hi guys,

i have a problem with mplayer when trying to play dvds. the command mplayer dvd:// brings up the player, sound works fine but the picture is totally mangled.

the picture moves (and obviously does bare some relation to the actual dvd playing) but is a totally messed up version of what it's supposed to be. i haven't been able to capture it (as when i try, the screen doesn't show up in captures), but i have made this picture which looks pretty much exactly like the actual behaviour:
geocities.com/jl0242/mplayer.jpg.html

the funny thing is, xine plays dvds perfectly, so it seems unlikely that i am missing some kind of codec or anything. also, i can play divx and other files with mplayer no problem. i've tried checking the parameters for mplayer, but there doesn't seem to be anything to fiddle with which might effect the picture this much.

anyone got any ideas?

cheers,
joe.

Do a
man mplayer
Search for the dvd options.

got any idea what might be the problem? i.e. is it likely to be a driver/filter thing? or just an adjustment to a value?

sorry, the man for mplayer is 40+ pages of adjustable settings

Not sure what's the problem. Try to update your player, check for libs...
Did you install it by rpm or compiled from source?
I opened a dvd disc with my mplayer, to generate the output and post here, in case you wanna study what it does while playing.
Here it is:


bruno@frank:~> mplayer dvd://
MPlayer 1.0pre4-3.3.3 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon 4 /Athlon MP/XP Palomino 1625 MHz (Family: 6,
Stepping: 2)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

Reading config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf: No such file or directo
ry
Reading config file /home/bruno/.mplayer/config
Reading /home/bruno/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/bruno/.mplayer/codec
s.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/usr/local/etc/mplayer/c
odecs.conf': No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
Font /home/bruno/.mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)
Failed to open /dev/rtc: Permission denied (/dev/rtc should be readable by the u
ser.)
Using usleep() timing
Can't open input config file /home/bruno/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or di
rectory
Can't open input config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/input.conf: No such file or
directory
Falling back on default (hardcoded) input config
Setting up LIRC support...
mplayer: could not open config files /home/bruno/.lircrc and /etc/lircrc
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to read LIRC config file ~/.lircrc.
You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing dvd://.
Reading disc structure, please wait...
There are 9 titles on this DVD.
There are 9 chapters in this DVD title.
There are 1 angles in this DVD title.
DVD successfully opened.
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 2) 29.970 fps 7500.0 kbps (937.5 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
AC3: 2.0 (stereo) 48000 Hz 192.0 kbit/s
Using MMX optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 24000->192000 (192.0 kbit)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm:liba52 (AC3-liba52)
==========================================================================
vo: X11 running at 1280x1024 with depth 16 and 16 bpp (":0.0" => local display)
Disabling DPMS
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.3.1
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm:libmpeg2 (MPEG 1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
Checking audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/16bit -> 48000Hz/2ch/16bit...
AF_pre: af format: 2 bps, 2 ch, 48000 hz, little endian signed int
AF_pre: 48000Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian)
audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: No such file or directory
alsa-init: requested format: 48000 Hz, 2 channels, Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian)
alsa-init: 1 soundcard found, using: hw:0,0
alsa1x: 48000 Hz/2 channels/4 bpf/65536 bytes buffer/Signed 16 bit Little Endian
AO: [alsa1x] 48000Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian) (2 bps)
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/16bit -> 48000Hz/2ch/16bit...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 720x540 Planar YV12
A: 0.5 V: 0.5 A-V: 0.003 ct: 0.029 15/ 12 0% 0% 0.0% 0 0 0%
demux_mpg: 24fps progressive NTSC content detected, switching framerate.
No bind found for key c 3 10% 5% 1.5% 0 0 0%
Successfully enabled DPMS.000 ct: 0.173 921/918 10% 5% 1.4% 0 0 0%
alsa-uninit: pcm closed

Exiting... (Quit)
bruno@frank:~>

got it sorted

managed to sort it out after slogging through the behemoth man page for mplayer. changing the video driver fixed the messed up picture, command was:
mplayer -vo x11 dvd://

this made the screen a bit small though, so i did the following to scale the picture up to something a bit more suitable for tv-out:
mplayer -vo x11 -vop expand=800:600,scale=800:-2 dvd://

hope this will help someone else sometime

Sure it will. This oddities never happen once only.

x11 isn't a great output to use as it's much more cpu thanxv. if you can use xv do so. then you also won't need to use -vop stuff as it will run full screen like you'd expect.

thanks for the info, it seems then that this problem isn't totally solved. i shall keep investigating for a better solution.

some info on nvidia cards from the documentation on mplayerhq.hu looks promising.