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Old 08-22-2005, 04:07 PM   #1
Charlo
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Registered: Jul 2005
Location: Belgium
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New to Linux


Hello everyone

I'm pretty new to Linux, although I've dabbled with it before. Just not in a "serious" kind of way.
Anyway, one of my machines crashed last week and I decided to install Linux on it. At the time I used iWHAX (before: WHOPPIX) Live CD to transfer files off the crashed system. After that I proceeded with installing said distro. I have other, and probably more beginner-friendly, distro's on disc lying around, but iWHAX did what I asked and I found it pretty nice to work with.

Of course, you can understand that I want to do the same with this OS as I did with Windows. View movies, listen to mp3s, etc etc.

So my questions now are:
- where can I find a wmv-plugin for Firefox?
- which player is best for playing avi/mpeg/mov? (I have KPlayer installed, doesn't do it)
- DivX/XviD plugins available?
- a good mp3 player?
- how does that Samba-thingie really work? And do I really need it?


So far that's all, but I'm sure a few other things may come up in the learning process. It may seem simple to most of you, but it's giving me hell at times ;-)

Thanks in advance for your help
 
Old 08-22-2005, 04:18 PM   #2
mebrelith
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Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Torreón, Coahuila, México
Distribution: Gentoo
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Hi there and welcome to Linux.

1 - A wmv-plugin? You mean a media player plugin to watch videos (including wmv) from Firefox. Your best bet is mplayerplug-in which uses Mplayer to do the job.
2 - Off the browser I use xine-ui (which obviously uses the xine engine) and let me tell you it totally rocks. As long as you have win32 codecs installed on your system.
3- Same as above, theres a whole package of win32 codecs but theres also a divx4linux codec goin around. Just make sure its installed.
4 - Just to play'em? I suppose XMMS will do. But if you want more (power and stuff) then you have got to get amarok.
5 - If you dont know if you need it, then you dont need it.

Edit: I forgot to mention that sometimes there are distro related issues regarding video and mp3. I dont know if this iWHAX thingie you are using is one of those pesky distros where playing mp3s needs more magic tricks than it should. Im a happy Gentoo user and never had to deal with such stuff. But back at my Fedora beginnings I noticed such problems.

Good luck!

Last edited by mebrelith; 08-22-2005 at 04:27 PM.
 
Old 08-25-2005, 01:10 PM   #3
Charlo
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Registered: Jul 2005
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Thought of taking things one step at a time, so I started out with Xine.

I got the tarballs for both the engine and the gui. I unpacked the engine, ./configure, make install.
Same for the gui.
Proggie starts but won't play dvd, nor avi or mpeg.

Also, it says "there is no MRL" on top. Either something is missing, or I'm being an idiot because it's a tagline.
 
Old 08-25-2005, 01:21 PM   #4
craigevil
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Registered: Apr 2005
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Try installing Mplayer along with the essential codecs.

MPlayer - The Movie Player

You might want to start with a more user friendly distro like:
Ubuntu
MEPIS
SUSE
Mandriva

They are pretty easy to use and the support for each of the above is great. MEPIS installs with media support, including dvds, mp3, etc. I think Suse 9.3 does as well.
 
Old 08-25-2005, 02:42 PM   #5
dracolich
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Registered: Jul 2005
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To play dvds in Xine, and I assume MPlayer will have the same issue, you need some libraries installed:

libdvdread
libdvdplay

optional libs include:

libdvdcss
libdvdnav

The Win32 codecs should be installed into /usr/lib/win32. Or you can place them somewhere else, but if you do you will have to tell Xine or MPlayer where to look.
 
  


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