[MPlayer-users] [draft] mplayer quickstart guide

[D Richard Felker III]

On Sun, May 19, 2002 at 09:41:02PM +0000, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I have written a short mplayer quickstart guide that I want to replace
> the current README file.  The README currently just says "Go read
> DOCS/documentation.html" which is quite of reading material.  My
> README is designed to teach the basic steps to get mplayer up and
> running.  It does not intend to go in depth, for this we have the docs
> after all.
> 
> This is just a rough draft.  Please let me know what you think, so
> that I can revise it.  Is it detailed enough?  Did I miss any
> important parts?  Should I put in the commands that you use to do
> stuff like 'cp XYZ ~' or is it enough to say "Copy XYZ to your
> homedirectory"?  Is the wording clear and understandable?
> Regards
> 
> Diego

I see a couple big important things that are missing...

1) A list of optional libraries that the user may want to have
installed first, such as Vorbis, XVID/DivX, JPEG, PNG, GIF, SDL, etc.,
and a reminder that if using packages, the development packages MUST
be installed or it won't work. Perhaps briefly comment on what
benefits each one provides, from a newbie user perspective.

2) A discussion of the pros and cons of various MPEG4 codecs to help
the user decide which one(s) to use:

libavcodec -- overall the most bugfree/compatible and fastest, but
needs to be downloaded separately it using CVS. Plays almost all MPEG4
variants: msmpeg4v2, msmpeg4v3 (DivX 3.x), mpeg4 (DivX 4/5, OpenDivX,
ISO MPEG4), and h263(+), etc. GPL.

XVID -- Based on the last version of OpenDivX (GPL), with DivX 4/5
functionality reimplemented. Does not play DivX 3.x files.

Divx5Linux -- official ProjectMayo codec. Can decode DivX 3/4/5,
OpenDivX, and (maybe?) ISO MPEG4. Apparently has bugs handling certain
patterns of B frames (...can someone confirm or deny this?). Binary
only.

Win32 codecs -- mostly obsoleted, but some buggy DivX 3.x files that
display weird artifacts (bars, hue shift, etc.) when played with newer
codecs might look right with the original DivX 3 dll. Also includes
internal postprocessing.

Someone else should check all this info, since I just put it together
from memory. Maybe also mention how to switch between compiled-in
codecs at runtime with -vc.

3) Instructions on how to get libavcodec if using CVS/snapshots of
MPlayer that don't already have it included. IMO this is very
important, since lots of new users who don't know what they're doing
omit it, and then they think MPlayer sucks because they're not seeing
the amazing performance and other benefits it provides.

Finally, wouldn't this discussion be more appropriate on -dev-eng? I'm
not subscribed here so it's a pain to dl the archives just to post
replies. :)

Rich