[gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[7v5w7go9ub0o]

(likely a recurring topic - sorry!)

ISTM that mplayer and mplayer2 are each quite active.

While I've been quite pleased with mplayer as tweaked by Nikos
Chantziaras to allow Multi threading on my core-I7 (Nvidia) (and I
realize that MT will now be in the upstream distribution), I'm wondering
if mplayer2 is now stable and better enough to merit switching.

TIA

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[John Campbell]

On 03/29/2011 08:01 AM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:

> While I've been quite pleased with mplayer as tweaked by Nikos
> Chantziaras to allow Multi threading on my core-I7 (Nvidia) (and I
> realize that MT will now be in the upstream distribution), I'm wondering
> if mplayer2 is now stable and better enough to merit switching.

Mplayer2 installs in parallel, so try them both.

I moved to mplayer2 some time ago, before the name-change to mplayer2. 
I've had fewer issues with it than with mplayer but your mileage may vary.

After a quick comparison I'd say they use about the same amount of CPU 
but mplayer still has problems with fontconfig freezing the video for a 
few seconds whenever fonts change in subtitles.  This can be a real 
problem when subtitles contain a lot of UTF8 extended characters not 
actually found in the selected font.  You also see a lot of "Glyf not 
found in font, choosing another font" warnings.

Mplayer2 doesn't have this problem as it shifts fontconfig into another 
thread.  Mplayer itself isn't multithreaded yet, just ffmpeg.  Mplayer2 
also handles mkv chapters, which aren't really all that useful anyway.

So I'd say just install mplayer2, add threads=5 to your config and try 
them both.

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[covici]

John Campbell <jdc.rpv@cox.net> wrote:

> On 03/29/2011 08:01 AM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
> 
> > While I've been quite pleased with mplayer as tweaked by Nikos
> > Chantziaras to allow Multi threading on my core-I7 (Nvidia) (and I
> > realize that MT will now be in the upstream distribution), I'm wondering
> > if mplayer2 is now stable and better enough to merit switching.
> 
> Mplayer2 installs in parallel, so try them both.
> 
> I moved to mplayer2 some time ago, before the name-change to
> mplayer2. I've had fewer issues with it than with mplayer but your
> mileage may vary.
> 
> After a quick comparison I'd say they use about the same amount of CPU
> but mplayer still has problems with fontconfig freezing the video for
> a few seconds whenever fonts change in subtitles.  This can be a real
> problem when subtitles contain a lot of UTF8 extended characters not
> actually found in the selected font.  You also see a lot of "Glyf not
> found in font, choosing another font" warnings.
> 
> Mplayer2 doesn't have this problem as it shifts fontconfig into
> another thread.  Mplayer itself isn't multithreaded yet, just ffmpeg.
> Mplayer2 also handles mkv chapters, which aren't really all that
> useful anyway.
> 
> So I'd say just install mplayer2, add threads=5 to your config and try
> them both.
I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[John Campbell]

On 03/30/2011 01:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:

> I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
> or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?

It's in the multimedia overlay.

The "threads=#" (where # less than total threads available on processor) 
parameter goes in the ~/.mplayer/config file.  I've only got 4 
processors so I set it to threads=4.  You have an i7, so it should 
handle more.

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[Dale]

John Campbell wrote:
> On 03/30/2011 01:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
>
>> I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
>> or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?
>
> It's in the multimedia overlay.
>
> The "threads=#" (where # less than total threads available on 
> processor) parameter goes in the ~/.mplayer/config file.  I've only 
> got 4 processors so I set it to threads=4.  You have an i7, so it 
> should handle more.
>
>

I have it in the tree here:

[-P-] [M~] media-video/mplayer2-2.0 (0)
[-P-] [M ] media-video/mplayer2-9999 (0)

They are masked but it is there.  Is that the same one?  While I am at 
it, is the plain mplayer going to be phased out and the new mplayer2 
take its place?

Dale

:-)  :-)

[gentoo-user] Re: mplayer vs mplayer2

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 03/30/2011 12:37 PM, Dale wrote:
>[...]
> I have it in the tree here:
>
> [-P-] [M~] media-video/mplayer2-2.0 (0)
> [-P-] [M ] media-video/mplayer2-9999 (0)
>
> They are masked but it is there. Is that the same one? While I am at it,
> is the plain mplayer going to be phased out and the new mplayer2 take
> its place?

It's not masked anymore.  Also, mplayer2 is not a replacement for 
mplayer, it's a fork.  I think mplayer still has the majority of the 
developers, so I don't think that it is in any danger of being "phased out."

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[covici]

John Campbell <jdc.rpv@cox.net> wrote:

> On 03/30/2011 01:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> 
> > I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
> > or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?
> 
> It's in the multimedia overlay.
> 
> The "threads=#" (where # less than total threads available on
> processor) parameter goes in the ~/.mplayer/config file.  I've only
> got 4 processors so I set it to threads=4.  You have an i7, so it
> should handle more.
I only have 2, but I may try it anyway.


-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: [gentoo-user] mplayer vs mplayer2

[du yang]

On Wednesday 03/30/11 17:14:00 CST, John Campbell wrote:
> On 03/30/2011 01:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> 
> > I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
> > or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?
> 
> It's in the multimedia overlay.
> 
> The "threads=#" (where # less than total threads available on processor) 
> parameter goes in the ~/.mplayer/config file.  I've only got 4 
> processors so I set it to threads=4.  You have an i7, so it should 
> handle more.
> 

I just tried it also. 
Some 720p videos were very slow to play with mplayer on my machine prviously, but
now they are playing smoothly ;-)
So mplayer2 show have some performance improvement.

After switching to maplyer2, putting mplayer to package.provided seems to be able to avoid dependencies problem for smplayer and mplayer-plugin..


- du yang
-- 
oooO:::::::::
(..):::::::::
:\.(:::Oooo::
::\_)::(..)::
:::::::)./:::
::::::(_/::::

[gentoo-user] Re: mplayer vs mplayer2

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 03/30/2011 08:47 PM, du yang wrote:
> On Wednesday 03/30/11 17:14:00 CST, John Campbell wrote:
>> On 03/30/2011 01:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
>>
>>> I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
>>> or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?
>>
>> It's in the multimedia overlay.
>>
>> The "threads=#" (where # less than total threads available on processor)
>> parameter goes in the ~/.mplayer/config file.  I've only got 4
>> processors so I set it to threads=4.  You have an i7, so it should
>> handle more.
>>
>
> I just tried it also.
> Some 720p videos were very slow to play with mplayer on my machine prviously, but
> now they are playing smoothly ;-)
> So mplayer2 show have some performance improvement.
>
> After switching to maplyer2, putting mplayer to package.provided seems to be able to avoid dependencies problem for smplayer and mplayer-plugin..

The version in portage removed multithreading support :-(  The 
maintainer doesn't want the bundled, multithreaded ffmpeg that comes 
with mplayer2.  That's a good thing in the long run, but I've no idea 
why they rushed it.  They could wait till the in-portage libav or ffmpeg 
becomes multithreaded before they strip the bundled one.

[gentoo-user] Re: mplayer vs mplayer2

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 03/30/2011 11:35 AM, covici@ccs.covici.com wrote:
> I am not seeing mplayer2 in the tree -- unless it came in the last day
> or so -- and which config takes the threads=5 parameter?

Other than what John said, if you're using SMPlayer, then the thread 
setting is in the config dialog: Options->Preferences->Performance (in 
the "Threads for decoding" spinbox.)