diff --git a/README b/README index c79dcc986c..ed9ad63f6e 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1 +1,185 @@ -The main documentation file is DOCS/documentation.html + +Welcome to MPlayer, the Unix movie player. MPlayer can play most standard video +formats out of the box and almost all others with the help of external codecs. +MPlayer currently works best from the command line, but there is a GUI with +skin support in the alpha development stage. + +This document is for getting you started in a few minutes. It cannot answer +all of your questions. If you have problems, please read the documentation in +DOCS/documentation.html. It is extensive and should answer most of your +questions. Also read the manpage to learn how to use MPlayer. + +To compile MPlayer with X11 support, you need to have the XFree86 development +packages installed, for the GUI you also need the GTK development packages. + +Before you start... +Unless you know what are you doing, consult DOCS/video.html to see which +driver you should get for your video card to have the best quality and video +performance. Most cards require special drivers not included with standard X11, +to drive the 2-D video acceleration features of your card! + +A quick and incomplete list of recommendations: +- ATI cards: get the GATOS drivers for X11/Xv or use vidix +- Matrox G200/G4x0/G550: compile and use mga_vid for Linux, use vidix for BSD +- 3dfx Voodoo3/Banshee: get XFree86 4.2.0+ for Xv or use the tdfxfb driver +- nVidia cards: get the X11 driver from www.nvidia.com for Xv support +Without having accelerated video, even a 800MHz P3 may be slow to play DVD! + +___________________________________ +STEP1: Installing FFmpeg libavcodec +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If you are using an official release, skip this step, since official releases +always include libavcodec. To verify this check if the libavcodec subdirectory +is empty or contains the sources! + +The FFmpeg project provides libavcodec, a very portable MPEG4/DivX codec with +excellent speed and quality. It is the preferred codec of MPlayer for playing +mpeg4 and divx video. You have to get libavcodec directly from the FFmpeg CVS +server. Use the following commands in a suitable directory outside the MPlayer +source directory: + +cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login +cvs -z9 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg/libavcodec + +When asked for a password, you can just hit enter. + +Now, replace the empty libavcodec directory with the FFmpeg libavcodec source +by removing the libavcodec subdirectory in the MPlayer source tree and then +copying (symbolic linking does not suffice!) the freshly downloaded FFmpeg +libavcodec directory back into the MPlayer source tree. + + +______________________________ +STEP2: Installing Win32 Codecs +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +While MPlayer and libavcodec has built-in support for the most common audio +and video formats, some others are playable only with the Win32 DLLs +or the XAnim binary plugins. Few examples: WMV video, Divx/WMA audio, Indeo. +This step is not mandatory, but recommended for getting MPlayer to play +play more different file types! + +Grab the win32 codecs package from the download page + + http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html + +unpack it and put the contents in a directory where MPlayer will find them. +The default directory is /usr/lib/win32/ but you can change that to something +else by using the '--with-win32libdir=DIR' option when you run './configure' . + +__________________________ +STEP3: Configuring MPlayer +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +MPlayer has a lot of options that get selected in this phase. Run + + ./configure + +to configure MPlayer with the default options. The options you installed above +should be autodetected, except GUI support, which has to be enabled separately, +run + + ./configure --enable-gui + +if you want to use the GUI. + +If something does not work as expected, try + + ./configure --help + +to see the available options and select what you need. + +The ./configure script prints a summary of enabled and disabled options. +If you have something installed that ./configure fails to detect, check +the file configure.log for errors and reasons for the failure. Repeat this +step until you are satisfied with the enabled feature set. + +________________________ +STEP4: Compiling MPlayer +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Now you can start the compilation by typing + + make + +You can install MPlayer with + + make install + +provided that you have write permission in the installation directory. + +If all went well, you can run MPlayer by typing 'mplayer' +You should get a summary of the most common options and keys (help screen). + +If you get 'unable to load shared library' or similar errors, then run +'ldd ./mplayer' to check which libraries fail and go back to STEP 3 to fix it. +Sometimes just running 'ldconfig' is enough. + +NOTE: If you run Debian you can configure, compile and build a proper deb +package with only one command: + + fakeroot debian/rules binary + +____________________________________________ +STEP5: Installing the onscreen display fonts +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +To enable OSD (onscreen status display) and ASCII/TEXT subtitles you need some +fonts. Get them from our homepage: + +http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html + +Unpack the archive and choose one of the available font sizes. Then copy the +font files of the corresponding size into /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/ +(or whatever you set with './configure --datadir=DIR'). + +____________________________ +STEP6: Installing a GUI skin +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Please remember that the GUI is still in the alpha development stage and not +completely finished yet. Features like playlist, preferences and equalizer +do not work at all. Expect them for the 1.0 release +Basic stuff like file selection and seeking works, though. + +If you want to use the GUI you need to download a skin, since MPlayer does not +come with a skin by default. Choose one from the download page + + http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/dload.html + +unpack it in /usr/local/share/mplayer/Skin/. MPlayer will use the skin in +the default/ subdirectory (/usr/local/share/mplayer/Skin/default/*) unless +told otherwise via the '-skin' switch. You should therefore rename your +skin subdirectory, make a suitable symbolic link or set the skin name in +the file mplayer.conf by 'skin=skinname'. + +__________________ +STEP7: Let's play! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +That's it for the moment. To start playing movies, open a command line and try + + mplayer + +or for the GUI: + + gmplayer + (just 'gmplayer' is enough to use the GUI fileselector) + +To play VCD track or DVD title, try: + + mplayer -vcd 2 -cdrom-device /dev/hdc + mplayer -dvd 1 -alang en -slang hu -dvd-device /dev/hdd + +See 'mplayer -help' and 'man mplayer' for further options. + +'mplayer -vo help' will show you the available video output drivers. Experiment +with the '-vo' switch to see which one gives you the best performance! +If you get very jerky playback or no sound, experiment with -ao (see -ao help) +Note that jerky playback is caused by buggy audio drivers or too slow cpu/vga. +With a good audio and video driver combination, one can play DVDs and 720x576 +DivX files smoothly on a Celeron 366. For slower systems, you need -framedrop. + +Questions you may have are probably answered in the rest of the documentation. +The place to start reading is DOCS/faq.html and DOCS/documentation.html.