Mplayer and WMV files

[bidderman]

I am running SuSE19.1 x86_64
I DLed and installed Mplayer and it works fine. There is however, one small issue. The AW video Newsletter seems require a codec I am missing. Other WMV files play fine.
Anyone out there know WTF is going on? Which codec is missing? How and where do I get it?

[Vid Dude]

All the newsletters? Or just the recent one?

They're all processed with the exact same settings, so I'm not sure why you'd have any trouble. Does it say what codec is missing?

[Diablo]

Greetings from a fellow MPlayer user, bidderman

I'm using MPlayer on 32-bit x86 Linux (RH7.2 w/ kernel 2.4.23), and the newsletters always play fine for me, as well as the rest of the WMV's.

What you might like to try doing is running mplayer with the -v (verbose) option, so it prints out diagnostic information, then capture the standard output and post it here. There may be a lot of messages, so try including it in [code] tags if you can, or you can also attach it as a text file to your post.

[stoneyyy]

deleted by abby - off topic

[Diablo]

I should also ask, as you've got an x86-64 system, whether you're running exclusively 64-bit, or whether you've got kernel/library support enabled for 32-bit binaries? This may impact your ability to use the Win32 codecs with the Win32 API emulation wrapper, so it might be falling back on a native implementation (such as FFmpeg's recent reverse-engineered WMV support), which might not be able to support certain stream/codec features.

FTR, attached is MPlayer's diagnostic output for two videos on my system; today's newsletter and Armine & Fuji's GGT3 pre-shoot interview clip. I've played both clips from start to end uninterrupted in a window. The codec that is being used is a Win32 DMO (Direct Mediashow Output?) plugin, wmv9dmod.dll, timestamp Nov 21 2002, size 807032 bytes. Hopefully you'll find these useful for comparison.

[Diablo]

deleted by abby - don't feed the trolls

[Chasaffton]

deleted by abby - off topic

[Muzik_]

Newsletter on linux

Hey,

I'm also running on an AMD64 processor, and I run Fedora Core 5...

I use Xine (http://www.xinehq.de) to play my videos, however I use the 32-bit version so I can get the windows codecs to work.

If you're interested in Xine (I like it better than mplayer..dunno why!), I recommend this site:
http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/

it has builds and a link to a RPM (dunno what SuSE uses for package management) of all the windows codecs.

This might be a problem (it has started happening to me recently) where xine takes 100% of the processor while watching. For the most part this is ok, just when the video starts it skips a bit. No idea why this happens (just started recently).

Abby-if you read this, love your site & your work!

[bidderman]

All the newsletters? Or just the recent one?

They're all processed with the exact same settings, so I'm not sure why you'd have any trouble. Does it say what codec is missing?

VD,
It has been happening to all the newsletters. I just now got ambitious enough to tackle the issue. And no it doesn't say which codec is missing. I only wish it did <sigh>.
The exact message is .......
Cannot find codec mathcing selected -vo and video format 0x33564D57

[bidderman]

Greetings from a fellow MPlayer user, bidderman

I'm using MPlayer on 32-bit x86 Linux (RH7.2 w/ kernel 2.4.23), and the newsletters always play fine for me, as well as the rest of the WMV's.

What you might like to try doing is running mplayer with the -v (verbose) option, so it prints out diagnostic information, then capture the standard output and post it here. There may be a lot of messages, so try including it in [code] tags if you can, or you can also attach it as a text file to your post.

Diablo,
Tnx, I will set up a test with the "-v" option as soon as I get a reasonable block of free time to play

Also, I have 32-bit emulation turned on in the Kernel, as I do believe this is the default.
I do not have the WIN32 codecs and I will go out and get them along with the WIN32 API emulation wrapper. You've pointed me in, I hope, the right direction, and I greatly appreciate it. I wish I knew what was in the post deleted by the big A, and why she would object to feeding small plastic dolls with large colourful hair............

[bidderman]

Hey,

I'm also running on an AMD64 processor, and I run Fedora Core 5...

.
.
.

it has builds and a link to a RPM (dunno what SuSE uses for package management) of all the windows codecs.

Muzik,
I chose SuSE because I wanted to run a true 64-bit system. On my old 32-bit systems my preference runs to Slackware.
Package management supports RPMs and, I believe, APTget although I really havent played with it yet. The is a software update tool in YAST that supports package depositories and this makes it sooooo easy. Menus are updated and its really transparent. I guesss 'm getting lazy in my old age.
I thank you for your help and welcome to the boards.

[Diablo]

I do not have the WIN32 codecs and I will go out and get them along with the WIN32 API emulation wrapper. You've pointed me in, I hope, the right direction, and I greatly appreciate it.

No worries. If you're still having problems, drop me a PM, and I can send you the exact version of the WMV codec that I'm using, which is guaranteed to work.

It's usually a good idea to have the Windows codecs installed anyway, as it can help you out with playing more obscure video formats that you may stumble across. IIRC, it's also the only way you can play QuickTime's Sorenson v3 for the time being, as there's no native OSS implementation.

The Win32 emulation wrapper is actually a subset of the WINE codebase, that is included with both the MPlayer and Xine source packages (it contains enough functionality to be able to load the Win32 codecs and communicate with them). Enabling the wrapper is a compile-time option, though it's usually compiled in by default if your system can run 32-bit x86 code.

I wish I knew what was in the post deleted by the big A, and why she would object to feeding small plastic dolls with large colourful hair............

Our flippant friend stoneyyy, posted something that was a cheap pot-shot at Linux users, and myself, being sleep-deprived, and hence temporarily devoid of deductive reasoning, fell for it

[Diablo]

VD,
It has been happening to all the newsletters. I just now got ambitious enough to tackle the issue. And no it doesn't say which codec is missing. I only wish it did <sigh>.
The exact message is .......
Cannot find codec mathcing selected -vo and video format 0x33564D57

That error message means that it can't find a codec that can play files with the FourCC code "WMV3" (which is what that number means, if you decode it as ASCII). Since the structure of the newsletters and gallery WMV clips are exactly the same, I'm pretty surprised that you were able to play the latter, but not the former. What sort of codec must you have been using, then?

[Diablo]

Oh, I also just remembered: You can produce a listing of what codecs you have installed, by running the following command:

mplayer -vc help

You should be able to play the AW.com WMV video clips if you have a codec in that list that has the info field mentioning "Windows Media Video 9" (or abbreviated as "WMV3" or "WMV9").

[bidderman]

Diablo
I always had trouble with WMV files on AW, I only DL and use the MPGs. There are WMV files from other sites that play okay. As I said, I got ambitious and decided to tackle the WMVs here.

[bidderman]

Our flippant friend stoneyyy, posted something that was a cheap pot-shot at Linux users, and myself, being sleep-deprived, and hence temporarily devoid of deductive reasoning, fell for it

Yes I completely understand. I myself have been known to make the occasional rude remark about users of that other popular OS (not OS X) even when totally sober.

[Diablo]

Ah, you should have clarified what you meant by "other" WMV files then (from your first posting).

The other WMV files you've played are probably version 1/2 files ("WMV1/WMV7" or "WMV2/WMV8"); ffmpeg natively supports these. However AW.com's WMV clips are version 3 ("WMV3/WMV9"), which ffmpeg's support is still incomplete.

Are you able to get the Win32 codecs downloaded and working on your system? I'm still happy to help you out, if you need it.

I remember last year having doubts when Vid Dude announced that they were trialling WMV clips, thinking that I wasn't able to play them; I then decided "what the hell, I'll download one anyway, would only be a few hours wasted if they didn't work". I was pleasantly surprised when the WMV's worked flawlessly straight out of the box on my Linux system.