.mpg, .mpeg, And All Other Media Format Problems

Hey, i have had suse for about a week and i still cant get any of the media files (.mpg and .mpeg especially) to work in any of the video players; xine, kaffeine and the like to work. I need to get all the video formats i can to work. And would appreciate the help. If i try and play it, it says something about it doesnt have a handle to play .mpg and need the plugins. I have looked for the plugins to no avail. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

Hey, i have had suse for about a week and i still cant get any of the media files (.mpg and .mpeg especially) to work in any of the video players; xine, kaffeine and the like to work.[/b]

Take a look at the pinned "Multimedia Support" topic on this board. The instructions and links to download locations for the codecs and so on are all explained in there.

If you come unstuck at any point, post back which particular step is causing you problems.

Eds

I get stuck at the very beginning. I have never gotten past the shell script. I copy it and save it and try to the commands but nothing happens. I am logged in as root, its what i use. I guess i need a little more detailed guide or something, can you help me???

Hey, i have had suse for about a week and i still cant get any of the media files (.mpg and .mpeg especially) to work in any of the video players; xine, kaffeine and the like to work. [/b]

Hey, I'll give you a BIG hint, ... in order for us to help you, then YOU have to help us. If I just say "go to google and the like and get your answer", is that going to help you?? Not a heck of a lot! But thats what you just did to me. Now how can I be sure my advise will help you? You give me details. I'll give you details! Is that a deal?

If i try and play it, it says something about it doesnt have a handle to play .mpg and need the plugins. [/b]

Please write down PRECISELY what the error messages is. Buy a notebook and a pen. Put it down in front of your PC. Get a coffee, or a cola or whatever, then mellow out, and slowly and methodically write down the error messages. .... Did you know if you typed the PRECISE error message in Google, 9 times out of 10, you can find the answer! Yes. Its that simple.

Now, for some specific advice: Many Linux users use the xine engine for their media players. They also use the programs vlc and mplayer. For now, lets focuse on xine. Get xine running. Not the crippled Novell-SuSE xine. Get the Packman xine. If you had taken the time to read the links provided, you would have learned this!

Go to Packman, and obtain and install the rpms to make your xine function as good as possible. I recommend you intall:
- speex http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=338
- libstk http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=395
- mad http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=662
- lame http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=017
- toolame http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=375
- mpg321 http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=677
- w32codec-all http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=046
- x264 - http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=801
-xvid - http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=172
In all cases above, select as appropriate for your pc.

That should get you started for most codecs.

Followed by the libxine1 rpms listed here (select as appropriate for your pc):
http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=124

and followed by the xine-ui rpms listed here (select as appropriate for your pc):
http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=125

and kaffeine: http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=325

Please, also spend the time to learn how to search and find applications on guru and packman yourself. In the future I will not provide you the links (I have better things to do). I will just say go to packman or guru, and you should be able to search and find these. It does not take a genius to locate these packages.

Finally, when I say "select as appropriate", I mean it. Don't go install an x86_64 rpm on an i586 PC. Use common sense. Don't go try install a SuSE-9.2 rpm, on a SuSE-10.1 installation. Right!

OK, go ahead, and good luck. After you get those running, we can focus on mplayer and vlc, which are also excellent players.

I am logged in as root, its what i use.[/b]

One more piece of advice. Do NOT use root, unless absolutely needed. If in doubt, ask. If you persist on using root (because that is what you use), then I will stop trying to help you. :angry:

I have better things to do than help newbies who screw up their system as root, because they ignored this advice.

Frankly, if I had read you "use root" before I typed the post above, I would not have bothered. ... :angry: :angry: :angry:

Well, although oldcpu does seem very "ticked off" with KC_Hall for not reading some of the basics type stuff, I for one DO appreciate assistance like this.

As a new SuSE user (of about two days - having been a reasonably long term mandriva), I'm finding quite a lot of stuff very different.

Did I say different? maybe I should have said weird, as well as different.

For instance, the difference of how mirrors and repositories are added, mandriva is infinitely easier (thanks to the assistance of the amazing "easy urpmi" site - without which, I'd still be stumbling around in the dark - like I am currently doing with this new SuSE 10.1 install).

As far as I can tell, the only things that I have left over from my mandriva install are my bookmarks for firefox and some personal data (pictures/photos etc).

I did originally try to just install to my / partition, but it all went to a sack of s**t and I ended up burning the personal stuff to a CDRW and then copying it back from there.

As for installing the various elements for video i.e. for wmv's, mpegs etc as well as for mp3's, well, thus far, I've found it not too be much fun. It all seems so confusing (yes, I will admit that it will take me a while to learn to do things in a different way), and not very intuitive.

Package management, should (well, I would have thought) be as relatively straight forward under SuSE as it was under mandriva. It appears not.

I got the packages as suggested by oldcpu, for the video stuff (again, very much appreciated) but when it gets as far as libxine1, it's dumping me out with a dependency error that libxine1 is needed for speex - I don't need speex, and while I tend to use the "scatter gun" approach to installing stuff i.e. I'll install pretty much everything, I know for certain, that I won't/don't need speex.

I could understand if I was installing a non-SuSE rpm, but I'm not. I would expect that if it's a "SuSEised" rpm that a package should not only install, but resolve all dependencies (one of the reasons that my "fave" previous distro was Gentoo - but at least mandriva (well the urpmi facility) seemed much better at resolving dependencies - specifically when installing "mandrivised" rpms).

Still, I suppose I'm now back at the bottom of the learning mountain! (bugger).

regards

fatbloke

p.s. I did have a little go with SuSE 9.3 and seem to recall that there was a way of sorting out the problem of mp3 playback by installing a "mulitmedia pack" (or do I remember wrongly ?). If thats correct, where is this facility under 10.1 i.e. is it still available ???

You picked a bad time to use suse, there are as yet no proper multimedia guides for 10.1. The repositories have broken packages in them and to top it all the package managers have broken parts. So your a pioneer....what you find can help the handful of 10.1 users! It is possible suse is doing a fedora, nothing works with anything else when copyright is a issue. Only 2 months ago suse10 was the best in my opinion. The below link might give you some ideas:

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...howtopic=37048

I may move to ubuntu when the new release comes out.

I got the packages as suggested by oldcpu, for the video stuff (again, very much appreciated) but when it gets as far as libxine1, it's dumping me out with a dependency error that libxine1 is needed for speex - I don't need speex, and while I tend to use the "scatter gun" approach to installing stuff i.e. I'll install pretty much everything, I know for certain, that I won't/don't need speex.[/b]

As a new user of 2 days, how do you know for certain that you don't need speex? Did you exchange emails with the author of libxine? Frankly, I don't know the very precise details, and I have taken the time to surf the speex/xine pages, and read what it does. What makes you SO certain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xine

For example, its quite possible libxine uses the codec and compression features of speex for multimedia. How do you know that it doesn't need libraries in speex, associated with that?

Speex is based on CELP and is designed to compress voice at bitrates ranging from 2 to 44 kbps. Some of Speex’s features include:

* Narrowband (8 kHz), wideband (16 kHz), and ultra-wideband (32 kHz) compression in the same bitstream
* Intensity stereo encoding
* Packet loss concealment
* Variable bitrate operation (VBR)
* Voice Activity Detection (VAD)
* Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
* In-progress fixed-point port

Note that Speex has a number of features that aren’t in other codecs such as intensity stereo encoding, integration of multiple sampling rates in the same bitstream, and a VBR mode; see our comparison page for more. [/b]

I am puzzled how you can be so certain this is not needed by libxine? ... especially in the face of Packman noting it is a dependency, and my suggesting that it be installed first.

Edit: and finally, assuming you could be correct, and xine never does need on your PC the xine code that uses speex, what is the harm in installing it, if it speeds up your installation? I recommend you install it, and move on. Don't belabour it.

Reference my being ticked off, well, you are right. But what ticked me off was reading KC_Hall was using root. Why does he use root? Because its "what he uses". ...

Well, good! Then he can get those who always log in as root to help him, because I won't.

As a new user of 2 days, how do you know for certain that you don't need speex? Did you exchange emails with the author of libxine? Frankly, I don't know the very precise details, and I have taken the time to surf the speex/xine pages, and read what it does. What makes you SO certain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xine

For example, its quite possible libxine uses the codec and compression features of speex for multimedia. How do you know that it doesn't need libraries in speex, associated with that?

I am puzzled how you can be so certain this is not needed by libxine? ... especially in the face of Packman noting it is a dependency, and my suggesting that it be installed first.

Edit: and finally, assuming you could be correct, and xine never does need on your PC the xine code that uses speex, what is the harm in installing it, if it speeds up your installation? I recommend you install it, and move on. Don't belabour it.

Reference my being ticked off, well, you are right. But what ticked me off was reading KC_Hall was using root. Why does he use root? Because its "what he uses". ...

Well, good! Then he can get those who always log in as root to help him, because I won't.
[/b]

Sorry, I wasn't clear on that point - I don't use speex i.e. I have no interest in any VOIP or other internet based voice apps. Hence it's a little annoying that it's being thrown up as a dependency.

Sure I tend to do the "scatter gun" thing, but inasfaras apps that I know I'll use. It would (as your message suggests) appear that that will include having to get speex installed whether I wanted it or not.

As I say, changing distros is proving more challenging that I'd thought.

I've only been using Linux (various but mainly mandriva) for about 4 years - and no, I'm here in the linux world for social/moral/ethical reasons, nothing to do with technical abilities of linux (which I firmly believe to be superior to MS products). I just couldn't work out what is essentially a video/media app (Xine) might be doing as a dependency for a purely voice app (if my understanding of speex is correct).

I'm certainly happy to concede that some apps have dependencies which do, on the face of things, seem to make rather curious "bedfellows", as there is stuff going on in the background (of a distro and the linux world generally) that I'm unlikely, ever, to appreciate/understand.

As for your being ticked off with KC_Hall for only using root, I would "second" your annoyance at such an action as I have read too many posts that suggest just how foolish this is. Afterall, isnt' that why windows is such a virus magnet? Pre millenium, only having root access (in a windows sort of way) and even now, with new PC's, with the XP installed, only having the pre-configured "computer administrator" account i.e. no user (hell even one called "new user" or something would be a smart move) account. So those who don't follow/understand the reasons for "limited" user accounts just carry on as they always have previously and wonder why they get hit with virii/trojans/worms/other malware etc.

Ah well, theres "one born, every minute" isn't there.

Thanks for the tips/advice/suggestion.

regards

fatbloke.

Hi

Just a suggestion, but I have a fully working xine running on 10.1 - this was originally installed on 10.0 and _not_ changed during the upgrade process. The files were locked and only had to be changed to 'upgrade' to resolve all dependencies and get the upgrade to complete.

I got the files as rpm's (libxine1, xine-ui, libdvdcss, w32codec) via http://xinehq.de/ (the home site for xine) from http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/ which does daily builds for SuSE.

This worked fine for me and seems far simpler.

Best regards

Well, thanks to ppl like oldcpu i have decided to not really get help here(except for ed). I have got everything to work on my own, no thanks to all these "guides", the links dont work or the repositories give me various errors. Oldcpu knows what im talking about with the various errors(remember im too stupid to write them down). Are you gonna buy all the stuff for me, i gave you the error, but not perfectly, you are the stupid one if you cant figure it out. And i have tried installing vlc, it has way too many dependencies. I went throught what many call "dependency hell". Oh and following your packman and packman xine idea is a load of s@#$. Its like a blind guy in the sahara desert trying to find a penny!!! You have a bad attitude towards newbs, how did you get to where you are, this is supposed to be a place of friendly ppl who can hekp you, not a place of @$$es who say give me everything exactly. One other thing Guru doesnt work nor does packman, no matter what, i have tried to put them in using YOU where is says user defined server and it gives me and error. Which to my knowledge means it doesnt exist, and ive used several ppls suggestions, nothing works. And i know if it says suse 9 and i have 10 it probably wont work, that is common sense. Oh and i still use root, i need good solid proof and reasons not to use it, not just your word! Give me those reasons and i will switch, what are you soo worried about why do most big comapnies use linux; because its more secure and stable, i have talked with some ppl, who use suse and they say it is really hard to get viruses and spyware/trojans/worms/and malware.