Compn discoveries

this is just a page i can keep track of and add some formats/streaming types..

these format/codecs should all get their own pages probably. just i am lazy and nothing but the original players play them yet.

Java Formats

VX30

• Official website
• stolen code screenshots, analysis
• hex dump and investigation of stolen gpl code in vx30
• for a sample html file, vx30 and meta file, and the required player

Eyewonder

• a PSA about booster seats (HTML)
• with the Java applet
• and the video and audio files
• vendor site

some Japanese name, possibly vplayer

• original URL
• sample movie (video)
• sample movie (meta data?)
• Java decoder files (.jar)
• Java decoder files (.cab)

Emblaze

• Emblaze format sample
• vendor site

Other Streaming Formats

Xlontech / Move Networks

• Move Networks

demo page

• http://www.xlontech.com/demo/index.html
• User-Agent: QSP 19:1[0] R{0-49961}
• firefox extension demo player
• qvt file
• qmx file
• qss file part1
• qss file part2
• qss file part3
• qss file part4
• qss file part5
• qss file part6
• qss file part7
• qss file part8
• qss file part9
• qss file part10
• qss file part11

fox site using move networks

• http://streaming.myfoxny.com/index.html

mplayer checklist

• read and memorize the mplayer manual, docs, mailing list posts, related projects, and google results about mplayer.

• be sure to have latest svn mplayer. also be sure to have some older versions like pre7, pre8, and rc1. to test if bugs have always been there or were introduced between versions.

1. ask the user what version he is using.
   1. maybe his problem is already fixed in latest mplayer.
2. try to get mplayer -v output from him.
   1. remind him to paste his output to pastebin.ca or rafb.net/paste etc.
      1. be sure to lookout for invalid or mixed up syntax, especially during multiple file input.
         1. e.g. mplayer -nosound *.avi is different than mplayer *.avi -nosound
         2. also mencoder syntax tends to get screwed up, make sure to look out for -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video -o done.avi which will amke mpeg in avi problems.
         3. remind users that -vf will not work with -ovc copy.
3. ask how he installed mplayer.
   1. 85% of the time, a problem can be fixed by getting latest version of mplayer, or compiling mplayer from source will fix 99% of crashes.
4. remember that users who can read the manual/docs have either already done so and havent found what they are looking for, or are unable to read the man/docs and are here to ask a human what to do.
5. try to test any options you give to users, in case there is a bug or problem in your mplayer syntax.
6. when a user asks a question you have no clue about, google it, search the ml for similarly asked questions.
   1. gain some skills on how to do alternativly worded searches. sometimes a user will come into the channel and say he cannot find something in the manual, perhapse he used the wrong words to search.
      1. e.g. he was searching for an option to turn off automatic subtitle loading, but he used the word 'subs' to search, and therefor missed the -noautosub option.
7. remember to tell the user how and where you got your information from, maybe he will learn to search for himself next time.

• after you have checked these, try asking for a sample file.

1. try to get him to make a small file, depending on the format this can be done multiple ways.
   1. the example from the docs, dd if=input.avi of=smallfile.avi bs=1024k count=1 will make a 1mb file.
   2. another way is using mencoder badfile.avi -oac copy -ovc copy -endpos 30 -o 30secondsample.avi
   3. if the user cant figure these out, just ask him to upload some of his file to the ftp and cancel it after a few minutes. it will have the same result as using dd.
2. have the user send you his file. or upload it to ftp://upload.mplayerhq.hu
   1. if the user does not have ftp skills, ask him to dcc you the file over irc. or to use a file sharing site like rapidupload.de or megaupload.com etc
3. if you do find a bug, tell the user you think its a bug, and ask him if he wants to send a bugreport.
   1. offer to send your own bugreport if he does not have the time.

• make sure that other people are not giving bad advice.

1. if a user helps another user, watch out for assumptions of problems.
   1. some people will assume they know the problem before going over this checklist. they will say 'oh, its a problem with your libstd++ library' when in reality the user was just missing the codec dlls.

• if the problem is not mplayer

1. give advice or links to support for what is the problem
   1. e.g. go to #linuxhelp for help with general linux
2. check if the drivers are up to date
3. ask what the user's system info is.