Linux DVD Players Reviewed 256
Anonymous Coward writes "Linux Journal have posted a review of DVD players on their site. Interesting review, that covers most of the main players, although there are a few minor errors." I've
settled on Xine since it does most of the divx, wmv, and mpegs I want to see. If
it just did Sorenson QT, it'd be perfect.
Whats the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
Incorrect. Except for the size, DVD-based movies look better on a monitor in every way. Assuming I am watching alone, I would prefer a 21" monitor to a 29" TV every time, and so would you if you had seen it. If you have company, then size is maybe more important. Your statement is ridiculous either way. Movies are made for the big screen, not TV.
sillyputtyRe:Whats the point? (Score:1)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, I remember that 10:00AM to 2:00PM sucky schedule. Throw in a couple hours of homework a day, and by gum you have put in a good 8 hour day! Then I am sure you have to go back to your dorm room with free high-speed internet access so you can leech some pr0n and MP3s. Then it is off to the bars for some binge drinking. Then maybe the next day, unless your schedule totally sucks and you have one or two classes, you have the day off.
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2)
Actually, I did - a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I am not saying it was easy, but you had to have discipline. Here is a nice bullet list for you.
o For one thing, I did this odd thing that a lot of my friends didn't - I WENT TO CLASS! It is amazing how much you can actually retain when you go to class and don't just say "Man, the prof doesn't know what he is talking about."
o The only internet at that time (early 90s) was Gopher and FTP sites. With the net it is easy to fritter away time F'ing around.
o We didn't have a Nintendo, Playstation, etc. We got drunk as hell playing Links386 and Scorched Earth on my computer, but that was only once every couple of weeks.
o I did my homework and labs right when I got them. It was amusing to see people scrambling around trying to get stuff done the night before something was due, when I had had it done for almost a week.
o I worked the entire time I was in college (at some points, 2 jobs), and I paid my own way. It took me 5 years to get my Bachelor's, but that was something I was willing to do in order to survive it. Nobody says you have to take 6 classes every semester.
Because of my discipline and planning, I was able to get through it AND have fun. Believe me, I did my share of partying. But I was there to get a degree, I think too many people forget the whole purpose of college.
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
All work and no play, however, makes Jack a dull boy so I often take my favourite DVDs (sometimes I rent more recent films) with me and watch them on my laptop.
It isn't an IMAX experience but it sure is better than nothing.
Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don't (Score:5, Informative)
In answer to the question posted: Why not just get an el cheapo dvd standalone unit for your TV. You get a remote and probably a bigger picture. Why would anyone watch DVDs on their computer, Gnu/Linux or Windows?
Television looks like shit. It is interlaced, with only 480 lines of resolution (NTSC) or 576 lines (PAL). This means that each stroke of the electronic pen only writes 240 lines (288 lines PAL) per stroke, with each stroke happening 60 times / second (50 times / second PAL). In short, the image is low res, flickery, and fuzzy.
Contrast that with a 1920x1200 24" LCD monitor, which can play DVDs in progressive, rather than interlaced mode (meaning each swipe of the electronic pen across the screen, 60 times each second, writes all 480 [PAL: 576] lines, rather than just have of them), and can do so at resolutions most consumer televisions simply cannot match, such as 720p.
Hell, you can take analog video signals, captured with either V4L(1|2) or firewire, encode and compress them into xvid format, and have a better picture than the TV was capable of displaying during the live broadcast. I know. I've done this with two episodes of Max Headroom, with astonishing results. Even my old 8-mm college videos (not hi-8 mind you, just 8-mm video tape) looks better after it has been digitized [expressivefreedom.org], deinterlaced, and displayed on a computer monitor than it does fresh from the master source displayed on the same monitor (but still interlaced), much less the low res television.
Then there are all kinds of scaling issues involved when trying to use consumer DVD players with high quality monitors or plasma screens, so much so that many videophiles build HTPCs (Home Theatre PCs) in order to fix the scaling artifacts and achieve better quality output than is possible even if spending tens of thousands of dollars on specialized scan converters and scaler hardware designed to do the very same thing.
The general purpose computer is the best A/V display device available to normal people today, and will remain so for the forseeable future, unless congress decides normal folks shouldn't be allowed to possess the power of a home computer and passes the Hollings Bill or some variant thereof, in which case it is time to emigrate.
Re:Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don (Score:3, Interesting)
You know...
I have a pretty decent 17" monitor and a pretty nice but not stellar 20" TV.
I have a very good desk, but the chair really isn't good for sitting all through the movie. The monitor isn't really good for watching stuff from far away. TV, on the other hand, looks just nice from my couch or bed.
Also, the fact that television looks like shit is a good thing. No, it may not be always desired with DVDs. But for video tapes, VideoCDs, or DivX-recorded clips, the TV viewed from far away, or even about one meter, is much better than computer screen - because on the monitor I can see the artifacts and the horror that is VHS. Somewhat softer image is sometimes a very good thing =)
Re:Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don (Score:2, Insightful)
You're absolutely 100% dead wrong [thedigitalbits.com].
Re:Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don (Score:2)
You're absolutely 100% dead wrong [thedigitalbits.com]
Amen.
Not only that, but there are deinterlacers, interpolators, and various image enhancement/sharpening filters that (and, using transcode under GNU/Linux for example, or VirtualDub under Windoze) can take a less than perfect TV image regardless of source (for the clue challenged, this includes DVD) and improve the image in resolution, color quality, and just about every other measurable metric over the original source.
Any source correctly filtered in this manner can have its resolution upscaled to 1080p or, in my case, 1200p
How is this possible? Hint: interpolation and some of the various other filters actually create information. The more intelligent filters make very good educated guesses as to what belongs in the missing space, so much so that your jaw will drop when you see the result.
The poster to which you replied (indeed both followup posts) may want to believe that a fuzzy TV looks better playing back a DVD or a recorded video source, but that is only true if one is using consumer playback products, rather than their PC, which can do so much more with the image. Those of us who have built their own, super-high-quality PVRs will never go back to watching painfully low-res, interlaced television.
Re:Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don (Score:2)
S-Video to WinTV?? I would suggest a digital capture card inside your PC. Just get the cable from dish to PCI card and you're done. S-Video looks like shit compared to digital broadcast signal captured by specialized card inside your computer. And while you're spending cash get a high quality DLP projector instead of that 32" monitor. How 160" wide-screen sounds like? [Disclaimer: I only have 80" 4:3 screen but S-Video looks like shit even with it. I also have Hauppauge WinTV card and I can assure that while it's an OK card it's far from perfect.]
However, with less than perfect source your best bet is to have interlaced display. I've seen far too many DVD's/digital broadcasts that have flags set saing that the content is 16:9 progressive when it's in reality 4:3 interlaced and so on. With a traditional TV equipped with a 16:9/4:3 (auto)toggle you probably don't even notice the problem but with hardware that honors those flags (e.g. turns of deinterlacer for source that has progressive flag set on) the result is often miserable.
Re:Television Looks Like Shit, Hi-Res Monitors Don (Score:2)
Contrary to popular myth, DVDs viewed using a computer and the proper software scaling look better than anything consumer or even most prosumer products can deliver. Anyone telling you "it looks best on an old interlaced TV" simply hasn't done their research, or has limited their lines of inquiry to traditional, consumer media electronics (i.e. they haven't considered a PC with good scaling and filtering software).
have fun!
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2, Funny)
This can only mean that I need more coffee.
Re:Whats the point? (Score:2)
good news (Score:4, Funny)
Re:good news (Score:3, Informative)
Now I can donate my hard earned money to the MPAA and watched their css crippled movies only on their terms.
Since these players pretty much all use libdvdcss, which is an unlicensed implementation of CSS and even exploits weaknesses in CSS to recover the DVD keys (rather than having an official player key), I'd say you can safely consider yourself to be watching their movies on your own terms, having successfully circumvented their lame copyright control system.
Rest easy; there is a very good chance that using these players not only pisses off the MPAA, but might even be illegal as well! What more can any self-respecting geek ask for?
In case that's not quite enough for you, you could always make your violation of the DVDCCA complete by buying some out-of-region DVDs and modding your DVD drive to play them. Or just pop over to China and buy some non-region-coded, non-encrypted pirate copies of your favorite movies! Put your money where your mouth is and support those hard-working pirates.
Re:good news (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:good news (Score:4, Informative)
If you can decrypt CSS yourself, are you still affected by regions? Does the DVD player deny the whole disk or just access to the deecryption keys?
It depends.
Older DVD-ROM drives didn't do region checking themselves, and relied on the software player to do it. Obviously, none of the free players bother. All newer DVD-ROM drives, however, do the region checking in the hardware (well, firmware), and if the region code on the DVD doesn't match the code on the DVD-ROM then the drive will in fact refuse to give up any data. If you fopen() a file it will succeed, but fread() will return no data (IIRC, it's been a while since I looked). There are hacks for most of them that can fix this defect, however. In most cases this involves loading new firmware and you can download and install the update in a matter of minutes. Of course, you do risk ruining the drive if something goes wrong.
But that's not the whole answer, because there's a scripting language for DVDs (that's how they make all those interactive menus and games), and some DVDs implement some checking in this scripting language. Basically, the script queries the drive and asks it what region it is set to. If it answers anything other than the region the DVD is intended for then the script directs the player to show a "you can't play this" screen and to disable chapter selection, etc. controls so that you are stuck there.
Even *that's* not the end of the story, though, because it's the player that executes the interpreter that runs the scripts from the DVD, and in the case of open source players, the interpreters are open source as well. So, interpreter authors are trying to write interpreters that will second guess the scripts they're executing and refuse to honor the code that would lock you out.
Re:good news (Score:2)
Re:good news (Score:2)
Did you not read the post you replied to?
Until the MPAA finds a way to really stop me from using the content I buy in the way that I like, DVDs will be something I buy. At the moment they find a way to impact my usage, then my purchases will stop. Not because I'm "outraged" but simply because their products aren't useful to me.
If they choose to use that money to pay lawyers and congressmen, that's their business and their loss. That's money they can't invest in new films and money they can't keep as profit.
It's *far* more effective to send letters and donation checks to my congressmen, plus some more cash to the EFF, than it is to quit buying DVDs. If I stop buying DVDs, the only thing that happens is the members of the MPAA lose a few hundred a year in revenue, with no explanation as to why. In fact, they'll probably blame piracy!
OTOH, sending $100 to the EFF, $100 to Rep. Boucher and $100 and a letter explaining my issues to each of my senators (plus more when they do the right thing) makes a huge difference. Keep in mind that it is *impossible* for the MPAA to "outbribe" the American public, if the public is interested. For that matter, it's impossible for the MPAA to outbribe the readers of slashdot! Why? Because (a) there are too many of us, (b) the MPAA cannot vote (which is the currency that really matters to elected officials, money is just a way to get votes) and (c) the money that we (I!) give is "hard money", whereas the majority of the MPAA's money is "soft money". Soft money is useful, but hard money is much better.
So, if you like movies but don't like the MPAA, go ahead and watch/buy the movies, but send half of your movie budget to your senators, congressmen and the EFF.
Re:good news (Score:2)
You people will do ANYTHING to justify buying your DVD's, won't you? And yet, you all bitch and moan about the MPAA. YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.
I don't bitch and moan about the MPAA at all. In fact, if it weren't for the dark shadow cast by the DMCA, I'd find the whole thing very entertaining. The battle between the engineers who try to secure the content and the hackers who try to defeat the security is a lot of fun to watch and even more fun to participate in. And, actually, it's reasonably effective at slowing down casual copying without completely removing our rights of fair use.
Then some congresscritters came along and loused it up by offering to throw the MPAA's worthy opponents in jail. If we can get the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA struck down then the game can resume in earnest until the MPAA finally figures out that they really need to just find a better business model, one that presumes copying will happen and provides value in other ways to motivate people to cough up the cash.
I see no reason to either hate the MPAA or boycott their products. I'll simply evaluate whether or not *that* DVD or *that* movie is worth *that* price, like every other consumer does, taking into account what I can and cannot do with it. And right now, frankly, I can do damn near anything I want with a DVD.
At the point in time when the combination of legislation and technology creates a scenario in which I *cannot* use the media in the ways that I want to, then I suspect the price of the DVD will exceed its value to me and I'll stopy buying. In the meantime I'll also continue writing the occasional letter and sending the occasional check urging my representatives to get rid of the draconian legislation.
I strongly recommend that all slashdotters do whatever they hell the like, and I'll do the same. It's the foundation of our system and it largely works fine even if the path sometimes resembles that of a well-steeped wino.
Re:good news (Score:2)
Hardware Decoders? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:2)
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:2)
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:3, Informative)
My friends are underwhelmed that I have managed to turn a $2000 PC into a DVD player that does not work quite as well as a $200 dedicated device. However the big advantage of mplayer+ dxr3 is the ability to play *any supported media format* to the TV. DivX included. That is the real win for me - If I could not do that I would have thrown in the towel by now and bought a "real" DVD player.
With this facility I can capture TV broadcasts from a BT878 card, save in the disk space economical DIVX format, then play back at leisure. So I have now turned my $2000 PC into a bad version of a $500 TIVO device ! Actually if I could buy a TIVO I would, except they are not available where I live (Australia).
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:3, Informative)
regarding mplayer (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:2)
I tried (weakly) to get DXR3 to work with Xine, and it so far has not worked. It works in MPlayer for me though. DVD playback is flawless (no dropped frames, not A/V sync issues), except all the video is off-center a little to the right. I have sent messages to both the MPlayer and the DXR3 mailing lists, and no one has responded, so I assume that this is a problem that no one know how to fix.
I can play DivX-formatted video through the card with MPlayer, but the video must be first decoded into full frames and then re-encoded on the fly to send in MPEG-1 format to the DXR3 card. This makes things a little jumpy on my PIII 750. But worst of all is that the aspect ratio is often wrong; the video on the TV will be stretched vertically. Again, I've sent a message about this to both the MPlayer and the DXR3 lists, and again no one has been able to give me a solution to this problem.
It's really a shame, because DXR3 and MPlayer seem to be the perfect combination to create a good Linux DVD/DivX player for a television. These technical issues still need to be addressed, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around who is either capable or willing to get it working.
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:2)
The biggest problem is the region locking built into the hardware of the lastest and greatest. Depending on the hardware you might be able to "flash" the ROM to allow disabling or fixing of the region enforcing parts.
If you go back to older gear you actually find it more flexible and useful. I have an *ancient* SB DXR3 drive and decoder card. The drive itself is RPC Phase 1 which means it does IO on any disk reguardless of region. A little decss and you have a viable data stream to decode and display.
One issue, beyond the legality of using de-css software, is that software I've currently played with does a force crack. This isn't too terible on a modern system but without "caching" of the css keys, you may have to wait a moment before you can start playing video. This wait time varies from disk to disk.
There does exist on sourceforge a kernel driver for the DXR3 decoder card. It requires the IC2 kernel parts to be compiled in as well. Then it is a matter of telling your software to take the data from the disk and piping it to the
A current problem I have with the decoder card is that it handles some aspects poorly(basically anything outside of the TV 1.33:1 aspect). I can't tell if it is a limitation in the hardware or the software driver. In any case I just go with software diplay but when I can use the hardware decoder it works great. Doing software my system usually eats 30% of the CPU but the hardware takes next to none.
Re:Hardware Decoders? (Score:2)
I got a Hollywood Plus card many years ago so I could hook it to a digital receiver and get 5.1 sound rather than Dolby ProLogic.
xbox dvd player quality vs ps2 dvd? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:xbox dvd player quality vs ps2 dvd? (Score:2)
Re:xbox dvd player quality vs ps2 dvd? (Score:2, Informative)
--
The answer to your question, and some others (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway - the remote for the PlayStation 2 is $20 at Wal Mart or Best Buy. The DVD Playback Kit for Xbox is $30 and contains a remote and a piece of hardware that fits into one of the controller ports (same as on PS2). Whereas on PS2 you can play DVDs without the remote, it is necessary for the Xbox. That means that the cost is nowhere near £80 - more like £20 or USD $30.
While it may just be a matter of personal preference, I do feel that the Xbox remote is better all-around. I don't like the ergonomic look of it, but its function far surpasses the PS2's. The PS2 basically made their remote a "wireless controller" complete with Triangle, Circle, Square and X buttons. I shit you not. Why they couldn't have omitted these and made something a little more normal looking, I'm not sure. But they're there.
The Xbox remote, on the other hand, is just a perfectly normal DVD remote. No silly buttons - it's all about playing back DVDs. It works. That's the most important thing.
To use the newer DVD software, one must buy a $35 memory card for their PS2 and install the software to that. The Xbox, of course, has the software on the hard drive, which isn't getting filled up any time soon. But an 8MB memory card can go relatively quickly if you play a lot of games and have the DVD software installed.
As for actual DVD playback quality, hands-down Xbox. The PS2 has several display problems that have already been noted in replies here. The Xbox just looks like a normal DVD player. I consider this a good thing.
You may want to purchase the "Advanced AV Pack" for the Xbox if you plan to use it as a DVD player - it comes with S-Video cables, which I personally consider necessary to viewing DVDs. YMMV.
To break it down: The Xbox will cost you $330 with a DVD playback kit and will put out some great looking images. The PS2 will cost you $300 to play DVDs and will look okay most of the time but will really irritate the living hell out of you at others. To make it an actual home-theater DVD watching component, you'll want to spend another $35 for the memory card and $20 for the remote, for a total of $355.
To break it down even further: useful DVD playback will cost you an extra $30 for the Xbox or $55 for the PS2. And the Xbox looks better. Don't be stupid. Use the Xbox.
One caveat: the Xbox doesn't support progressive scan. This probably won't be an issue, unless you have a progressive scan TV. If you do, you probably have enough money to buy a separate DVD player that supports progressive scan. So just do that.
Re:The answer to your question, and some others (Score:2, Informative)
Are you talking about a 3rd-party DVD remote for the PS2? The Sony remote for the PS2 is much more like a standard DVD remote. It has buttons like "Title Menu" etc., but the caveat is that it requires 2 meg on your memory card for the updated DVD firmware. Note that, if you have a PS2 with no memory card, you're probably not having much fun with it ;) I thought the X-Box DVD remote was much chintzier, but both more than serve their purpose. As for the PS2 remotes having the standard PS2 buttons, this is a "good thing" if you use your PS2 to play audio CDs. I must say that the X-Box remote and firmware are better integrated, but the PS2's equivalents work nicely.
PS2 playback could definitely be better. Maybe it's just my setup, but I use S-Video through my Sony receiver into a Sony TV (just illustrating that all of my components are the same brand), and when the screen goes black -- as often happens in transitions -- the TV sometimes tends to "mode switch" (I don't know what to call it). It will just flicker once (like it's being turned on) and the TV will display "DVD" and the time, as though I just changed the channel or switched sources. This doesn't happen all the time, but it can be really irritating. In the Fight Club extras DVD, the scene where Ed Norton is asleep and Tyler Durden checks on him (after the car crash), this is really prominent. The screen fades to black fairly often and each time, my TV "resets." I have pretty good quality components, damnit, and this is what I get?
Mirror - Slashdotted already (Score:4, Redundant)
Linux Review: GNU/Linux DVD Player Review
Posted on Monday, May 06, 2002 by Jon Kent Printer Friendly Page Send this Article to a Friend
Multimedia Jon takes a look at Xine, VideoLAN Client, MPlayer and Ogle--four GNU/Linux DVD playback applications.
Playing DVDs under GNU/Linux has not had the happiest of histories, what with the DeCSS debacle and subsequent legal battle. So you'd be forgiven for thinking that you will never be able to play your DVDs on your GNU/Linux system. Luckily, this is not the case, and there are several applications available for you to download and use. The issue with DeCSS is still with us but is slowly getting clearer. However, this has left some of the DVD players officially not supporting encrypted DVDs, although unofficially, playback is possible via third-party additions.
This introduction to DVD playback applications for GNU/Linux looks at Xine, VideoLAN Client, MPlayer and Ogle. In addition to playing encrypted DVDs, unofficially in some cases, several of these players also will play back other file formats.
Xine
Xine has quite a large following, and for good reason, as it is a very capable DVD player. In addition, like most of the players reviewed here, Xine is capable of playing a large range of file types in addition to unencrypted-DVD playback. Xine easily can be extended with additional functionality as it supports plugins that enable you to incorporate new codecs (open- or closed-source) or any additional function easily. There are many plugins available for Xine on the Net ready to be downloaded.
Xine only supports the playback of unencrypted DVD directly, but support for encrypted DVDs is provided by a third-party plugin (xine_d4d_plugin). It is unlikely that Xine will support encrypted DVDs directly. The legal status of this plugin is, as always, debatable, but it is easy enough to find and install. There are some useful links on the Xine web site, and a search at Google should find the required links for this plugin. It is stated on the Xine web site that encrypted DVD playback is not going to be supported directly because of the legal issues that surround this area. However, once you have installed the plugin, Xine's playback of encrypted DVDs is smooth with no noticeable problems with audio synchronization or any video glitches.
Xine's interface is tidy and provides most of the function you might require. Depending upon your preferences, you may find that it takes up too much space on your desktop. As Xine is currently not skinnable, there is no way to change the size or layout of the GUI. If you are running XFree86 4.x, with a supported video card, you can switch Xine from windowed to full-screen mode and back again smoothly. If this is not supported by your video card or version of X, Xine still can be viewed in a window, which is the default startup mode.
Unfortunately, Xine does not support DVD menus directly; however, there is a plugin called dvdnav (available from prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dvd) that adds this functionality to Xine. This plugin is a must-have if you intend to use Xine for DVD playback. The plugin works very well, even with the complex animated menus that some DVDs have, and although this is not required for DVD playback, it obviously gives you complete access to all the features available. The code for the DVD navigation was written referencing the original Ogle DVD menu code base.
Xine is a good DVD player, and with the use of plugins it can be extended in many ways. It appears to have a solid following, which should ensure its survival. The interface, however, may not be to everyone's taste.
VideoLAN Client
The VideoLAN Client is part of the VideoLAN Project, a full MPEG-2 client/server solution. However, the VideoLAN Client also can be used as a standalone program to play MPEG-2 streams from a hard disk or DVD. It currently has GTK+, GNOME, KDE and Qt front ends and can use either X11, XVideo, SDL or DirectX for video output. For audio, VideoLAN Client supports OSS, ALSA and ESD. To access encrypted DVDs, VideoLAN Client uses the library libdvdcss, which is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother with the decryption. VideoLAN Client does not use DeCSS but a different implementation that does not use the cracked Xing decoder key. The libdvdcss was written by the VideoLAN Client development team, using the original DeCSS code as a reference base.
DVD playback with VideoLAN Client is very smooth with no noticeable problems with audio synchronization. When you start viewing a DVD, it defaults to opening up a window to display the movie, but you switch to full-screen mode quickly and easily by pressing the F key, as with the other players reviewed here. The switch from windowed view to full-screen view, and back again, is very quick and smooth with no slowing of playback.
VideoLAN Client GUI is a rather large window by default, the largest of the group. This seems unnecessary, and although you can shrink it down, it does not scale very well--a minor point, but it does seem overly big for what is a simple interface. That said, the GUI itself is fairly easy to navigate, with buttons to Stop, Pause, Forward and so on. Preferences also can be modified for items such as the path to the DVD/VCD device, audio device and output to use, the default interface and so on. It is the only player reviewed here that allows you to modify the preferences from the GUI.
The only drawback to VideoLAN Client is that there is currently no support for DVD menus, so you only can see the movie and you cannot access any additional items. This is not a major drawback and should not be held against VideoLAN Client as its DVD playback is as good as Xine and MPlayer. If you are not too worried about having DVD menu support and can live with the largest GUI of the players reviewed here, VideoLAN Client is a good choice.
MPlayer
MPlayer is another movie player that can play most MPEG, VOB, AVI, VIVO, ASF/WMV and QT/MOV files supported by many native, XAnim and Win32 DLL codecs. In addition to this you can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx and even DivX movies. In this respect it supports more formats than any of the other players reviewed here.
In addition to all of these video formats, MPlayer also supports a wide range of output drivers. It works with X11, Xv, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev and AAlib, and you can use SDL and some low-level card-specific drivers (for Matrox, 3Dfx and RADEON) as well. Most of them support software or hardware scaling, so you can enjoy movies in full screen. Lastly, MPlayer supports displaying through some hardware MPEG decoder boards, such as the DVB and DXR3/Hollywood+. Blimey that's a list and a half.
So this looks like a one-stop shop for movie playback, but how does it perform? Very well. There are occasionally synchronization problems with DVD playback but nothing too major. The only thing to remember is that MPlayer does need to be run on a fairly powerful PC (greater than 500MHz) to work properly. If you are running on low power, MPlayer definitely is not for you. On lower spec machines the audio synchronization can get very messy, and the video becomes jerky, making the DVD, and other movie types, unwatchable. If you are using a lower spec machine, VideoLAN Client would appear to be the best option.
Encrypted DVDs are supported using the libcss library and, optionally, libdvdread for chapter support. As with the other players, encrypted support is not provided directly by MPlayer; you will need to download the libraries yourself. Unlike Xine, MPlayer does not support plugins, so you need to ensure that the libraries are installed before compiling.
MPlayer does not compile with a GUI by default, which is a little bizarre. To be fair, this is not a negative point as this is not really required if you just intend to use MPlayer to play back DVDs, as it does not support DVD menus. So having a GUI is not really necessary for DVD playback. However, if you intend to use MPlayer to play back other file types, you will need the GUI. To have GUI support you need to specify this if you compile from source by adding --enable-gui to the configure script.
To access the GUI you then either start MPlayer with a -gui switch (MPlayer does not use the standard --, which is usual for switches of more than one letter) or link MPlayer to gMPlayer, and then call gMPlayer instead. Another hurdle to get over with a GUI is that MPlayer is skinnable, but the standard source code has no skin, so the GUI still will not work. You need to download a skin from the MPlayer web site and install it, which is an irritating step. However, once all these additional steps are completed you are then presented with a usable interface to MPlayer. The interface, using the default skin, presents a simple and clean looking interface, that does not take up too much screen space. For those of you that find the Xine interface a little too bulky, MPlayer may suit you.
MPlayer's main drawback, or at least irritation, is that you cannot access a DVD from the GUI; instead you have to start MPlayer with the -dvd flag in order for it to play your DVD. To view another DVD currently means that you have to restart MPlayer. Lastly, there is no support for DVD menus available at present, so you cannot access the additional features of your DVD with MPlayer.
As a one-stop shop for movie playback, MPlayer scores very highly. It is fast (assuming you have a fairly new PC), and DVD playback is very good with no audio synchronization problems. With the support for multiple file format, you may find that MPlayer is all that you need.
Ogle
Ogle is purely a DVD player and was the first to support DVD menus and navigation, the code of which is now used in the Xine plugin as mentioned earlier. As with VideoLAN Client and MPlayer, Ogle uses libcss and libdvdread to decode and read DVDs. The MPEG decoder features various levels of acceleration to take advantage of MMX processors and some hardware MPEG decoders.
Ogle can be run directly from the shell, but a GUI is also available if you prefer. The GUI is more compact than VideoLAN Client's, but manages to contain more functionality. All of the major functions are present, such as pausing, forwarding the DVD and menu keys. That said, the interface to the control GUI is still larger than the standard MPlayer GUI and is not as nice to look at. Unfortunately, although there is an option to edit preferences, it is not currently functional.
When you first access your DVD from Ogle you are presented with the DVD menu, which you navigate using your mouse. You also can navigate the DVD menu by using the arrows on the GUI, but navigation using the mouse seems to be the easiest method by far. Unfortunately, playback of encrypted DVDs is occasionally not as smooth as with VideoLAN Client or MPlayer as there are freezes and audio glitches. However, this is occasional and does not detract too much from watching a DVD, but it might be a consideration. As with the other players reviewed, you can switch between windowed and full-screen mode, and again, switching between the modes goes smoothly.
Ogle does have a few drawbacks, the main ones being that there is no chapter menu support, no angle selection during playback and no closed-caption support. The most annoying issue is that you have to restart Ogle to play another DVD, which is the same problem MPlayer has. These may not be major issues to you but are worth taking into consideration.
Ogle is the only one of the players reviewed here that only plays DVDs and not any other formats. Its main claim to fame was the DVD menu support, but thanks to the fact that Ogle is open-source, the code base is now being used in other players. If you only want to play DVDs, then Ogle is worth reviewing, but if your needs are wider than that, you probably will want to look at one of the other players.
In conclusion, playing your bought-and-paid-for DVDs under your favorite OS is now achieved easily using any of the players reviewed here. There are many other players available; the ones we reviewed here have the most supporters and users. As always, because there are a wide range of DVD players to choose from, you should be able to find a player to suit your requirements. So go ahead and enjoy your DVDs on your GNU/Linux box.
Jonathan Kent is a system integration consultant working in the financial sector on real-time market data delivery systems. He has been using UNIX for the past ten years and GNU/Linux for four years. He lives with his family in the United Kingdom.
Re:Mirror - Slashdotted already (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I am aware of GNUdist Stallman's propaganda. (Score:2)
Sorceror GNU/Linux
Linus didn't right the whole OS, you know. You think he is some kind of a GOD?
Re:I am aware of GNUdist Stallman's propaganda. (Score:2)
They managed to get other important parts of the GNU system [gnu.org] to work in time, though.
Re:I am aware of GNUdist Stallman's propaganda. (Score:2)
Fine. You can call an OS anything you want. With these same guidelines, Mac OS X is just a derivative of the BSD operating system.
But then, what use is using the concept of OS in discussing things anyway?
There are other media files besides mpg2... (Score:2)
Re:There are other media files besides mpg2... (Score:2)
Re:There are other media files besides mpg2... (Score:2)
Re:There are other media files besides mpg2... (Score:2)
One idea is to just make a dedicated box yourself--I'm debating this. Playing DivX's with MPlayer on my Celeron 500 takes about 25% CPU if I use the matrox MGA output plugin. The Voodoo3 output plugin is also supported. The Voodoo3's S-video out can be activated with lm-sensors, a linux i2c tool. (or so I'm told) Cobble something together and you could have a nice QAD solution.
Re:There are other media files besides mpg2... (Score:2)
A crack in the wall (Score:4, Insightful)
How does this tie back to Linux DVD players? Well, it's a minor miracle when there's any publicity for anything that even remotely challenges the status quo. It's one more crack in the wall....
---
Destiny-land [blogspot.com].
The happiest blog on earth.
What we really need is... (Score:2, Funny)
It'd solve a lot of those bandwidth problems... much like this site [asciimation.co.nz] which was posted a while ago.
You wouldn't need a player if it's ANSI animation either, "cat" and "type" could become the hottest media players around.
Re:What we really need is... MPlayer (Score:2, Informative)
dvd howto (Score:2, Informative)
Xine, worst interface ever (Score:5, Interesting)
Xine [sourceforge.net] however has possilby the worst interface [iarchitect.com] I have ever had the misfortune to use.
Someone decided that it would be a good idea to implement their own file open dialog and playlist and design in a way that bears no resemblance to any other interface i have ever used. Using, or at least trying to use Xine is cruel and unusual punishment.
I suggested it to a friend who wanted to watch some DivX files and the interface was so bad it mad him laugh (then cry).
And to add even more potential for confusion it uses its own skinning system.
Gnome Xine [sourceforge.net] will hopefully be a vast improvement and have the sense to bear at least some resemblence to quicktime/microsoft mediaplayer/realplayer.
Re:Xine, worst interface ever (Score:2)
Re:Xine, worst interface ever (Score:2, Informative)
A screenie [ucam.org] shows the DVD playback working (using the xine engine) but it will have a KDE wrapper. It works but is a bit rough :)
I also hate the xine GUI and I work on the xine project but the emphasis at the moment is increasing stability, flexability and quality of playback (oh and ironing out those pesky DVD-menu bugs).
Re:Xine, worst interface ever (Score:2)
Agreed (Score:2)
Re: Try Sinek (Score:2)
A screenshot
Homepage [sourceforge.net]
Description (from the homepage):
Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Gürer Özen
Sinek is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Sinek is a GTK+ video/audio player, capable of supporting all formats libxine supports. At the moment, this includes; Audio MPEG 1, 2, and 3, Vorbis (.ogg), Video MPEG 1 and 2, MPEG 4 (aka OpenDivX), MS MPEG 4 (aka DivX) and motion jpeg.
One of the main differences between Sinek and other popular multimedia players is that it doesn't use skins; instead, it has a standard GTK+ interface. In other words, it doesn't clash with your GTK+ theme.
Other features are
* scriptable with scheme language,
* supports text subtitles,
* you can adjust font (any X font!) and placement of subtitles on the fly,
* playlist with repeat, repeat current, and shuffle options,
* configurable key bindings,
* changing the volume with the mouse wheel,
* want something else? just tell on our mailing list
DVD APIs? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2, Informative)
However, stuff like libdvdread (which hooks to libdvdcss, if it's present) is pretty much used by everyone who's interested in DVD playback. I know the Xine guys have done some work on writing a Mozilla plugin that hooks the xine-lib backend for embedded media content playback. Don't get stuck in the Microsoft way of thinking though - that we should all just use what is gifted to us by the likes of MS, and not ask questions. The different groups developing DVD support on Linux are (at least to some degree) cooperating and learning from one another, so eventually all the Linux DVD players will be really good. Though I personally like Xine a lot (its DXr3 support is actually getting pretty good).
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
libcss, libdvdread etc. I'm not sure how far exactly you would take this, but it shouldn't be too hard to write your own DVD player in Linux.
One simpler solution might be to get the KDE/GNOME guys to write a decent DVD player for their environments and then use their component models KParts or Bonobo (a la ActiveX) to embed the player component right into the plugin.
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
libcss, libdvdread etc. I'm not sure how far exactly you would take this, but it shouldn't be too hard to write your own DVD player in Linux."
And would that allow me to transparently make use of the hardware facilities provided by the likes of the H+ decoder card, or ATI graphics card? Or, would I have to write custom code for each one's APIs and detect what to use at runtime? This is what the DirectShow API under Windows gives me for free - the player doesn't need to care about the hardware, but it will get used transparently depending on whose drivers have been installed. I guess this is what my original question was aiming at - what *standard* APIs are there beyond those for just getting the data off the DVD disc?
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
One thing to bear in mind is that there are really not many "standard" APIs in the Linux world, other than perhaps the POSIX calls and X, ie the legacy of the commercial unix heritage. The rest works on an evolutionary basis - the survival of the fittest. This means you use the best API for your needs. If it's not currently installed then the software manager will auto-install the dependancies (well in theory, yes i know that doesn't always work but that's nor relevant and being resolved anyway).
Also remember that Linux DVD support is pretty new. Being non-commercial, support for it had to be reverse engineered, so there may not have been enough time yet for a complete set of DVD APIs to emerge. It'll happen though, have no doubt, though I couldn't say what it'll be like or when.
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
It's not so much a case of survival of tbe fittest, it's more a case of when the v7 calls and X calls were designed, they were designed by a single group of people, and everyone else adopoted them, there wasn't any alternatives designed or implemented. The *nix world was much smaller then, so everyone who was interested knew about the efforts going on and didn't duplicate them. Now, there are too many people developing for anyone to know about them all. If someone is interested in doing something which needs a new API, then 5 or 6 other people may also be interested, and they will also define their own API's, so instead of one clear API, we get a mess.
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
Well, aside from the fact it is extremely unlikely we'll learn how to use it. All the information we have on that function of the ATI cards is about 5 lines of register names. Considering ATI hasn't released information on the motion compensation units in their cards from 7 years ago...
R C
Gatos [sf.net] core team member
Re:DVD APIs? (Score:2)
Right now it's all loose apps and libraries.
The people of Gstreamer have started Gstreamer as a project to build such a standard, and to make it easy to build applications to use the Gstreamer framework.
It's not ready yet, but it is being worked on.
MPlayer and the review (Score:2, Informative)
This is false. If you start gmplayer, and then middle click in the video window, you get a menu which clearly states: "Play DVD"
So in fact, you do not need to start it from the command line. A real problem though is that sometimes this does not play back the desired audio track. Depending on the DVD, you may have to specify the audio track on the commandline.
All in all, mplayer is a sweet piece of software and arpi and the others deserve thanks for providing us (me at least) with a great media player.
Mplayer all the way (Score:4, Informative)
At the moment it is easily the fastest (I know; I have a p500, and the speed difference between it and many others (I've tried way more than this review) is incredible), and development is very fast at the moment (xine is rather stagnant). The team is working hard at getting core features down before they hit the frills. Some people may argue that all the optimizations aren't supposed to be considered core issues, but screw that. I want smooth DVD playback!!
At this moment they have lots of amazing features like mencoder, which is a related video encoding project, vidix output (their own hardware accelerated video output, which is blazing fast), support for many many file types, and the speed is incredible.
Some gripes people have had, for instance (a) wasn't GPL and (b) binaries need to be compiled on a specific machine for optimization--both are moot points now! They are now fully GPL and are moving all the optimization to runtime configurable rather than compile-time defined (they are very far along with this). You should expect official packages to enter all distributions soon.
Really, it's an amazing project. They catch some flak, but honestly, it performs very well, and is going to get even better! Once the core has stabilized they will polish up all the outside stuff.
Re:Mplayer all the way (Score:2)
Not according to this [mplayerhq.hu]
Re:Mplayer all the way (Score:3, Informative)
Huh? Xine 0.99 just came out 11 days ago and as Krischi noted, there have been hundreds of CVS commits in the last few weeks. Sourceforge rates it as a highly active project (it just made it into the top 100 most active [sourceforge.net] projects). I don't know what Xine you're talking about, but the Xine I use has the momentum of a lot of developers throwing their weight behind it.
Generic set-top computer (Score:2)
There's a need for low-cost computer hardware in a VCR form factor, for PVRs, game consoles, etc. If the Linux community can get together with the consumer electronics companies who flood the world with cheap VCRs and TV sets, the market could be sizeable.
So far, everybody who's tried this has botched the software and marketing side. But keep trying. There's no reason a PVR has to be a proprietary product tied to some service.
Re:Generic set-top computer (Score:2)
the metallic version is what you seek. DO NOT buy the one with the mpeg playback card, the EM8400 chipset sucks big time.
Many of us have it already... About $395.00
bare bones with nothing but ram+processor
Good against DMCA? (Score:2)
What I use (Score:2)
1. Xine
2. Ogle
I use Xine for the most time since it's also capable of playing all kinds of video formats. But actually Ogle is better for pure DVD playing. I'm not sure if this is true anymore but Xine uses Ogle's code for DVD menu navigation. DVD menu navigation is something we had to wait a really long time to get in Linux. I was even so desperate I tried some strange (propably illegal) port of WinDVD called LinDVD a while ago, but now I'm proud to support real GNU projects.
Very strange is that neither of the players can manage to play Depeche Mode - The Videos DVD with sound.
Ciryon
Re:What I use (Score:2, Funny)
What a great feature!
Correction regarding Xine, CSS and DVD menus (Score:4, Informative)
From the article:
Xine only supports the playback of unencrypted DVD directly, but support for encrypted DVDs is provided by a third-party plugin (xine_d4d_plugin).
...
Unfortunately, Xine does not support DVD menus directly; however, there is a plugin called dvdnav (available from prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dvd) that adds this functionality to Xine. This plugin is a must-have if you intend to use Xine for DVD playback
Actually, the current recommended way to play all DVDs, encrypted and unencrypted, is with dvdnav. If you have installed libdvdcss (preferably the one available at the Ogle web site, I believe), dvdnav will recognize it and use it.
The xine_d4d_plugin isn't maintained well and doesn't work at all with the latest versions of Xine, AFAIK. dvdnav is the better choice.
Re:Correction regarding Xine, CSS and DVD menus (Score:2)
Thanks for the info! My information comes from the Xine developer's mailing list, which is frequented by the developers of dvdnav, so it's clearly slanted. More so than I thought, though.
Will anything play without installing X? (Score:2)
Re:Will anything play without installing X? (Score:3, Informative)
Re: video in the command line :) ? (Score:3, Funny)
You don't need X, you don't even need a video card. You don't even need a terminal at that computer. You can watch a remote "aalib" though telnet
Mplayer uses aalib, and i think Xine can use it too.
this thing is called xine, not Xine! (Score:2, Interesting)
when in doubt, use lower case. BTW: This thing is called xine, never Xine.
in flight movies! (Score:2)
What about MPEG encoders? (Score:2)
The requirements I'm looking for are:
Does anybody have any experience with this type of procedure? Do you have any advice to share? I have a pile of old VHS tapes that are decaying, and I'd like to get a high-quality digital capture of them before they get too bad.
Re:What about MPEG encoders? (Score:2, Informative)
Also, the Linux VCR HOWTO [tldp.org] may have some useful information for you.
Re:Server slashdoted (Score:2)
Re:DVD Players for Linux (Score:5, Informative)
First step : run Xine. Oh, except it sucks, because the version packaged with my distro is several months old. Watch out for this.
Second step: uninstall current Xine, go to the Xine homepage [sf.net], and install the latest version. You may need either the tarball like I did, or there may be an RPM for you.
Third step: look in the links section at the bottom for CaptainCSS [captaincss.tk], download it, follow the instructions carefully, as they are non-standard, and you will have a fully working DVD player.
Final step: remember to click the D4D button rather than the DVD button.
Oh ... actual final step: curse the MPAA for making your life harder than it needs to be. Yes, DVD encryption sucks, but I won't go into why here, there are plenty of other /. stories that cover that. Anyway, that should get you going. If you get stuck, then try opening a ticket at protonic :)
Re:DVD Players for Linux (Score:4, Informative)
Re:DVD Writers (Score:2)
as far as backups... it's been said over and over, the most cost effective backup (solely for backup/recovery purposes) is HDD. usb, IDE, EIDE whatever, it's all cheeper and easier than fiddling with virgin non-standard dvd writing technology. plus as an added bonus, you can be up and running in minutes not hours when you have lost data/hardware failure. it also makes it a little more challenging for someone else to get to any sensitive data. personally i think dvd+rw is just a fad. we went from 1.2mb 5.25 -> 1.4 mb 3.5 -> 650 mb 4in disk. 650 -> +/- 8GB isn't quite the jump for mass storage. i'll be waiting for something like a 400GB portable storage medium. all my mp3's mpegs, jpgs, databases, life history, all on one little "disk".
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
That way, you get a DVD decryption key, and everything will JUST WORK.
Wow. It's amazing. If you want to pay, then do so, and you don't have to go through the hassle of downloading an extra piece of software!
Otherwise, will you please stop with your Apple can do no wrong mantra? Please? All platforms have their faults, to pretend that OS X is more UNIX than Linux is just, well, so utterly pointless it's untrue. Who cares?
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
How about I pay for the OS and get the DVD player for free? Best part, I don't have to download a darn thing, its built into the operating system.
Otherwise, will you please stop with your Apple can do no wrong mantra? Please? All platforms have their faults, to pretend that OS X is more UNIX than Linux is just, well, so utterly pointless it's untrue. Who cares?
Bite your tongue Linux boy! How can I be an Apple Zealot if I don't feel they can do no wrong? Mac OS X is more UNIX than Linux, period. UNIX is a trademark owned by the Open Group. Apple has permission to use the UNIX trademark from the Open Group because its operating system meets the Single UNIX Spec., Linux does not.
Disclaimer: I use Linux for what its best suited for...serving.
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
Remember that the DVD player isn't technically free - you pay for it when you buy your Mac. Why pay for it if you already have a set top DVD player like my Mac friend? He never ever uses his Mac for playing DVDs, because he prefers the living room.
Why pay for something you don't need? Better to pay for only the stuff you do need, or to download a free player and get a cheaper platform as a result.
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
Its free to me. When throw money at a new Mac, I consider it a hardware purchase where Apple throws in the OS and additional software as a freebie. We can quarrel about this mindset but it would be a silly debate. Macs are a complete package for the most part.
Why pay for it if you already have a set top DVD player like my Mac friend? He never ever uses his Mac for playing DVDs, because he prefers the living room.
Because I am a mover and shaker and watch movies on airplanes. Plus the chicks in first class think you are hot stuff when you whip out your 15.2 inch widescreen G4 to watch a movie.
Note: If you are single, when flying, always keep a chick flick with you just in case.
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
Why do companies do this? I'd be willing to fork out $50 for a decent, efficient, legal, DVD player for Linux. I bet others would too. Since when have the majority of Linux users been people using set top boxes and other devices requiring embedded versions?
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:3, Informative)
Look at the link again and then go to their shop and try to buy it. I'll save you the search. You CANNOT buy this product since it's for EMBEDDED OEMs only!
Same shit is also with InterVideo: "LinDVD, InterVideo's Linux software DVD player, is currently available only to manufacturers for evaluation and integration. Linux users should be aware that we are engaged with top computer, Internet appliance, and set-top box manufacturers to provide the highest qualilty DVD playback for their devices."
Which leaves you only with the open source players option and you simply CANNOT buy an end-user Linux DVD player application..
Re:Want Sorenson QT? (Score:2)
Uh. well, DUH! Apple's minimum RAM spec for Mac OS X is 128MB. So you are getting disapointing performance because you have half the RAM that the Operating System requires. What do you expect?
so tweaking needed yes....
Well if you want to use the system against the recomendation of Apple, I guess you would need tweaking.
but like every system it isn't perfect...
Well in your case, you are not even close to using Mac OS X as it is advertised. So how can this be a real complaint on your part? Its like driving a car with only half the tires on and bitching that it won't go fast.
Re:Mac DVD Player (Score:2)
iDVD is the DVD production software for Macs, not the viewer. I assume you are talking about the viewer. My answer? I have never noticed nor have I been bothered by interlacing on my movies. Check out MacFixIt [macfixit.com], they always have great answers for unique problems.
Re:GUI necessary? (Score:2)
Play games: almost finished JK II with Wine, I just need a bit more free time (those black Jedis are quite hard to defeat). After that, I'll probably add it to my usual round of native LAN games: UT, Q3A, Wolf...
Word processing: LaTeX (I'm doing a masters), OpenOffice. Didn't tried AbiWord lately.
Download music: Don't know, as I only listen to radio, and it's a news channel. And besides, if you don't want to view DVDs under Linux for claims of "semilegality", what are you doing downloading music?
Print: Don't know either, as I don't own any printer, and at the Uni there's only Windows computers. So it's not "reboot", it's "get up, walk a few minutes, print and come back". But it's not because of the OS: it's because if I ever buy a printer, I want a bigass departmental color laser printer. Which is kinda too pricey for me right now.
DVD: Began watching the Slap Shot 2 DVD this morning, but didn't have enough time to finish it. Will be tonight, since the Canadiens don't play before tomorrow.
Re:GUI necessary? (Score:2)
Color laser printers for home users make about as much sense as the proverbial space shuttle to go to the corner store, but less cost effective.
you use windows? when are you going to graduate from a toy to a real tool?
You're right, you are a real tool.