Using Fedora Core 5, I only get audio from using the preferred method, or the wine one. My files are located in other area than the one you all have described. My .mplayer.conf file was in etc. Oh well, I still have my windows partition.

if you only have audio, then the problem migth be
1. Running mplayer x86_64. You need the 32 bit (x86,i386) version.
2. You do not have the essential codecs installed. Get the from the mplayer site. Install them in /usr/lib/win32
3. Need to specify vo=xv in mplayer.conf file
4. Make sure the $HOME/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf file has noembed=1

Using all the good info in this forum, I'm so close to getting this to work. But I'm stuck.

I installed mplayerplug-in 3.21 and made /etc/mplayerplug-in.conf and ~/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf with noembed=1. That got the mlb.tv player to pop out a separate mplayer window, as claimed. However, the window was `transparent' and non-functional. I found the following link on another forum (forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=101185):

mplayer -cache 512 mms://a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2006/open/fastcast/archive03/032406_fastcast_350.wmv?ct1=mlb

Using that directly on the command line, I got the same result.


Then I realized the mplayer itself was compiled without win32codecs! So note if you're using gentoo: mplayer MUST be emerged using the win32codecs USE flag! So I've recompiled, and the above command works, both sound and video play! However, firefox is even worse. The separate mplayer frame won't even pop out anymore. And when it was doing so before, there used to be an mplayer process started, much like the above command. No such process now. (I've since tried that command directly from my shell, but what I was trying to view requires a username and password.)

I'd appreciate some help so much. I think I've followed everything above to a tee. Here's some more info (I'm using gentoo):

firefox 1.5.0.3 (~x86 masked)

mplayer 1.0.20060415 (vo=xv,x11 ao=alsa autosync=0 all specified in both /etc/mplayer.config and ~/.mplayer/config)

win32codecs 20050216

I always log on through the mlb.tv link before opening the player; about:config shows lots and lots of media plugins, all enabled and using mplayerplug-in; /usr/lib/win32 has lots of good stuff; /opt/netscape/plugins (apparently firefox's plugin directory) has lots of mplayerplug-in .so and .xpt files; ...



P.S. At this point I think I've seen the flash video of the White Sox winning the world series a million times.

If you have the proper codecs installed already, get the MediaPlayer Connectivity extension from Firefox. You'll have to set it up to use the media player you prefer for WMV (for me, it's /usr/bin/kaffeine). When you click on a video at MLB.com, it will open in a new window. Maximize that window and right click on the white space at the right. From the menu, choose MediaPlayer Connectivity> List all media links for this page.

A popup should appear with the link in it. Click on that link to start the video.

This works on the free videos, but since I don't have a subscription (nor do I want one) I can't test it with paid content. Someone want to try this and see if it works?

Thanks so much for the help. That'll help me with lots of other stuff, but it won't work for watching games.

When I click on video links from mlb.com or highlight links from the mlb.tv player, MediaPlayerConnectivity works great, exactly as stated above. However, with games, when I "right-click -> MediaPlayerConnectivity -> List all media links of page", The pop-up window is blank, the cursor has a timer, and it just hangs. When I "right-click -> MediaPlayerConnectivity -> Open [...the link...]", an mplayer window pops up, but it hangs and I have to manually kill it. But I'm not surprised, since that link is http/*.jsp, and whenever things work it's mms/*.wmv.

Now, if I "right-click -> MediaPlayerConnectivity -> Click to get more media links!" It pops up the full url of that http link for a second, and there's an mms/wmv url in the query string given to the java server page. But when I try that out directly with mplayer, it exits immediately (one message says "Unknown ASF streaming type", but obviously this is not the correct way to do things, so I'm not making too much of it).

I'd greatly appreciate any more help. If I figure it out in the meantime I'll be sure to post a summary of how I got it working. I still think the mplayerplug-in noembed=1 is the way to go, it just stopped working after I re-emerged mplayer with win32codecs.

Thanks.

Using the above method, I can get it to work, using Kplayer instead of Kaffeine, but I don't think that makes much difference. In fact, it works with regular mplayer too. Strange, this didn't work a couple of days ago. If it helps anyone out, most of the multimedia applications are found in usr/bin. You can plug in the addresses, like usr/bin/kplayer, into the slots under configuration.

thanks all

I'm having a similar problem as well. I can get the highlight videos fine (they pop up in a new MPlayer window), but there's no sound with them. I also can't get the live games to stream properly either. When I right click on the white space and go to MediaPlayerConnectivity a window pops up for me to select the media I want to view but when I try to view it I get a "video player undefined for that type of media". But according to Tools > MediaPlayerConnectivity > Configure *.wmv is assigned to /usr/local/bin/mplayer which is correct as far as I know.

I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.3 on Slack 10.2 (2.4 kernel) and the latest MPlayer/mplayerplug-in I can find.

EDIT: I got the sound to work, but the video is really choppy now.

I'm not getting that error, but like I mentioned above the link that MediaPlayerConnectivity finds for the live games seems to be a .jsp, and the wmv url is one of several parameters in the query string. Maybe it has something do with the fact that it's subscription content? But I'm already logged in.

Anyways, have you tried associating /usr/local/bin/mplayer with *.jsp?

I go to mlb.tv and log in using the link at the upper right before I try to view any of the games so I don't think that's my problem. When I click on the "List all media links of page" in the white space of the pop up window the *.jsp listing has the + next to it and when it drops down there's a *.wmv file and when I click on that one I get the same can't be displayed error.

There isn't an option in my Tools > MediaPlayerConnectivity > Configure for *.jsp files. All I have are: RealPlayer, WMV, QuickTime, Playlist, MP3/OGG/AAC, and Wave/Midi/Au/Aif; which are all associated with /usr/local/bin/mplayer. There are also entries for Flash, NullSoft Video, Shockwave, Authorware, and Divx; but they're not associated with any player. I don't see anything with *.jsp, so what noob mistake am I making now?

I'm also not getting the new MPlayer window to pop up for the game stream like I am for the highlights if that makes any sense. I can now view the recap and game highlights perfectly (video+sound working) other than the video being pretty choppy.

That's the type of thing I was hoping would happen, but in my case it won't even list the links; that window just hangs.

Yeah, you're right. I had remembered seeing the thing saying "define more types...", but now that I try it it still only lets you do a predefined set.

Exactly my problem ...

On the choppiness issue, the videos are just as choppy in mcwindows. At least thats been my experience.

Yeah, I booted up XP yesterday to watch a couple games and the choppiness was about the same as what I experienced on the parts I could get to work in Linux.

I still have no idea why I get the undefined media type error with the *.wmv that appears when I expand the *.jsp entry. I can view embedded *.wmv files just fine (and most of the other major types).

Sorry, nothing helpful to offer, but just want to say that I too am now getting an mms link, and no jsp stuff. Worth noting because I've changed absolutely nothing on my end since several days ago!!! Is mlb.tv changing things?

An example link is:

mms://a1607.l1086962985.c10869.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1607/10869/v0001/reflector:62985?auth=ca.atcpardWbXaKdebsbucpbNcGa2bYdUa7-beCOwM-8-4giumNdx-jgm6l9lWl7kll7j7k7mdjjjclcjhmikcjcmdkik2lbkglajfk9mfjhjk&aifp=v0004&ct1=mlb&media_type=wms&av_type=v ideo&event_pk=493475&product=mlb_lg

The mlb.tv technical FAQ says these links can be put in standalone players, but they're only valid for a short amount of time. If I try to open with xine (which powers kaffiene?) I get an http 401 (unauthorized) error, even though I get it in there in a matter of seconds. If I try to play it directly with mplayer, and I get same thing as when I use MediaPlayerConnectivity to open it with mplayer: I get an empty, black mplayer window. But I do get to see some messages:

Yes there's an "Unknown ASF streaming type", but there's a read error before that, and when I tried to watch a game on a windows machine, the flash player first made me enter a credit card number for some type of verification. That, combined with xine getting an http 401, makes me think the problem might have something to do with that aspect.

Also, that windows box had windows media player 9, and it wouldn't work. I got a couple frames of the video, but the colors looked like a hallucination, and then it froze. I upgraded to version 10, and things worked fine. Totally smooth, too, none of the choppiness mentioned above.

But windows is otherwise totally useless to me, and has been for a couple years, so that's not an option.

I didn't try upgrading my WMP but I'm in the same boat as you. Other than the rare occasion I feel like firing up a non-Linux game or watching some baseball, the Windows partition on my main box is getting more and more lonely I'm afraid.