movie and streaming video file player?

[vinceASPECT]

Hello,

i am currently using "mplayer" to watch streaming video coming from the web to TCL

I use the "mplayer no-deps" version off the tool from the tcl apps store.

"mplayer" seems like an extremely comprehensive software tool. In reality
i only ever play 2 types of streaming web video file. Usually .avi
files or .flv files.

 i installed the gui front end called
"smplayer" for "mplayer". When i execute "smplayer" it complains that it
can't find the version of "mplayer" my TCL system is running.

i looked in the "preferences" area of "smplayer" and there is a
tab asking for the location and version of the "mplayer" executable.

Where is the "mplayer" executable file situated in my TCL operating system?

I have correctly installed "mplayer" and it works but i can't find the
location of it's executable.

i know the above may seem like a ridiculously ignorant question and i am
sorry about that.


Alternatively,

Is there a more simple and effective "streaming video file player" than mplayer?
is that alternative player available in the TCL apps store?

thanks,

Vince.

[coreplayer2]

VLC  streams and plays almost everything    add libdvdcss and libdvdread (i think) and you've got full dvd functionality too

[hiro]

run "which mplayer"

[vinceASPECT]

hello

hiro

when i do that it says

/usr/local/bin/mplayer

i already tried that location above... inputted into the preferences tab of "smplayer".

Smplayer then stopped complaining.......... but no actual video played.

I have tried the same exact same streaming video links on other working systems
here and they are fine

hmmm

Vince.

[maro]

I've never used 'smplayer' before so was not quite sure what the problem might be. As the OP I used in my testing the 'Mplayer-nodeps.tcz' extension (plus 'OSS.tcz' for the sound). Initially I was also dumbfounded by the apparent refusal of the two "*mplayer" to cooperate. But after clicking the 'Show log' button in the 'MPlayer Error' pop-up window the error message "Mplayer was compiled without fontconfig support" was an obvious candidate for some further investigation.

It turned out that even though a setting of 'use_fontconfig=false' could be found in '~/.config/smplayer/smplayer.ini' it seemed to have no consequence on the set of parameters that 'smplayer' attempted to use (i.e. the '-fontconfig' option continued to be specified). Therefore I'd consider this a bug in 'smplayer'.

It took me a fair bit of trial and error (plus studying of the 'smplayer' sources) to come up with an initial work-around: In 'smplayer' choose 'Options' --> 'Preferences' and then 'Subtitles'. Remove the tick from the 'Freetype support' box and click 'Apply'. After that change some additional correction to the 'smplayer' settings appears to be applied and the  'Freetype support' can be selected again (if the users wishes to do so) before leaving the 'Preferences' with 'OK'. Afterwards I had no trouble to play any kind of media with 'smplayer', which handed over the work successfully to 'mplayer'.

[maro]

Alright I've now done a further bit of analysis: As it turns out the "culprit" appears to be a default setting of 'use_ass_subtitles=true' (in '~/.config/smplayer/smplayer.ini'). Therefore instead of getting a correction as a side effect of a related change in the preferences I'd rather suggest to ensure that 'Enable normal subtitles' is selected (in 'Options' --> 'Preferences' --> 'Subtitles' on the 'Font and Colors' tab, instead of 'Enable SSA/ASS subtitles').

The same outcome could also be achieved via sed -i '/use_ass_subtitles=true/s#true#false#' ~/.config/smplayer/smplayer.ini Obviosly an initial settings file is required before running that command. Having run 'smplayer' just once beforehand (and then terminated the same) should achieve just that.

[curaga]

The workaround for -nodeps (enable regular subtitles) is mentioned in the original smplayer info file from Jan 2010

[vinceASPECT]

Hello,

thanks.

i was already aware about "fonts" issues as it is mentioned in the app browser
of TCL under the "mplayer-no deps" app.

I have followed everything you said and tried numerous combinations but
still no streaming video plays via "smplayer"

Streaming video plays using just "mplayer" from the command line but not
by trying to incorporate the extra "smplayer" gui front end.

The "font's issue" seems to be mentioned all over "mplayer" scenarios. Like it
is a bug or something.

hmmm

thanks

Vince.

[pugliese]

Maro,
I appreciate the work you put in to analysize and recommend how to  make  smplayer and mplayer-nodeps inter operate. 

your script:
 sed -i '/use_ass_subtitles=true/s#true#false#' ~/.config/smplayer/smplayer.ini

worked perfectly with my setup. 

In my case, I used sudo and ran the script with smplayer closed-after opening and closing it for the first time as you recommended.
Tony

[vinceASPECT]

Hello,

i will uninstall both mplayer and smplayer.

Start again and re-install them and try your script

thanks

Vince.

[vinceASPECT]

hello

i finally got "mplayer" and "smplayer" working together.

I used the script MARO wrote. After that i closed and re-opened
"smplayer" and after some messing about it finally plays video and sound.

still, it shows on error in the terminal.....Xlib error...mising "SYNC" file in device 0:0...or something.

i will continue research and thanks very much for your efforts.

somebody has pointed me to some excellent advice.

Vince.

[thane]

I use the smplayer + mplayer combo too, but I only got it to work with the gtk2 version of mplayer. It wasn't a problem since I was using gtk2 libraries for other stuff anyway, but it would be good to know if there's another solution (still some people who don't like gtk2!).

[maro]

Yeah I've seen these Xlib:  extension "SYNC" missing on display ":0.0". warning messages whenever I click anything in the 'smplayer' GUI. But in my experience they can be completely ignored and are only showing up when using the 'Xvesa' X server (so using 'Xorg' would make them "disappear").

BTW, I would never refer to a single command (e.g. 'sed ...') as a "script". In my view even a few commands strung together (e.g. via a pipe) are not a script, it would (again IMHO) at least need some more complex control statements (e.g. 'if-then-else' or loops like 'while ... do' or 'for ... do') before I'd call something a "script". Actually if it is just a simple controll statement on it's own I'd still only call it a "command sequence".

@thane: Using another 'mplayer' extension (e.g. 'MPlayer-svn-gtk2.tcz') that was originally build with 'fontconfig' is a way to avoid stumbling over this little problem. I just wonder what the point might be to have two different GUIs then (i.e. the 'GTK2' one with 'gmplayer' plus the 'QT4' one with 'smplayer'). That is IMHO just a bit of wasteful use of memory and diskspace.

[thane]

I like the smplayer gui a lot better than the mplayer one, so I put up with the extra space usage. I might fool around with trying the nodeps version of mplayer but since I'm using gtk2 libraries with other apps anyway I'm not sure how much space that would save.

[pugliese]

Thane,

Usin Apps looks like at most about 1/2 m