I am new to Linux, although, after a good deal of reading and effort, I finally got Totem Movie Player to work and was able to install Real Player for Linux, which was quite easy, but it seems to have some bugs (distorted image when resizing). Anyway, when I click on a link to try and play a video on Mozilla Firefox, the default player is the MPlayer embedded video player. It does its thing (indicating that it is searching, etc.), then, well, nothing! However, if I right click on the embedded player and 'copy URL', I can then paste this in Totem and play it from there, however, this is a real pain. I have to do this every time I want to view a video.

Here are my questions:

1) Is it possible to set a regular video player (= not embedded) as a default player so that when clicking on a link, it opens the program automatically and plays the video?

2) What do I need to do to fix MPlayer (embedded) so that it works when clicking on a video link?

3) Any other suggestions to iron out video problems in general? Other useful software? Codecs or plugins? etc.

If you can answer these questions, I'd appreciate rather explicit information on commands. As I said earlier, I am new to Linux.

Many thanks!

To get the MPlayer plug-in to work, click on a video link and wait for the plug-in to start. Once it does, right click on the plug-in (even though it isn't working) and select configure from the menu. That should bring up the configuration options. For video output, make sure X11 is selected. You'll probably also want alsa selected for audio output.

Thanks for the swift reply...

Okay, 'X11' and 'alsa' selected. I pressed OK so it did register (when I reopen the configuration window, 'X11' and 'alsa' are indeed selected). Still not working. I've tried several combinations, but have had no luck so far.

Everything is selected EXCEPT the following:
-Enable MIDI Support
-Play media directly from site (No Caching)
-Connect to RTSP Media over TCP
-Use HTTP instead of RTSP

When I selected "Connect RTSP Media over TCP", I got RealPlayer to open when clicking on some links, but only got sound (no video). I don't know why this would cause RealPlayer (embedded) to open instead of MPlayer.

Nuts, I was hoping a simple solution would work.

Can you give a more complete description of what Mplayer is doing when it tries to play a video?

Also, do you have any idea of what version of the plugin you are using? There were a couple of buggy ones, so it might pay to install the latest version, even if you have to do it from source.

Where does one get the latest version of the mplayer plugin? The only ones I find are asking me to downgrade packages before installation.

Personally I am trying to get MSNBC content to work.

When I click on a video link, embedded MPlayer opens and replaces the previous webpage. I get the following:

-Download completed...
-Connecting to server
-Buffering http://212... (which takes a long time. You actually get the impression that nothing is happening.)
-Stopped

At this point I get the 'play', 'pause' and 'stop' icons in the bottom left corner

If I click on 'play' I get

-Getting playlist
-Connecting to server
-Buffering
-Stopped

AND THAT'S IT! NO ACTION

But if I copy URL it gives me this, for example: rtsp://212.58.234.120/nfs01/BBCWorld/encodedfiles/worl_click_140906_show_lo.rm?provider=BBCWorld
That I can play in Totem, in RealPlayer (But I don't even know how to play it in the regular version of MPplayer...)

@SkipHuffman

I get the plugin from the mplayer plugin site. It looks as if version 3.35 is the most current.

@fc6_user
That was exactly what I was having happen, and the configuration bit I told you about fixed it. The only other thing that comes to mind is that you're missing codecs. Does mplayer work decently outside of Firefox? Did you install Mplayer codecs?

I have found that. But when I try to configure it is asking for a lot of stuff that a browser plug in would not need. Specifically gecko-sdk. An entire software development kit just to install a plug in? Does not seem quite right to me.

And if I try to install the binary it fails with "Some package requested cannot be installed: mplayerplug-in-3.35-fc6.i386 (due to unsatisfied libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)) Continue?

If you have a read in the INSTALL file, you'll see you need either the gecko-sdk or the mozilla-devel package. The mozilla package is probably the way to go, and there may even be a package already existing for your distro.

So far as urpmi is concerned, I have mozilla-devel. (or perhaps I cannot install it because I have more recent libraries.)

What can I do to know what codecs are already installed and other information about configuration (commands, perhaps)? I'll then paste them into this thread. Could I give you any other useful information? (Please keep in mind that I'm new at all this stuff. I am enjoying it nevertheless).

Your codecs are probably located in /usr/lib/codecs/ or /usr/local/lib/codecs/

That looks to me like you don't have a completely updated system. Of course I'm frighteningly ignorant about keeping a Fedora box updated, so I might be wrong about that.

About the only suggestion I've got (besides doing a full update) is to run ldconfig and hope that somehow some of the libraries weren't listed. Otherwise you may want to consider trying to update your system, although I would make a full backup of everything important first. That error a couple posts back about an unsatisfied glibc dependency is kinda worrying. Glibc is a pretty central library and screwing with it can bork your system.

Yeah, that has me worried too. It may be time to upgrade this old system. But I just hate to risk it.

Okay folks, neither gecko-sdk nor mozilla-devel packages are in my codecs folder.

Here are my options (I think!):

[linux@localhost ~]$ yum list geck*
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Available Packages
gecko-sharp2.i386 0.11-12 core
gecko-sharp2-devel.i386 0.11-12 core
[linux@localhost ~]$ yum list moz*
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Available Packages
mozilla-opensc-signer.i386 0.11.1-6.fc6 extras
mozilla-vlc.i386 0.8.6a-1.lvn6.1 livna
mozldap.i386 6.0.2-1.fc6 extras
mozldap-devel.i386 6.0.2-1.fc6 extras
mozldap-tools.i386 6.0.2-1.fc6 extras
mozplugger.i386 1.7.3-3.1 core
[linux@localhost ~]$

What should I install?

And I didn't get that bit about Glibc being able to bork the system, although it's probably over my head...