I posted this in the mandriva forum but so far I am still having problems. I thought I would seek a wider audience here.

I replaced a urpmi ffmpeg install with a source install from CVS.

Here is the command I used to install ffmpeg cvs:
./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-mp3lame --enable-libogg --enable-vorbis --enable-theora --enable-faad --enable-faadbin --enable-faac --enable-xvid --enable-a52 --enable-a52bin --enable-shared --enable-gpl

The default locations for libs and executables of ffmpeg are different than mandriva rpms, so, in the configure command above I put the libs and executables in the same location as the original rpm install; I didn't worry about where the mans went.

I tested it using this sample command from the ffmpeg site substituting my own vob. It works fine:

ffmpeg -i snatch_1.vob -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -b 800 -g 300 -bf 2 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 snatch.avi

Since the source install of ffmpeg my urpmi install of mencoder and mplayer are out-of-wack. Running a command I had used before:

mencoder -o test3.avi -ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:vhq:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64 -srate 44100 my_office.mov

it bails saying it can't find codec mp3 through libavcodec, but the same command using mp3lame works fine:

mencoder -o output.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:vhq -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr:br=64 -srate 44100 my_office.mov

It must be finding libavcodec to get the msmpeg4v2 codec why can't it find the mp3 codec?

Also, There has developed some quirkiness playing .wmv and .mov files. Xine will play .wmv clips fine. Mplayer plays wmv clips choppy with an error indicating that an audio device /dev/dsp can't be opened and may be busy. Xine will start to play a .mov but bails out in the first half second. Mplayer segfaults on the same .mov clip, again with the /dev/dsp error message:

Building audio filter chain for 12000Hz/1ch/s16le -> 0Hz/0ch/??...
[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy
alsa-init: 1 soundcard found, using: default
alsa: 12000 Hz/1 channels/2 bpf/8192 bytes buffer/Signed 16 bit Little Endian
AO: [alsa] 12000Hz 1ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Building audio filter chain for 12000Hz/1ch/s16le -> 12000Hz/1ch/s16le...
Starting playback...
Segmentation fault
[dad@localhost clips]$

I have the win32 codecs installed in /usr/lib/win32. though mplayer doesn't need them to play a .mov. I have a mandriva 2006 fresh install on another computer that plays .mov clips fine without it.

I even tried to go back to the beginning by uninstalling mplayer, mencoder, and ffmpeg and reinstalling all 3 from urpmi, but the problem persists. I have apparently corrupted something.

In summary I have two problems:
1. the enability of mencoder to use mp3 codec in libavcodec.
2. the enability of xine to playback mov clips, and the difficulty or enability of mplayer to playback wmv or QT clips, respectively.

I will exist in great admiration of anyone who can point to the problem.

rock

A little piece of evidence provided by Adam on the mandriva forum:

While mplayer myfile.mov segfaults, mplayer -ao arts myfile.mov plays fine. It seems mplayer has a problem with the LAVC audio codecs only.

rock

I don't claim any great insight into this, but your installation of ffmpeg from source could well have corrupted your Mandriva setup, especially if you redirected it from its default install in /usr/local.

You can probably fix up mplayer by just recompiling from source. The mplayer configure script grabs all sorts of system info to help decide what features get built in.

Don't know about xine - I have never compiled it from source.

If you can ID the files that ffmpeg installed (especially in /usr/lib) and remove them that might help. Check time stamps maybe?