Ubuntu Wiki

Introduction

• [http://www.mplayerhq.hu MPlayer] and its graphical cousin, gmplayer are versatile media players available from the [http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/components multiverse] repository. They can play all types of FreeFormats media, and with the addition of some packages available from outside of Ubuntu, they can also play most non-free media formats. See RestrictedFormats for instructions for enabling non-free formats in MPlayer and gmplayer.

Before you start

• You must have administrative privileges to install packages. RootSudo explains how Ubuntu provides the necessary privileges.

  In order to install MPlayer, you will need to enable the [http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/components/ multiverse] repository. AddingRepositoriesHowto explains how to enable the multiverse repository.

Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake)

• Beginning with Ubuntu 6.06, you no longer need to match your CPU to the proper MPlayer package. Simply [:AddingRepositoriesHowto: enable the multiverse repository] and install the mplayer package.

Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) and earlier

Choosing the right package

• MPlayer comes in several flavors, some of which are optimized to take advantage of your CPU's capabilities. The following chart will help you choose the package that will best suit your computer. [:AddingRepositoriesHowto: Enable the multiverse repository] and install the correct package using your favorite package manager, or use the terminal command line that is provided in the chart. If you are unsure what version you need then you should try mplayer-386 first.

  Note that you should only install mplayer-586 or mplayer-k6 if you have one of the CPU's listed for those packages in the chart. Newer CPU's such as the AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium 4 will run much faster with the mplayer-386 package. mplayer-386 is compiled with runtime CPU detection and takes advantage of modern features like MMX2, SSE, SSE2, 3DNow!, 3DNow2! on CPU's that supports it.

  attachment:IconsPage/IconDialog-Warning1.png The packages mplayer-686 and mplayer-k7 are also available as dummy packages that install mplayer-586 and mplayer-k6 respectively. Never install those packages, even if you have a i686 or k7 class CPU. mplayer-386 will give significantly better performance (30-40% decrease in CPU usage).

Configuration

• Configuring MPlayer and gmplayer is not obvious to the casual observer. The configurations options given below are mostly taken from Ubuntu 6.06, and should work on most computers. To use this configuration, first open your MPlayer configuration file:

  gedit ~/.mplayer/config

  Then cut and paste the following block into the file:

  # Specify default video driver (see mplayer -vo help for a list).
  vo=xv,sdl,x11
  
  # Specify default audio driver (see mplayer -ao help for a list).
  ao=alsa,oss,sdl,esd,arts
  
  # Drop frames to preserve audio/video sync.
  framedrop = yes
  
  # get a default OSD font from fontconfig
  fontconfig = yes
  font = "Sans"
  subfont-text-scale = 3

  Save and close the file.

Streaming Video

• MPlayer and gmplayer provide excellent streaming video support for Mozilla, Firefox, Epiphany and Konqueror. To enable support for streaming media install the package mozilla-mplayer.

CategoryDocumentation