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.
Sorry forgot to mention that I too had this original OP issue, on one occasion I found that installing MPlayer first then install SMPlayer second the frontend automatically finds MPlayer, however the path can also be specified.
The path is /usr/local/bin/mplayer exactly like that (no caps) So there are two methods to resolve this problem.
Unfortunately there are many issues (here are some of the major ones)..
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").
I agree entirely with this. this error occurs only when smplayer is run from terminal and afaik is the only error or issue which can be ignored safely, as every other issue I've experienced stops mplayer dead in it's tracks and quits running.
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
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.
This right?
sudo sed -i '/use_ass_subtitles=true/s#true#false#' ~/.config/smplayer/smplayer.ini
issuing the command had NO effect on my install whatsoever. clearly something else I was doing wrong again
(I think I know why though)
Also
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'
Although it is implied here that SSA/ASS subtitles are the default, on every install I've accomplished 'Enable normal subtitles' has always been selected by default. Unless I misunderstood.
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'.
I'm glad this worked for you but this is yet another example of something which worked for someone else but has never accomplished anything in my scenario. lol
'MPlayer-svn-gtk2.tcz' this is nice, comes with it's own gui front end, pity it crashes hard with so many popup error messages then shuts down WTH?? I guess some screen shots might help, but they are all on the lines of "compiler errors" Not forgetting my personal favorite "warning MV's not available"
I think the issue is that you still had fontconfig enabled and not regular fonts, since with the latter the path needs to be specified instead of a name (/usr/share/fonts/luxisr.ttf instead of "Sans Serif").
I'm stumped, despite all the instructions here and in the info file the ability to "disable fontconfig" remains somewhat elusive.
I guess a manual edit (which is not described anywere that I can find) of the smplayer.ini file
listed under
[Subtitles]
use_fontconfig=true change to false
The above manual edit also fails to prevent the "smplayer couldn't identify which mplayer you are using" error message. BTW this error is unrecoverable..
meanwhile I install a ttf (font) and specify it's path in the smplayer subtitle configuration which works perfectly 100% of the time no matter what setting are enabled or disabled anywhere else. pity the smplayer front end is so messed up
still looking for the perfect front end for mplayer..