LinuxQuestions.org - MPlayer not playing anything

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MPlayer not playing anything

Hi all,

I have just installed Etch on my Inspiron 6000 laptop.

I apt-getted mplayer and after installing, when I try to run some avi or wmv files, it says unable to find video device and cannot play anything.

Can anybody tell me what is the problem ? What should I do ?

I have ati raedon mobility graphic card.

regards,
Hardik

We're going to need the cli output from mplayer.
Is this only for proprietary codec files, or is it for everything (try ogg/theora for eg)? Is it only for video (try ogg/vorbis for eg)?

You should also check the video-out (-vo option) configuration to make sure it is using one that exists.

Hi,

the strange thing is it is working from schell. When I run Mplayer with some file as argument from the command line, I get some errors because of codecs but at the end I can watch the movie. e.g.

Code:

[hardik@galaxy: ~ ]$ mplayer /mnt/xp/Parineeta/Parineeta-1.wmv

MPlayer 1.0rc1-4.1.2-DFSG-free (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz (Family: 6, Model: 13, Stepping: 8)

CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1

Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

mplayer: could not connect to socket

mplayer: No such file or directory

Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.



Playing /mnt/xp/Parineeta/Parineeta-1.wmv.

ASF file format detected.

VIDEO:  [WMV1]  320x240  24bpp  30.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)

Clip info:

 name: Parineeta

 author:

 copyright:

 comments:

open: No such file or directory

[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid

open: No such file or directory

[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid

[VO_TDFXFB] This driver only supports the 3Dfx Banshee, Voodoo3 and Voodoo 5.

[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.

==========================================================================

Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family

Selected video codec: [ffwmv1] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg M$ WMV1/WMV7)

==========================================================================

==========================================================================

Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders

AUDIO: 32000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 32.0 kbit/3.12% (ratio: 4000->128000)

Selected audio codec: [ffwmav2] afm: ffmpeg (DivX audio v2 (FFmpeg))

==========================================================================

AO: [oss] 32000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)

Starting playback...

VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)

VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)

Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.

VO: [xv] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12

No bind found for key 'MOUSE_BTN0'.                        0.4% 0 0

A:  48.4 V:  48.4 A-V:  0.003 ct: -0.064 1331/1331  1%  0%  0.4% 0 0



Exiting... (End of file)

But when I run it from menu and try to open the same file from its menu, it gives error that cannot initialize or open the video device vo.

What could be the difference between CLI and running from menu. I am confused ! :(

regards,
Hardik

try with the command "gmplayer" instead of "mplayer" and find out what command that menu item is executing.

GMplayer has a gui configuration editor ... check the video settings.

"vo" is the "video out" option which specifies a priority list of video output drivers (see man mplayer). execute mplayer -vo help for a list of available drivers.

When you used the cli, mplayer was using the Xv driver ... which worked. (It also used oss audio - which will be enabled via the alsa oss driver... but mplayer can use alsa directly.) I'm guesing that the menue is calling something else - which dosn't exist.

About those errors:
(Roughly...)

Failed to open LIRC support.
... you don't have an infra-red remote control. (Or it isn't active/configured.) Perhaps your laptop has an IR card which has been autodetected - which is why mplayer checked? (Or perhaps this build of mplayer checks anyway!)

open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
... check that /dev/mga_vid exists. If so, [code]
rm -f /dev/mga_vid
mknod /dev/mga_vid c 83 0
[code]- this is the matrox framebuffer device which is used by your card.
Mplayer couldn't find it, so it abandons the MGA driver. (Of course, if your radeon card dosn't use the matrox framebuffer, then it is reasonable not to find it.)

I'm guessing that the menue is executing gmplayer, looking for this device, not finding it, and exiting (or whatever).

[VO_TDFXFB] This driver only supports the 3Dfx Banshee, Voodoo3 and Voodoo 5.
... the next driver tried: but your card isn't one of those.

[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
... another voodoo card driver.

Thus mplayer starts ffmpeg - ffmpeg correctly starts the libav codec. Starts playback:

AO: [oss] 32000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)[/font][/color]
... audio device = OSS ... if you are using alsa you may like to change this.

VDec: vo config request - 320 x 240 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
... the movie isn't revealing much metadata, where information is missing, defaults are used.

VO: [xv] 320x240 => 320x240 Planar YV12
... video out is Xv ... which works.

No bind found for key 'MOUSE_BTN0'.
... button 0 on your mouse won't do anything.
<disconcerted> You know: I actually don't know which one is button 0...

Hi Simon,

Thank you very much for your help and comprehensive analysis of my errors.

I am right now at work, but surely try when I am back home.

regards,
Hardik

did you install multimedia codecs or not if not check this simple instructions and try to play your dvd.

hope this helps

Hi Simon,

You were right, it was gmplayer invoked from the menu.

I get following error when I invoe gmplayer from commandline ..........

I dont know, why Mplayer is not found .. it is already in path.

Code:

[hardik@galaxy: ~ ]$ gmplayer /mnt/xp/Parineeta/Parineeta-1.wmv &

[1] 3229

MPlayer 1.0rc1-4.1.2-DFSG-free (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz (Family: 6, Model: 13, Stepping: 8)

CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1

Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

mplayer: could not connect to socket

mplayer: No such file or directory

Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control

I also could not find any option to show the video device like -vo..

Though I tried starting gmplayer with -vo XV option, bacause the xv device worked with mplayer. The output is the same as above.

regards,
Hardik

There is an important question here - does gmplayer play other formats OK? How about media that is not on your windows partition?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sridhar11

did you install multimedia codecs

This is a good question and is very often the problem. In this case, mplayer will play a wmv file, but gmplayer doesn't. Suggests that this is not a codec issue. But I am willing to be proved wrong... hence the question above.

In the gmplayer GUI, there is a tabbed dialog for settings which is opened by clicking an icon that looks like a spanner (or similar tool depending on the skin). I recall that I could rt-click on the gui and select "options" or "preferences". There are tabs for drivers, codecs, audio, and video. (And all that stuff.)

However - I'm not sure you'll get this running gmplayer in the background like you tried.... have a go with:

$ cd /mnt/xp/Parineeta
$ gmplayer -vo xv Parineeta-1.wmv

... or just:
$ gmplayer -vo xv

(no input file - just start the gui, after this you can browse to the file you want to play from within the gui.)

You should realize that all that "not found" error stuff referred to LIRC support - which we already know you are not supposed to have. These are not the fatal errors. You need to show the entire output like you did with the mplayer command before.

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by sridhar11
did you install multimedia codecs

I dont really know, but I cannot install the codecs right now, I have problem with the multimedia repository, which I have already posted here.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=516860

Moreover, as I could play wmv file with mplayer, It is difficult to believe that the codec is missing. Still, I will give a try with other codecs and files residing on linux partition.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge
You should realize that all that "not found" error stuff referred to LIRC support - which we already know you are not supposed to have. These are not the fatal errors. You need to show the entire output like you did with the mplayer command before.

I do know that the LIRC stuff is due to remote control, and I dont care about it, But this is the whole output I got with gmplayer, and after tat the player was not responding. I had to kill it.

I thank you guys again for trying to help me out.

regards,
Hardik

Quote:

this is the whole output I got with gmplayer, and after tat the player was not responding. I had to kill it.

gmplayer hung when invoked from the commandline! How........ odd.

Note: the messages show that mplayer started OK. It's hanging on the "playing" part

I'll wait for the results of the tests - definitely try bringing the gui up without a file to play.

Hi guys,

Thank you verymuch for your help.

I reinstalled the mplayer from the multimedia repository and now it is working !

It is playing avi and wmv files. I still need to test other codecs like real media and mpeg but hope it will work.

thanks,
Hardik

OK good.
While you are at it, consider using ogg/vorbis and ogg/theora format.

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge

OK good.
While you are at it, consider using ogg/vorbis and ogg/theora format.

Where to get movies, audios in that format ? I would need only samples, just to test.

regards,
Hardik

The project home is a good place to start...
http://xiph.org/

vorbis.com
theora.org

Magnatunes will sell you ogg format music.
http://magnatune.com/

Of course, you can create your own samples under linux.

Existing ffmpeg supported formats can be converted to the equivalent xiph format via "ffmpeg2theora" ... considering you are often converting one lossy format to another, it works pretty well. wav files can be converted (to ogg/vorbis) via "oggenc".

I thought I had the same problem as rangalo in this thread. gmplayer wouldn't open my avi files. I changed the -vo setting to xv and my avi files played using gmplayer. mplayer worked from the beginning. Then, after that I didn't have to set the -vo option any more, just that once seemed to do it.