2.1. Video Formats, Audio & Video Codecs
2.1.1. Supported input formats
MPlayer can read/play from the following devices/formats:
Note: about realmedia (.ra/.rm) support read the FAQ!
2.1.2. Supported audio & video codecs
See http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/codecs-status.html for the complete, daily generated list!!!
The most important video codecs:
The most important audio codecs:
If you have a codec not listed here, and not supported yet, just read section 2.1.3 to get info about how to help us adding support for it!
This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of ProjectMayo. Their first available alpha version was the OpenDivX 4.0 alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was/is included in MPlayer, and built by default. We used to use its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual quality of MPEG1/2 movies. Now we use our own.
The new generation of this codec can even decode movies made with the infamous DivX codec! And it's not everything, it's MUCH faster than the traditional Win32 DivX DLL's. See below for configuration. The only disadvantage of this codec is that it's currently closed-source. :(
The codec can be downloaded from the following URL:
http://download2.projectmayo.com/dnload/divx4linux/divx4linux-20010718.zip
Unpack it, and run ./install.sh as root.
Note: do NOT forget to add /usr/local/lib to your /etc/ld.so.conf !
MPlayer autodetects if DivX4 is (properly) installed, just compile as usual. If it doesn't detect it, you didn't install it exactly as above, and/or has fucked up config (see last question of 5.1 section).
Using it is a bit tricky. As it conflicts with the old OpenDivX (it's API is very similar to OpenDivX's), OpenDivX code is disabled, and the OpenDivX driver calls this library too.
Generally we can pinpoint this issue to that you have two options to use this codec:
| -vc odivx | using divx4 codec as a new version of OpenDivX. in this case it produces YV12 image in its own buffer, and MPlayer (libvo) does colorspace conversion. (RECOMMENDED!) | ||
| -vc divx4 | using divx4 codec's colorspace conversion. in this mode, you can use YUY2/UYVY too. |
The '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 'divx4' method. For RGB modes you can choose freely, their speed is same, maybe differ according to the current bpp.
Note: it supports postprocessing too, but range of values is strange: (TODO UPDATE)
| 0 | no postproc | ||
| 10 .. 20 | postprocessing, normal (like level 2 with divxds) | ||
| 30 .. 60 | hard prostprocessing, eats many CPU (like level 4 with divxds | ||
2.1.2.2. ffmpeg's DivX/libavcodec
Beginning with version 0.4.2 , ffmpeg contains an opensource DivX codec,
which is compatible with the traditional DivX. MPlayer supports this codec,
and this makes it possible to watch DivX/DivX4 movies on non-x86 platforms,
and gain much faster DivX/DivX4 decoding speed than the Win32 codecs and
the original DivX4 library has!
It was removed from MPlayer's cvs tree, you have to download it
manually directly from FFmpeg's tree:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg
Note: if you copy with CVS subdirs, next time it's enough to do 'cvs update'.
Now, move the newly downloaded ffmpeg source's libavcodec directory, (with all it's subdirectories) to MPlayer's tree, so it will look like this:
main/libavcodec
Symlinking is NOT enough, you have to copy/move it!!!
./configure detects if it can be built. The codec also supports postprocessing!
In order to use it, refresh your codecs.conf file, and do as the manpage, or the example.conf says (the -vfm option).
To achieve the greatest speed on my K6, I remove the
ffmpeg12 section from codecs.conf (this codec isn't optimized, and
libmpeg2 is twice as fast), and place vfm=5 in my config file.
Then MPlayer always uses ffdivx/ffodivx to decode
DivX/DivX4 files, and libmpeg2 for MPEG1/2 . With this and my Matrox G400, I can view even the
highest resolution DivX/DivX4 movies on my K6/2 500, without framedrop.
2.1.2.3. Hardware AC3 decoding
You'll need an AC3 capable soundcard, with digital out (SP/DIF). The card's driver must support the AFMT_AC3 format (like SB Live! does). Connect your AC3 decoder to the SP/DIF output, and use the '-ac hwac3' option. It may or may not work (experimental). (probably won't...)
Foreword: using (some) XAnim codecs with other program than XAnim, is ILLEGAL. It is YOUR responsibility to read its license, and do accordingly. The authors of MPlayer can't be held responsible for any unlawful act of the user.
So yes, MPlayer can use XAnim's codecs for decoding. It's very easy to enable them:
--with-xanimlibdir option to tell configure where
it can find the xanim codecs. By default, it checks them at /usr/lib/xanim/mods .They are video codec family number 10, so you may want to use -vfm 10
option to tell MPlayer to use them if possible.
Tested codecs are: Indeo 3.2, 4.1, 5.0, CVID, 3ivX, h263.
libmad is a multiplatform MPEG audio decoding library. If you don't know why is it good, you probably don't need it.
To enable support, compile with the --enable-mad configure
option.
VfW (Video for Windows) is the old Video API for Windows. Its codecs have the .DLL or (rarely) .DRV extension. If MPlayer fails with your AVI:
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 we know this, we'll have to find out which DLL Windows loads in order to play this file. In our case, the system.ini contains this (with many others):
VIDC.HFYU=huffyuv.dll
So we'll need the huffyuv.dll file. Note that the audio codecs are specified with the MSACM prefix:
msacm.l3acm=L3codeca.acm
This is the MP3 codec. So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, codec file, sample AVI), submit your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:
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
So let's search that goddamn registry..
NOTE: if searching fails, try to enable all the checkboxes.. you may have false hits, but maybe you'll have the right, too...
NOTE: dump that M$ shit.
So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, GUID, codec file, sample AVI),
submit your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:
ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/