[gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Peper]

Hello,
what's the best video player in your opinion?

-- 
Best Regards,
Peper
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[A. R.]

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Hi,

For me it is more about which one of the video players I am able to properly
configure.
Right now I prefer gxine and kaffeine (xine-lib based).
Those two pretty much can play anything.

Regards,

- AR

On 11/15/05, Peper <peper@aster.pl> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> what's the best video player in your opinion?
>
> --
> Best Regards,
> Peper
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


--
The absence of war does not mean peace.

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Mrugesh Karnik]

>     what's the best video player in your opinion?

Kaffeine is great for playing DVDs. I use kaffeine when in KDE. Kplayer 
is also good. Kplayer can use xine or mplayer as the backend, which is a 
nice feature. I prefer mplayer with directfb on the console though. 
Mplayer simply is great!

Do not underestimate VLC though. I had some problems with its GUI, 
because I didn't compile it with wxwindows support. That I guess is an 
error on my part. But VLC is great! I use VLC in Windows. Haven't used 
it as much on Linux, but I think VLC has the best sound output.

Cheers,
Mrugesh
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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Best video player

[James]

Mrugesh Karnik <mrugeshkarnik <at> gmail.com> writes:


> Do not underestimate VLC though. I had some problems with its GUI, 
> because I didn't compile it with wxwindows support. That I guess is an 
> error on my part. 

Why does one need to set the flag 'wxwindows' for use on a gentoo(KDE)
system?

I've recently installed vlc and I'm reading the scant documentation
on setting it up and getting it to read various video streams from
different sources. Any light you can shed, or locations of documentation
on VLC is appreciated.


James





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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Best video player

[abhay]

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On Tuesday 15 Nov 2005 11:30 pm, James wrote:
> Why does one need to set the flag 'wxwindows' for use on a gentoo(KDE)
> system?
>
> I've recently installed vlc and I'm reading the scant documentation
> on setting it up and getting it to read various video streams from
> different sources. Any light you can shed, or locations of documentation
> on VLC is appreciated.
wxwindows is required to enable vlc's GUI. If you don't set that flag, you 
don't get a GUI.

To know about the recommended USE flags for VLC, look here
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-gentoo.html

Abhay

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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Best video player

[James]

abhay <abhay.ilugd <at> gmail.com> writes:



> To know about the recommended USE flags for VLC, look here
> http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-gentoo.html


Very informative!
I guess my google search strings were not the best choice.....

Thanks
James

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Best video player

[Aniruddha Shankar]

James wrote:
> 
> Why does one need to set the flag 'wxwindows' for use on a gentoo(KDE)
> system?

put

media-video/vlc wxwindows

in /etc/portage/package.use
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Tuesday 15 November 2005 15:48, Peper wrote:
> Hello,
> what's the best video player in your opinion?
>
> --
> Best Regards,
> Peper

xine with xine-ui

mplayer is nice too, but while xine is able to save the correct aspect ratio 
while resizing, mplayer only has 100%, 200% and fullscreen. (if it does show 
the coorect aspect ratio, it is well hidden - and something well hidden does 
not count).
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:47:46 +0100
Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> On Tuesday 15 November 2005 15:48, Peper wrote:
> > Hello,
> > what's the best video player in your opinion?
> >
> > --
> > Best Regards,
> > Peper
> 
> xine with xine-ui
> 
> mplayer is nice too, but while xine is able to save the correct aspect ratio 
> while resizing, mplayer only has 100%, 200% and fullscreen. (if it does show 
> the coorect aspect ratio, it is well hidden - and something well hidden does 
> not count).

I am not sure that you are at all correct. With mplayer I can resize a
window with my mouse and the aspect is retained (ie i drag the window
wider and it also gets taller). There are certainly no restrictions like
100/200% - any size seems to work.

And aspect seems to work well when resizing to fullscreen too. If it is
in some form of letterbox (eg 16:9) you get black lines above and below,
just as expected.

Some media formats (avi?) have a place in the header to specify aspect
ratio, whereas others seem to leave it to the player to guess from the
frame size. If the header doesn't specifiy then the player can get
confused, but mplayer has the -aspect switch which seems to fix this on
the rare occasion that it is an issue. And it is not well hidden,
searching the man page for "aspect" turns it up. 

I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":

-nokeepaspect
 Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works with the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video
 output drivers.  Furthermore under X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.

Maybe this is turned on in your machine?

Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*

-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 00:02, Nick Rout wrote:

> I am not sure that you are at all correct. With mplayer I can resize a
> window with my mouse and the aspect is retained (ie i drag the window
> wider and it also gets taller). There are certainly no restrictions like
> 100/200% - any size seems to work.
>
> And aspect seems to work well when resizing to fullscreen too. If it is
> in some form of letterbox (eg 16:9) you get black lines above and below,
> just as expected.
>
> Some media formats (avi?) have a place in the header to specify aspect
> ratio, whereas others seem to leave it to the player to guess from the
> frame size. If the header doesn't specifiy then the player can get
> confused, but mplayer has the -aspect switch which seems to fix this on
> the rare occasion that it is an issue. And it is not well hidden,
> searching the man page for "aspect" turns it up.
>
> I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
>
> -nokeepaspect
>  Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works with
> the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers.  Furthermore under
> X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.
>
> Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
>
> Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
>

I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults one, but 
when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect ratio is 
totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.

Xine, on the other hand, does honor the aspect ratio. When the window is to 
tall or wide, black lines are added until the aspect is correct.

Glück Auf
Volker

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:20:35 +0100
Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> > I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
> >
> > -nokeepaspect
> >  Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works with
> > the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers.  Furthermore under
> > X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.
> >
> > Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
> >
> > Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
> >
> 
> I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults one, but 
> when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect ratio is 
> totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.
> 
> Xine, on the other hand, does honor the aspect ratio. When the window is to 
> tall or wide, black lines are added until the aspect is correct.
> 
> Glück Auf
> Volker

Interesting, is this on all files, or just some?

Is it the same in gmplayer and mplayer?


-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>


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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 00:37, Nick Rout wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:20:35 +0100
>
> Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > > I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
> > >
> > > -nokeepaspect
> > >  Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works
> > > with the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers. 
> > > Furthermore under X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect
> > > hints.
> > >
> > > Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
> > >
> > > Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
> >
> > I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults
> > one, but when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect
> > ratio is totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.
> >
> > Xine, on the other hand, does honor the aspect ratio. When the window is
> > to tall or wide, black lines are added until the aspect is correct.
> >
> > Glück Auf
> > Volker
>
> Interesting, is this on all files, or just some?
>
> Is it the same in gmplayer and mplayer?

gmplayer -mplayer itself does refuse to run. 

Oh, but if you know mplayer so well, maybe you can tell me, how to fast 
forward (2x, 4x) in (g)mplayer? I do not mean skip forward some seconds, I 
mean real fast forward?

The only reason I use (g)mplayer is, that it sometimes is able to play vids, 
xine barfs on (and vice versa, so both are needed).

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

> >
> > Interesting, is this on all files, or just some?
> >
> > Is it the same in gmplayer and mplayer?
> 
> gmplayer -mplayer itself does refuse to run. 
> 
> Oh, but if you know mplayer so well, maybe you can tell me, how to fast 
> forward (2x, 4x) in (g)mplayer? I do not mean skip forward some seconds, I 
> mean real fast forward?

I have never tried it, so I read the man page just now, and searched on "speed". I pretty quickly dound this:

general control
          <- and ->
               Seek backward/forward 10 seconds.
          up and down
               Seek backward/forward 1 minute.
          pgup and pgdown
               Seek backward/forward 10 minutes.
          [ and ]
               Decreases/increases current playback speed by 10%.
          { and }
               Halves/doubles current playback speed.

so looks like [ ] { and } should be tried.

> 
> The only reason I use (g)mplayer is, that it sometimes is able to play vids, 
> xine barfs on (and vice versa, so both are needed).
> 

same here, in reverse :)

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> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 02:15, Nick Rout wrote:
> > > Interesting, is this on all files, or just some?
> > >
> > > Is it the same in gmplayer and mplayer?
> >
> > gmplayer -mplayer itself does refuse to run.
> >
> > Oh, but if you know mplayer so well, maybe you can tell me, how to fast
> > forward (2x, 4x) in (g)mplayer? I do not mean skip forward some seconds,
> > I mean real fast forward?
>
> I have never tried it, so I read the man page just now, and searched on
> "speed". I pretty quickly dound this:
>
> general control
>           <- and ->
>                Seek backward/forward 10 seconds.
>           up and down
>                Seek backward/forward 1 minute.
>           pgup and pgdown
>                Seek backward/forward 10 minutes.
>           [ and ]
>                Decreases/increases current playback speed by 10%.
>           { and }
>                Halves/doubles current playback speed.
>
> so looks like [ ] { and } should be tried.

thanks, but that is pretty un-intuitive.
xine uses arrow up/down for the speed... a combination where I do not need to 
span my fingers over half the keyboard..
But mplayer also jumps forward with mouse wheel up, and backwards with mouse 
wheel down... the opposite of what I would expect. If you read a book, you 
read from top down.. so going downwards is forward. ;)
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:05:28 +0100, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> thanks, but that is pretty un-intuitive.
> xine uses arrow up/down for the speed... a combination where I do not
> need to span my fingers over half the keyboard..
> But mplayer also jumps forward with mouse wheel up, and backwards with
> mouse wheel down... the opposite of what I would expect. If you read a
> book, you read from top down.. so going downwards is forward. ;)

mplayer also allows you to redefine all of these in its config file. You
don't have to worry about it being intuitive when you get to choose the
key bindings.
 

-- 
Neil Bothwick

Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 13:55, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:05:28 +0100, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > thanks, but that is pretty un-intuitive.
> > xine uses arrow up/down for the speed... a combination where I do not
> > need to span my fingers over half the keyboard..
> > But mplayer also jumps forward with mouse wheel up, and backwards with
> > mouse wheel down... the opposite of what I would expect. If you read a
> > book, you read from top down.. so going downwards is forward. ;)
>
> mplayer also allows you to redefine all of these in its config file. You
> don't have to worry about it being intuitive when you get to choose the
> key bindings.

but xine does it right without the need of editing the conf, so in my humble 
opinion, xine is better - I am lazy ;)
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:14:18 +0100, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> > mplayer also allows you to redefine all of these in its config file.
> > You don't have to worry about it being intuitive when you get to
> > choose the key bindings.
> 
> but xine does it right without the need of editing the conf, so in my
> humble opinion, xine is better - I am lazy ;)

No, you just used xine first, so its controls appeared more "intuitive"
to you. If you'd got used to mplayer's controls first, you'd have the
same complaint about xine.

Very little about computer user interfaces is truly intuitive, it's just
a matter of what you are used to. 


-- 
Neil Bothwick

furbling, v.:
	Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport or bank
	even when you are the only person in line.
		-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 16:51, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:14:18 +0100, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > > mplayer also allows you to redefine all of these in its config file.
> > > You don't have to worry about it being intuitive when you get to
> > > choose the key bindings.
> >
> > but xine does it right without the need of editing the conf, so in my
> > humble opinion, xine is better - I am lazy ;)
>
> No, you just used xine first, so its controls appeared more "intuitive"
> to you. If you'd got used to mplayer's controls first, you'd have the
> same complaint about xine.
>
> Very little about computer user interfaces is truly intuitive, it's just
> a matter of what you are used to.

I have tried it - and the mplayer controlls suck. {} makes the film, slower, 
faster, but not +/- 100% like xine, one klick, one doubling. No, it does +/- 
some percent, and if you hold the key for the tenth of a second to long, 
you'll never find back to normal speed.
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 23:42:47 +0100, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> I have tried it - and the mplayer controlls suck. {} makes the film,
> slower, faster, but not +/- 100% like xine, one klick, one doubling.
> No, it does +/- some percent, and if you hold the key for the tenth of
> a second to long, you'll never find back to normal speed.

[] change the speed by 10%, {} halve/double it. If you don't like those
keys, change them. Those are only defaults, not set in stone.

Backspace is the default key to revert to normal speed. I expect that if
you search the web, you'll find someone has posted a config file to use
the same keybindings as xine.

Here are the relevant settings from ~/.mplayer.conf, change them to
whatever you want.

RIGHT seek +10
LEFT seek -10
DOWN seek -60
UP seek +60
PGUP seek 600
PGDWN seek -600
[ speed_mult 0.9091	# scale playback speed
] speed_mult 1.1
{ speed_mult 0.5
} speed_mult 2.0
BS speed_set 1.0	# reset speed to normal


-- 
Neil Bothwick

The present never ages. Each moment is like a snowflake, unique,
unspoiled, unrepeatable, and can be appreciated in its surprisingness.

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Matthias Bethke]

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Hi Hemmann,,
on Wednesday, 2005-11-16 at 16:14:18, you wrote:
> but xine does it right without the need of editing the conf, so in my humble 
> opinion, xine is better - I am lazy ;)

Depends on your keyboard. On a US keyboard, {}/[] are just fine, of
course on a German one it will be as unintuitive as the otherwise very
practical '?'/'/' default for searching in programs like vi, more/less
or mutt.

regards
	Matthias
-- 
I prefer encrypted and signed messages. KeyID: FAC37665
Fingerprint: 8C16 3F0A A6FC DF0D 19B0  8DEF 48D9 1700 FAC3 7665

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:05:28 +0100
Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:

> thanks, but that is pretty un-intuitive.
> xine uses arrow up/down for the speed... a combination where I do not need to 
> span my fingers over half the keyboard..

there is a mechanism to change the keybindings to suit your choices.
search the man page for -input. A list of events that can be configured,
and commands that can be bound to them is obtainable like this:

mplayer -input keylist
mplayer -input cmdlist

xine is couter intuitive for me as I am used to using the mplayer
keybinding of up arrow for jump forward 1 minute.

> But mplayer also jumps forward with mouse wheel up, and backwards with mouse 
> wheel down... the opposite of what I would expect. If you read a book, you 
> read from top down.. so going downwards is forward. ;)

in firefox ctrl-wheel button makes the font larger or smaller. (great
late at night when tyour eyes are getting tired). in konqueror it also
makes the font change size, but in the other direction. most
frustrating!


-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[abhay]

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On Wednesday 16 Nov 2005 5:35 am, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> gmplayer -mplayer itself does refuse to run.
>
> Oh, but if you know mplayer so well, maybe you can tell me, how to fast
> forward (2x, 4x) in (g)mplayer? I do not mean skip forward some seconds, I
> mean real fast forward?
>
> The only reason I use (g)mplayer is, that it sometimes is able to play
> vids, xine barfs on (and vice versa, so both are needed).
mplayer refuses to run and gmplayer runs? what error do you get with mplayer?
Also, mplayer's native GUI or gmplayer is very bad. You should rather use 
alternatives like kmplayer. I am a big fan of mplayer and the main reason 
behind it, is the interface it has. You can control everything you want with 
keyboard so never need a GUI.

Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[brullo nulla]

I like the mplayer gui / keyboard controls a lot, but recently I have
the impression xine is outperforming mplayer.
I have seen mplayer choke (dropping frames, sloppy audio-video sync)
on avi files  that xine handles perfectly. I have very rarely seen the
reverse. My mplayer has long stopped working on MPEGs, despite any
rebuild and recompile... but that's probably a problem of mine.

Anyway I'd keep both on my box if space is not a tight necessity.

m.

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 09:37, abhay wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 Nov 2005 5:35 am, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > gmplayer -mplayer itself does refuse to run.
> >
> > Oh, but if you know mplayer so well, maybe you can tell me, how to fast
> > forward (2x, 4x) in (g)mplayer? I do not mean skip forward some seconds,
> > I mean real fast forward?
> >
> > The only reason I use (g)mplayer is, that it sometimes is able to play
> > vids, xine barfs on (and vice versa, so both are needed).
>
> mplayer refuses to run and gmplayer runs? what error do you get with
> mplayer? Also, mplayer's native GUI or gmplayer is very bad. You should
> rather use alternatives like kmplayer. I am a big fan of mplayer and the
> main reason behind it, is the interface it has. You can control everything
> you want with keyboard so never need a GUI.
>
> Abhay


VDec: VO wird versucht, auf 512 x 384 (Bevorzugter Farbraum: Planar YV12) zu 
setzen.
Konnte keinen passenden Farbraum finden - neuer Versuch mit '-vf scale'..
Öffne Videofilter: [scale]
Der ausgewählte Videoausgabetreiber ist nicht kompatibel mit diesem Codec.

FATAL: Konnte Videofilter (-vf) oder -ausgabetreiber (-vo) nicht 
initialisieren.

alsa-uninit: pcm closed

Beenden... (Dateiende erreicht.)


gmplayer has no problems with the same file.

Oh, and it is gmplayer, because that is, what opens, when I try to open it 
with right click and 'play with --> mplayer' ;)

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[abhay]

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On Wednesday 16 Nov 2005 5:31 pm, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> FATAL: Konnte Videofilter (-vf) oder -ausgabetreiber (-vo) nicht
> initialisieren.
I could not make much out of that error message (still need to learn a lot of 
languages ;) ) but looks like a problem with your video output driver 
settings. Check in /etc/mplayer.conf and ~/.mplayer/gui.conf as to which vo 
drivers you are using in each of them. gui.conf has correct "vo_driver" 
configuration while mplayer.conf doesn't.
Hope that helps.

Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Wednesday 16 November 2005 15:46, abhay wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 Nov 2005 5:31 pm, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > FATAL: Konnte Videofilter (-vf) oder -ausgabetreiber (-vo) nicht
> > initialisieren.
>
> I could not make much out of that error message (still need to learn a lot
> of languages ;) ) but looks like a problem with your video output driver
> settings. Check in /etc/mplayer.conf and ~/.mplayer/gui.conf as to which vo
> drivers you are using in each of them. gui.conf has correct "vo_driver"
> configuration while mplayer.conf doesn't.
> Hope that helps.
>

hm, it used xvmc as default, I set it to xv and it worked.

Andmplayer does indeed honor the aspect-ratio. Sadly, you are forced to have 
the window in the right ratio (not like xine, where you can have the window 
in every ratio you like, and xine adds blavk lines where needed). But still - 
when I do my right-click->open with mplayer, gmplayer starts. And gmplayer 
ignores the aspect ratio.
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[abhay]

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On Wednesday 16 Nov 2005 8:48 pm, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> Andmplayer does indeed honor the aspect-ratio. Sadly, you are forced to
> have the window in the right ratio (not like xine, where you can have the
> window in every ratio you like, and xine adds blavk lines where needed).
mplayer -nokeepaspect <file name>

> But still - when I do my right-click->open with mplayer, gmplayer starts.
> And gmplayer ignores the aspect ratio.
gmplayer is just the GUI part of mplayer and which imho needs a lot of work. 
On the other hand there is nothing better than the command line mplayer.

Abhay

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[darren kirby]

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quoth the Hemmann, Volker Armin:
> On Wednesday 16 November 2005 00:02, Nick Rout wrote:
> > I am not sure that you are at all correct. With mplayer I can resize a
> > window with my mouse and the aspect is retained (ie i drag the window
> > wider and it also gets taller). There are certainly no restrictions like
> > 100/200% - any size seems to work.
> >
> > And aspect seems to work well when resizing to fullscreen too. If it is
> > in some form of letterbox (eg 16:9) you get black lines above and below,
> > just as expected.
> >
> > Some media formats (avi?) have a place in the header to specify aspect
> > ratio, whereas others seem to leave it to the player to guess from the
> > frame size. If the header doesn't specifiy then the player can get
> > confused, but mplayer has the -aspect switch which seems to fix this on
> > the rare occasion that it is an issue. And it is not well hidden,
> > searching the man page for "aspect" turns it up.
> >
> > I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
> >
> > -nokeepaspect
> >  Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works with
> > the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers.  Furthermore
> > under X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.
> >
> > Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
> >
> > Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
>
> I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults one,
> but when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect ratio is
> totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.

I have the exact same behavior here. All the options seem to imply that 
keeping the aspect ratio is the default, but it just isn't working like that. 
All the options in the man page involving 'aspect' describe how to change 
this default behavior (which isn't happening...) and logically negating them 
in mplayer.conf doesn't appear to work in the few attempts I've made.

I'm using kde, perhaps it is interference by the WM at work here...

To tell the truth though, this doesn't really bother me too much since I 
usually only use 'Double' or fullscreen size. It is odd though. 

-d
-- 
darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
"...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
- Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:50:49 -0800
darren kirby wrote:

> quoth the Hemmann, Volker Armin:
> > On Wednesday 16 November 2005 00:02, Nick Rout wrote:
> > > I am not sure that you are at all correct. With mplayer I can resize a
> > > window with my mouse and the aspect is retained (ie i drag the window
> > > wider and it also gets taller). There are certainly no restrictions like
> > > 100/200% - any size seems to work.
> > >
> > > And aspect seems to work well when resizing to fullscreen too. If it is
> > > in some form of letterbox (eg 16:9) you get black lines above and below,
> > > just as expected.
> > >
> > > Some media formats (avi?) have a place in the header to specify aspect
> > > ratio, whereas others seem to leave it to the player to guess from the
> > > frame size. If the header doesn't specifiy then the player can get
> > > confused, but mplayer has the -aspect switch which seems to fix this on
> > > the rare occasion that it is an issue. And it is not well hidden,
> > > searching the man page for "aspect" turns it up.
> > >
> > > I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
> > >
> > > -nokeepaspect
> > >  Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows.  Only works with
> > > the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers.  Furthermore
> > > under X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.
> > >
> > > Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
> > >
> > > Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
> >
> > I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults one,
> > but when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect ratio is
> > totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.
> 
> I have the exact same behavior here. All the options seem to imply that 
> keeping the aspect ratio is the default, but it just isn't working like that. 
> All the options in the man page involving 'aspect' describe how to change 
> this default behavior (which isn't happening...) and logically negating them 
> in mplayer.conf doesn't appear to work in the few attempts I've made.
> 
> I'm using kde, perhaps it is interference by the WM at work here...

Yes i will try it in kde tonight. However I suspect its more likely a
video driver issue. see below.

> 
> To tell the truth though, this doesn't really bother me too much since I 
> usually only use 'Double' or fullscreen size. It is odd though. 

What output driver are you using?

I am using xv

Looking at the output of mplayer running from the command line should
tell you.

Also mplayer -vo help will give you a list of those available. 
-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Alan E. Davis]

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I am interested in this discussion. I spent a weekend trying out several
players. Of the few I tried, I liked xine-ui best, perhaps, for it's
playability. However, ogle, goggles, and kmplayer give the gift of
bookmarks. Is there any way to do bookmarks w/ Xine or Mplayer? Mplayer is
nice also.

Bookmarks are really important to me.

Alan Davis

On 11/16/05, Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:50:49 -0800
> darren kirby wrote:
>
> > quoth the Hemmann, Volker Armin:
> > > On Wednesday 16 November 2005 00:02, Nick Rout wrote:
> > > > I am not sure that you are at all correct. With mplayer I can resize
> a
> > > > window with my mouse and the aspect is retained (ie i drag the
> window
> > > > wider and it also gets taller). There are certainly no restrictions
> like
> > > > 100/200% - any size seems to work.
> > > >
> > > > And aspect seems to work well when resizing to fullscreen too. If it
> is
> > > > in some form of letterbox (eg 16:9) you get black lines above and
> below,
> > > > just as expected.
> > > >
> > > > Some media formats (avi?) have a place in the header to specify
> aspect
> > > > ratio, whereas others seem to leave it to the player to guess from
> the
> > > > frame size. If the header doesn't specifiy then the player can get
> > > > confused, but mplayer has the -aspect switch which seems to fix this
> on
> > > > the rare occasion that it is an issue. And it is not well hidden,
> > > > searching the man page for "aspect" turns it up.
> > > >
> > > > I see that there is also a switch called "-nokeepaspect":
> > > >
> > > > -nokeepaspect
> > > > Do not keep window aspect ratio when resizing windows. Only works
> with
> > > > the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, directx video output drivers. Furthermore
> > > > under X11 your window manager has to honor window aspect hints.
> > > >
> > > > Maybe this is turned on in your machine?
> > > >
> > > > Check /etc/mplayer.conf (system wide) and ~/.mplayer/*
> > >
> > > I do not have this options in any config, which are both the defaults
> one,
> > > but when I resize the (g)mplayer window with the mouse, the aspect
> ratio is
> > > totally ignored. Which is pretty annoying.
> >
> > I have the exact same behavior here. All the options seem to imply that
> > keeping the aspect ratio is the default, but it just isn't working like
> that.
> > All the options in the man page involving 'aspect' describe how to
> change
> > this default behavior (which isn't happening...) and logically negating
> them
> > in mplayer.conf doesn't appear to work in the few attempts I've made.
> >
> > I'm using kde, perhaps it is interference by the WM at work here...
>
> Yes i will try it in kde tonight. However I suspect its more likely a
> video driver issue. see below.
>
> >
> > To tell the truth though, this doesn't really bother me too much since I
> > usually only use 'Double' or fullscreen size. It is odd though.
>
> What output driver are you using?
>
> I am using xv
>
> Looking at the output of mplayer running from the command line should
> tell you.
>
> Also mplayer -vo help will give you a list of those available.
> --
> Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:08:58 +1000
Alan E. Davis wrote:

> I am interested in this discussion. I spent a weekend trying out several
> players. Of the few I tried, I liked xine-ui best, perhaps, for it's
> playability. However, ogle, goggles, and kmplayer give the gift of
> bookmarks. Is there any way to do bookmarks w/ Xine or Mplayer? Mplayer is
> nice also.
> 
> Bookmarks are really important to me.

What do you mean "bookmarks" ?

Do you mean a list or url's pointing to media files?

> 
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Alan E. Davis]

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Bookmarks: Set a mark at certain places in a movie that one can return to.
Set many. With one of the viewers, one can name the bookmarks. THis is
valuable for teaching.

Alan

On 11/16/05, Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz> wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:08:58 +1000
> Alan E. Davis wrote:
>
> > I am interested in this discussion. I spent a weekend trying out several
> > players. Of the few I tried, I liked xine-ui best, perhaps, for it's
> > playability. However, ogle, goggles, and kmplayer give the gift of
> > bookmarks. Is there any way to do bookmarks w/ Xine or Mplayer? Mplayer
> is
> > nice also.
> >
> > Bookmarks are really important to me.
>
> What do you mean "bookmarks" ?
>
> Do you mean a list or url's pointing to media files?
>
> >
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[darren kirby]

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quoth the Nick Rout:
> >
> > I have the exact same behavior here. All the options seem to imply that
> > keeping the aspect ratio is the default, but it just isn't working like
> > that. All the options in the man page involving 'aspect' describe how to
> > change this default behavior (which isn't happening...) and logically
> > negating them in mplayer.conf doesn't appear to work in the few attempts
> > I've made.
> >
> > I'm using kde, perhaps it is interference by the WM at work here...
>
> Yes i will try it in kde tonight. However I suspect its more likely a
> video driver issue. see below.
>
> > To tell the truth though, this doesn't really bother me too much since I
> > usually only use 'Double' or fullscreen size. It is odd though.
>
> What output driver are you using?
>
> I am using xv
>
> Looking at the output of mplayer running from the command line should
> tell you.
>
> Also mplayer -vo help will give you a list of those available.
> --
> Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

Ok, well it seems this comes down to some difference between gmplayer and 
mplayer. I thought gmplayer was only the thinest of gui wrappers but maybe 
not.

Running "mplayer filename" I get the intended behavior, and it uses the "xv" 
driver by default. If I run "gmplayer file" from the command line, it still 
uses the xv driver, but it does not maintain the aspect ratio.

???

-d  
-- 
darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
"...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
- Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Best video player

[Nick Rout]

mplayer without any front ends. 

mplayer <filename>

the man page is very long but informative. mplayer also somes with the
companion mencoder which has a good reputation in the transcoding
stakes.

xine and vlc also work well, and I have nothing against them except my
familiarity with mplayer. I use vlc a lot on windows because it is not
MS media player, and doesn't want to take over my machine.

xine does do slightly better than mplayer with dvd because you get the
full menu experience.

everything else seems to be a front end to xine or mplayer or gstreamer,
but as I can't get gstreamer to do anything on my system, and as the
tools I have play all media i can throw at them anyway, I can't comment
on the gstreamer stuff very well.


On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 15:48:46 +0100
Peper wrote:

> Hello,
> what's the best video player in your opinion?
> 
> -- 
> Best Regards,
> Peper
> -- 
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

-- 
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