Are the makers of suse retarded or what???
The least thing u should be able to do is watch damn videos on ur friggin computer!!!
I KNOW - i have to go search the web.. well I DID! nothing, nothing nothing no clear answer for viewing avi or mpg or rm. Ok i found mplayer but guess what when i download it i have to compile the source, for cryin out loud people! what in the world do we have to accomplish to just look at some goddamn movie!!! Please give me an answer bcuz im about to loose my patience with linux and that will mean suse 9.1 distro in the trash after ive broken it into thousand pieces and formatted my hd!

You probably need to download win32codec, at least for avis... I'd think you should be able to see mpgs though... Anyway, search some more I'm not really familiar with SuSE, but I'm sure the topic has been discussed on their mailing list, for example. Larger distros like SuSE or Fedora do not include things like win32codecs for fear of litigation - it's not a technical fault of Linux, it's the result of the world we live in... But some smaller distros, especially those based outside of the US and Europe will include them as standard... sometimes smaller is better.

PS. You can get that codec from mplayer website - it's among the things you can get from their download page, along the source, skins and fonts.

Yep. Get the codecs and put them in /usr/lib/win32. That should do it.

ok i downloaded the win32 codec and placed it inside the /usr/lib/win32 now what? do i have to compile or create a makefile?? i have no clue because all the commands in the mplayer docs dont work
i dont know how to make or compile so pls help me

You shouldn't have to compile anything. Just try a video with any media player...there should be a few installed.

use vlc
i have found it be able to play ALL kinds of movie files etc:
.mpg
.avi (divx codec and more)

if i remember right, they had all the plugins for the player, but when they were going to put it in linux they came up with the idea that instead of making a player and then all the plugins, they made the player (with all plugins inside)
it became so good that they made it also for windows

The easiest way to get mplayer to work in suse 9.1:

1. Open YAST
2. Change Source of Installation
3. "Add" "Http"
4. (server name) packman.iu-bremen.de (directory on server) /suse/9.1/
5. Click ok, there should be a pause, and a new line added to the list "On Packman (Suse Linux 9.1) http://packman.iu.bremen.de//suse/9.1/"
6. While your there, also add this FTP source... "Add" "ftp" (server name) 195.135.221.132 (directory on server) /pub/suse/i386/9.1
7. This line should be added: On SUSE LINUX Version 9.1 ftp://195.135.221.132//pub/suse/i386/9.1
8. click Finish, go back to YAST control panel
9. Install and Remove Software
10. Search for mplayer, check "mplayer" and "mplayer plugin"
11. Check "autocheck dependencies" and click "accept"
12. Close YAST Look for mplayer in the Menu: Multimedia/VideoPlayer/

Some mplayer commands:
f=full screen toggle
space=pause
9,0=volume
+,-=audio sync
q=quit


If I forgot anything, or it doesn't work, please say so.

P.S. if you tried something like this in windows, you'd have to reboot.