Hello.

How can I watch dvds and mpeg/avi/xvid/anyother in totem under FC3? Are there plugins available for download?

And what about burning audiocd from mp3 with k3b? Where can I get the plugin?
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EDIT: Oops, shame on me! http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/3/i386/R...n.1.3.i386.rpm
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Thanks.

Hi,

Totem is based on the Xine engine.

For watching DVDs, you'll need the de-css plugin to decode copy-scrambled DVDs (most are scrambled). Be aware, though, that the legality of this plugin is dubious; in the States I think it actually is illegal; which is why no Linux distro includes it as standard...

For coverage of windows file formats, you need the win32 codec pack...

Oh, and for what it's worth, I personally prefer Xine itself and Kaffeine - for some reason, they both seem to offer much better picture quality than Totem... don't know why..

I suggest you install win32 codecs first, usually they are installed in /usr/lib/win32. Once thats done, install libdvdcss and then compile xine-lib. Make sure you check out the configure options so that xine knows where win32 plugins are. You can then compile totem once thats done. If you are not too keen on compiling stuff, I think freshrpms.net have just updated their apt repository to include packages for Fedora Core 3 and there should be totem and xine-lib in their repository.

Totem in FC3 uses the gstreamer backend, not the xine backend.

You need to get the appropriate gstreamer plugins (or build them)
Next week I should have some available from my website - works very well, though I haven't played dvd's with it (can play mpeg, some quicktime, divx)

I'm waiting to see what gets provided by livna.org though before I post any rpm's to my build of the plugins.

I couldn't get gstreamer MP3 plug-in to work properly .. you could actually download the xine compiled totem from freshrpms repository.

mp3 plugin works fine with totem gstreamer - as do many other things.
A user should not replace FC3 totem with the freshrpms totem - unless they think real careful about it - replacing vendor installed binaries with third party packages is how systems get messed up, then people go to the fedora list with weird problems no one has heard of, file bug reports in bugzilla with these weird problems, and then it turns out something from a repo such as freshrpms that REPLACED a fedora installed binary was at fault. Now there are times when replacing an OS vendor supplied package is necessary, but not being able to play mp3's in totem isn't one of them - it plays mp3's and aac's etc. just fine if you install the proper gstreamer plugins.

I apologize for sounding like the back end of a donkey.

I don't know if livna.org has updated their builds for FC3 yet - but -

1) install the livna.org mad and mad-devel packages.
If they don't have fc3 packages yet - get the src.rpm from their fc2 and rebuild it in fc3

2) install the livna.org lame and lame-devel packages
Same with rebuilding src.rpm if needed

3) get the gstreamer-plugins-mp3 src.rpm from livna.org fc2 repository.
Edit the spec file and change the version of gstreamer plugins to current version (what fc3 has)
put the source tarball for current gstreamer plugins in your rpm sources directory.

build the spec file - it will build a gstreamer-plugins-mp3 package that will give mp3 playback capability not only to totem, but also to rhythmbox.

Or you can wait a few days - livna.org will release a gstreamer-plugins-mp3 package, probably within a week or so, that package doesn't require any patches to build with gcc34

If you MUST have win32 codec playback capability, then at least consider mplayer before replacing a package installed by the OS vendor.

Nothing personal against freshrpms's or other 3rd party repositories, they are useful. But one should be extremely cautious about replacing vendor supplied packages - that's how problems happen.

Usually multimedia apps that come with Fedora are crippled so have to be replaced or other work arounds found. Freshrpms is one of the most popoular 3rd party packagers for Fedora/Redhat, so that should show you that their packages are well regarded and work fine on fedora.

But that's where GStreamer shines.
If a media app uses a GStreamer backend, you don't have to replace squat, you just need to add plugins.
Same with xmms - since it uses plugins as well.

Fedora Core 2 was the same way, except it didn't ship with a video player. You didn't need to replace any system binaries, you add GStreamer mp3 plugin to get mp3 in Rhythmbox, you add xmms-mp3 plugin to same with xmms - no need to replace something.

Now for something like sox - that doesn't use plugin, so you would have to replace it if you wanted mp3 capability in sox.

Fedora/RH developers are committed to bug fixes, including security fixes - when you go third party, you become dependent upon that third party to keep up with those issues for the packages that are now no longer supplied by the vendor.

Yes - freshrpms is very popular, and is a nice repository. It has however released packages that have not gone through adequate QA resulting in problems for some users. Not a huge problem imho for add ons - but that's not good practice for packages that replace vendor packages.

totem-xine from freshrpms is working fine for me. I haven't found gstreamer-plugins compiled for FC3, so I think this is a nice alternative.
Anyway, I'm not sure about video quality under gstreamer. How is it by now?

Video quality with GStreamer is excellent.
I have no problems, and my system is rather humble by todays standards - Athlon XP 2700+ with only 256 MB of ram, generic brand GForce 4 440MX using the sucky kernel nv driver.

Hum... so I'll try gstreamer as backend when the plugins are out.
Gstreamer is way cool!

I've tried to get MP3 plugin to work since FC2 and I just couldn't get it to work on my machine. It always seg-faulted on me. It wasn't once, but I've tried to reinstall the gstreamer so many time .. And I beg to differ on your suggestion not to replace the standard package with an alternative.. when the standard package doesn't work .. why should I live with it? I know, I won't argue with why Redhat won't ship MP3 plug-in as a standard .. but we shouldn't got tied to it.. Well, most probably you argument will be valid for a newbie ..

LIVNA included? Anyway, I've been happy to replace many of my installed packages with the one from 3rd party repositories for sure... well, as per my statement above, if you're a newbie.. do feel cautious on using them.. but if you know what you're doing.. it is really up to you..

livna doesn't replace binaries installed by Fedora Core.
It contains packages that compliment Fedora Core but can not be included in Fedora Core or Fedora Extras for various (primarily patent) reasons.

If something doesn't work - sure, use something that does.

btw - what seems to be holding rpm.livna.org up is fedora-extras.
The packages they don't have for fc3 - such as gstreamer-ffmpeg and gstreamer-plugins-mp3 - are packages that depend upon packages from fedora-extras, which doesn't seem to be up yet for fc3

Which gstreamer plugin would I need to play MPEG files?