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<H2><A NAME="formats">2.1 Supported formats</A></H2>
<P>It is important to clarify a common mistake. When people see a file with a
<B>.AVI</B> extension, they immediately conclude that it is not an MPEG file.
That is not true. At least not entirely. Contrary to popular belief such a
file <B>can</B> contain MPEG1 video.</P>
<P>You see, a <B>codec</B> is not the same as a <B>file format</B>.<BR>
Examples of video <B>codecs</B> are: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, Indeo5, 3ivx.<BR>
Examples of file <B>formats</B> are: MPG, AVI, ASF.</P>
<P>In theory, you can put an OpenDivX video and MP3 audio into an <B>MPG</B>
format file. However, most players will not play it, since they expect MPEG1
video and MP2 audio (unlike <B>AVI</B>, <B>MPG</B> does not have the
necessary fields to describe its video and audio streams). Or you might put
MPEG1 video into an AVI file.
<A HREF="http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net">FFmpeg</A> and
<A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A> can create these files.</P>
<H3><A NAME="video_formats">2.1.1 Video formats</A></H3>
<H4><A NAME="mpeg">2.1.1.1 MPEG files</A></H4>
<P>MPEG files come in different guises:</P>
<UL>
<LI>MPG: This is the most <B>basic</B> form of the MPEG file formats. It
contains MPEG1 video, and MP2 (MPEG-1 layer 2) or rarely MP1 audio.</LI>
<LI>DAT: This is the very same format as MPG with a different extension. It
is used on <B>Video CD</B>s. Due to the way VCDs are created and Linux is
designed, DAT files cannot be played nor copied from VCDs as regular files.
You have to use the <CODE>-vcd</CODE> option to play the Video CD.</LI>
<LI>VOB: This is the MPEG file format on <B>DVD</B>s. It is the same as MPG,
plus the capability to contain subtitles or non-MPEG (AC3) audio. It
contains encoded MPEG2 video and usually AC3 audio, but DTS, MP2 and
uncompressed LPCM are allowed, too.<BR> <B>Read the <A
HREF="cd-dvd.html#dvd">DVD section</A>!</B></LI>
</UL>
<P>Series of frames form independent groups in MPEG files. This means that you
can cut/join an MPEG file with standard file tools (like <CODE>dd</CODE>,
<CODE>cut</CODE>), and it remains completely functional.</P>
<P>One important feature of MPGs is that they have a field to describe the
aspect ratio of the video stream within. For example SVCDs have 480x480
resolution video, and in the header that field is set to 4:3, so that it is
played at 640x480. AVI files do not have this field, so they have to be
rescaled during encoding or played with the <CODE>-aspect</CODE> option.</P>
<H4><A NAME="avi">2.1.1.2 AVI files</A></H4>
<P>Designed by Microsoft, <B>AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)</B> is a widespread
multipurpose format currently used mostly for DivX and DivX4 video. It has
many known drawbacks and shortcomings (for example in streaming). It
supports one video stream and 0 to 99 audio streams. File size is limited to
2GB, but there exists an extension allowing bigger files called
<B>OpenDMS</B>. Microsoft currently strongly discourages its use and
encourages ASF/WMV. Not that anybody cares.</P>
<P>There is a hack that allows AVI files to contain an Ogg Vorbis audio
stream, but makes them incompatible with standard AVI. MPlayer
supports playing these files. Seeking is also implemented but severely
hampered by badly encoded files with confusing headers. Unfortunately the
only encoder currently capable of creating these files, NanDub, has this
problem.</P>
<P><B>Note:</B> DV cameras create raw DV streams that DV grabbing utilities
convert to two different types of AVI files. The AVI will then contain either
separate audio and video streams that MPlayer can play or the raw DV
stream for which support is under development.</P>
<P>There are two kinds of AVI files:</P>
<UL>
<LI><B>Interleaved:</B> Audio and video content is interleaved. This is the
standard usage. Recommended and mostly used. Some tools create
interleaved AVIs with bad sync. MPlayer detects these as
interleaved, and this climaxes in loss of A/V sync, probably at seeking.
These files should be played as non-interleaved (with the <CODE>-ni</CODE>
option).</LI>
<LI><B>Non-interleaved:</B> First comes the whole video stream, then the whole
audio stream. It thus needs a lot of seeking, making playing from network or
CD-Rom difficult.</LI>
</UL>
<P>MPlayer supports two kinds of timings for AVI files:</P>
<UL>
<LI><B>bps-based</B>: It is based on the bitrate/samplerate of the video/audio stream. This
method is used by most players, including <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net">avifile</A>
and Windows Media Player.
Files with broken headers, and files created with VBR audio but not with a
VBR-compliant encoder will result in A/V desync with this method (mostly at
seeking).</LI>
<LI><B>interleaving-based</B>: It does not use the bitrate value of the header, instead
it uses the relative position of interleaved audio and video chunks, making
badly encoded files with VBR audio playable.</LI>
</UL>
<P>Any audio and video codec is allowed, but note that VBR audio is not well
supported by most players. The file format makes it possible to use VBR
audio, but most players expect CBR audio, thus they fail with VBR. VBR is
uncommon and the Microsoft AVI specs only describe CBR audio. Most AVI
encoders/multiplexers create bad files when using VBR audio. There are only
two known exceptions: NanDub and <A HREF="encoding.html">MEncoder</A>.</P>
<H4><A NAME="asf">2.1.1.3 ASF/WMV files</A></H4>
<P>ASF (active streaming format) comes from Microsoft. They developed two
variants of ASF, v1.0 and v2.0. v1.0 is used by their media tools (Windows
Media Player and Windows Media Encoder) and is very secret. v2.0 is published
and patented :). Of course they differ, there is no compatibility at all (it
is just another legal game). MPlayer supports only v1.0, as nobody has
ever seen v2.0 files :). Note that ASF files nowadays come with the extension
.WMA or .WMV.</P>
<H4><A NAME="mov">2.1.1.4 QuickTime/MOV files</A></H4>
<P>These formats were designed by Apple and can contain any codec, CBR or VBR.
They usually have a .QT or .MOV extension. Ever since the MPEG4 group chose
QuickTime as the recommended file format for MPEG4, their MOV files come with
an
.MPG or .MP4 extension (Interestingly the video and audio streams in these
files are real MPG and AAC files. You can even extract them with the
<CODE>-dumpvideo</CODE> and <CODE>-dumpaudio</CODE> options.).</P>
<P><B>Note:</B> Most new QuickTime files use <B>Sorenson</B> video and QDesign
Music audio. See our <A HREF="codecs.html#sorenson">Sorenson</A> codec
section.</P>
<H4><A NAME="vivo">2.1.1.5 VIVO files</A></H4>
<P>MPlayer happily demuxes VIVO file formats. The biggest disadvantage
of the format is that it has no index block, nor a fixed packet size or sync
bytes and most files lack even keyframes, so forget seeking!</P>
<P>The video codec of VIVO/1.0 files is standard <B>h.263</B>. The video codec
of VIVO/2.0 files is a modified, nonstandard <B>h.263v2</B>. The audio is the
same, it may be <B>g.723</B> (standard), or <B>Vivo Siren</B>.</P>
<P>See the <A HREF="codecs.html#vivo_video">VIVO video codec</A> and
<A HREF="codecs.html#vivo_audio">VIVO audio codec</A> sections for installation
instructions.</P>
<H4><A NAME="fli">2.1.1.6 FLI files</A></H4>
<P><B>FLI</B> is a very old file format used by Autodesk Animator, but it is a
common file format for short animations on the net. MPlayer demuxes
and decodes FLI movies and is even able to seek within them (useful when
looping with the <CODE>-loop</CODE> option). FLI files do not have keyframes,
so the picture will be messy for a short time after seeking.</P>
<H4><A NAME="real">2.1.1.7 RealMedia (RM) files</A></H4>
<P>Yes, MPlayer can read (demux) RealMedia (.rm) files. Seeking works,
but you have to explicitly specify the <CODE>-forceidx</CODE> option
(the format supports keyframes). Here are the lists of the supported
<A HREF="codecs.html#realvideo">RealVideo</A>
and <A HREF="codecs.html#realaudio">RealAudio</A> codecs.</P>
<H4><A NAME="nuppelvideo">2.1.1.8 NuppelVideo files</A></H4>
<P><A HREF="http://mars.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo">NuppelVideo</A>
is a TV grabber tool (AFAIK:). MPlayer can read its .NUV files (only
NuppelVideo 5.0). Those files can contain uncompressed YV12, YV12+RTJpeg
compressed, YV12 RTJpeg+lzo compressed, and YV12+lzo compressed frames.
MPlayer decodes them all (and also <B>encodes</B> them with
MEncoder to DivX/etc!). Seeking works.</P>
<H4><A NAME="yuv4mpeg">2.1.1.9 yuv4mpeg files</A></H4>
<P><A HREF="http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net">yuv4mpeg / yuv4mpeg2</A> is a file
format used by the <A HREF="http://mjpeg.sf.net">mjpegtools programs</A>.
You can grab, produce, filter or encode video in this format using these
tools. The file format is really a sequence of uncompressed YUV 4:2:0
images.</P>
<H4><A NAME="film">2.1.1.10 FILM files</A></H4>
<P>This format is used on old Sega Saturn CD-Rom games.</P>
<H4><A NAME="roq">2.1.1.11 RoQ files</A></H4>
<P>RoQ files are multimedia files used in some ID games such as Quake III and
Return to Castle Wolfenstein.</P>
<H4><A NAME="ogg">2.1.1.12 OGG/OGM files</A></H4>
<P>This is a new file format from <A HREF="http://www.xiph.org">Xiphophorus</A>.
It can contain any video or audio codec, CBR or VBR. You will need to
have <CODE>libogg</CODE> and <CODE>libvorbis</CODE> installed
before compiling MPlayer to be able to play it.</P>
<H4><A NAME="sdp">2.1.1.13 SDP files</A></H4>
<P><A HREF="ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2327.txt">SDP</A>
is an IETF standard format for describing video and/or audio RTP streams.
(The "<A HREF="http://www.live.com/mplayer/">LIVE.COM Streaming Media</A>"
libraries are required.)</P>
<H4><A NAME="pva">2.1.1.14 PVA files</A></H4>
<P>PVA is an MPEG-like format used by DVB TV boards' software (e.g.: MultiDec,
WinTV) under Windows.</P>
<P>The PVA specifications can be downloaded from the following address:
<A HREF="http://www.technotrend.de/download/av_format_v1.pdf">http://www.technotrend.de/download/av_format_v1.pdf</A></P>
<H4><A NAME="gif">2.1.1.15 GIF files</A></H4>
<P>The <B>GIF</B> format is a common format for web graphics. There are two
versions of the GIF spec, GIF87a and GIF89a. The main difference is that
GIF89a allows for animation. MPlayer supports both formats through use
of libungif or another libgif-compatible library. Non-animated GIFs will
be displayed as single frame videos. (Use the <CODE>-loop</CODE> and
<CODE>-fixed-vo</CODE> options to display these longer.)</P>
<P>MPlayer currently does not support seeking in GIF files. GIF files do
not necessarily have a fixed frame size, nor a fixed framerate. Rather,
each frame is of independent size and is supposed to be positioned in a
certain place on a field of fixed-size. The framerate is controlled by
an optional block before each frame that specifies the next frame's delay
in centiseconds.</P>
<P>Standard GIF files contain 24-bit RGB frames with at most an 8-bit
indexed pallete. These frames are usually LZW-compressed, although
some GIF encoders produce uncompressed frames to avoid patent issues
with LZW compression.</P>
<P>If your distribution does not come with libungif, download a copy from the
<A HREF="http://prtr-13.ucsc.edu/~badger/software/libungif/index.shtml">libungif homepage</A>.
For detailed technical information, have a look at the
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/Graphics/GIF/spec-gif89a.txt">GIF89a specification</A>.</P>
<H3><A NAME="audio_formats">2.1.2 Audio formats</A></H3>
<P>MPlayer is a <B>Movie</B> and not a <B>Media</B> player, although
it can play some audio file formats (they are listed in the sections below).
This is not a recommended usage of MPlayer, you better use
<A HREF="http://www.xmms.org">xmms</A>.</P>
<H4><A NAME="mp3">2.1.2.1 MP3 files</A></H4>
<P>You may have problems playing certain MP3 files that MPlayer will
misdetect as MPEGs and play incorrectly or not at all. This cannot be fixed
without dropping support for certain broken MPEG files and thus will remain
like this for the foreseeable future. The <CODE>-demuxer</CODE> flag
described in the man page may help you in these cases.</P>
<H4><A NAME="wav">2.1.2.2 WAV files</A></H4>
<H4><A NAME="ogg_vorbis">2.1.2.3 OGG/OGM files (Vorbis)</A></H4>
<P>Requires properly installed <CODE>libogg</CODE> and
<CODE>libvorbis</CODE>.</P>
<H4><A NAME="wma">2.1.2.4 WMA/ASF files</A></H4>
<H4><A NAME="mp4">2.1.2.5 MP4 files</A></H4>
<H4><A NAME="cdda">2.1.2.6 CD audio</A></H4>
<P>MPlayer can use <B>cdparanoia</B> (lib) to play CDDA (Audio CD).
The scope of this section does not contain enumerating cdparanoia's
features.</P>
<P>See the man page's <CODE>-cdda</CODE> option which can be used to
pass options to cdparanoia.</P>
<H4><A NAME="xmms">2.1.2.7 XMMS</A></H4>
<P>MPlayer can use XMMS input plugins to play many file formats. There are
plugins for SNES game tunes, SID tunes (from Commodore 64), many Amiga
formats, .xm, .it, VQF, musepack, Bonk, shorten and many others. You can find
them at the
<A HREF="http://www.xmms.org/plugins_input.html">XMMS input plugin page</A>.</P>
<P>For this feature you need to have XMMS and compile MPlayer with
<CODE>./configure --enable-xmms</CODE>. If that does not work, you might need
to set the XMMS plugin and library path explicitly by way of the
<CODE>--with-xmmsplugindir</CODE> and <CODE>--withxmmslibdir</CODE>
options.</P>
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