Any linux player that can play all divx/xvid and mp3/ac3 and SRT/VobSub in Matroska?

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

Ok, I just want to be able to do that ;).

Is there any linux player that can do that just right?

I use Fedora Core 2.

Should I use GStreamer, VLC, or Mplayer? Generally, I want a player that PERFECTLY supports matroska, and also VobSub subtitles in them. And yea, I want it to have GUI ;).

Help would be appreciated. Also a full list of libs for download and those.

[albertgasset]

MPlayer supports a lot of formats (see http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/info.html) and it has a GUI, called gmplayer.

RPM packacges for Fedora Core 2: http://tettnang.freshrpms.net.

[Mosu]

mplayer supports all of those. Yesterday I've committed some small changes to the VobSub handling code so that the 'palette:' and 'custom colors:' entries are parsed and used as well, so VobSub support should be top notch by now.

SRT support is present as well, but HTML like style tags in SRT will be discarded. This is a general limitation of mplayer, though - it doesn't support effects in text subtitles whatsoever (e.g. only the text is displayed even for SSA/ASS).

The other players support Matroska as well. libxine (and therefore all libxine based players) now has seeking, too (my patch has been applied about a 1 1/2 months ago if I remember correctly). I'm not so sure about the subtitle support though. The same applies to VLC and gstreamer based players.

(Hmm, maybe I'll see how their subtitle support is coming along and get back to you.)

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

I had tried MPlayer but I didn't managed to play with the GUI version any subtitle with VobSubs. After all, MPlayer seems to me, even now very limited and unstable. You know, I want a right click on screen and select which subs I want and those... VLC is much more stable and has that, but has problems with VobSubs generally. It can't resize them at all so they never show on-screen.

In Windows the only player that I have found to play perfectly (as a standalone) those that I said is the MPC. It has all the matroska/subtitles splitters internal and you don't have to mess with DirectShow Splitters/Filters except from just an FFDSHOW installation to decode all the mpeg4.

As I said VLC would fit perfectly but you can't change size of Subs (non-vobsubs) you can't pan I think and again, vobs are not played.

[avih]

Originally posted by GrEEk_OuTcAsT
I had tried MPlayer but I didn't managed to play with the GUI version any subtitle with VobSubs. After all, MPlayer seems to me, even now very limited and unstable. You know, I want a right click on screen and select which subs I want and those... ...

dude, chill pls. eventhough YOU didn't manage to use it properly, mplayer is a rather competent player, some say it's the best player around. Mosu here is one of the developers of mplayer, and he just told u he improved the subtitles code recently. so pls, show some respect, and take it easy with the flaming.

[Mosu]

Originally posted by GrEEk_OuTcAsT
I had tried MPlayer but I didn't managed to play with the GUI version any subtitle with VobSubs. After all, MPlayer seems to me, even now very limited and unstable.

Unstable? Hmm, haven't had problems. Limited? In several ways, yes. But in others it surpasses every other player out there. Anyway, mplayer has a general limiation: stream switching on the fly is not possible (yes, this sucks). This includes video, audio and subtitle streams.

In Windows the only player that I have found to play perfectly (as a standalone) those that I said is the MPC.

And I thought we were talking about Linux players here...

As I said VLC would fit perfectly but you can't change size of Subs (non-vobsubs) you can't pan I think and again, vobs are not played.

Yes, VLC is quite a nice player. But if you have such feature request then you should really tell the VLC devels that! If they see that there's popular demand for some features (like better / 'proper' support for subtitles/VobSubs) then they're probably more inclined to implement those.

[Mosu]

Originally posted by avih
so pls, show some respect, and take it easy with the flaming.

Chill, avih ;) I don't feel flamed. The mplayer mailing lists are much more enflamable than this little post ;)

[mikeX]

Well, there are limitations, but it's nothing you can't work around.
After all, how many different subtitles do you want to be displayed while watching a movie?
You can easily configure mplayer to always play the first subtitle it encounters with this entry in your '~/.mplayer/config' file:
sid = 0
If you want a different subtitle to be displayed you can override it on the command line with something like:
gmplayer -sid 1 "your_movie"

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

Unstable? Hmm, haven't had problems. Limited? In several ways, yes. But in others it surpasses every other player out there. Anyway, mplayer has a general limiation: stream switching on the fly is not possible (yes, this sucks). This includes video, audio and subtitle streams.

First of all sorry if I sounded aggressive in my prev post, I just wanted to say that in terms of configuration the VLC players seems more attractive for me. You said that the stream switching on the fly is not possible. I didn't knew that however, how about a GUI option that in launch of a video matroska (or other multistream) to auto-popup selection window for streams (when multiple ones are detected). And if that can't be done, how about a mini-external application of that (since you know greatly how to read matroska files) to use as a launcher? And the last idea it comes to mind is to have the ability to change streams from the GUI version like in just any other player, but just that the video will be re-launched from the beginning (I would say, and also seek to the point you changed the stream but lets just don't overdo it ;) ). Those are not requests in any way, they are just ideas that would help matroska (and multistreaming generally) playback for normal / desktop linux users. Messing with CLI commands or editing a configuration file to play a movie, is not n00b friendly, and in my opinion Video Playback has to be n00b friendly in linux ;).

Btw, you said you updated the version and the subs support, Ehm those updates are on the MPlayer v1.0pre4 version? Or there is newer alpha build? If that, where can I get it? Thx, and sorry again for strong feedback :(.

Your work is greatly appreciated mosu . You are the greatest promoter of matroska right now, with your applications :o .

[Mosu]

Originally posted by GrEEk_OuTcAsT
First of all sorry if I sounded aggressive in my prev post, I just wanted to say that in terms of configuration the VLC players seems more attractive for me.

Don't worry, I wasn't offended ;) And you're right, mplayer's usability is pretty low in some areas.

You said that the stream switching on the fly is not possible.

That's right. It cannot be implemented properly without having to rewrite a HUGE part of mplayer - the core, all the demuxers, the audio/video filtering chains...

I didn't knew that however, how about a GUI option that in launch of a video matroska (or other multistream) to auto-popup selection window for streams (when multiple ones are detected).

I won't mess with the GUI 'cause I don't know anything about it. It uses partially Gtk and partially normal X Window calls that I have no clue about.

And if that can't be done, how about a mini-external application of that (since you know greatly how to read matroska files) to use as a launcher?

Everyone could implement such an application and e.g. parse the output of 'mkvmerge --identify_verbose the-file.mkv' (of cause this assumes that mkvmerge is installed, but that shouldn't be too difficult ;)).

And the last idea it comes to mind is to have the ability to change streams from the GUI version like in just any other player, but just that the video will be re-launched from the beginning (I would say, and also seek to the point you changed the stream but lets just don't overdo it ;) ).

Like I've said, it's a huge amount of work and will probably never be done in the current mplayer source code. Maybe if enough people have enough free time a 'new' mplayer might be written (A'rpi had started mplayer G2 but it starved; recently Rich Felker has started working on a new core as well, but both are not usable at all).

Those are not requests in any way, they are just ideas that would help matroska (and multistreaming generally) playback for normal / desktop linux users.

I agree. I'd advice you to give Xine a try as well. I'm implementing VobSub-in-Matroska support for Xine at the moment, so hopefully it'll have everything you need in the near future.

Btw, you said you updated the version and the subs support, Ehm those updates are on the MPlayer v1.0pre4 version? Or there is newer alpha build? If that, where can I get it? Thx, and sorry again for strong feedback :(.

No, it's only in CVS. You'll have to get the CVS version of mplayer (how is described in its documentation).

[GrEEk_OuTcAsT]

Sorry again, something unrelated. Does the Xbox Media Player read Matroska and its subs? (both srt + vobsub) ? I think it uses a version of Mplayer? And in case they do, it has GUI for selection of streams?

[Mosu]

Originally posted by GrEEk_OuTcAsT
Sorry again, something unrelated. Does the Xbox Media Player read Matroska and its subs? (both srt + vobsub) ? I think it uses a version of Mplayer? And in case they do, it has GUI for selection of streams?

I have no idea, sorry. Yes, it is a port of mplayer, and yes, it does read Matroska files (if I remember correctly), but I have no clue about its subtitle support.

[junglemike]

Please, guys, maybe one you can help me with mmplayer.
I have a very old laptop. It is P-II-266mhz, 128ram, Win2000, 2.5mb video ram. REcently someone recommended me to try mplayer (for windows), and from now on - it is the only player i use now. IT is extremely fast and very optimized. On my Celeron 1700 mhz it takes ony 6-8% of cpu !!! and only 10mb of ram - it is way much better than fastest configuration as i knew it before.(ffdshow+bsplayer). Long time ago i gave up trying to play back mpeg-4 video on this old laptop....until i tried mplayer. - Even very huge files like 6xx*4xx take about 50% cpu (!!!) Most regualm xvid movies take less than 30% cpu !!! I even tested this player on Pentium 1 - 166mhz mmx/32mb ram/win95 - You won't believe this! - It can play small res moives without problem.
Ok, now the problem - If i try to open large enough file on the laptop - i have all coloers screwed up (shifted to right of something) Only in small windows everything plays file. Before that, if i treid to open large fles in bsplay - i received an error that "overlay failed ,, swithing to rgb" and then playback was very slow, like slideshow. So Bottom line - all players have problems on this laptop if i try to open file that is large enough ( about 400x300 ) So i gues this is something to do with and overlay, or video memory. Mplyer is the only one which can playback any fles very fast. So i just need to solve that colour problem. I've been reading mplayer's help file over and over, and all that option that listed reguarding video output and overlay - just dont work, why? maybe these option only work in linux?
Can i use a regular ram instead of video ram, if i have shortage of videoram?

[hellfred]

Have you tryed -dr and avoided -double? I guess you have. I do not know of any way to use normal RAM for graphics, i once read that someone wanted to use the video memory for the CPU and failed, as far as i know.
You can try to force a colourspace that needs less space.
mplayer -vf format=yv12
For a list of all available colourspaces try mplayer -vf fromat=fmt=help
If you want to test whether this error will appear in mplayer running under linux or not, i suggest you to download a iso-file of movix and try to play the file wih it.

Hellfred

[eLupus]

Yes xbmc does read subtitles from mkv's, both srt's and vobsubs and switches from gui. This is also true for sub included in ogm containers and external subtitles.

Currently switching is broken for srt's included in mkv's (will only play first). Maybe Mosu can give me an hint as to why. Since we switch subtitles on the fly inside the mplayer core (which normally isn't supported) getting it to work can be a pain sometimes. And i'm pretty certain we are causing memory leaks while doing it. However luckily this isn't a huge problem as we can track memory used by it and free it when it's unloaded.

Give it a go if you have an xbox, i'm pretty sure you'll like it. Only big limitation i can see with it now is the lack of horsepower to play HD clips.

For Mosu, this is the code we use to change subtitles for mkv's containers. the sub->id hold's the new stream id for the track in question. works like a charm for inlcuded vobsubs, however not for srt's.

(in mplayer.c)
demuxer->sub->id = sub->id;
vo_sub = NULL;
vo_osd_changed(OSDTYPE_SUBTITLE);

Any tip on getting it to reallocated what ever is needed to start displaying the new subtitle track when using srt's?

elupus

[Mosu]

Originally posted by eLupus
For Mosu, this is the code we use to change subtitles for mkv's containers. the sub->id hold's the new stream id for the track in question. works like a charm for inlcuded vobsubs,

This will of course only work if all the VobSubs have the same CodecPrivate element - meaning that all the VobSubs have the same settings regarding size, palette etc. This is most likely true 99% of the time as the tracks usually originate from the same VOB, but I thought I'd mention it.

however not for srt's.

(in mplayer.c)
demuxer->sub->id = sub->id;
vo_sub = NULL;
vo_osd_changed(OSDTYPE_SUBTITLE);

Any tip on getting it to reallocated what ever is needed to start displaying the new subtitle track when using srt's?

elupus

This _should_ be fine because the SRT handling is really not that complicated and does not rely on any initialized data. Which Matroska parser is the xboxmp using? demux_mkv_old.cpp or demux_mkv.c?

[eLupus]

Oh, found the reason. i was building my database over what id's existed wrong. Where based around the counted number of subs instead of the actuall id of the track. Stupid me.

Wonder why it seemed to work on vobsubs. Probably just a fluke.

Thanx anyway

<edit> broke it for vobsubs and didn't fix srt's.. will have to look more closely on it later </edit>

[eLupus]

I got it, was using the track index number instead of the tnum variable of the track structure. Now both vobsubs and srt's in matroska containers works.

elupus