Supported codecsVideo codecs
See the codec status table
for the complete, daily generated list. Quite a few codecs are available for
download from our homepage. Grab them from our
codecs page.
The most important ones above all:
MPEG1 (VCD) and
MPEG2 (DVD) video
native decoders for DivX ;-), OpenDivX (DivX4),
DivX 5.01, 3ivX, M$ MPEG4 v1, v2 and other MPEG4 variants
native decoder for Windows Media Video 7/8
(WMV1/WMV2), and Win32 DLL decoder
for Windows Media Video 9
(WMV3), both used in .wmv
files
native Sorenson 1 (SVQ1) decoder
native Sorenson 3 (SVQ3) decoder
3ivx v1, v2 decoder
Cinepak and Intel Indeo codecs (3.1,3.2,4.1,5.0)
MJPEG, AVID, VCR2, ASV2 and other hardware
formats
VIVO 1.0, 2.0, I263 and other h263(+) variants
FLI/FLC
RealVideo 1.0 from libavcodec, and
RealVideo 2.0, 3.0 and
4.0 codecs using RealPlayer libraries
native decoder for HuffYUV
Various old simple RLE-like formats
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.
DivX4/DivX5
This section contains information about the DivX4 and DivX5 codecs 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 DivX4 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 not available under an
Open Source license.
DivX4 works in two modes:
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!)
Uses the colorspace conversion of the codec. In this mode you can use
YUY2/UYVY, too. (SLOW)
The 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 method. For RGB modes the speed is the
same, differing at best according to your current color depth.
If your driver supports direct rendering, then may be faster, or even the fastest solution.
The Divx4/5 binary codec library can be downloaded from
avifile or
divx.com
Unpack it, run ./install.sh as root and do not forget adding
/usr/local/lib to your
/etc/ld.so.conf and running ldconfig.
Get the CVS version of the OLD OpenDivx core library like this:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.projectmayo.com:/cvsroot logincvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.projectmayo.com:/cvsroot co divxcore
This core library is split into a decore and encore library that have to be
compiled separately. For the decore Library, simply type
cd divxcore/decore/build/linux
make
cp libdivxdecore.so /usr/local/lib
ln -s libdivxdecore.so /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so.0
cp ../../src/decore.h /usr/local/include
Alas, for the encore library there is no Linux Makefile available, and the
MMX optimized code only works on Windows. You can still compile it, though,
by using this
Makefile.
cd ../../../encore/build
mkdir linux
cd linux
cp path/Makefile .
make
cp libdivxencore.so /usr/local/lib
ln -s libdivxencore.so /usr/local/lib/libdivxencore.so.0
cp ../../src/encore.h /usr/local/include
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.
FFmpeg DivX/libavcodecFFmpeg contains an
open source codec package, which is capable
of decoding streams encoded with H263/MJPEG/RV10/DivX3/DivX4/DivX5/MP41/MP42/WMV1/WMV2/HuffYUV/SVQ1/SVQ3
video, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) audio codecs. Not only some of them can be
encoded with, but it also offers higher speed than the Win32 codecs or the
DivX.com DivX4/5 library!
It contains a lot of nice codecs, especially important are the MPEG4 variants:
DivX3, DivX4, DivX5, Windows Media Video 7/8 (WMV1/WMV2). Also a very interesting one
is the WMA decoder.
The most recent codec deserving credit is the Sorenson 3
(SVQ3) codec. This is the first, completely opensource implementation of this
codec. It's even faster than the original. Be sure to prefer this instead
of the binary codec!
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 releases don't
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 ffmpeg
Move the libavcodec directory from the FFmpeg
sources to the root of the MPlayer CVS tree.
It should look like this:
main/libavcodec
Symlinking is not enough, you have to
copy/move it!
Compile. configure should detect problems before
compilation.
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.
XAnim codecs
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.
INSTALLATION AND USAGEMPlayer is capable of employing the XAnim codecs
for decoding. Follow the instructions to enable them:
Download the codecs you wish to use from the
XAnim site.
The 3ivx codec is not there, but at the
3ivx site.
OR download the codecs pack from our
codecs page
Use the option to tell
configure where
to find the XAnim codecs. By default, it looks for them at
/usr/local/lib/codecs,
/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.
Rename/symlink the files, cutting out the architecture stuff, so they
will have filenames like these: vid_cvid.xa,
vid_h263.xa, vid_iv50.xa
XAnim is video codec family xanim, so you may want
to use the option to tell MPlayer
to use them if possible.
Tested codecs include: Indeo 3.2, 4.1, 5.0, CVID, 3ivX,
h263.VIVO videoMPlayer 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 option. For 2.0 files, use the
Win32 DLL through the option. If you do not supply
command line options MPlayer selects the best codec
automatically.
MPEG 1/2 video
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 Signal 11
(segmentation fault), and quickly
reinitializing the codec, continuing exactly from where the failure
occurred. This recovery technique has no measurable speed penalty.
MS Video1
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).
Cinepak CVIDMPlayer uses its own open source, multiplatform
Cinepak decoder (by Dr. Tim Ferguson)
by default. It supports YUV outputs, so that hardware
scaling is possible if the video output driver permits it.
RealVideoMPlayer supports decoding all versions of
RealVideo:
RealVideo 1.0 (fourcc RV10) - en/decoding supported by
libavcodec
RealVideo 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 (fourcc RV20, RV30, RV40) - decoding supported by
RealPlayer libraries
It is recommended to download and install RealPlayer8
or RealONE, because MPlayer
can use their libraries to decode files with RealVideo 2.0 - 4.0 video. The
MPlayerconfigure script should
detect the RealPlayer libraries in the standard
locations of a full installation. If it does not, tell configure
where to look with the option.
As a second chance you can download the codecs from
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/.
After downloading the Real codecs package, extract it to the
/usr/local/lib/codecs directory, or you can
specify a unique path with the option.
RealPlayer libraries currently
only work with Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Cygwin on the x86,
Alpha and PowerPC (Linux/Alpha and Linux/PowerPC have been tested) platforms.
XviDXviD is a forked development of the
OpenDivX codec. It happened when ProjectMayo changed OpenDivX to closed source
DivX4 (now DivX5), and the non-ProjectMayo people working on OpenDivX got angry,
then started XviD. So both projects have the same origin.
ADVANTAGES
open source
its API is compatible with DivX4 so adding support for it is easy
2-pass encoding support
nice encoding quality, higher speed than DivX4 (you can optimize it for
your box while compiling)
DISADVANTAGES
currently it does not properly decode all
DivX/DivX4 files (no problem as libavcodec
can play them)
under development
INSTALLING XVID CVS
It is currently available only from CVS. Here are download and installation
instructions (you need at least autoconf 2.50, automake and libtool):
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid logincvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid co xvidcorecd xvidcore/build/generic./bootstrap.sh./configure
You may have to add some options (examine the output of
./configure --help).
make && make install
If you specified ,
copy ../../src/divx4.h to
/usr/local/include/.
Recompile MPlayer with
.
Sorenson
Sorenson is a video codec developed by Sorenson Media and licensed to Apple who
distribute it with their QuickTime Player. We are
currently able to decode all version of Sorenson video files with the following
decoders:
Sorenson 1 (fourcc SVQ1) - decoding supported by
native codecs. Actually there are two
(nearly equal) decoders for SVQ1: one is built in MPlayer,
the other in libavcodec. You can invoke each of them with the
and options respectively. Some files may work
with one of them, and not with the other, so test both decoders.
Sorenson 3 (fourcc SVQ3) - decoding supported by
native codec (libavcodec)
COMPILING MPLAYER WITH QUICKTIME LIBRARIES SUPPORTcurrently only 32bit Intel platforms are supported.download MPlayer CVSdownload QuickTime DLL pack from
extract QuickTime DLL pack to your Win32 codecs directory
(default: /usr/local/lib/codecs/)
compile MPlayerAudio codecsThe most important audio codecs above all:
MPEG layer 2 (MP2), and layer 3 (MP3) audio (native
code, with MMX/SSE/3DNow! optimization)
MPEG layer 1 audio (native code, with libavcodec)
Windows Media Audio v1, v2 (native code, with
libavcodec)
Windows Media Audio 9 (WMAv3) (using DMO DLL)
AC3 Dolby audio (native code, with
MMX/SSE/3DNow! optimization)
AC3 passing through soundcard hardware
Ogg Vorbis audio codec (native library)
RealAudio: DNET (low bitrate AC3), Cook, Sipro and ATRAC3
QuickTime: Qualcomm and QDesign audio codecs
VIVO audio (g723, Vivo Siren)
Voxware audio (using DirectShow DLL)
alaw and ulaw, various gsm, adpcm and pcm formats and other simple old
audio codecs
AAC
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 option to select the number of output
channels. Use for a stereo downmix. For a 4
channel downmix (Left Front, Right Front, Left Surround and Right Surround
outputs), use . In this case, any center
channel will be mixed equally to the front channels. 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).
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 option. It is experimental but known to work with C-Media
cards and Soundblaster Live! + ALSA (but not OSS) drivers and DXR3/Hollywood+
MPEG decoder cards.
libmad supportlibmad 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 configure
option.
VIVO audio
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.
RealAudioMPlayer supports decoding nearly all versions of
RealAudio:
RealAudio DNET - decoding supported by
liba52
RealAudio Cook/Sipro/ATRAC3 - decoding supported by
RealPlayer libraries
On how to install RealPlayer libraries, see the
RealMedia file format section.
QDesign codecs
QDesign audio streams (fourcc:QDMC, QDM2) are found
in MOV/QT files. Both versions of this codec can be decoded with QuickTime
libraries. For installation instructions please see the
Sorenson video codec section.
Qualcomm codecs
Qualcomm audio streams (fourcc:Qclp) is found
in MOV/QT files. It can be decoded with QuickTime
libraries. For installation instructions please see the
Sorenson video codec section.
AAC codec
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is an audio codec sometimes found in MOV and MP4
files. An open source decoder called FAAD is available from
. You can download the second
generation codec FAAD2 at their
download page. Unfortunately FAAD2 1.1 does not compile under Linux, so you
will have to use the CVS version. Here's how:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.audiocoding.com:/cvsroot/faac login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.audiocoding.com:/cvsroot/faac co faad2
cd faad2/
chmod +x bootstrap
./bootstrap
./configure
make
make install
Binaries are not available from audiocoding.com, but you can (apt-)get Debian
packages from Christian Marillat's homepage
and Mandrake RPMs from the P.L.F.
Win32 codecs importing HOWTOVFW codecs
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]/
On Windows NT/2000/XP search for this info in the registry,
e.g. search for "VIDC.HFYU". To find out how to do this, look at
the old DirectShow method below.
DirectShow codecs
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
we need the GUID of the codec.
New Method:
Using Microsoft GraphEdit (fast)
Get GraphEdit from either DirectX SDK or
doom9
Start graphedit.exe.
From the menu select Graph -> Insert Filters.
Expand item DirectShow Filters
Select the right codec name and expand item.
In the entry DisplayName look at the text in
winged brackets after the backslash and write it down (five dash-delimited
blocks, the GUID).
The codec binary is the file specified in the Filename
entry.
If there is no Filename and
DisplayName contains something like
device:dmo, then it is a DMO-Codec.
Old Method:
Take a deep breath and start searching the registry...
Start regedit.
Press Ctrl+F, disable the first two
checkboxes, and enable the third. Type in the fourcc of the codec (e.g.
TM20).
You should see a field which contains the path and the filename (e.g.
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TM20DEC.AX).
Now that you have the file, we need the GUID. Try searching again, but
now search for the codec's name, not the fourcc. Its name can be acquired
when Media Player is playing the file, by checking
File -> Properties ->
Advanced.
If not, you are out of luck. Try guessing (e.g. search for TrueMotion).
If the GUID is found you should see a FriendlyName
and a CLSID field. Write down the 16 byte CLSID,
this is the GUID we need.
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]/