i use my son's computer to watch movies. i wanted to view only eng subs and all i could get was the chinese subs. after googling i found i needed to open terminal and applications mplayer and -slang something. i am such a newbie. how do i even begin to learn this? so please be understanding if my questions seem obvious. thx

Welcome to the board. I see this is your first post.

There is a simple answer, here is the part of the man page that explains how to make a language selection for mplayer.

As I said, this is the simple answer... Now, down to reality...

Man pages. These are files on most linux distros that explain in technical language how to use a program or command. They are technically accurate, but often difficult for the beginner to understand. To view a man page, the two ways I use most are; 1. open a terminal ( sometimes called the command line ) and enter 'man mplayer' ( without the quotes ). 2. Open Konqueror ( that is a web browser usually found on systems with the KDE desktop ). In the location bar type 'man:/mplayer' and press enter. Once again, no quotes. I like this method best, it formats the display and you can scroll back and forth.

In the Synopsis area you will see the command -slang is an option, so you have to fill in the blanks. Note there are several to choose from. Mplayer can play lots of different sources, ie DVD's TV etc. You have to pick the correct command for the media.

We have all been there. Learn one thing at a time. I'm an old fart, and I can do it. In fact in my house I'm the 'expert'. I still know a lot more than my kids about computing, both windoze and linux. This would be a good point to do some bonding, ask your kid, I bet he (she) would be overjoyed to help the old man out....

Don't let the console intimidate you. At the most basic level CLI is really not all that different from using a gui; it's just a different kind of interface. You type in a command, hit enter, and your program runs.

The only secret is in learning what to type, and that comes with experience--by getting your hands dirty. Read up on the basics, check out the man pages, and just do it. (I recommend LinuxCommand.org as a good primer on how to use the shell.)

As you get more experienced you'll discover that there are a lot of things you can do through CLI that are difficult or impossible to do through a graphics program, and eventually you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.

(Of course, that's not to say that there aren't also things that are easier to do through GUI than CLI. But for an experienced user the number of those is more limited than you probably imagine them to be right now.)

To the OP: I took the opportunity to edit your thread title as "command line? waaa?" doesn't quite cut it and "Problem with Mplayer commands and commandline" does slightly better. Also note the Introduction forum is for making introductions. So I moved your thread to the Software forum as basically you have a very generic problem that (could have been posted in Software or Linux General).

Welcome to LQ buddy ... try using VLC or GOM player ... that should make life easier for you.


linux