MPlayer and .wmv Files
 

Supposedly Mplayer plays wmv files but I have had no luck. I can get it to play all sorts of other things, I just can't get it to play .wmv files. Anybody have any suggestions?

Greets!

Like you said, should work by default. I can play most, but find that there are many where it cant play the video stream, and only the sound works. Have you tried several wmv files, or is just one giving you trouble?

In my experience wmv is a pretty crappy format.

Have you tried downloading the codec package that includes support for .wmv? You can get it from here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html .

ok gonna try downloading those codecs

I haven't really come across any wmv files that I can play (at least yet)

THanks

may be right

but I still want to be able to play it

Also, after you get done downloading and unpacking the codecs, create the directory /usr/lib/win32 and then copy all the codecs into there. If I remember right both Xine and Mplayer use that same path.

is that all I do to install the codecs?

extract and copy to that path?

Thanks, I am pretty damn new to linux

That's all I did to get mine to work.

ok thanks alot

I will try it when I get home from work. I really only want it to play some old videos of my daughter that i made on an old Windows system. Thanks for your help. I will post and let you know if it works.

PS- I am thinking of switching distros soon. I really just chose Fedora because I was new to linux, but now that I know my way around, I think I may be ready for something...... a bit more serious. How is Slackware in your opinion?

Well I am not him, but I made the same change as you and never looked back. Well, from Redhat 9 to Slackware 9.1 actually.. but in my opinion you can't go wrong as long as you are willing to spend some time to configure your system. Slackware will manage to recognise alot of things automatically, but if it doesn't, you will have to edit all textfiles yourself. Which sounds worse than it is, since thanks to Pat V.'s extensive commenting it's usually more clear how things work than with a GUI tool...

Well that's my opinion. Good luck :)

well I guess I have not really gone that far and that is what I am scared about. I have gotten about all of my devices to work with Fedora, mostly through GUI tools. Is it really that much harder?

I started using Redhat off and on at version 7.3, and I just disliked each newer version that I used from there on. I just switched to Slackware a couple of weeks ago, after installing Fecora Core 2, and so far I like it. There is a lot more configuration-wise that seems to need to be done, but I've enjoyed it because I am learning a lot. I installed it on my laptop without any problems at all, and I just put it on my desktop a few days ago, and so far I have no complaints.

Harder? Not really, especially with problems you tend to solve those earlier. The only prerequisite is that you have to be willing to invest a little time. But as I said: Slackware has its configurationfiles very well commented throughout. So it should speak for itself most of the time :)

Did you ever get your video files to work?

All the slackware help you'll ever need is in these forums. You should defenitely give it a try, and while youre at it try a couple other distros as well. Its the only way you'll find the one that fits you best. I've tried a bunch of distros, and always came back to slackware. The only other OS that came close is FreeBSD....and slackware is based on BSD anyways....