest processors of about 1.5GHz, such as the AMD Geode and maybe(?) VIA Epia. Without XvMC acceleration, the minimum processor requirement for HDTV (1080i spec) is 2.8GHz.
MythTV, the well-regarded Home Theatre application, requires a "back-end" media player, so these MPlayer dotpups are ideal. MythTV's website provides extensive additional information about XvMC here www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC

There are different levels of XvMC specification:
i) Intel i810 and GeForce4 Ti cards support just the "motion-compensation" level of acceleration.
ii) VIA Unichrome cards have enhanced XvMC features called "vld-xvmc"
iii) nVidia GeForce4 MX cards upwards support "motion-compensation" plus "IDCT" levels of acceleration. This is currently the best possible level of hardware assistance.

In MPlayer XvMC output will only work when the XvMC-specific libavcodec-MPEG-1/2 codec ("ffmpeg12mc") is selected, and this can only be done when MPlayer is launched from the command line, NOT THE GUI. Like this -

mplayer -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc -fs /path/to/MYMPEG2VIDEO.mpg
("-fs" is for fullscreen)

tempestuous
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#2 Post by tempestuous »

Update Jan 2 2007
DVD menus should now be fixed, with the addition of the libdvdnav library.
And infrared remote control support has been enabled, with the addition of LIRC + LIRC Client Daemon.

The LIRC libraries are contained in the MPlayer dotpup, but the kernel-specific LIRC modules have been packaged separately.

So all LIRC modules and libraries are provided, but LIRC configuration still requires some effort. See -
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/control.html#lirc
http://www.lirc.org/html/index.html
http://www.dolda2000.com/~fredrik/lirccd/

tempestuous
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Location: Australia

#3 Post by tempestuous »

Darn. I just discovered that DVD menu support in MPlayer is currently EXPERIMENTAL.
To see DVD menus, you must launch MPlayer from the commandline like this -

mplayer dvdnav:// -fs

You will briefly see the menu, then immediately the first title will play , followed by all other titles.
Not ideal, but it works.
Apparently you can gain control over menu functions with a multimedia keyboard, but not with the mouse.
I will need to investigate this further.

And as forum member mikeb mentioned, it's a good idea to add "-msglevel all=-1" to avoid filling up /tmp with error messages. So -

mplayer dvdnav:// -fs -msglevel all=-1

tempestuous
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#4 Post by tempestuous »

Update Jan 12 2007:
MPlayer package recompiled with VCD support. Tested successfully with VideoCD's and SuperVideoCD's.

Latest libdvdnav library (pre v0.2.0) is also updated from CVS source. But DVD menus in MPlayer remain less-than-ideal.
My tests show that DVD menus consisting of graphics-only will display just briefly on the screen.
DVD menus containing video content will remain on the screen, and the menu buttons can be selected by the arrow keys on the keyboard numerical keypad; 4 left, 6 right, 8 up, 2 down, keypad Enter to select.
Unfortunately there is no highlighting of the DVD buttons, so it's difficult to know which button you have selected.

I also read in the documents that when launching MPlayer in dvdnav mode you should add the option "-nocache". I don't know why.

disciple
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#5 Post by disciple »

I get this message:
mplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libXvMCW.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

None of the versions of Puppy that I have have this lib, and I can't find a reference to it on the forum. I've tried stealing it from other distros, but then I get this:
mplayer: relocation error: mplayer: symbol snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate_resample, version ALSA_0.9 not defined in file libasound.so.2 with link time reference


Does anyone have any suggestions?

tempestuous
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Location: Australia

#6 Post by tempestuous »

These MPlayer packages were compiled specifically for the Puppy version current at the time - version 2.12. (2.13 and 2.14 will be fine).
libXvMCW.so.1 is the XvMC Wrapper library. Puppy has contained this library ever since Xorg 7.0 was introduced with version 2.10 ... but don't use v2.10, because XvMC requires 3D drivers, and MU's 3D driver wizard only supports v2.12 onwards.

EDIT: I was assuming that you were trying to use the XvMC output option, but now I realise that MPlayer will not launch unless libXvMCW is present. So I have just packaged this library for Puppy versions prior to 2.10, specifically v1.04-2.02.
Attachments
libXvMCW-xorg6.8.1.pup
for Puppy versions 1.04-1.09 & 2.0-2.02
(54.2 KiB) Downloaded 1403 times

disciple
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#7 Post by disciple »

Thanks, that should be very helpful for other backward people like me that don't use the latest puppy :)
I don't understand my error message about ALSA at all, and Google doesn't help, but I've been trying to compile it myself, and I notice that the configure script says I have ALSA 1.0.x, not 0.9 like in the error message.
I also now notice this in the terminal output after it tells me all about Mplayer and my processor, and before the warning about not being able to use the remote control I don't have:
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory

Now for the really bizarre news - if I uninstall the Mplayer dotpup, it then runs perfectly (well - I couldn't figure out how to make it use X11 output, as that is all that works on my computer, but I didn't exactly spend all day trying). Unfortunately when I reboot Puppy (like it says I have to do to finish removing the dotpup) I no longer have Mplayer as it is uninstalled :(

I think I'll have to go away now or I'll be accused of living on the computer and banned from using it ever again, but I'll come back and try and figure it out, as I was almost finished my custom puppy, and this mplayer version is a vast improvement on the mplayer108 package.

tempestuous
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Location: Australia

#8 Post by tempestuous »

You still haven't told us which version of Puppy you're using.
If you're getting error ALSA-related error messages I suspect you have a Puppy version even earlier than v1.08, which is when Puppy transitioned from OSS to ALSA.

Compiling ALSA is a big deal. It would be far easier to just upgrade to a more recent Puppy. If you want to stick with the 1.x series, at least use 1.09.
disciple wrote:I couldn't figure out how to make it use X11 output
Version 1.09 has Xorg, so you will be able to use xv output, and this will give you much better video performance than x11 output.

disciple
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So close and yet so far

#9 Post by disciple »

Sorry about that. I'm actually using Grafpup (based on 1.04 I think), so I have ALSA. I was also trying with 2.x Puppy versions (pre 2.10) before, but presumably they would work now (with X11 output and your XVMCW package). But I do know there must be a way of making this work in Grafpup because:

- like I said before I had both dotpups installed and then uninstalled, but without rebooting, then later forgot they were uninstalled, ran Mplayer from the menu, and it played everything perfectly with sound, but with a bright green blank video - the video is the same as what I see in VLC with the output set to a couple of the other options - only X11 works on my computer - even though you mentioned in the VLC thread that X11 is for Xvesa and I am using XORG.

- I just tried installing and then uninstalling without rebooting (in my pup001 backup from just before I initially tried this version of Mplayer) to see if it would work again, but for some reason it didn't - I still get the same message about ALSA. This time I actually read the readme properly and found out how to use X11 output, and I also tried telling it to use OSS sound because of the ALSA message. Now it plays video perfectly but with no sound (because I have no OSS).

So at the moment I have video but no sound, but I know the sound can work, so will keep trying.

disciple
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Working :)!

#10 Post by disciple »

OK now everything works if I tell it to use X11 and OSS. I can't fathom why I had no sound before, but it's all good now. I'm pretty sure Grafpup only has ALSA and it is just emulating OSS - in GXINE sound also works with 'ESD' - but whatever it is it works for me.
I followed the instructions in the Mplayer documentation to see if my computer can use XV, and it is supposed to be able to - but it certainly does not work.
Even though X11 output should support software scaling, it does not work :( but it does work in Gxine, which can now play all the files it couldn't play before, like FLV and WMV9. I'm pretty sure scaling worked in mplayer108, and apart from this Mplayer seems to work a lot better than Gxine (faster / smoother playback)

EDIT - I have found that XV works on 1024x768 16 bit display settings - but I use 1280x1024 24 bit as it is my LCD monitor's native resolution :(

sml
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#11 Post by sml »

The link is broken for the dotpup download. Maybe we need a PET package.

tempestuous
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#12 Post by tempestuous »


disciple
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#13 Post by disciple »

This is interesting. I replaced libasound.so.2.0.0 with the (smaller) one from Puppy 2.13, and now it works with alsa output. But now I can only get sound from one file at a time (regardless of media player) - I get messages about not being able to open the audio device...
Apart from that though, there seems to be no difference in functionality!?

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GeorgR
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MPlayer with puppy 4

#14 Post by GeorgR »

When starting mplayer1.0rc1 in a terminal of puppy 4b2:
error while loading shared libraries: libXxf86dga.so.1:
no such file or directory

So do we need a new package for the new puppy?

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ttuuxxx
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Re: MPlayer with puppy 4

#15 Post by ttuuxxx »

GeorgR wrote:When starting mplayer1.0rc1 in a terminal of puppy 4b2:
error while loading shared libraries: libXxf86dga.so.1:
no such file or directory

So do we need a new package for the new puppy?
well I made a missing lib package for you, if your missing anymore libs just shout.
ttuuxxx
Attachments
puppy4Libs.pet
(10.45 KiB) Downloaded 1148 times
Last edited by ttuuxxx on Sun 27 Apr 2008, 17:12, edited 2 times in total.
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

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GeorgR
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#16 Post by GeorgR »

:o
Shouting:
Now Puppy4 missed: libXvMC.so.1

Sunday stress :D

tempestuous
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Re: MPlayer with puppy 4

#17 Post by tempestuous »

I'm not in front of a Linux computer at the moment, but I suspect that libXxf86dga.so.1 (EDIT - and libXvMC.so.1) is part of the xorg_xorg_dri-7.3.pet package for Puppy4.
I don't want to compile MPlayer (and mencoder) again until Puppy's Xorg version settles down. Barry has hinted that he is unhappy with Xorg7.3 and wants to change it for Puppy 4.1.

I recommend that MPlayer-1.0rc2 be tried first, and only use the older rc1 as a fallback if there are problems.

I also see this in the "Puppy 4 Beta 2" thread -
GeorgR wrote:user.warn kernel: dvb-bt8xx: A frontend driver was not found for device 109e/0878 subsystem 0071/0101
MPlayer won't display the output of your digital tuner until the module (and associated modules) loads properly.

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ttuuxxx
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#18 Post by ttuuxxx »

ok I remade the package with the other missing lib I'll keep updating the same package, maybe use a numbering system:)
Once again just shout :)
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

tempestuous
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Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
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#19 Post by tempestuous »

ttuuxxx,
I trust you are obtaining those libraries from Puppy4 Xorg7.3 packages.
libXxf86dga.so.1 will be needed by anyone who chooses the "dga" video out option in MPlayer.
libXvMC.so.1 will be needed by anyone who chooses the "xvmc" video out option in MPlayer.
If the libraries are not compatible with Xorg7.3, then I don't expect those MPlayer video out options will be successful.

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ttuuxxx
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#20 Post by ttuuxxx »

tempestuous wrote:ttuuxxx,
I trust you are obtaining those libraries from Puppy4 Xorg7.3 packages.
libXxf86dga.so.1 will be needed by anyone who chooses the "dga" video out option in MPlayer.
libXvMC.so.1 will be needed by anyone who chooses the "xvmc" video out option in MPlayer.
If the libraries are not compatible with Xorg7.3, then I don't expect those MPlayer video out options will be successful.
yes those libs come from
http://www.puppylinux.ca/pet4/xorg_xorg ... ri-7.3.pet
all I did was download the full library and extracted the libs :)
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

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