Best video player (with most formats) for Linux?

[Guest greeneggs]

I'm using RedHat 8.0 and can't seem to get MPlayer or aKtion to install due to the need for all kinds of dependancies. However, if I try to install the requested dependencies, I receive a message telling me that I can't install them because of some "conflict". I guess your not "allowed" to watch videos if your a Linux user. Is this some sort of cruel and twisted plot by the music and recording industry or am I just having a bad hair day?. I wanted to watch some videos of the surgery I'll be having soon and it's in a WMV format and RealPlayer won't run it.

 

Thanks

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Unfortunately the best solution is MPlayer. I *think* someone here has written a tutorial or at least posted a link to one, specifically because of all the problems others have installing it. Actually, here's a link to the topic:

 

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=2644

[johnnyv]

I would say that Mplayer is the best for maximum formats as well, and IMO for everything else.

[Cannonfodder]

The trick with mplayer is to go very very very slow and pay attention to the online manual. It will help you make sure you have all the depenancies installed and in the correct order. You can also obtain the gui to play that. But like I said, slow and careful reading. If you continue to be stuck, try posting what you have done. You can always uninstall everything and start over if you need too.

[mtweidmann]

Mplayer is a good multi format player, but Xine is also worth considering. Although Xine is better for films (Divx and DVDs).

[aRTee]

I have come across divx movies that had colour problems in mplayer, but played perfectly in xine (maybe lib differences), and vice versa.

 

Try them both.

 

Actually, I use them both, gmplayer for divx and xine for dvd's, but if one fails in some way, I switch to the other.

 

mplayer (start gmplayer on the cli) has very nice direct chapter access for dvd playback, but no menu support. Also, if you change language or subtitles, it jumps back to the beginning of the chapter.

[ramfree17]

unfortunately i think xine doesnt like my built-in ProSavage video card. whenever i start xine i have to reboot the hard way (the magic keys doesnt work). i have not yet tried this in 9.1 so maybe its time i give it another try.

 

ciao!

[emh]

In the case of mplayer, it's much easier to compile from source. Then you don't really need to worry about dependencies as much. It will just simply use what is there.

 

The only thing you have to remember is downloading the win32 codecs and running configure with the "--enable-win32" flag (or something like that).

[aRTee]

Before knowing about plf etcetc, I always used the RH stuff from www.freshrpms.net, got xine there and mplayer. Greeneggs, you do know that place..?

 

Ok, it was a bad habit, since I often installed with rpm --nodeps but it worked fine for me.

 

Note: that was on Mdk8.1, 8.2. So mdk and rh are (were) enough alike to be able to do that.

Since mdk+urpmi and knowing plf, I haven't done that, never had to force a package with mdk9.1, never had to use a package from outside plf, contrib or whatever.