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, and not supported yet, just read the codec importing 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://avifile.sourceforge.net
If it doesn't work, try :
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 messed 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 | ||
2.2.1.2. 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!!!
Then compile. configure detects if it's alright, and can be compiled. The codec also supports postprocessing!
In order to use it, update 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.
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 / (...) .vid_cvid.xa, vid_h263.xa, vid_iv50.xa
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.
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) (you'll need the newest 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 doesn't support YV12 nor YUY2 only BGR modes,
thus usable only with the X11 and OpenGL outputs. Hopefully ffh263 will support
VIVO 2.0 files in the future.
MPEG1 and MPEG2 are decoded with the native library libmpeg2. Its source code is included in MPlayer, and of course is multiplatform. We handle buggy MPEG1/2 video files by checking for what signature does libmpeg2 return, and when it gives sig11 (segmentation fault), we quickly reinitialize the codec, and continue exactly from where the failure did occur. No speed decrease is measurable.
This is a very old and very bad codec of 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 now has its own opensource, multiplatform Cinepak decoder. Supports YUV outputs, thus hardware scaling if video output driver allows. Used by default.
Currently ONLY the RealVideo 1.0 (fourcc RV10) codec is supported, through ffmpeg. Sadly, no new RealMedia files come with this one, only with the newer RV20 and RV30 codecs which are closed-source. Their future support is unlikely :(
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 output audio mixes for 2, 4, or 6 speakers. When configured for 6 speakers, this decoder provides separate output of all the AC3 channels to the soundcard driver, allowing the 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 Centre channel will be mixed
equally to the front channels. Lastly, "-channels 6" will output all the AC3
channels as they are encoded - in the order Left, Right, Left Surround, Right
Surround, Centre and LFE.
The default number of output channels is 2.
To use more than 2 output channels, you'll need to be using OSS, and to have a soundcard driver that supports the appropriate number of output channels via the SNDCTL_DSP_CHANNELS ioctl. For example, a version of the emu10k1 driver (used with the SB Live cards) newer than August 2001 should be suitable.
Output mixes of more than 2 channels should be considered experimental.
2.2.2.2. 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...)
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.
The audio codec used in VIVO files depends on whether it's 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. Both is supported. You can grab the g.723/Siren
Win32 DLL from
here,
then copy it into the /usr/lib/win32 directory, or respectively.
Currently the only supported one is the DNET codec. Actually it's a low-bitrate version of the well-known AC3 codec. It can be found either in old and new RealMedia movies.
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 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]/