See http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html for the complete, daily generated list!!!
The most important ones above all:
If you have a Win32 codec not listed here which is not supported yet, please read the codec importing HOWTO and help us add support for it!
This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of Project Mayo. Their first available alpha version was OpenDivX 4.0 alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was included in MPlayer in the past, and built by default. We also used its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual quality of MPEG1/2 movies. Now we use our own, for all file types.
The new generation of this codec is called DivX4Linux and can even decode movies made with the infamous DivX codec! In addition it is much faster than the native Win32 DivX DLLs but slower than libavcodec. Hence its usage as a decoder is DISCOURAGED. However, it is useful for encoding. One disadvantage of this codec is that it is currently closed source.
The codec can be downloaded from one of the following URLs:
http://avifile.sourceforge.net
http://divx.com
Unpack it, and run ./install.sh as root.
Note: Do not forget adding /usr/local/lib to your
/etc/ld.so.conf and running ldconfig!
MPlayer autodetects DivX4/DivX5 if it is properly installed, just compile as usual. If it does not detect it, you did not install or configure it correctly.
DivX4Linux works in two modes:
-vc odivx | Uses the codec in OpenDivX fashion. In this case it produces YV12 images in its own buffer, and MPlayer does colorspace conversion via libvo. (FAST, RECOMMENDED!) | ||
-vc divx4 | Uses the colorspace conversion of the codec. In this mode you can use YUY2/UYVY, too. (SLOW) |
The -vc odivx method is usually faster, due to the fact that it transfers
image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much less
bandwidth on the bus. For packed YUV modes (YUY2, UYVY) use the -vc divx4
method. For RGB modes the speed is the same, differing at best
according to your current color depth.
Note: If your -vo driver supports direct rendering, then
-vc divx4 may be faster or even the fastest solution.
2.2.1.2. FFmpeg DivX/libavcodec
Beginning with version 0.4.2, FFmpeg contains an open source DivX codec, which is compatible with traditional DivX. MPlayer supports this codec, making it possible to watch DivX/DivX4/DivX5/MP41/MP42 movies on non-x86 platforms. Furthermore it offers higher decoding speed than the Win32 codecs or the original DivX4 library!
It also contains a lot of nice codecs, such as RealVideo 1.0, WMV7, MJPEG, h263, h263+, etc.
If you use an MPlayer release you have libavcodec right in the package, just build as usual. If you use MPlayer from CVS you have to extract libavcodec from the FFmpeg CVS tree as FFmpeg 0.4.5 does not work with MPlayer. In order to achieve this do:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg logincvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeglibavcodec directory from the FFmpeg sources to the
root of the MPlayer CVS tree. It should look like this:
main/libavcodec
Note: MPlayer from CVS does contain a libavcodec subdirectory, but it does NOT contain the source for libavcodec! You must follow the steps above to obtain the source for this library.
With FFmpeg and my Matrox G400, I can view even the highest resolution DivX movies without dropped frames on my K6/2 500.
Foreword:
Be advised that the XAnim binary codecs are packaged with a piece of text
claiming to be a legally binding software license which, besides other
restrictions, forbids the user to use the codecs in conjunction with any
program other than XAnim. However, the XAnim author has yet to bring legal
action against anyone for codec-related issues.
MPlayer is capable of employing the XAnim codecs for decoding. Follow the instructions to enable them:
--with-xanimlibdir option to tell configure where
to find the XAnim codecs. By default, it looks for them at
/usr/local/lib/xanim/mods, /usr/lib/xanim/mods and /usr/lib/xanim.
Alternatively you can set the environment variable XANIM_MOD_DIR to
the directory of the XAnim codecs.vid_cvid.xa, vid_h263.xa, vid_iv50.xa
XAnim is video codec family number 10, so you may want to use the -vfm 10
option to tell MPlayer to use them if possible.
Tested codecs include: Indeo 3.2, 4.1, 5.0, CVID, 3ivX, h263.
MPlayer can play Vivo (1.0 and 2.0) videos. The most suitable codec
for 1.0 files is FFmpeg's H263 decoder, you can use it with the -vc
ffh263 option (default) (requires up-to-date libavcodec). For 2.0 files, use
the ivvideo.dll Win32 DLL file (from here),
and install it under /usr/lib/win32 or wherever you store the
Win32 codecs. This latter codec does not support YV12 nor YUY2 only BGR modes,
restricting it to the X11 and OpenGL outputs. Hopefully ffh263 will support
VIVO 2.0 files in the future.
MPEG1 and MPEG2 are decoded by the multiplatform native libmpeg2 library, whose source code is included in MPlayer. We handle buggy MPEG 1/2 video files by catching sig11 (segmentation fault), and quickly reinitializing the codec, continuing exactly from where the failure occurred. This recovery technique has no measurable speed penalty.
This is a very old and very bad codec from Microsoft. In the past it was
decoded with the msvidc32.dll Win32 codec, now we have our own
open source implementation (by Mike
Melanson).
MPlayer uses its own open source, multiplatform Cinepak decoder by default. It supports YUV outputs, so that hardware scaling is possible if the video output driver permits it.
MPlayer supports decoding all versions of RealVideo:It is recommended to download and install RealPlayer8 or RealONE, because
MPlayer can use their libraries to decode files with RealVideo 2.0 or
RealVideo 3.0 video. You may also just take the RealPlayer libraries from a
full installation and put them in a suitable directory like
/usr/lib/real or $LIBDIR/real. The MPlayer
configure script should detect the RealPlayer libraries there or in the
standard locations of a full installation. If it does not, tell configure
where to look with the --with-reallibdir switch.
Note: RealPlayer libraries currently only work with Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Cygwin on the x86 platform!
Note2: We cannot distribute the RealPlayer libraries, the license does not allow this. You have to get them yourself.
XViD is a forked development of the OpenDivX codec. It happened when ProjectMayo changed OpenDivX to closed-source DivX4, and the non-ProjectMayo people working on OpenDivX got angry, then started XViD. So both projects have the same origin.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Installation: It is currently available only from CVS. Here are the download and installation instructions:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid logincvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid co xvidcorecd xvidcore/build/genericMakefile.linux to fit your needs.make -f Makefile.linuxencore2.h and decore.h from the DivX4Linux
package, and copy them to /usr/local/include/.--with-xvidcore=/path/to/libcore.a.Sorenson is a video codec developed by Apple. We are currently able to decode the first version (SVQ1) with a native decoder.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Installation: it's compiled and usable per default.
The most important audio codecs above all:
2.2.2.1. Software AC3 decoding
This is the default decoder used for files with AC3 audio.
The AC3 decoder can create audio output mixes for 2, 4, or 6 speakers. When configured for 6 speakers, this decoder provides separate output of all the AC3 channels to the sound driver, allowing for full "surround sound" experience without the external AC3 decoder required to use the hwac3 codec.
Use the -channels option to select the number of output channels.
Use -channels 2 for a stereo downmix. For a 4 channel downmix (Left
Front, Right Front, Left Surround and Right Surround outputs), use
-channels 4. In this case, any center channel will be mixed
equally to the front channels. -channels 6 will output all the AC3
channels as they are encoded - in the order Left, Right, Left Surround, Right
Surround, Center and LFE.
The default number of output channels is 2.
To use more than 2 output channels, you will need to use OSS, and have a sound card that supports the appropriate number of output channels via the SNDCTL_DSP_CHANNELS ioctl. An example of a suitable driver is emu10k1 (used by Soundblaster Live! cards) from August 2001 or newer (ALSA CVS is also supposed to work).
2.2.2.2. Hardware AC3 decoding
You need an AC3 capable sound card, with digital out (SP/DIF). The
card's driver must properly support the AFMT_AC3 format (C-Media does).
Connect your AC3 decoder to the SP/DIF output, and use the -ac hwac3
option. It is experimental but known to work with C-Media cards and Soundblaster
Live! + ALSA (but not OSS) drivers.
libmad is a multiplatform MPEG audio decoding library. It does not handle broken files well, and it sometimes has problems with seeking.
To enable support, compile with the --enable-mad configure
option.
The audio codec used in VIVO files depends on whether it is a VIVO/1.0 or
VIVO/2.0 file. VIVO/1.0 files have g.723 audio, and VIVO/2.0 files
have Vivo Siren audio. Both are supported. You can grab the g.723/Siren
Win32 DLL from
here,
then copy it into the /usr/lib/win32 directory.
On how to install RealPlayer libraries, see the RealMedia file format section.
2.2.3. Win32 codec importing HOWTO
VFW (Video for Windows) is the old Video API for Windows. Its codecs have the .DLL or (rarely) .DRV extension. If MPlayer fails at playing your AVI with this kind of message:
UNKNOWN video codec: HFYU (0x55594648)
It means your AVI is encoded with a codec which has the HFYU fourcc (HFYU =
HuffYUV codec, DIV3 = DivX Low Motion, etc...). Now that you know this, you
have to find out which DLL Windows loads in order to play this file. In our
case, the system.ini contains this information in a line that reads:
VIDC.HFYU=huffyuv.dll
So you need the huffyuv.dll file. Note that the audio codecs are
specified by the MSACM prefix:
msacm.l3acm=L3codeca.acm
This is the MP3 codec. Now that you have all the necessary information (fourcc, codec file, sample AVI), submit your codec support request by mail, and upload these files to the FTP site:
ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/
DirectShow is the newer Video API, which is even worse than its predecessor. Things are harder with DirectShow, since
system.ini does not contain the needed information, instead it
is stored in the registry and
Take a deep breath and start searching the registry...
regedit.
Ctrl-f, disable the first two checkboxes, and enable the
third. Type in the fourcc of the codec (e.g. TM20).
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TM20DEC.AX).
Note: If searching fails, try enabling all the checkboxes. You may have false hits, but you may get lucky...
Now that you have all the necessary information (fourcc, GUID, codec file, sample AVI), submit your codec support request by mail, and upload these files to the FTP site:
ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/