[gentoo-user] How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[gentoo-user] How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

I'm having a heck of a time getting firefox setup so it can handle
quicktime videos.

I understand I need mplayer to be installed but haven't been able to
emerge it.
I'm hoping someone will recognize what this problem is... I certainly
do not.  But I do see others having trouble related to multi-core
machines and mplayer... So NOTE: my hardware is not Multi-core.  Its
an intel 3.06 Ghz with 2gb of ram.

Maybe its some thing related to the use flags... but there are so many
listed as + and - ones... it's just confusing to me.  

Displayed below are first the Use flags that come up and then the tail
of the build attempt.  Use the provided url to view the full output if
desired.

(The massive full build.log and environment report can be viewed at:
    www.jtan.com/~reader/mpfailure/mp.cgi)

 (first the use flags that come up)

[ebuild  N    ] media-video/mplayer-1.0_rc2_p20090731-r1  USE="X a52
aac alsa ass cddb cdio dirac dts dv dvdnav enca faac faad gif iconv
live mmx mp2 network osdmenu rar real rtc samba schroedinger shm speex
theora tremor truetype unicode x264 xv xvid -3dnow -3dnowext -aalib
(-altivec) -bidi -bindist -bl -cdparanoia -cpudetection -custom-cflags
-custom-cpuopts -debug -dga -directfb -doc -dvb -dvd -dxr3 -encode
-esd -fbcon -ftp -ggi -gmplayer -ipv6 -jack -joystick -jpeg -ladspa
-libcaca -lirc -lzo -mad -md5sum -mmxext -mng -mp3 -nas -nut -openal
-opencore-amr -opengl -oss -png -pnm -pulseaudio -pvr -quicktime
-radio -sdl -sse -sse2 -ssse3 -svga -teletext -tga -v4l -v4l2 -vdpau
-vidix -vorbis -win32codecs -xanim -xinerama -xscreensaver -xvmc
-zoran"

==================
(tail of failure )
==================
[...]
client -lgif -lasound -ldl -lpthread -lcdio_cdda -lcdio -lcdio_paranoia  -lfreetype -lz -lfontconfig  -lenca -lz -lbz2 -lspeex -ltheora -logg   -ldts -lliveMedia -lgroupsock -lUsageEnvironment -lBasicUsageEnvironment -lstdc++ -ldv -ldirac_encoder -ldirac_decoder -lstdc++   -lschroedinger-1.0 -lpthread -loil-0.3 -lm -lrt   -lpthread -ldl -rdynamic  -lm   
loader/module.o: In function `MODULE_GetProcAddress':
module.c:(.text+0xf8): undefined reference to `report_entry'
module.c:(.text+0x102): undefined reference to `report_ret'
module.c:(.text+0x10c): undefined reference to `wrapper_target'
module.c:(.text+0x111): undefined reference to `wrapper'
loader/module.o: In function `LoadLibraryExA':
module.c:(.text+0x1000): undefined reference to `report_entry'
module.c:(.text+0x100a): undefined reference to `report_ret'
module.c:(.text+0x1015): undefined reference to `wrapper_target'
module.c:(.text+0x101b): undefined reference to `wrapper'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [mplayer] Error 1
 * 
 * ERROR: media-video/mplayer-1.0_rc2_p20090731-r1 failed.
 * Call stack:
 *               ebuild.sh, line   49:  Called src_compile
 *             environment, line 2623:  Called die
 * The specific snippet of code:
 *       emake || die "Failed to build MPlayer!";
 *  The die message:
 *   Failed to build MPlayer!
[...]

Re: [gentoo-user] How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Harry Putnam<reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> I'm having a heck of a time getting firefox setup so it can handle
> quicktime videos.
>
> I understand I need mplayer to be installed but haven't been able to
> emerge it.
> I'm hoping someone will recognize what this problem is... I certainly
> do not.  But I do see others having trouble related to multi-core
> machines and mplayer... So NOTE: my hardware is not Multi-core.  Its
> an intel 3.06 Ghz with 2gb of ram.
>
> Maybe its some thing related to the use flags... but there are so many
> listed as + and - ones... it's just confusing to me.
>
> Displayed below are first the Use flags that come up and then the tail
> of the build attempt.  Use the provided url to view the full output if
> desired.
>
> (The massive full build.log and environment report can be viewed at:
>    www.jtan.com/~reader/mpfailure/mp.cgi)
>
>  (first the use flags that come up)
>
> [ebuild  N    ] media-video/mplayer-1.0_rc2_p20090731-r1  USE="X a52
> aac alsa ass cddb cdio dirac dts dv dvdnav enca faac faad gif iconv
> live mmx mp2 network osdmenu rar real rtc samba schroedinger shm speex
> theora tremor truetype unicode x264 xv xvid -3dnow -3dnowext -aalib
> (-altivec) -bidi -bindist -bl -cdparanoia -cpudetection -custom-cflags
> -custom-cpuopts -debug -dga -directfb -doc -dvb -dvd -dxr3 -encode
> -esd -fbcon -ftp -ggi -gmplayer -ipv6 -jack -joystick -jpeg -ladspa
> -libcaca -lirc -lzo -mad -md5sum -mmxext -mng -mp3 -nas -nut -openal
> -opencore-amr -opengl -oss -png -pnm -pulseaudio -pvr -quicktime
> -radio -sdl -sse -sse2 -ssse3 -svga -teletext -tga -v4l -v4l2 -vdpau
> -vidix -vorbis -win32codecs -xanim -xinerama -xscreensaver -xvmc
> -zoran"
>

http://bugs.gentoo.org/213836

Seems to possibly be related to win32codecs and/or quicktime USE flag.
Try enabling one or both of them and see if that helps.

Re: [gentoo-user] How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Stroller]

On 29 Aug 2009, at 00:05, Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Harry Putnam<reader@newsguy.com>  
> wrote:
>> I'm having a heck of a time getting firefox setup so it can handle
>> quicktime videos.
>>
>> I understand I need mplayer to be installed but haven't been able to
>> emerge it.
>> ...
>>
>> (The massive full build.log and environment report can be viewed at:
>>   www.jtan.com/~reader/mpfailure/mp.cgi)
>>
>> (first the use flags that come up)
>>
>> [ebuild  N    ] media-video/mplayer-1.0_rc2_p20090731-r1  USE="X a52
>> aac alsa ass cddb cdio dirac dts dv dvdnav enca faac faad gif iconv
>> live mmx mp2 network osdmenu rar real rtc samba schroedinger shm  
>> speex
>> theora tremor truetype unicode x264 xv xvid -3dnow -3dnowext -aalib
>> (-altivec) -bidi -bindist -bl -cdparanoia -cpudetection -custom- 
>> cflags
>> -custom-cpuopts -debug -dga -directfb -doc -dvb -dvd -dxr3 -encode
>> -esd -fbcon -ftp -ggi -gmplayer -ipv6 -jack -joystick -jpeg -ladspa
>> -libcaca -lirc -lzo -mad -md5sum -mmxext -mng -mp3 -nas -nut -openal
>> -opencore-amr -opengl -oss -png -pnm -pulseaudio -pvr -quicktime
>> -radio -sdl -sse -sse2 -ssse3 -svga -teletext -tga -v4l -v4l2 -vdpau
>> -vidix -vorbis -win32codecs -xanim -xinerama -xscreensaver -xvmc
>> -zoran"
>>
>
> http://bugs.gentoo.org/213836
>
> Seems to possibly be related to win32codecs and/or quicktime USE flag.
> Try enabling one or both of them and see if that helps.

What he said.

I'm surprised you emerged mplayer with USE="-quicktime", since the  
purpose of doing so is to play Quicktime videos.
:P

You probably also want "mmxext sse sse2 mp3" - I think the first 3  
should / may improve performance and the latter is quite ubiquitous,  
so it seems silly to be without it.

Stroller.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> writes:

>
> I'm surprised you emerged mplayer with USE="-quicktime", since the
> purpose of doing so is to play Quicktime videos.
> :P

emerge came up with those setting... I just didn't change it.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 08/29/2009 10:59 PM, Harry Putnam wrote:
> Stroller<stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>  writes:
>
>>
>> I'm surprised you emerged mplayer with USE="-quicktime", since the
>> purpose of doing so is to play Quicktime videos.
>> :P
>
> emerge came up with those setting... I just didn't change it.

Well you can't expect emerge to read your mind.  If you want something, 
enable it.  This is Gentoo, after all.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Frank Steinmetzger]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 491 bytes --]

Am Samstag, 29. August 2009 schrieb Harry Putnam:
> Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> writes:
> > I'm surprised you emerged mplayer with USE="-quicktime", since the
> > purpose of doing so is to play Quicktime videos.
> >
> > :P
>
> emerge came up with those setting... I just didn't change it.

Wrong profile? I always forget to switch it to desktop during a new install.
-- 
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
The manual said "WindowsXP or better", so I installed GNU/Linux...

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part. --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 198 bytes --]

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> writes:

> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Harry Putnam<reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>> I'm having a heck of a time getting firefox setup so it can handle
>> quicktime videos.

[...]

Paul wrote:
> Seems to possibly be related to win32codecs and/or quicktime USE flag.
> Try enabling one or both of them and see if that helps.

Haa  It sure was related... compiled without complaint with those use
flags turned on.   Thank you

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de> writes:

> On 08/29/2009 10:59 PM, Harry Putnam wrote:
>> Stroller<stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>  writes:
>>
>>>
>>> I'm surprised you emerged mplayer with USE="-quicktime", since the
>>> purpose of doing so is to play Quicktime videos.
>>> :P
>>
>> emerge came up with those setting... I just didn't change it.
>
> Well you can't expect emerge to read your mind.  If you want
> something, enable it.  This is Gentoo, after all.

Ok... everybody is suddenly an expert... hehe.

My thinking ran something like:  Mplayer may play *.mov files with its
own codec... therefor quicktime codecs might interfere.... therefore
my smart gentoo tools knew this and set the quicktime flag to minus.

Ok, so it isn't all that likely...

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Stroller]

On 29 Aug 2009, at 22:34, Harry Putnam wrote:
>> ...
>> Well you can't expect emerge to read your mind.  If you want
>> something, enable it.  This is Gentoo, after all.
>
> Ok... everybody is suddenly an expert... hehe.
>
> My thinking ran something like:  Mplayer may play *.mov files with its
> own codec... therefor quicktime codecs might interfere....
>
> Ok, so it isn't all that likely...

Actually, I think there used to be an mplayer USE flag that behaved in  
exactly this way - it was associated with RealPlayer &/or their codecs.

However I would assume this to be the exception rather than the rule,  
and one would generally assume that USE="x y z" adds support for x, y,  
z.

I believe there has in the past & for this reason been some confusion  
over this real / RealPlayer use flag. The devs masked it to prevent  
Real's own crappy binaries being used (in favour of mplayer doing the  
decoding itself) and I think there was some protest from people who  
didn't apprecaite that their mplayer would continue to stream Radio 1  
without it.

Stroller.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> writes:

> Actually, I think there used to be an mplayer USE flag that behaved in
> exactly this way - it was associated with RealPlayer &/or their
> codecs.
>
> However I would assume this to be the exception rather than the rule,
> and one would generally assume that USE="x y z" adds support for x, y,
> z.

Maybe not all that exceptional... consider the case of users who don't
run gnome desktop but want certain gnome tools... would they not leave
gnome at `-gnome'?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 30 August 2009 18:09:08 Harry Putnam wrote:
> Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> writes:
> > Actually, I think there used to be an mplayer USE flag that behaved in
> > exactly this way - it was associated with RealPlayer &/or their
> > codecs.
> >
> > However I would assume this to be the exception rather than the rule,
> > and one would generally assume that USE="x y z" adds support for x, y,
> > z.
>
> Maybe not all that exceptional... consider the case of users who don't
> run gnome desktop but want certain gnome tools... would they not leave
> gnome at `-gnome'?

You have it wrong.

"USE=<thing>" is supposed to add *support* for <thing>, not necessarily 
*install* something called <thing>. Whatever <thing> means in the context of a 
specific ebuild depends on what the ebuild is for, and different ebuilds with 
the same USE flag may have entirely different DEPEND stanzas, depending on how 
the package is written and what it needs to build/run.

mplayer support for realplayer was a right royal cockup. The only thing it 
could ever have meant was that mplayer could play Real videos. But the way it 
was documented, users couldn't figure out if this would install the binary 
realplayer, provide support for real from some other party, or do an entirely 
different third action.

USE=gnome does not necessarily install all of gnome. That would depend on what 
specific packages using that flag you have installed. They have their own 
DEPENDS, and the sum total of those is what you get if you set the flag. if 
you want certain gnome tools but not the gnome desktop, then you would leave 
USE at -gnome and emerge the gnome tools. Which means that everything else you 
have that could support gnome, will be built without gnome support (with the 
exception of packages written by folk who don't know how to do compile-time 
configuration).

What's so exceptional about that?

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Harry Putnam]

Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:

> You have it wrong.

A not unusual state of affairs for me, I'll admit.

After several yrs on gentoo... I still don't understand fully the use
of the USE flags.

> "USE=<thing>" is supposed to add *support* for <thing>, not
> necessarily *install* something called <thing>. Whatever <thing>
> means in the context of a specific ebuild depends on what the ebuild
> is for, and different ebuilds with the same USE flag may have
> entirely different DEPEND stanzas, depending on how the package is
> written and what it needs to build/run.

But wouldn't having the gnome use flag active cause updates to pull in
stuff that may not be necessary for the one or two gnome based tools
$user wants?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Jesús Guerrero]

On Sun, August 30, 2009 19:23, Harry Putnam wrote:
> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>> You have it wrong.
>>
>
> A not unusual state of affairs for me, I'll admit.
>
>
> After several yrs on gentoo... I still don't understand fully the use
> of the USE flags.
>
>> "USE=<thing>" is supposed to add *support* for <thing>, not
>> necessarily *install* something called <thing>. Whatever <thing> means in
>> the context of a specific ebuild depends on what the ebuild is for, and
>> different ebuilds with the same USE flag may have entirely different
>> DEPEND stanzas, depending on how the package is
>> written and what it needs to build/run.
>
> But wouldn't having the gnome use flag active cause updates to pull in
> stuff that may not be necessary for the one or two gnome based tools $user
> wants?

USE flags don't pull into your system things that are not required.
If you enable a given feature and extra stuff is required, then it
is required. Otherwise, just disable the feature and that way you
will remove the dependencies.

You don't have to enable it globally either. If you only require the
feature for a given program use package.use instead of putting the
USE in your make.conf, that way you will limit the scope of the use
flag to a given package.

-- 
Jesús Guerrero

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[7v5w7go9ub0o]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> I'm having a heck of a time getting firefox setup so it can handle 
> quicktime videos.

FWIW, out of security considerations I run FF in a chroot jail with as
little "other stuff" in the jail as possible

So using an extension called "unplug"
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2254> I can locate
embedded media and download the link or the file itself. I then play the
download on 32bit using mplayer (in its own jail).

64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files, so I'm presently
using QTalternative in wine 'til mplayer, xine, or vlc works on 64bit.

HTH

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files

They play fine here.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Stroller]

On 30 Aug 2009, at 18:23, Harry Putnam wrote:
> ...
>> "USE=<thing>" is supposed to add *support* for <thing>, not
>> necessarily *install* something called <thing>. Whatever <thing>
>> means in the context of a specific ebuild depends on what the ebuild
>> is for, and different ebuilds with the same USE flag may have
>> entirely different DEPEND stanzas, depending on how the package is
>> written and what it needs to build/run.
>
> But wouldn't having the gnome use flag active cause updates to pull in
> stuff that may not be necessary for the one or two gnome based tools
> $user wants?


The way I tend to perceive USE flags is that they generally "add  
compatibility" or add "extra options".

So if you emerge mplayer the "dvd" USE flag adds DVD compatibility &  
support to mplayer. At one time I used a wifi driver which had an "X"  
USE flag - adding that installed a GUI utility for configuring the  
driver, if it was omitted then one would simply edit text files "in  
the normal way".

If you add these USE flags and install packages that use them, then,  
yes, the USE flag may add dependencies and cause additional packages  
to be installed. But simply adding a USE flag won't _on its own_  
install additional packages - you have to run emerge before they're  
drawn in, and you get to review the dependencies at that time.

You might find that if YOU added "USE=gnome" to your make.conf and  
reinstalled world that a whole load of extra gnome packages would be  
installed. But probably not as much as installing the whole gnome-base/ 
gnome. The thing is that people who WANT gnome will probably already  
have installed gnome-base/gnome and games-mud/gnome-mud and gnome- 
extra/gnome-web-photo and gnome-foo/bar - for them adding the gnome  
USE flag and emerging mplayer may not install any additional packages  
(because they already have so many gnomish packages installed that the  
dependencies are already satisfied) but simply add a simple GUI for  
mplayer and an entry in the Gnome start menu.

I hope this clarifies, but I apologise if I'm explaining in a way that  
makes sense only to me.

I tend to add USE flags to make.conf for stuff I'm likely to use all  
the time - support for tiff and jpeg, for instance. Then I consider  
other USE flags on a package-by-package basis (`emerge -pv package`).  
I may add -truetype to package.use if it indicates that loads of X11  
type dependencies will be installed on my headless server, but  
generally I don't worry too much about one or three additional small  
packages being installed as dependencies - I like Gentoo because it's  
small & lean & fast, but it's generally that way, anyway, and most  
packages in the tree add little overhead.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Stroller]

On 30 Aug 2009, at 17:40, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> ...
> mplayer support for realplayer was a right royal cockup. The only  
> thing it
> could ever have meant was that mplayer could play Real videos. But  
> the way it
> was documented, users couldn't figure out if this would install the  
> binary
> realplayer, provide support for real from some other party, or do an  
> entirely
> different third action.

I _believe_ that at one time the "real" USE flag installed  
RealPlayer's binary codecs, but that with USE="-real" mplayer would  
still play most Real streams, anyway.

This is - as you say - confusing and non-intuitive.

When the the "real" USE flag was masked there was, therefore, uproar  
because it was assumed by the unwashed masses (including myself) that  
"OMG! mplayer won't play the BBC Radio 1 Real stream anymore", and  
this assumption was incorrect.

IIRC the RealPlayer's binary codecs were pretty much used only for  
streams of an obsolete format depreciated by Real themselves. Newer  
Real streams used codecs like MP3 that mplayer would quite happily  
decode on its own (providing USE="mp3").

I gather, however, that the "real" USE flag may now have been  
reinstated with a different meaning - the intuitive one.  :/

Stroller.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[7v5w7go9ub0o]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files
> 
> They play fine here.
> 
> 
> 

Are you able to drag a link from this page: 
<http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/> and play it on 
mplayer?

TIA!

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 08/31/2009 05:00 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files
>>
>> They play fine here.
>
> Are you able to drag a link from this page:
> <http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/>  and play it on
> mplayer?

No.  Those are reference files (only a few kB big), not the real *.mov 
files.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Stroller]

On 31 Aug 2009, at 18:15, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:

> On 08/31/2009 05:00 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>> On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>>> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files
>>>
>>> They play fine here.
>>
>> Are you able to drag a link from this page:
>> <http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/>  and play  
>> it on
>> mplayer?
>
> No.  Those are reference files (only a few kB big), not the real  
> *.mov files.

`mplayer -playlist /path/to/reference-file.mov` might be worth a go.

Stroller.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 09/01/2009 03:00 AM, Stroller wrote:
>
> On 31 Aug 2009, at 18:15, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>
>> On 08/31/2009 05:00 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>>> On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>>>> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files
>>>>
>>>> They play fine here.
>>>
>>> Are you able to drag a link from this page:
>>> <http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/> and play it on
>>> mplayer?
>>
>> No. Those are reference files (only a few kB big), not the real *.mov
>> files.
>
> `mplayer -playlist /path/to/reference-file.mov` might be worth a go.

Apple's server doesn't allow access to the actual movies (if you try to 
open the URL to the real *.mov file, you get redirected to some movie 
ads page).  I guess it checks for the QuickTime player's user agent.

So I can't try to test if those *.mov files play OK here since I can't 
even get to them.

[gentoo-user] Re: How to play quicktime (*.mov) videos with firefox

[7v5w7go9ub0o]

Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 09/01/2009 03:00 AM, Stroller wrote:
>> 
>> On 31 Aug 2009, at 18:15, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> 
>>> On 08/31/2009 05:00 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>>>>> On 08/30/2009 10:59 PM, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>>>>>> 64bit Linux, AFAICT, does not yet play .mov files
>>>>> 
>>>>> They play fine here.
>>>> 
>>>> Are you able to drag a link from this page: 
>>>> <http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/district9/> and
>>>> play it on mplayer?
>>> 
>>> No. Those are reference files (only a few kB big), not the real
>>> *.mov files.
>> 
>> `mplayer -playlist /path/to/reference-file.mov` might be worth a
>> go.
> 
> Apple's server doesn't allow access to the actual movies (if you try
> to open the URL to the real *.mov file, you get redirected to some
> movie ads page).  I guess it checks for the QuickTime player's user
> agent.
> 
> So I can't try to test if those *.mov files play OK here since I
> can't even get to them.
> 
> 

Yep........ you're right about the user agent! Apparently a quicktime
user agent is a recent requirement - which explains why mplayer worked
for me a few months ago (before going to 64bit). One can set the user
agent string used by mplayer with  "-user-agent <string>"; or via
smplayer as well.

So setting "-user-agent QuickTime/7.6.2" will allow one to stream using
mplayer; using wget -U "QuickTime/7.6.2" allows one to download the
.mov first.

Also, rumor has it that if one adds quicktime to the user agent string
of his browser, he can stream the apple movies within the browser
(something I'm trying to get away from) )  this page describes how to
get it to work:

<http://www.hd-trailers.net/blog/2009/08/20/direct-download-links-from-apple-are-not-working/>

HTH