[MPlayer-users] xine vs. mplayer

Wed May 1 13:46:21 CEST 2002

i'll try to answer your questions, not because i'm an expert in
linux/mplayer.... the opposite is true... i've just recently ( 4months
ago) migrated to linux.....

xine is easier to install... that's true.. it's only about downloading
the rpms, and do 'rpm -i something.rpm'... or you can use a graphical
frontend to rpm....

mplayer is harder to install... there are many reasons, the most
important is that runtime-cpu-detection was just implemented... that
means that while xine can detect your processor, and use it's advanced
features ( mmx, 3dnow etc..), mplayer could do it only at compile time..
but mplayer now has runtime-cpu-detection...
(actually i don't know if xine use any kind of optimization for the
processor, but i think he does )

the second problems are plugins...
xine has a plugin architecture, that means you install it, and after
that you install a program which displays the movie in X, an another
could display the movie in a text-console etc...

mplayer has to detect the input/output-plugins at compile-time...

but i don't think installing mplayer is such hard...

its all about unpacking the archive, configure, make, make install.

of course if you want to use some 'advanced' features you have to adjust
the system... so you have to READ THE DOCUMENTATION... 

mov and quicktime formats ( i don't really know what's the difference
between them for you, i thought that all quicktime files are .mov )..

if you read the manual you'll see that mplayer can only play OLD .mov
files ... for the new ones the only way i know is to use a windows
emulator ( wine... or try www.codeweavers.com and get the crossover
plugin), and install quicktime using that emulator..

about people here being more aggressive here... i have to aggree to you
:-)))))
it's not because they're bad guys or so ( or maybe they're
:-)))...they're just tired of answering questions, that have been asked
thousands of times ( i'm only on this list for 4months, and i have seen
the same questions a lot of times ), and which are answered in the
manual.... at least do something like grep whatiwanttoknow *.html,
or open the html files and search using your browser... or even
better... READ THE WHOLE MANUAL... it won't take much time ... let's say
1 hours...and please understand that this way you sacrifice 1 hour, the
other way 20 people have to sacrifice 10minutes answering your mail..
and in those 10minutes they could improve mplayer..

so : if you have a problem, first read the manual, and after that ask...
if you do it this way, i'm sure noone will tell you RTFM.

so generally speaking you're right that xine is easier to install, and
easier to learn to use... i don't mean that it's easier to use..
i learned how to use mplayer, and it's very convient for me:-)

i don't think xine can play more filetypes than mplayer... you'll see
that basically xine and mplayer are a program which glues together
several libraries for reading video-files.... so they offer the feature
of those libraries... that means: win32 codecs, ffmpeg, divx4linux (
divx5linux), and some other ones too, but these 3 are use in 99%.

btw. don't forget that as i know xine is a player only...

mplayer contains mencoder too, which is a movie converter/encoder... 

to summarize all of this; xine is easier to get running, but if you want
to compare the power/features of xine and mplayer, you should read the
mplayer docs to be able to configure it properly.

if you have other questions, read the docs, and if you can't find the
solution, ask, and we'll try to help.

bye,
gabor

On Tue, 2002-04-30 at 21:26, Kjetil Tjensvold wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> The last week I've tried both.
> Xine 0.9.8 installs without any kind of problems, Play
> windows media files (.asf) in a window that is 50%
> larger that the mplayer window. However it wont play
> .mov files or quicktime although it should. Maybe a
> bug.
> Mplayer was a hell to compile and install. First I had
> to upgrade my gcc compiler to version 3.0.4 to get the
> job done. Option --disable-runtime-cpudetection
> compiled not without errors although when I ran
> mplayer I get noticed that it was not optimal
> installation whitout that disable option. Mplayer
> didnt either play -mov or quicktime formats. Common
> for both is no sound at all, although I enabled the
> alsa driver for mplayer. Then I tried to install
> MPlayer 0.90pre2 packed by freshrpm. It dident work at
> all, The gui shows up but the file was not activated
> by my Opera browser as it did before that
> installation. After that I tried to compile mplayer
> again to get it back to what it was before the rpm
> installation, but that didnt work out. Finally the
> people that answer questions is more nice at the xine
> mailing list than at the mplaier mailinglist, who get
> a lot of sour and arrogant people spitting out "You
> should know that".
> In my opinion xine is allover concerning
> qualitity,bugs and easily to install a 100% better
> choice for a newbie like me, than mplayer. Mplayer gui
> can not at all be compared with that of xine.
> 
> =====
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> The multiheaded animal.
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