I have problem on playing some video

[monkeybrain2012]

Hi, Andrew,

I followed your instructions to build mplayer on Precise and it does work. I made only two changes, I added --prefix=$HOME/bin in the ./configure line so this is a local version and I didn't build a static version of x264 as I have already compiled the updated version for system use. I am wondering why it doedsnt work for mplayer2. I compiled it from git (http://www.mplayer2.org/downloads/ , mplayer2-build.git) It is up to date and it comes with its own libva and the codecs should be the same as mplayers? Could it be ffmpeg? I noticed that in Debian mplayer2 from system repo does work but the compiled version doesn't. I have compiled ffmpeg there as a shared library. But then even Totem works there.

[monkeybrain2012]

Just compiled vlc in Debian and it plays the video there too.

[sudodus]

Just compiled vlc in Debian and it plays the video there too.

Your findings are interesting. So if the version of the video player is not working, it is worthwhile to compile an own version also in precise and debian.

[andrew.46]

Good to hear you can now hear and see the original difficult file . My apologies to the OP if we have diverted a little from his or her question...

[andrew.46]

I am wondering why it doedsnt work for mplayer2. I compiled it from git (http://www.mplayer2.org/downloads/ , mplayer2-build.git) It is up to date and it comes with its own libva and the codecs should be the same as mplayers? Could it be ffmpeg? I noticed that in Debian mplayer2 from system repo does work but the compiled version doesn't. I have compiled ffmpeg there as a shared library. But then even Totem works there.

Unfortunately I have very limited knowledge concerning MPlayer2 . Hopefully there are others who can comment on this...

[monkeybrain2012]

Hi Andrew,

I think maybe it is because of ffmpeg? My Mplayer2 build appears to use libav instead of ffmpeg so may be that is the difference. I think ffmpeg from the repo is actually libav and maybe the mediaplayers in Ubuntu's repo and ppas are compiled against it. I would want to test this by compiling a local version of vlc. I have read your guide on that, but since I have already a static build of ffmpeg for compiling mplayer last night, I don't feel like duplicating that. Is there a way to use a ./configure option so that vlc would build against that copy of ffmeg? I think this is probably important if you build a whole bunch of multimedia things yourself and use the same static libraries over and over again. Thanks.

Edited: Just found out that Debian-Multimedia's version of ffmpeg is actually ffmpeg instead of libav (the default in Debian's proper repositories), so may be that's why the file did play in my SId installation by all players (all installed from Debian Multimedia) but not in Ubuntu

[andrew.46]

I try to stay away from the FFmpeg/libav debacle but I always use FFmpeg to compile against . With vlc you can select the copy of FFmpeg used by manipulating the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable.

[monkeybrain2012]

Hi, Andrew,

I figured it has to do with changing PKG_CONFIG_PATH, but I don't know what it should be changed to, in my build of mplayer I don't have the lib and share folders since I use the system's x264 and I only need to grab the ffmpeg files, not sure which directory I should use as PKG_CONFIG_PATH (like = $HOME/mlayer-build/mplayer/ffmpeg"?)

Thanks.

[andrew.46]

I confess that I am a little unsure of exactly what you are trying to do here, my apologies for being a little obtuse . Where is the copy of FFmpeg that you wish to point the vlc ./configure process towards?

[monkeybrain2012]

Hi, Andrew,

I am trying to compile vlc, but instead of making a second static version of ffmpeg, I want to use the one I have already compiled by using your guide to compile mplayer. So I think I should point the PKG_CONFIG_PATH to the ffmpeg library and shared files in the ~/mplayer_build/mplayer folder somewhere, but I am not sure which one.