Mplayer or Totem?
 

I am trying to find a good all round video player for my fedora box. I have tried mplayer and beside the convuluded install and the ton of errors I get concerning config files it is a decent player. I heard about totem recently. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions as to the better of the two.

Thanks,

i never used totem but mplayer is stable, there is mplayer plugin too, enough codecs to read most videos, dvds... i used xine but when i found mplayer i knew i wouldn't use anything else.

mplayer!!!. That babe should be shipped with all Linux distributions around!. Seems like Mandrake 9.1 and higher has it already. With Redhat/apt and Debian, one single command and it's installed ;).

Isn't Totem just a Gnome skin for Xine?

i think it is just a skin. but anyway... MPlayer is the king! itll support absolutly ANY video format you throw at it (except dvd menus, but the dvd itself plays fine), and has lots of features, like libcaca and libaa and fbdev output support, joystick control...

Good point LavaDevil94 about the joystick control. I use a PSOne Wireless pad in my computer, so when I'm not playing Megaman roms, I use it as a remote control, it's neat ;)

I still haven't installed mplayer....mdk 9.2 came with Realplayer and Totem.. use realplayer to stream radio.... Totem hasn't given me any problems so far.. it plays everything i ask it to... although i can't vouch for copy protected movies... not a big movie watcher..

Just wanted to throw in my vote for mplayer. It's amazing. It just works. With everything. The only problems I've ever had were quickly remedied.

ok.. I was looking at this Mplayer you guys mention with so much entusiasm...

I am a newbie so correct me if I am wrong. Mplayer is 'Open Source' but NOT under GPL, it is CopyRighted.

And because of this I guess there is nowere to find it in Debian.

I was also unable to find it in backports.org :(

And me as a noob... have no idea how to get this installed >.<

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html
If you want to be cool like the rest of us :P, and compile from source

I also googled this which is aimed specifically for Debian users. Enjoy!

Bleh !! :rolleyes:

The 'cool' part you referred to is what i was afraid of. Anyway, I gave it a shot.

The darn thing is no good, poor documentation (as usual), it wont compile because it is missing some GTK packages :mad:
...but it wont tell you nowhere what darn packages that thing needs !!! :mad:

And YES I got installed ALL the required software they have listed !!

So... no Mplayer for me until they fix their mess with the copyrights in compliance to Debian philosophy

Hmmm, post your error messages and it's most likely that we will work it out. I know it's possible to install mplayer through apt-get and Redhat. I don't remember installing mplayer with Libranet (which is Debian), but did you try apt-get install mplayer? Maybe you could add a server to your /etc/apt/source.list...hmmmm :)

There is no Mplayer for Debian at the moment:
http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/unable-to-package
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2004/12/

The error message is plain as:
"... missing some GTK packages... "

Documentation

Here are Debian packages:

http://www.kcore.org/?menumain=4&menusub=0 scroll down a bit
http://marillat.free.fr/
http://search.rpmseek.com/search.html Search for mplayer Deb packages.

Okay, so "Debian philosophy" or not, packages exist. You can find them all right here.

If you still want to compile from source, which I recommend, post your entire error message. "Some GTK" packages is definitely not what it says, and that won't get you anywhere. Chances are if you google for what's missing, you'll find it in like 5 seconds.

Well.. you took the time to reply and do some searches, so it was only fair to give it one more try...

And to please you guys in seeing the error message... here is the console output:

qucho@noisybox:/usr/src/MPlayer-1.0pre4$ fakeroot debian/rules binary
dh_testdir
# Add here commands to configure the package.
./configure --prefix=/usr --confdir=/etc/mplayer --enable-runtime-cpudetection --enable-gui
Detected operating system: Linux
Detected host architecture: i386
Checking for cc version ... 3.3.3, ok
Checking for CPU vendor ... GenuineIntel (15:0:10)
Checking for CPU type ... Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1700MHz
Checking for GCC & CPU optimization abilities ... pentium4
Checking for assembler (as 2.14.90.0.7) ... ok
Checking for Linux kernel version ... 2.6.5.qucho05, ok
Checking for awk ... mawk
Checking for extra headers ... none
Checking for extra libs ... none
Checking for i18n ... yes
Checking for setlocale() ... yes
Checking for language ... using en (man pages: en)
Checking for enable sighandler ... yes
Checking for runtime cpudetection ... yes
Checking for restrict keyword ... __restrict
Checking for kstat ... no
Checking for posix4 ... no
Checking for lrintf ... yes
Checking for nanosleep ... yes
Checking for socklib ... yes (using -lnsl)
Checking for inet_pton() ... yes (using -lnsl)
Checking for inttypes.h (required) ... yes
Checking for int_fastXY_t in inttypes.h ... yes
Checking for word size ... 32
Checking for stddef.h ... yes
Checking for malloc.h ... yes
Checking for memalign() ... yes
Checking for alloca.h ... yes
Checking for mman.h ... yes
Checking for dynamic loader ... yes
Checking for dynamic a/v plugins support ... no
Checking for pthread ... yes (using -lpthread)
Checking for sys/soundcard.h ... yes
Checking for sys/dvdio.h ... no
Checking for sys/cdio.h ... no
Checking for linux/cdrom.h ... yes
Checking for dvd.h ... no
Checking for BSDI dvd.h ... no
Checking for HPUX SCSI header ... no
Checking for userspace SCSI headers (Solaris) ... no
Checking for termcap ... yes (using -ltermcap)
Checking for termios ... yes (using sys/termios.h)
Checking for shm ... yes
Checking for linux devfs ... no
Checking for scandir() ... yes
Checking for strsep() ... yes
Checking for fseeko() ... yes
Checking for localtime_r() ... yes
Checking for vsscanf() ... yes
Checking for posix select() ... yes
Checking for gettimeofday() ... yes
Checking for glob() ... yes
Checking for sys/sysinfo.h ... yes
Checking for Mac OS X APIs ... no
Checking for Samba support (libsmbclient) ... no
Checking for 3dfx ... no
Checking for tdfxfb ... no
Checking for tdfxvid ... no
Checking for tga ... yes
Checking for DirectFB headers presence ... yes (using -I/usr/include/directfb)
Checking for DirectFB ... yes (920)
Checking for X11 headers presence ... yes (using /usr/X11R6/include)
Checking for X11 libs presence ... yes (using /usr/X11R6/lib)
Checking for X11 ... yes
Checking for DPMS ... yes (using Xdpms 4)
Checking for Xv ... yes
Checking for XvMC ... no
Checking for Xinerama ... yes
Checking for Xxf86vm ... yes
Checking for DGA ... yes (using DGA 2.0)
Checking for OpenGL ... yes
Checking for /dev/mga_vid ... no
Checking for xmga ... no
Checking for GGI ... no
Checking for AA ... yes
Checking for CACA ... no
Checking for SVGAlib ... yes
Checking for FBDev ... yes
Checking for DVB ... no (specify path to DVB/ost/include with --with-dvbincdir=DIR)
Checking for DVB HEAD ... yes
Checking for PNG support ... yes
Checking for JPEG support ... yes
Checking for GIF support ... no
Checking for VESA support ... yes
Checking for SDL ... yes (using sdl-config)
Checking for Windows waveout ... no
Checking for Directx ... no
Checking for NAS ... yes
Checking for DXR2 ... no
Checking for DXR3/H+ ... no
Checking for libmp1e ... no
Checking for libfame ... no
Checking for OSS Audio ... yes
Checking for aRts ... yes
Checking for EsounD ... yes
Checking for esd_get_latency() ... yes
Checking for ALSA audio ... yes (using alsa 1.0.x and alsa/asoundlib.h)
Checking for Sun audio ... no
Checking for Sun mediaLib ... no
Checking for SGI audio ... no
Checking for VCD support ... ok
Checking for DVD support (libmpdvdkit) ... yes
Checking for DVD support (libdvdread) ... disabled by libmpdvdkit2
Checking for cdparanoia ... no
Checking for freetype >= 2.0.9 ... yes
Checking for fontconfig ... yes
Checking for fribidi with charsets ... no
Checking for zlib ... yes
Checking for RTC ... yes
Checking for external liblzo support ... no
Checking for mad support ... yes
Checking for OggVorbis support ... yes
Checking for OggTheora support (only the CVS version!) ... no
Checking for mp3lib support ... yes
Checking for liba52 support ... yes
Checking for libmpeg2 support ... yes
Checking for Matroska support (external 0.6.0 or later OR internal) ... yes, internal
Checking for internal FAAD2 (AAC) support ... yes
Checking for external FAAD2 (AAC) support ... no
Checking for FAAD2 version ... 2.0 RC1
Checking for Win32 codec DLL support ... yes (using /usr/lib/win32)
Checking for Win32 loader support ... yes
Checking for DirectShow ... yes
Checking for XAnim DLL ... no (no suitable directory found - see DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html)
Checking for RealPlayer DLL ... yes (using /usr/lib/win32)
Checking for LIVE.COM Streaming Media libraries ... no
Checking for iconv ... yes
Checking for FFmpeg libavcodec (static) ... yes
Checking for FFmpeg libavformatc (static) ... no
Checking for libdv-0.9.5+ ... no
Checking for zr ... no
Checking for bl ... no
Checking for XviD ... no
Checking for DivX4linux/DivX5linux/OpenDivX decore ... no
Checking for libmp3lame (for mencoder) ... no
Checking for DivX4linux encore (for mencoder) ... no
Checking for mencoder ... yes
Checking for fastmemcpy ... yes
Checking for UniquE RAR File Library ... yes
Checking for TV interface ... yes
Checking for EDL support ... yes
Checking for *BSD BrookTree 848 TV interface ... no
Checking for Video 4 Linux TV interface ... no
Checking for Video 4 Linux 2 TV interface ... no
Checking for audio select() ... yes
Checking for network ... yes
Checking for ftp ... yes
Checking for byte order ... Little Endian
Checking for shared postprocess lib ... no
Checking for OSD menu ... no
Checking for QTX codecs ... yes
Checking for Subtitles sorting ... yes
Checking for XMMS inputplugin support ... no
Checking for inet6 ... yes
Checking for gethostbyname2 ... yes
Checking for GUI ... yes
Checking for XShape extension ... yes
Checking for gtk version ...
Error: The GUI requires GTK devel packages (which were not found).

Check "configure.log" if you do not understand why it failed.
make: *** [configure-stamp] Error 1

______________________________________________
And as for the configure.log file here is the las few lines:

============ Checking for GUI ============
============ Checking for XShape extension ============

#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <X11/Xproto.h>
#include <X11/Xutil.h>
#include <X11/extensions/shape.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void) {
char *name = ":0.0";
Display *wsDisplay;
int exitvar = 0;
int eventbase, errorbase;
if (getenv("DISPLAY"))
name=getenv("DISPLAY");
wsDisplay=XOpenDisplay(name);
if (!XShapeQueryExtension(wsDisplay,&eventbase,&errorbase))
exitvar=1;
XCloseDisplay(wsDisplay);
return exitvar;
}

cc /tmp/mplayer-conf-27482-3641.c -o /tmp/mplayer-conf-12171-3641.o -I/usr/X11R6/include -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lXext -lX11 -lnsl

ldd /tmp/mplayer-conf-12171-3641.o
libfakeroot.so.0 => /usr/lib/libfakeroot/libfakeroot.so.0 (0x40018000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40030000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x4003f000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/tls/libnsl.so.1 (0x40106000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/libc.so.6 (0x4011b000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/libdl.so.2 (0x40254000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

Result is: yes
##########################################

============ Checking for gtk version ============
---------end of file -------------

So I am searching for those debian packages now...

OK.. like I said .. the mPlayer is a no go.

dpkg -i mplayer_1.0-pre4-1_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package mplayer.
(Reading database ... 135786 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mplayer (from mplayer_1.0-pre4-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mplayer:
mplayer depends on libdivxdecore0 (>= 1:5.0.1); however:
Package libdivxdecore0 is not installed.
mplayer depends on libdivxencore0 (>= 1:5.0.1); however:
Package libdivxencore0 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing mplayer (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
mplayer


Not even the 'unoficial' packages will install...
Google search for "libdivxdecore0" will send me to some documentation for suck library, but again... this copyrighted library would not be found in Debian.

This is as far as I am going with this, it is not worth the effort nor the time.

--------------
Megaman,
Carrots are yuuummmy...
The sight is just a side effect from the carrots ;)
__________

GT_Onizuka,
That documentation is crap as I said before. Why? because it would not tell ALL the necesary software for the installation. I saw it before you posted the link, and readed it.

Documents in the source files would not say what GTK packages are needed nither. (I dont intent this as a flame war, I just never saw this in Debian Packages)

Debian RULES ! :)

I will try it again if mPlayer ever makes it back in Debian.

Oh no worries, its just it bothers me when people complain about lack of documentation, since they're usually wrong. But you were quite back, so I retract my statement. MPlayer is a great piece of software so I'd love for you to be able to use it. The GTK Packages should just be called GTK-devel or something like that, I went on a little Google quest, but I could only find RPMs. I've installed many an RPM on Slackware without problems, so maybe the same should work with Debian. I'm 95% sure that package is what your box needs. As far as the Debian package install went, I'm sorry I couldn't find better ones, crazy unnofficial packages :\. If you can get another media player working fine, more power to you. I've just had the best experience with mplayer, so I tried to help as much as I could. Best of luck.

True .. I am often wrong too.

And I got that feeling from you, thats why I kept trying.

Following up a bit more in your useful research I might find the solution.
The RPM description says: Which I think would be in Debian the following... (after browsing quite a bit of packages)
Now the funny thing is that I got installed: libgtk2.0-dev

The description is a bit different where 'GIMP' is not mentioned.
So I gonna play installing/deinstalling different version of these packages, and see if that solves the problem.

Yes you have, and I appreciate your time and efforts. Thank you :)

Another thing you could try is disabling the GUI, ok now you'll say "But I want a GUI". That's no problem since there are several GUI's for mplayer (Try Kplayer).

I don't even use the GUI most of the time, I just start it from the command line... ;)

The GUI is disabled by default if building from source. Unless you specify --with-gui or the package has the GUI built with it, he won't have the GUI.

This was his configure command with the --enable-gui flag, so he did try to compile with GUI.

Oh, didn't notice that. MAN, I'm getting owned in this thread :D.

Alright guys here is the break down of the most recent attempt on Mplayer :p

1 - Yes the script was compiling the GUI, not that I was aware of this but more for an autamated scrip included in the sources. This scrip is supposed to compile Mplayer and create a Debian package.

2 - I found the deal with the necesary GTK libraries needed for the GUI compilation.
2.1 - The Debian package containing such libraries is: libgtk1.2-dev (Ver. 1.2.10-16)
2.2 - Mplayer will NOT compile the GUI with newer libraries, specifically : libgtk2.0-dev
(ver. 2.2.4-3)

3 - So I installed the old version (libgtk1.2-dev) and the compilation proceeded and completed with no errors (none that I am aware of).

4 - So far .. I can not find the GUI nowhere.

5 - I executed mplayer with a couple of videos.
5.1 - The video quality seems to be a little better than the other 3 video players I have (Kaboodle, Xine, Noatun).
5.2 - Resuming 'play' after pausing produce a small speed burst in the video.

Thats all I got at this point. :)

Ah yes, the GUI. Well, you need to make sure you have a skin installed. I'm pretty sure it doesn't come with a skin, but they're easily attained. Swing by the MPlayer download page and scroll down a bit. There's a whole host of skins there, and you can check a little preview of the skin to find one you like. I just copied and pasted this out of the mplayer docs on installing skins.

To launch mplayer with the GUI, it's gmplayer.

Glad it seems to be working for you!