2.1.  Video Formats, Audio & Video Codecs


  2.1.1.  Supported input formats

  MPlayer can read/play from the following devices/formats:
   - VCD (Video CD) directly from CD-ROM or from CDRwin's .bin image file     
   - DVD, directly from your DVD disk, using optional libcss for decryption
   - MPEG 1/2 System Stream (PS/PES/VOB) and Elementary Stream (ES) file
     formats
   - RIFF AVI file format
   - ASF 1.0 file format
   - supports reading from file, stdin, DVD drive or network via HTTP

  Note: about quicktime (.mov/.qt) and realmedia (.ra/.rm) support read the FAQ!


  2.1.2.  Supported audio & video codecs

  See http://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/DOCS/codecs.html for the complete,
  daily updated list!!!

  The most important video codecs:
  - MPEG1 (VCD) and MPEG2 (DVD) video
  - DivX, FFmpeg, OpenDivX and other MPEG4 variants
  - Windows Media Video 7 (WMV1) and Windows Media Video 8 used in .wmv files
  - Intel Indeo codecs (3.1,3.2,4.1,5.0)
  - MJPEG, ASV2 and other hardware formats

  The most important audio codecs:
  - MPEG layer 2, and layer 3 (MP3) audio (native code, with 3dnow optimization)
  - AC3 dolby audio (native code, with 3dnow optimization)
  - AC3 passthrough to soundcard's decoder
  - Voxware audio
  - alaw, msgsm, pcm and other simple old audio formats

  If you have a codec not listed here, and not supported yet, just
  read http://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/DOCS/codecs.html
  to get info about its status and about how to help us adding support for it!


  2.1.2.1.  DivX4

  This section contains information about the DivX4 codec of
  ProjectMayo. Their first available alpha version was the OpenDivX 4.0
  alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was/is included in MPlayer, and built by
  default. We even used its postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual
  quality of MPEG1/2 movies.

  The new generation of this codec can even decode movies made with the
  infamous DivX codec! And it's not everything, it's MUCH faster than the
  traditional Win32 DivX DLL's. See below for configuration. The only
  disadvantage of this codec is that it's currently closed-source. :(

  The codec can be downloaded from the following URL:


    http://download2.projectmayo.com/dnload/divx4linux/divx4linux-20010718.zip


  No automatic installing available at this time, so install it manually,
  EXACTLY as described here. Unpack it, and copy files to their place:


  cp libdivxdecore.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/
  ln -s /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so.0
  ln -s /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so.0 /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so
  ldconfig
  cp decore.h /usr/local/include/


  MPlayer autodetects if DivX4 is (properly) installed, just compile
  as usual. If it doesn't detect it, you didn't install it exactly as above,
  and/or has fucked up config (see last question of 5.1 section).

  Using it is a bit tricky. As it conflicts with the old OpenDivX (it's API is
  very similar to OpenDivX's), OpenDivX code is disabled, and the OpenDivX
  driver calls this library too.

  Generally we can pinpoint this issue to that you have two options to use
  this codec:


	-vc odivx : using divx4 codec as a new version of OpenDivX.
		    in this case it produces YV12 image in its own buffer,
		    and MPlayer (libvo) does colorspace conversion.

	-vc divx4 : using divx4 codec's colorspace conversion.
		    in this mode, you can use YUY2/UYVY too.

  The 'odivx' method is usually faster, due to the fact that it transfers
  image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much less
  bandwidth on the bus. For packed YUV modes (YUY2, UYVY) use the 'divx4'
  method. For RGB modes you can choose freely, their speed is same, maybe
  differ according to the current bpp.

  Note: it supports postprocessing too, but range of values is strange:

	0		no postproc
	10 .. 20	postprocessing, normal
			(like level 2 with divxds)
	30 .. 60	hard postprocessing, eats many CPU.
			(like level 4 with divxds)


  2.1.2.2.  ffmpeg's DivX/libavcodec

  Beginning with version 0.4.2 , ffmpeg contains an opensource DivX codec,
  which is compatible with the traditional DivX. MPlayer supports this codec,
  and this makes it possible to watch DivX movies on non-x86 platforms!
  It was removed from MPlayer's cvs tree, you have to download it
  manually directly from FFmpeg's tree :


  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login
  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg


  Note: if you copy with CVS subdirs, next time it's enough to do
	'cvs update'.

  Now, move the newly downloaded ffmpeg source's libavcodec directory,
  (with all it's subdirectories) to MPlayer's tree, so it will look
  like this :


		main/libavcodec


  Symlinking is NOT enough, you have to copy it.

  ./configure detects if it can be built. At the moment it doesn't support
  postprocessing, and is under optimization (it's faster than the DS/VfW DivX
  codec).

  In order to use it, refresh your codecs.conf file, and do as the manpage,
  or the example.conf says (the -vfm option).

  Note: libavcodec contains other codecs as well, but at the moment we mostly
        focus on ffdivx, and it's unlikely that this will change.


  2.1.2.3.  Hardware AC3 decoding

  You will need a soundcard with AC3 passthrough capability to digital out
  (SP/DIF). Also, the its driver has to support AFMT_AC3 (SB Live! for example)
  Connect the hardware AC3 decoder to your soundcard's SP/DIF, and use
  -ac hwac3 . It may work.


  2.1.4.  Codec importing howto


  2.1.4.1.  VFW codecs

  VfW (Video for Windows) is the old Video API for Windows. Its codecs have
  the .DLL or (rarely) .DRV extension.
  If MPlayer fails with your AVI:


        UNKNOWN video codec: HFYU (0x55594648)


  It means your AVI is encoded with a codec which has the HFYU fourcc (HFYU =
  HuffYUV codec, DIV3 = DivX Low Motion, etc...). Now that we know this, we'll
  have to find out which DLL Windows loads in order to play this file. In our
  case, the system.ini contains this (with many others):


	VIDC.HFYU=huffyuv.dll


  So we'll need the huffyuv.dll file. Note that the audio codecs are specified
  with the MSACM prefix :


	msacm.l3acm=L3codeca.acm


  This is the MP3 codec.
  So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, codec file, sample AVI), submit
  your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:
    ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/


  2.1.4.2.  DirectShow codecs

  DirectShow is the newer Video API, which is even worse than its predecessor.
  Things are harder with DirectShow, since
   - system.ini doesn't contain the needed information, instead it's stored in
     the registry :(
   - we'll need the GUID of the codec.

    So let's search that goddamn registry..
   - Start 'regedit'
   - press ctrl-f, disable the first two checkbox, and enable the third. Type
  the fourcc of the codec. (for ex.: TM20)
   - you should see a field which contains the path and filename
     (for ex. : C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TM20DEC.AX)
   - now that we have the file, we'll need the GUID. Try searching again, but
  now we'll search for the codec's name, not the fourcc. Its name can be acquired
  when Media Player is playing that file, by checking File/Properties/Advanced.
  If not, bad luck ;) Try guessing.
     (for ex. search for : TrueMotion)
   - if found (in registry), there should be a FriendlyName field, and a CLSID
  field. Write down that 16 byte of CLSID, this is the GUID required by us.


  NOTE : if searching fails, try to enable all the checkboxes.. you may have
         false hits, but maybe you'll have the right, too...
  NOTE : dump that M$ shit.


  So, now we have all the info needed (fourcc, GUID, codec file, sample AVI),
  submit your codec support request in mail, and upload these files to the FTP:
      ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/