[gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Walter Dnes]

1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...

xv      X11/Xv
gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering
x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )
gl      OpenGL
gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version

Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
"torture test" video file I can use for testing?


2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
"MMX2 supported but disabled"

There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo

vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E4600  @ 2.40GHz
stepping        : 13
....................
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm
constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl
est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm

...and I have "-march=native" in my CFLAGS.  Any explanations?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Dale]

Walter Dnes wrote:
> 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
> wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
> Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
> mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
>
> xv      X11/Xv
> gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering
> x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )
> gl      OpenGL
> gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version
>
> Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
> "torture test" video file I can use for testing?
>
>
> 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
> "MMX2 supported but disabled"
>
> There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
>
> vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> cpu family      : 6
> model           : 15
> model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E4600  @ 2.40GHz
> stepping        : 13
> ....................
> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
> mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm
> constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl
> est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm
>
> ...and I have "-march=native" in my CFLAGS.  Any explanations?
>


This may help, may not.  When I was playing with this a year or so ago,
I found a HD test video on the internet somewhere.  I'm pretty sure it
was 1080p.  I set smplayer to play and repeat the video and then I
watched the CPU and temps on the video card.  I would try each setting
and see how much CPU load there was and watched the temps on the video
card.  I figure if the card temps are warmer, it is giving the card a
work out instead of my CPU. 

I ended up using "gl (fast)" for mine but this may not work at all for
your system.  This may give you a way to test the settings and sort of
know if the right hardware is doing its job or not. 

Here is two links if you want to try my weird way of doing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Innx3puNI

I use downloadhelper to grab those then play them locally.  Both of
those are available in 1080p tho.  Should warm up something.  ;-) 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Bruce Hill]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 07:05:14PM -0600, Dale wrote:
> Walter Dnes wrote:
> > 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
> > wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
> > Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
> > mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
> >
> > xv      X11/Xv
> > gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering
> > x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )
> > gl      OpenGL
> > gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version
> >
> > Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
> > "torture test" video file I can use for testing?
> >
> >
> > 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
> > "MMX2 supported but disabled"
> >
> > There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
> >
> > vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> > cpu family      : 6
> > model           : 15
> > model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E4600  @ 2.40GHz
> > stepping        : 13
> > ....................
> > flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
> > mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm
> > constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl
> > est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm
> >
> > ...and I have "-march=native" in my CFLAGS.  Any explanations?
> >
> 
> 
> This may help, may not.  When I was playing with this a year or so ago,
> I found a HD test video on the internet somewhere.  I'm pretty sure it
> was 1080p.  I set smplayer to play and repeat the video and then I
> watched the CPU and temps on the video card.  I would try each setting
> and see how much CPU load there was and watched the temps on the video
> card.  I figure if the card temps are warmer, it is giving the card a
> work out instead of my CPU. 
> 
> I ended up using "gl (fast)" for mine but this may not work at all for
> your system.  This may give you a way to test the settings and sort of
> know if the right hardware is doing its job or not. 
> 
> Here is two links if you want to try my weird way of doing this:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Innx3puNI
> 
> I use downloadhelper to grab those then play them locally.  Both of
> those are available in 1080p tho.  Should warm up something.  ;-) 
> 
> Dale

Rather than downloadhelper and a web browser, try:

mingdao@workstation ~/test $ youtube-dl  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: XITHbsUUlYI.mp4
[download]  30.5% of 107.04M at    1.43M/s ETA 00:52
-- 
Happy Penguin Computers               >')
126 Fenco Drive                       ( \
Tupelo, MS 38801                       ^^
support@happypenguincomputers.com
662-269-2706 662-205-6424
http://happypenguincomputers.com/

Don't top-post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_post#Top-posting

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Dale]

Bruce Hill wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 07:05:14PM -0600, Dale wrote:
>> Walter Dnes wrote:
>>> 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
>>> wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
>>> Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
>>> mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
>>>
>>> xv      X11/Xv
>>> gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering
>>> x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )
>>> gl      OpenGL
>>> gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version
>>>
>>> Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
>>> "torture test" video file I can use for testing?
>>>
>>>
>>> 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
>>> "MMX2 supported but disabled"
>>>
>>> There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
>>>
>>> vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
>>> cpu family      : 6
>>> model           : 15
>>> model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E4600  @ 2.40GHz
>>> stepping        : 13
>>> ....................
>>> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
>>> mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm
>>> constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl
>>> est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm
>>>
>>> ...and I have "-march=native" in my CFLAGS.  Any explanations?
>>>
>>
>> This may help, may not.  When I was playing with this a year or so ago,
>> I found a HD test video on the internet somewhere.  I'm pretty sure it
>> was 1080p.  I set smplayer to play and repeat the video and then I
>> watched the CPU and temps on the video card.  I would try each setting
>> and see how much CPU load there was and watched the temps on the video
>> card.  I figure if the card temps are warmer, it is giving the card a
>> work out instead of my CPU. 
>>
>> I ended up using "gl (fast)" for mine but this may not work at all for
>> your system.  This may give you a way to test the settings and sort of
>> know if the right hardware is doing its job or not. 
>>
>> Here is two links if you want to try my weird way of doing this:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Innx3puNI
>>
>> I use downloadhelper to grab those then play them locally.  Both of
>> those are available in 1080p tho.  Should warm up something.  ;-) 
>>
>> Dale
> Rather than downloadhelper and a web browser, try:
>
> mingdao@workstation ~/test $ youtube-dl  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
> [youtube] Setting language
> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video webpage
> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video info webpage
> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Extracting video information
> [download] Destination: XITHbsUUlYI.mp4
> [download]  30.5% of 107.04M at    1.43M/s ETA 00:52

Some videos are available in different resolutions.  Some have as many
as 6 or 8 different ones.  With downloadhelper, you can pick which one
you want.  I'm not sure if youtube-dl does or not.  Also, I download
videos from lots of sites.  I don't actually use youtube a lot. 

Good idea for folks that use youtube a lot tho. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!

[gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Bruce Hill]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 07:38:26PM -0600, Dale wrote:
> > Rather than downloadhelper and a web browser, try:
> >
> > mingdao@workstation ~/test $ youtube-dl  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
> > [youtube] Setting language
> > [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video webpage
> > [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video info webpage
> > [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Extracting video information
> > [download] Destination: XITHbsUUlYI.mp4
> > [download]  30.5% of 107.04M at    1.43M/s ETA 00:52
> 
> Some videos are available in different resolutions.  Some have as many
> as 6 or 8 different ones.  With downloadhelper, you can pick which one
> you want.  I'm not sure if youtube-dl does or not.  Also, I download
> videos from lots of sites.  I don't actually use youtube a lot. 
> 
> Good idea for folks that use youtube a lot tho. 

The youtube-dl program works for more sites than just YouTube. And I chose it
for the links you provided, specifically because they were YouTube videos.
Give /usr/share/doc/youtube-dl-2012.09.27/README.md.bz2 a read.

The file fluctuated but the overall speed was 1.77M/s ... don't ever remember
getting that type of speed in FF.

This shows (via gkrellm) the effects it had playing on this system:

http://www.servantsofyeshua.org/XITHbsUUlYI.mp4-screenshot.png

Didn't really heat my GPU (temp1) over 38C, and it's normally around 31C.

Here's another file check on the MP4:

mingdao@workstation ~/test $ md5sum XITHbsUUlYI.mp4 
dab460274c1ce3ed8ebaf7caa6c0ad02  XITHbsUUlYI.mp4

Even before Walter's reply to me, I'd rebuilt mesa with new flags:

media-libs/mesa-9.0  USE="classic egl g3dvl gallium llvm nptl
r600-llvm-compiler shared-glapi xa xvmc -bindist -debug -gbm -gles1 -gles2
-openvg -osmesa -pax_kernel -pic (-selinux) -vdpau (-wayland) -xorg"
VIDEO_CARDS="r600 -i915 -i965 -intel -nouveau -r100 -r200 -r300 -radeon
-radeonsi -vmware"

Hopefully tomorrow I've have time to check. I'd also saved the old
/var/log/Xorg.0.log from before rebuilding mesa. And then there are other
comps with other chipsets on this LAN to try.

Thanks for the replies.
-- 
Happy Penguin Computers               >')
126 Fenco Drive                       ( \
Tupelo, MS 38801                       ^^
support@happypenguincomputers.com
662-269-2706 662-205-6424
http://happypenguincomputers.com/

Don't top-post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_post#Top-posting

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Dale]

Bruce Hill wrote:
> The youtube-dl program works for more sites than just YouTube. And I
> chose it for the links you provided, specifically because they were
> YouTube videos. Give
> /usr/share/doc/youtube-dl-2012.09.27/README.md.bz2 a read. The file
> fluctuated but the overall speed was 1.77M/s ... don't ever remember
> getting that type of speed in FF. This shows (via gkrellm) the effects
> it had playing on this system:
> http://www.servantsofyeshua.org/XITHbsUUlYI.mp4-screenshot.png Didn't
> really heat my GPU (temp1) over 38C, and it's normally around 31C.
> Here's another file check on the MP4: mingdao@workstation ~/test $
> md5sum XITHbsUUlYI.mp4 dab460274c1ce3ed8ebaf7caa6c0ad02
> XITHbsUUlYI.mp4 Even before Walter's reply to me, I'd rebuilt mesa
> with new flags: media-libs/mesa-9.0 USE="classic egl g3dvl gallium
> llvm nptl r600-llvm-compiler shared-glapi xa xvmc -bindist -debug -gbm
> -gles1 -gles2 -openvg -osmesa -pax_kernel -pic (-selinux) -vdpau
> (-wayland) -xorg" VIDEO_CARDS="r600 -i915 -i965 -intel -nouveau -r100
> -r200 -r300 -radeon -radeonsi -vmware" Hopefully tomorrow I've have
> time to check. I'd also saved the old /var/log/Xorg.0.log from before
> rebuilding mesa. And then there are other comps with other chipsets on
> this LAN to try. Thanks for the replies. 

One reason I download them, I play them in full screen mode and it
doesn't stutter either.  Generally, full screen seems to make it work a
bit harder, unless your desktop has things in motion too.  ;-) 

When I use Seamonkey to download, it goes as fast as my DSL will let
it.  Sometimes, the server on the other end will have high loads and
slow things down but generally, it's as fast as my connection either
way.  For me, downloadhelper is just easier. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!

[gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Nuno J. Silva]

On 2012-12-19, Dale wrote:

> Bruce Hill wrote:
>> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 07:05:14PM -0600, Dale wrote:
[...]
>>> Here is two links if you want to try my weird way of doing this:
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Innx3puNI
>>>
>>> I use downloadhelper to grab those then play them locally.  Both of
>>> those are available in 1080p tho.  Should warm up something.  ;-) 
>>>
>>> Dale
>> Rather than downloadhelper and a web browser, try:
>>
>> mingdao@workstation ~/test $ youtube-dl  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
>> [youtube] Setting language
>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video webpage
>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video info webpage
>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Extracting video information
>> [download] Destination: XITHbsUUlYI.mp4
>> [download]  30.5% of 107.04M at    1.43M/s ETA 00:52
>
> Some videos are available in different resolutions.  Some have as many
> as 6 or 8 different ones.  With downloadhelper, you can pick which one
> you want.  I'm not sure if youtube-dl does or not.  Also, I download
> videos from lots of sites.  I don't actually use youtube a lot. 

youtube-dl supports all the available formats, it just defaults to the
best quality one of the available for the chosen video. The -f parameter
takes as an argument the format number, see the list from Wikipedia,
http://enwp.org/YouTube#Quality_and_codecs

youtube-dl is also not youtube-specific.


-- 
Nuno Silva (aka njsg)
http://njsg.sdf-eu.org/

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Dale]

Nuno J. Silva wrote:
> On 2012-12-19, Dale wrote:
>
>> Bruce Hill wrote:
>>> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 07:05:14PM -0600, Dale wrote:
> [...]
>>>> Here is two links if you want to try my weird way of doing this:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
>>>>
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Innx3puNI
>>>>
>>>> I use downloadhelper to grab those then play them locally.  Both of
>>>> those are available in 1080p tho.  Should warm up something.  ;-) 
>>>>
>>>> Dale
>>> Rather than downloadhelper and a web browser, try:
>>>
>>> mingdao@workstation ~/test $ youtube-dl  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
>>> [youtube] Setting language
>>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video webpage
>>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Downloading video info webpage
>>> [youtube] XITHbsUUlYI: Extracting video information
>>> [download] Destination: XITHbsUUlYI.mp4
>>> [download]  30.5% of 107.04M at    1.43M/s ETA 00:52
>> Some videos are available in different resolutions.  Some have as many
>> as 6 or 8 different ones.  With downloadhelper, you can pick which one
>> you want.  I'm not sure if youtube-dl does or not.  Also, I download
>> videos from lots of sites.  I don't actually use youtube a lot. 
> youtube-dl supports all the available formats, it just defaults to the
> best quality one of the available for the chosen video. The -f parameter
> takes as an argument the format number, see the list from Wikipedia,
> http://enwp.org/YouTube#Quality_and_codecs
>
> youtube-dl is also not youtube-specific.
>
>

Nice to know it lets you pick a specific one but I still like
downloadhelper.  I don't use commandline for much other than updating
and few other things that are command line only.  I use Seamonkey for my
web browser.  It works and kind of got used to it this way.  With
downloadhelper, I just click, tell it where to store the video and off
it goes. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Alan McKinnon]

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:05:14 -0600
Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:

> This may help, may not.  When I was playing with this a year or so
> ago, I found a HD test video on the internet somewhere.  I'm pretty
> sure it was 1080p.  I set smplayer to play and repeat the video and
> then I watched the CPU and temps on the video card.  I would try each
> setting and see how much CPU load there was and watched the temps on
> the video card.  I figure if the card temps are warmer, it is giving
> the card a work out instead of my CPU. 

Personally I use a local Bluray 1080p rip of Transformers3 for that.

I figure if the scene with Optimus and Sentinel bashing hunks off each
other doesn't give a GPU a decent work-out, then nothing will....

and it's a fun movie, much more interesting to watch than temp guages

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Florian Philipp]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1542 bytes --]

Am 19.12.2012 00:20, schrieb Walter Dnes:
> 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
> wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
> Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
> mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
> 
> xv      X11/Xv

This doesn't use any GPU features. Good compatibility but otherwise not
recommended.

> gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering

Same as gl just that it fails when you have driver issues that prevent
it from using the GPU. More like a debugging tool.

> x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )

Practically outdated.

> gl      OpenGL

Recommended. Should work okay without further tuning but offers a lot of
them. Just play around.

> gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version

Unmaintained. Use gl.

> 
> Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
> "torture test" video file I can use for testing?
> 
> 
> 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
> "MMX2 supported but disabled"
> 
> There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
> 

That should be USE="mmxext". No clue what's its name in cpuinfo but
since you are running something newer than a P3 it should be a safe bet.

PS: Have to tried mplayer2? It's mostly compatible but offers no
mencoder support but you can install mplayer to get that. It has better
threading support and some other minor improvements.

Regards,
Florian Philipp


[-- Attachment #2: OpenPGP digital signature --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 262 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Walter Dnes]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 03:38:15PM +0100, Florian Philipp wrote

> > gl      OpenGL
> 
> Recommended. Should work okay without further tuning but offers a lot of
> them. Just play around.

  [...deletia...]

> > 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
> > "MMX2 supported but disabled"
> > 
> > There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
> > 
> 
> That should be USE="mmxext". No clue what's its name in cpuinfo but
> since you are running something newer than a P3 it should be a safe bet.

  Thanks for the feedback.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

[gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Nuno J. Silva]

On 2012-12-19, Florian Philipp wrote:

> Am 19.12.2012 00:20, schrieb Walter Dnes:
>> 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
>> wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
>> Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
>> mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
>> 
>> xv      X11/Xv
>
> This doesn't use any GPU features. Good compatibility but otherwise not
> recommended.

I thought the X Video extensions were where the hardware acceleration
for video acceleration was actually supposed to be implemented (not that,
in some drivers, said acceleration is actually implemented...).

My bets would be xv and gl, with gl being possibly better for some
drivers, but hey, I may be wrong about xv.

It also seems that I don't have vdpau enabled right now (I wonder if
that enables generic acceleration frameworks for cards other than
nVidia).

(AMD GPU with open drivers here.)


-- 
Nuno Silva (aka njsg)
http://njsg.sdf-eu.org/

[gentoo-user] Re: Questions about optimal mplayer settings

[Bruce Hill]

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 03:38:15PM +0100, Florian Philipp wrote:
> Am 19.12.2012 00:20, schrieb Walter Dnes:
> > 1) In the past couple of days I finally figured out what I was doing
> > wrong with hardware acceleration (causing lack thereof) with an onboard
> > Intel GPU in my HTPC machine.  I've applied the same fix to my desktop.
> > mplayer now has 5 video output modes that actually show a picture...
> > 
> > xv      X11/Xv
> 
> This doesn't use any GPU features. Good compatibility but otherwise not
> recommended.
> 
> > gl_nosw OpenGL no software rendering
> 
> Same as gl just that it fails when you have driver issues that prevent
> it from using the GPU. More like a debugging tool.
> 
> > x11     X11 ( XImage/Shm )
> 
> Practically outdated.
> 
> > gl      OpenGL
> 
> Recommended. Should work okay without further tuning but offers a lot of
> them. Just play around.
> 
> > gl2     X11 (OpenGL) - multiple textures version
> 
> Unmaintained. Use gl.
> 
> > 
> > Which one has the best playback ability?  Is there a test program or a
> > "torture test" video file I can use for testing?
> > 
> > 
> > 2) When I start up mplayer, the diagnostics include...
> > "MMX2 supported but disabled"
> > 
> > There is no "mmx2" in the USE flags or in /proc/cpuinfo
> > 
> 
> That should be USE="mmxext". No clue what's its name in cpuinfo but
> since you are running something newer than a P3 it should be a safe bet.
> 
> PS: Have to tried mplayer2? It's mostly compatible but offers no
> mencoder support but you can install mplayer to get that. It has better
> threading support and some other minor improvements.
> 
> Regards,
> Florian Philipp

Which mplayer are you talking about? Your USE flags and info don't match my portage:

mingdao@workstation ~ $ emerge -pv mplayer

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild  N     ] media-plugins/live-2012.01.07  0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] app-arch/unrar-4.2.3  0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-libs/libdca-0.0.5-r2  USE="-debug -oss -static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-libs/xvid-1.3.2  USE="threads -examples -pic" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] dev-libs/libcdio-0.83  USE="cxx -cddb -minimal -static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-libs/libdv-1.0.0-r2  USE="sdl -debug -static-libs -xv" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] x11-libs/libXScrnSaver-1.2.2  USE="-static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-libs/libtheora-1.1.1  USE="encode -doc -examples -static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-libs/speex-1.2_rc1  USE="sse -ogg -static-libs" 0 kB
[ebuild  N     ] media-video/mplayer-1.1-r1  USE="3dnow 3dnowext X a52 alsa cdio dts dv dvd dvdnav enca encode faad iconv jpeg jpeg2k libass live mmx mmxext mp3 network opengl osdmenu png quicktime rar real rtc sdl shm speex sse sse2 theora toolame tremor truetype twolame unicode vorbis x264 xscreensaver xv xvid -aalib (-altivec) (-aqua) -bidi -bindist -bl -bluray -bs2b -cddb -cdparanoia -cpudetection -debug -dga -directfb -doc -dvb -dxr3 -faac -fbcon -ftp -ggi -gif -gsm -ipv6 -jack -joystick -ladspa -libcaca -libmpeg2 -lirc -lzo -mad -md5sum -mng -nas -nut -openal -oss -pnm -pulseaudio -pvr -radio -rtmp -samba -ssse3 -tga -v4l -vdpau (-vidix) (-win32codecs) -xanim -xinerama -xvmc -zoran" VIDEO_CARDS="-mga -s3virge -tdfx" 0 kB

Total: 10 packages (10 new), Size of downloads: 0 kB
mingdao@workstation ~ $ grep mmx /proc/cpuinfo 
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid aperfmperf pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt cpb hw_pstate npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save pausefilter
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