MPlayer - the basics
 

I'm one of those early-adopter 770 owners who thought they'd get under the hood of linux as a by-product of purchase but has actually done little more than try out a few x-term commands.

Having just looked at the MPlayer website and become thoroughly disillusioned with the prospect of downloading and implementing not only the prog but codecs, skins and even fonts, can someone give me a striaghtfoward breakdown of exactly WHAT I need to download and HOW I get it up and running?

no probs if that's not how it works, I'm fully aware that for many a big part of 770 ownership is the metaphorical "getting your hands dirty" aspect of code digging.

On the 770? You download the tarball from the location in the most recent relases "binary notice":

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=54

...and then follow the instructions here:

https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/wik...l&id=54&type=g

The following is an edited installation howto of how I got up and running via an earlier install post from Serge http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...12&postcount=9

Installation:

1. Copy the MPlayer-1.0pre8-20060721-armel.tar.gz file to device (Into Documents folder)
2. Start xterm
3. Goto the tar file folder on the device in xterm: cd /home/user/MyDocs/.documents (for Documents folder)
4. Unpack the archive: tar -xzf mplayer-1.0pre8-20060712-armel.tar.gz
5. You should now see mplayer listed in documents folder: ls mplayer
6. Try to play OS 2006 discovery video: ./mplayer /home/user/MyDocs/.videos/Discovery.avi

I have not figured out how to install this patch? MPlayer-1.0pre8-20060721-maemo-patches.diff

Advise from other mplayer user/testers could be helpful

Ideally the install information should be also included in the existing documentation in the mplayer wiki https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/wik...p?id=54&type=g

Note: that to use latest version of StreamTuner; mplayer is expected to be in .documents folder

The patch is a record of what has changed from the MPlayer trunk, and is not designed for end-users (or for installation on the 770).

Thanks for the clarification aflegg, I am not very linux literate and am slowly increasing my knowledge of xterm and mplayer usage via reading various threads and improving understanding of command line options etc.

I fully appreciate that Serge has confirmed that mplayer is not yet end user ready, but believe there to be great potential for mplayer on the Nokia 770.

On a related note, as you are possibly already aware I am using TVersity to select and subsequently present live internet "transcoded" mpeg1 streams to the Nokia 770. (TVersity specifically utilises mpeg1 as live transcoding on PC in real-time is quick with a reasonably powerful PC) at the moment the basic parameters of any prepared mpeg1 file for the Nokia 770 are:-

Max Video, Width: 176, Height: 144, Bitrate: 768000, FPS: 24
Max Audio, Samplerate: 44100, Bitspersample: 16,Nchannels: 6 Bitrate: 320000

The reason for the existing above values is because these appear to work consistently well when utilising the built in Video player of the Nokia 770 and transcoded/downloaded Tversity served content.

Using mplayer and "streaming" content what is your opinion of the sensible transcoding parameters at the Tversity end with the subsequent mplayer parameters to provide the best streaming experience with mpeg1. I am working my way through various threads but the -vo -framedrop -cache mplayer options have me pondering?

Thanks for your time aflegg.

Useful mplayer options:

-vo (x11|sdl) = change video output method. X11 is usually best, IIRC.
-framedrop = allow for frames to be dropped if they can't be decoded fast enough. Keeps the video playing in real time.
-cache X = Cache X kilobytes (I believe it's KB, not 100% sure) of data. Very useful when streaming.
-ao gst -ac dspmp3 = Decode mp3 using the DSP chip. Saves a lot of CPU (more CPU left for video) but has some sync problems.

Mike, could you explain me how to succeed in using tversity on the 770? I'm stuck on the page where it asks to download flash player, tough it is (of course) already installed on the 770...

On TVersity website there are some screenshot where they show it is running on the 770...

Furthermore, I'm starting to switch to Ubuntu Linux and I was wondering whether or not it is possible to have the same functionality under Linux and how.

Thanks, Omar

They are my screen grabs, kindly provided to TVersity team.

You have to go to http://host:41952/lib (where host is my public IP address or my dynamic domain name) and not try and view the full TVersity GUI which the Nokia 770 cannot run as you have found out. The Lib URL option enables you to browse and search your TVersity served media via the Nokia 770 browser and then use opera to copy link location and feed to mplayer in xterm etc.

There is more functionality that works well like including TVersity provided AV feeds in the Nokia feed reader, again via the Lib URL. Do read the TVersity FAQ for more information.

TVersity is not currently available for Linux although the TVersity team keep promising a Linux version at some point I am not so sure as TVersity is not planned to be open source.

Hope you get it working as TVersity is a great little Media Server.

Mike, thanks for your tips, especially the "lib" advice, that's the one from which I need to start. Of course I couldn't try TVersity at all because of this.

I'll try it out soon, I decided not to erase Windows at all, but keep the two OS together for this kind of programs that won't run on Linux.

Do you know if there is any possibility (services through the internet, programs to be installed on Win etc.) to know in every moment which is my public address? I.e. I am out of home and "need" to see a video or a photo, but do not know or do not remember which is the IP (let's say.. the router rebooted).

Is there any service that through a login and a program locally installed on my PC but remotely accessible by the 770 would tell me the PC's IP?
So that I could connect to TVersity also from remote using the router's port forwarding and not only through the WLAN. That's the only point in which I could find TVersity lacks in respect to Orb.

Bye, Omar

Not sure if this answers your question but I have been keeping an eye on Hamachi as it was proposed by TVersity, is platform independent and enables secure VPN style connections between PC's and devices connecting across the Internet. (I believe it can resolve any IP address changes of the various connected PC and devices)

There is already a port of Hamachi available for the Nokia 770 but I as it requires root access I have not fully installed and tested with TVersity and Hamachi running on my winXP PC etc.