MPlayer FAQ
This page will attempt to list all of the frequent questions we get in the #mplayer irc channel on irc.freenode.net.
IRC channel rules (by KotH):
- Ask user questions in #mplayer
- Don't ask in #mplayerdev.
- Don't ask in #mplayerdev. we are serious!
- Don't ask in #mplayerdev. you will be banned.
- mplayerdev is for patches/development only!
Official MPlayer Frequently asked Questions: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/faq.html
MPlayer Wikibooks: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mplayer
Feel free to add your questions/answers here, and include important error messages.
Please try to get the latest version of mplayer. a lot of the times, a problem is fixed already. problems sometimes occur when the file you are playing is newer than your mplayer version :)
MPlayer information
- Where is mplayer's config?
- usually in ~/.mplayer/config
- on windows its in the mplayer directory where mplayer.exe is. for example c:\mplayer\mplayer.exe the config is c:\mplayer\mplayer\config
- input.conf, codecs.conf, mencoder.conf and gui.conf can go there as well.
- you can find where mplayer looks by using mplayer -v somefile
- my docs/man does not have the feature you are talking about!
- you can find an updated manual here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/man/
- updated docs here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/
- the video filters (-vf) can be used with mplayer and mencoder.
- currently -vf ass/-ass does not work with mencoder.
- switches can be put into the config.
- -fs becomes fs=yes or fs=1 or fs=ja (or a few more different ways to say yes/no)
- -nodouble becomes nodouble=yes
- options have the 'no' prefix, to disable defaults or configs.
- -fs/-nofs -double/-nodouble -framedrop/-noframedrop
- gmplayer will not let you change gui.conf while it is running. close gmplayer first, then change gui.conf
- when will you release the NEXT VERSION of mplayer?
- when the svn is stable and the mplayer team gets some time to build the package.
- if you do not like using email to report bugs to mplayer-users@mplayerhq.hu mailing list, you can report bugs to http://bugzilla.mplayerhq.hu
Questions from #mplayer channel:
Subtitle/OSD
- How do i increase the subtitle font size?
- Hi, im using a Mplayer windows gui. Is there a way to make subtitles smaller? mpui its named
- subfont-text-scale=3 in config or mplayer -subfont-text-scale 3 file
- None of the "freetype" commands in man work when I attempt to use -subfont-autoscale or -subfont-text-scale .
- It says:
unknown option on the command line
orCannot load bitmap font: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial.ttf
- install freetype/truetype and recompile mplayer
- I recompiled mplayer and now it doesn't complain about -subfont-autoscale or -subfont-text-scale.
- Unfortunately, they don't do anything
- symlink any ttf font to ~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf or
- specify a font, mplayer -font /dir/somefont.ttf -subfont-text-scale 3 file.avi
- Is it normal that a subtitle disappear after 7 seconds, not at the end of the time specified in the subtitle file? or help! some subtitles are missing
- try -overlapsub or -nooverlapsub
- How do i expand the "area" so that the subtitles are lower on the screen/ put the subs in the black bars?
- mplayer -vf expand=:-100::2
- How do I view romanian subtitles?
- -subcp cp1250
- How to force SSA subtitles size to constant one
- Try ass-force-style=FontSize=<value>.
- For vobsub subtitles, is there anyway to change the font?
- vobsubs don't have fonts, vobsub is a set of images.
- you can convert vobsub to txt, using TOOLS/subrip.c script
- or download your movie's subtitles from http://www.opensubtitles.org or http://www.kloofy.net for asian movies
General Questions
- Hi, My cpu is too slow, help!
- for mpeg1/2 or mpeg4 try adding -nodouble or mplayer -lavdopts lowres=1 -vfm ffmpeg will use half-res decoding to speed things up as well.
- for H264 try mplayer -lavdopts skiploopfilter=all file.mkv
- might cause artefacts like sudden color changes, in this case try e.g. "nonref" instead of "all"
- Your computer is still too slow?
- Try -lavdopts skipframe=nonref:skiploopfilter=all
- This will skip many frames, but saves 50% CPU performance
- if using -vo gl use -vo gl:yuv=2 or similar. For high FPS video (> 50 Hz) also try -vo gl:swapinterval=0 since the default limits FPS to well below monitor refresh.
- Hi folks, is there a way to "tell" mplayer (not gmplayer) not to exit when a file has been played and then wait for some new input? via a fifo or whatever
- http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/tech/slave.txt
- mplayer -slave -idle -input=/fifo
- Anyway to dump a dvd audio stream really fast?
- mplayer -dumpaudio dvd:// -speed 90 -vc null -vo null -benchmark
- I have a corrupt file that mplayer plays, how do i get a new "clean" version of the audio?
- mplayer file -ao pcm
- I have a widescreen lcd monitor and everything is stretched, help!
- use -monitoraspect 16:10 or -monitorpixelaspect 1.125
- How do I set the video window to double size when running mplayer from command line? Cannot find it in man file...
- mplayer -xy 2
- How to set video as wallpaper ?
- mplayer -rootwin yourmovie (Only works with the x11, xv, xmga, xvidix, quartz, macosx and directx video output drivers.)
- Gnome : gconftool-2 -s /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop -t bool false (to disable background)
- Why can`t I increase the displayed image width my mplayer?
- My image is small and black border / frame around tiny video, what gives?
- mplayer -zoom or zoom=1 in config
- but first try setting mplayer -vo xv or vo=xv in config
- Fullscreen does not work right in a multi-monitor setup
- try using mplayer -fstype none
- I get errors playing h264 like these
- [h264 @ 0xd96950]concealing 1840 DC, 1840 AC, 1840 MV errors or Error while decoding frame! what gives?
- check your config and options for 'framedrop' and disable/turn it off. try also -noframedrop
- its possible your file is incomplete, try md5sum against the original or rehash it using your torrent program.
- I want a concise comparison of the various video outputs - say, their scores on performance measures - to help choose between em.
- different vo's are faster/slower on different pc, drivers and video cards, its almost impossible to tell whats fastest for everyone.
- use mplayer -nosound -benchmark file -vo (vohere) to test your video output speed
- vo's with hardware accelerated output (like xv, vidix, directx, macosx/quartz) will usually be faster than vesa, fb, gl/gl2. but not always.
- Whats the best deinterlacing filter?
- -vf yadif with mcedeint is reccomended by mplayer and ffmpeg devels.
- see comparison at http://guru.multimedia.cx/deinterlacing-filters/
- I want to seek in avi while they are downloading but -forceidx is too slow.
- use mplayer -demuxer lavf to seek in broken/incomplete avi.
- This error when trying to play an audio stream
- Win32 LoadLibrary failed to load: avisynth.dll .
- Is this DLL only available from a licensed windows install?
- the file is most likely a playlist
- try mplayer -playlist http://blah
- also try wget it to make sure its audio and not some html page.
- I want to play a DVD that's already on my hard drive with gmplayer.
- gmplayer dvd:// -dvd-device /dir/vobfiless/
- How do i position mplayer window?
- How do i make mplayer start in the same spot every time?
- see -geometry
- How do i extract frames from videos?
- How do i make thumbnails from videos?
- How do i make a gallery of images from a movie?
- mplayer -vo jpeg -sstep 30 -frames 10 yourfile
- add -vf scale=320:240 if you want smaller image size...
- use -vf framestep if sstep does not work on your source.
- also check out this howto for using ffmpeg or mencoder to create movies http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/ffmpeg/
- I use mencoder to create videos from jpg files in a directory.
- The problem is the files are 1-out.jpg 2-out.jpg ... mencoder gets the order wrong.
- try wtih mf://%d-out.jpg
- I'm having trouble viewing the Guadec 2006 talks, in Ogg Theora format, in mplayer.
- Anyone try these before? My error seems to be
- [theora @ 0x89ccef8]Missing extradata!Could not open codec.VDecoder init failed
- use -demuxer lavf if you dont have mplayer compiled with libtheora
- maybe also try -correct-pts
- How to play raw ac3 files?
- mplayer -demuxer rawaudio -rawaudio format=0x2000 file.ac3
- format=0x2001 for dts
- check codecs.conf for format= entries
- All my files with AC3 audio are too quiet! I cant hear anything! How do i make it louder?
- mplayer -af volume=10 will add 10 db.
- see also -af volnorm
- Is there a way to get mplayer/mencoder not being to much verbose?
- mplayer -quiet
- mplayer -really-quiet
- xine or videolan can play my file but mplayer cannot!
- try mplayer -demuxer lavf file
- make sure mplayer and the other program are using the same audio and video output
- make sure the other program is not locking the audio/video output (by closing other multimedia programs first (also make sure artsd is not locking /dev/dsp (use lsof | grep -i dsp)))
- if xine plays the file ok, but mplayer stutters, try mplayer -autosync 30 file
- How do i change mplayer speed but keep pitch the same?
- mplayer -speed 1.5 -af ladspa=tap_pitch:tap_pitch:0:-33:-90:0 foo.avi
- http://tap-plugins.sourceforge.net/ladspa/pitch.html
- more info : http://mark.santaniello.net/archives/260
- I want to play a bin, cue, mdf, mds, nrg, iso or other audio cd image?
- My operating system does not have a way to mount the image.
- mplayer file.nrg -demuxer rawaudio -rawaudio format=0x1
- does mplayer stop gnome-power-manager so it won't turn my screen off?
- -heartbeat-cmd "gnome-screensaver-command -p"
Non-mplayer problems
- I want to distribute the win32 codecs, is it legal for me to do so?
- yes
- no
- depends on your country :)
- See Mike Melanson's answer to this question
- Unless Microsoft explicitly gives you permission within the End-User License Agreement (EULA) or License Terms that accompany the Products and Services and/or in the guidelines below, you may not copy, modify, distribute, display, license, or sell any Products and Services or components contained in them. from Microsoft Permissions.
- Microsoft grants you the right to reproduce, install and use a reasonable number of copies of the Client OS Components on computers at your premises that are each running a validly licensed copy of the Client OS Software. from the eula.txt inside one of the codec downloads at microsoft's site.
- the mpeg4 license for ms codecs is for individuals only:
- USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG 4 VISUAL STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA, L.L.C.
- Help! When i play a file over the network i get desync and cpu is at 100%, but if i play it locally its fine!
- are you using a ne2000 clone NIC? (Realtek cards like RTL8019 or 8029 or 8039). they use some cpu when transferring data.
- check the ethernet howto for tips and try to decrease your tcp window size.
- How to include mplayer in a java application or program or library?
- Having adjusted the hue/contrast previously, what's an easy way to set them all back to neutral?
- use xvattr
- rpm packages at http://dag.wieers.com/packages/xvattr/
- I get a 'process input error' with some wmv files and mplayer plays all blocks.
- its probably a drm protected file
- run strings -n19 yourfile.wmv and if a url comes out, its drm.
- if you can play the file on windows you can remove the drm using fairuse4wm (FU4WM) or drmcreep or automateundrm or sidda or drmdbg or drm2wmv.
- I want to play and record tv video at the same time with mencoder.
- How do I pipe mplayer/mencoder output to stdout?
- mplayer devs reccomend using mkfifo (named pipe) instead of stdout.
- mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l:width=324:height=248:outfmt=rgb24:device=/dev/video0:adevice=hw.1,0 -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -flip -ovc lavc -lavcopts threads=2 -o >( tee filename.avi | mplayer -)
- How can I play movie in rar?
- unrar p -inul movie.part01.rar |mplayer -noidx -
- How do I extract the mpeg file/s from a vcd or bin/cue files?
- windows: vcdgear available at http://www.vcdgear.com/ (works on linux too but it's not open source)
- linux: use vcdxrip like so vcdxrip --bin-file=blah.bin , or just vcdxrip in a writeable directory if extracting from an actual disc. vcdxrip is part of the vcdimager package
- I want to get images from videos by frame number or frame range, not by time.
- transcode -c 0-100 will encode 100 frames starting at frame 0 up to frame 99
Build questions/crashes
- mplayer doesn't compile anymore since svn rXXXXX
- Before reporting problems, please retry after a make distclean.
- Anyone know how to play mp4 files with sound? I can only see video but no audio.
- check mplayer output for helpful messages.
- Requested audio codec family [faad] (afm=faad) not available. Enable it at compilation.
- your mplayer was not compiled with faad support. recompile it after installing libfaad package.
- Hi, playing a 3GP file, I get "Cannot find codec 'amr_nb' in libavcodec". How can I solve this please
- You need amrnb and/or amrwb from http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/amr
- Help I get this crash X11 error
- BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)?,?% 0 0
- MPlayer interrupted by signal 6 in module vo_check_events or this error
- "X11 error: BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied)" using an intel card
- add Option "LinearAlloc" "8192" to xorg.conf and restart X
- How to setup XvMC ?
- Get xmvc dev lib (libxvmc-dev) and compile MPlayer with --enable-xvmc
- If the resulting mplayer executable was linked against the xvmc wrapper library libXvMCW.so, point /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XvMCConfig (or /etc/X11/XvMCConfig or both) to your /lib/libXvMCNVIDIA.so.* (libI810XvMC.so.1, if you don't have an NVIDIA, but an intel graphics controller), for example : echo "libXvMCNVIDIA.so.1.0.9742" > /etc/X11/XvMCConfig
- mplayer -vc ffmpeg12mc -vo xvmc yourmovie.mpeg2
- NB : works only with mpeg2 and mpeg.
- I get this error when playing files, whats up?
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders Compiler did not align stack variables. Libavcodec has been miscompiled and may be very slow or crash. This is not a bug in libavcodec, but in the compiler. Do not report crashes to FFmpeg developers.
- ffmpeg is fighting gcc again.
- stay out of this fight. stick your fingers in your eyes and hope for the best.
- you can view a different ffmpeg vs gcc fight at this bugzilla:
- http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=11203
- mplayer saya
- error opening/initializing selected video_out device and -vo x11 does not help!
- run mplayer -vo help and see if x11 is listed
- use a different mplayer package if its not listed
- recompile mplayer after getting hte x11-devel or libxv or x11 header files.
- mplayer doesn't compile with live555 library
- Do NOT use --enable-live
- Do NOT report errors on mailing lists if you use --enable-live
- cabac.h
- 526: error: can't find a register in class 'GENERAL_REGS' while reloading 'asm'
- On x86, you can't compile mplayer after configuring with --enable-debug, because cabac.h in libavcodec can't be compiled with all optimizations when debugging is turned on.
- Three possible solutions:
- Don't configure with enable-debug
- Use -fomit-frame-pointer: Copy the line beginning with "cc" ending with "-c -o h264.o h264.c" (from make output immediately above the error) and add "-fomit-frame-pointer": This might affect debugging for h264.o
- Don't compile the optimized code: Add "#undef HAVE_EBX_AVAILABLE" to libavcodec/cabac.h
Mencoder questions
- I try to add subtitles to my video with mencoder but nothing happens, here is my mencoder command
mencoder file.avi -sub file.srt -oac copy -ovc copy.
- you cant use -sub or -vf with -ovc copy, try -ovc lavc instead
- Why is encoded video always at a lower bitrate than specified?
- try using vqmin lavc option
- it may mean that the encoder is using all possible bits to encode the video and it's not possible to go any higher
- Hi, I am looking for a way to automatically convert ogg to mp3 I must give a directory and have everything in converted is it possible to achievve such a thing with mplayer ?
- use aconvert found in mplayer source TOOLS/aconvert .
- I'm converting some video and i get bad desynch!
- try adding -noskip and/or -mc 0
- also look at -vf harddup
- I cant encode ssa subtitles with mencoder with styles?
- -ass does not work with mencoder yet.
- First terminal: mkfifo stream.yuv ; mplayer -vf expand=:-60::2 -ao pcm foo.avi -ass -sub subtitles.ssa -vo yuv4mpeg
- Second terminal: mencoder stream.yuv -o bar.avi -ovc lavc -audiofile audiofile.wav -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128
- the stream.yuv fifo is the file mplayer default outputs -vo yuv4mpeg to, so dont change this!
- this technique also works for encoding vobsubs
- How do i record video from my webcam?
- mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:fps=90:device=/dev/v4l/video0 -nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -o cooking.avi
Streaming Questions
- Help i cant access azntv.com nsv streams!
- the server only allows winamp user agent
- -user-agent "Winamp NSV Player/5.12 (ultravox/2.0)"
- rtsp:// rm streams are soooo slow! even with -dumpstream!
- -bandwidth 1000000
- I cant play some rtsp:// mov urls. but vlc can!
- you might be behind a firewall or router where udp does not work. try -rtsp-stream-over-tcp
Encoding to PSP/iPod/Other Devices
- -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=aac produces better streams for embedded devices than -oac faac
- or using ffmpeg
how do i make videos for my ipod? or other video device?
- ipod here : http://home.c-otto.de/ipod/
- ffmpeg ipod script: http://cekirdek.pardus.org.tr/~ismail/hacks/ipodenc
- treo 650 : http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User:Ianf#Encoding_Videos_for_PSP_and_Treo_650
- psp : http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_PSP#Converting_Video_files_to_play_in_PSP
MEncoder PSP AVC profile (put in ~/.mplayer/mencoder.conf ) by predatorfreak :
[psp] profile-desc="PSP AVC encoding profile." vf=hqdn3d,scale=368:208 af=lavcresample=48000 ofps=30000/1001 ovc=lavc=1 oac=lavc=1 lavcopts=aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=h264:acodec=aac:vbitrate=320:abitrate=97:coder=1 of=lavf=1 lavfopts=format=psp:i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames=1
- for Symbian 9.1/S60 - Nokia E70 (thanks Honeyman)
http://forum.nokia.com/main/resources/technologies/audiovideo/
mencoder $SOURCE_FILENAME -ofps $FPS -o temp.vid -of rawvideo -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=400 -vf scale=$SCALE mencoder $SOURCE_FILENAME -ofps $FPS -o temp.aac -of rawaudio -ovc frameno -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=aac:abitrate=96 mp4box -new -add temp.vid -add temp.cmp -fps $FPS -brand mp42 -isma $OUTPUT_FILENAME For $SCALE, "352:264" works for 4:3 movies, and "352:200" works for 16:9
Patches
This section links to external patches that add interesting features to mplayer/mencoder.
Distribution Patches
- Pardus:
- Mandriva:
- ALT Linux
- FreeBSD
- http://svn.pld-freebsd.org/svn/packages/trunk/mplayer/SOURCES/
- http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/multimedia/mplayer/files/
- NetBSD
- Gentoo
- Busybox
MPlayer
-af lame for mplayer to output mp3 using lame.
stereoscopic support to -vo gl
ocr support to mplayer for reading hard subtitles into soft subs.
mplayer teletext, osd menu, dvd menu , video mixer
vf overlay for overlay text/video on mplayer video.
ability to change subtitle/osd size while playing.
support to play youtube urls
vo matrixview
startup volume
MEncoder
- on2 various patches mencoder audio only patch, ogg muxing , misc patches
Both
pthreads, winamp plugins, sse, matrixview, and more vfw config support for windows port of mplayer.
subtitle/osd rotate feature, zaurus patches.
tv:// support for win32
patch to support binary codec coreavc (fast h264 decoder with multiple cpu support)
vf coring filter
virtualdub plugin support
vf deblendlogo
eac3 and mlp patch
Simple Bash / Perl / Python Scripts
Complaints/Known Bugs
some complaints/known bugs about mplayer and mencoder
- -oac mp3lame -lameopts abr/vbr causes desync in videos
- -dumpstream and -endpos or -frames dont work together
- cant save/encode video and play at the same time with one mplayer/mencoder instance
- playlists require -playlist switch (mplayer should detect playlists!)
- cant set mplayer startup audio volume
- cant edit gui.conf while gmplayer is running
- opening multiple files causes multiple gmplayer/mplayer instancess
- -cache affects -ss accuracy