path: root/DOCS/xml/en/install.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision$ -->
<chapter id="install">
<title>Installation</title>

<para>
A quick installation guide can be found in the <filename>README</filename>
file. Please read it first and then come back here for the rest of the gory
details.
</para>

<para>
In this section I'll try to guide you through the compiling and configuring
process of <application>MPlayer</application>. It's not easy, but it won't
necessarily be hard. If you experience a different behavior than what I
explain, please search through this documentation and you'll find your
answers. If you see links, please follow them and read carefully what they
contain. It will take some time, but it IS worth it.
</para>

<para>
You need a fairly recent system. On Linux, 2.4.x kernels are recommended.
</para>

<sect1 id="softreq">
<title>Software requirements</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">binutils</emphasis> - suggested version is <emphasis role="bold">2.11.x</emphasis>.
  This program is responsible for generating MMX/ 3DNow!/etc instructions,
  thus very important.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">gcc</emphasis> - suggested versions are: <emphasis role="bold">2.95.3</emphasis>
  (maybe <emphasis role="bold">2.95.4</emphasis>) and <emphasis role="bold">3.2+</emphasis>.
  <emphasis role="bold">Never</emphasis> use 2.96 or 3.0.x! They generate faulty code for
  <application>MPlayer</application>. If you decide to change gcc from
  2.96, then don't decide in favor of 3.x just because it's newer! Early
  releases of 3.x were even more buggy than 2.96. So downgrade to 2.95.x
  (downgrade <systemitem class="library">libstdc++</systemitem> too, other
  programs may need it) or don't up/downgrade at all (but in this case, be
  prepared for runtime problems). If you vote for 3.x, try to use the
  latest version, early releases had various bugs, so be sure you use at
  least 3.1, it's tested and working. For detailed information about gcc 2.96's
  bugs (that are still NOT fixed, they have been WORKED AROUND in
  <application>MPlayer</application>!),see the <link linkend="gcc-296">gcc 2.96</link>
  section and the <xref linkend="faq"/>.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">XFree86</emphasis> - suggested version is <emphasis role="bold">always the
  newest</emphasis> (4.3). Normally, everyone wants this, as starting
  with XFree86 4.0.2, it contains the <link linkend="xv">XVideo</link>
  extension (somewhere referred to as <emphasis role="bold">Xv</emphasis>)
  which is needed to enable the hardware YUV acceleration (fast image display)
  on cards that support it.
  Make sure its <emphasis role="bold">development package</emphasis> is installed,
  too, otherwise it won't work.
  For some video cards you don't need XFree86. See list below.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">make</emphasis> - suggested version is
  <emphasis role="bold">always the newest</emphasis> (at least 3.79.x). This
  usually isn't important.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">SDL</emphasis> - it's not mandatory, but can help in
  some cases (bad audio, video cards that lag strangely with the xv driver).
  Always use the newest (beginning from 1.2.x).
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libjpeg</emphasis> - optional JPEG decoder, used by the <option>-mf</option>
  option and some QT MOV files.  Useful for both <application>MPlayer</application>
  and <application>MEncoder</application> if
  you plan to work with jpeg files.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libpng</emphasis> - recommended and default (M)PNG decoder. Required for GUI.
  Useful for both <application>MPlayer</application> and
  <application>MEncoder</application>.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">lame</emphasis> - recommended, needed for encoding MP3 audio with
  <application>MEncoder</application>, suggested version is
  <emphasis>always the newest</emphasis> (at least 3.90).
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">zlib</emphasis> - recommended, necessary for compressed
  MOV header and PNG support.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libogg</emphasis> - optional, needed for playing OGG file format.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libvorbis</emphasis> - optional, needed for playing OGG Vorbis audio.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold"><ulink url="http://www.live555.com/mplayer/">LIVE555 Streaming Media</ulink></emphasis>
  - optional, needed for playing RTSP/RTP streams.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">directfb</emphasis> - optional, from
  <ulink url="http://www.directfb.org"/>. At least 0.9.13 is required.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">cdparanoia</emphasis> - optional, for CDDA support
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libfreetype</emphasis> - optional, for TTF fonts
  support. At least 2.0.9 is required.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libxmms</emphasis> - optional, for XMMS input plugin
  support. At least 1.2.7 is required.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libsmb</emphasis> - optional, for Samba support.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">ALSA</emphasis> - optional, for ALSA audio output
  support. At least 0.9.0rc4 is required.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">bio2jack</emphasis> - optional, for JACK audio output
  support, needed only in compile time. You can obtain it from
  <ulink url="http://bio2jack.sf.net/">http://bio2jack.sf.net</ulink>. Since it
  doesn't have install option you have to manually put the file
  <filename>libbio2jack.a</filename> somewhere in your library path
  (e.g. <filename>/usr/local/lib</filename>) or use the
  <option>--with-bio2jack=DIR</option> switch to tell
  <filename>./configure</filename> where that file is.
  </para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>


<sect1 id="installation_codecs">
<title>Codecs</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold"><systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem></emphasis>:
  This codec package is capable
  of decoding H.263/MJPEG/RV10/DivX3/DivX4/DivX5/MP41/MP42/WMV1/WMV2/SVQ1/SVQ3 encoded video
  streams and WMA (Windows Media Audio) v1/v2 audio streams, on multiple
  platforms. It is also known to be the fastest for this task. See
  <link linkend="ffmpeg">FFmpeg</link> section for details. Features:
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    gain decoding of videos mentioned above, on non-x86 machines
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    encoding with most of the mentioned codecs
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    this codec is the <emphasis role="bold">fastest codec available</emphasis> for
    DivX/3/4/5 and other MPEG-4 types. Recommended!
    </simpara></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">Win32 codecs</emphasis>: If you plan to use
  <application>MPlayer</application> on x86 architecture, you will possibly need
  them. Download a codec package from our
  <ulink url="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/codecs.html">codecs page</ulink>
  and put the codecs in <filename class="directory">/usr/local/lib/codecs</filename>
  <emphasis role="bold">BEFORE</emphasis> compiling <application>MPlayer</application>,
  otherwise no Win32 support will be compiled!
  <note><para>The avifile project has similar codecs package, but it
  differs from ours, so if you want to use all supported codecs, then use
  our package (do not worry, avifile works with it without problems).</para>
  </note>
  Features:
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    you need this if you want to play or encode for example movies recorded
    with various hardware compressors, like tuner cards, digital cameras
    (example: DV, ATI VCR, MJPEG)
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    needed if you want to play <emphasis role="bold">WMV9/WMA9 movies</emphasis>.
   </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    Not needed for old ASF's with MP41 or MP42 video (though VoxWare audio is
    frequent for these files - it's done by the Win32 codec), or WMV7. Also not
    needed for WMA (Windows Media Audio),
    <systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem> has open source decoder
    for that.
    </simpara></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">QuickTime codecs</emphasis>: on x86 platforms these
  codecs can be used to decode RPZA, and other QuickTime video,
  and QDesign audio streams. Installation instructions can be found in the
  <link linkend="sorenson">Sorenson video codec</link> section.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">DivX4/DivX5</emphasis>: information about this codec is
  available in the <link linkend="divx4-5">DivX4/DivX5</link> section. You possibly
  don't want this codec as
  <emphasis role="bold"><systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem></emphasis>
  (see above) is much faster and has better quality than this, for both decoding
  and encoding. Features:
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    one pass or two pass encoding with
    <link linkend="mencoder"><application>MEncoder</application></link>
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    can play old <emphasis role="bold">DivX3</emphasis> movies much faster than
    the Win32 DLL but slower than
    <emphasis role="bold"><systemitem class="library">libavcodec</systemitem></emphasis>!
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    it's closed-source, and only a x86 version is available.
    </simpara></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">XviD</emphasis>: Open source encoding alternative to
  DivX4Linux. Features:
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    one pass or two pass encoding with
    <link linkend="mencoder"><application>MEncoder</application></link>
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    it's open-source, so it's multiplatform.
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    it's about 2 times faster than divX4 when encoding - about the same
    quality
    </simpara></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  The <emphasis role="bold"><link linkend="xanim">XAnim codecs</link></emphasis>
  are the best (full screen, hardware YUV zoom) for decoding
  <emphasis role="bold">3ivx</emphasis> and Indeo 3/4/5 movies, and some old
  formats. And they are multiplatform, so this is the only way to play Indeo on
  non-x86 platforms (well, apart from using XAnim:). But for example Cinepak movies
  are best played with <application>MPlayer</application>'s own Cinepak decoder!
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  For <emphasis role="bold">Ogg Vorbis</emphasis> audio decoding you need to
  install <systemitem class="library">libvorbis</systemitem> properly.
  You can get binary packages and source code from the
  <ulink url="http://www.vorbis.com/download.psp">Ogg Vorbis site</ulink>.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <application>MPlayer</application> can use the libraries of RealPlayer 8
  or RealONE to play files with
  <emphasis role="bold">RealVideo 3.0 and 4.0</emphasis>
  video, and Sipro/Cook audio. See the
  <link linkend="realmedia">RealMedia file format</link>
  section for installation instructions and more information.
  </para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>


<sect1 id="video-cards">
<title>Video cards</title>

<para>
There are generally two kind of video cards. One kind (the newer cards) has
<emphasis role="bold">hardware scaling and YUV acceleration</emphasis> support,
the other cards don't.
</para>


<sect2 id="yuv-cards">
<title>YUV cards</title>

<para>
They can display and scale (zoom) the picture to any size that fits in
their memory, with <emphasis role="bold">small CPU usage</emphasis> (even when
zooming), thus fullscreen is nice and very fast.

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550 cards</emphasis>: although a
  <link linkend="vidix">Vidix driver</link> is provided, it is recommended to
  use the mga_vid module instead, for it works much better.
  Please see the <link linkend="mga_vid">mga_vid</link> section about its
  installation and usage. It is important to do these steps
  <emphasis>before</emphasis> compiling <application>MPlayer</application>,
  otherwise no mga_vid support will be built. Also check out the
  <link linkend="tvout-mga-g400">Matrox TV-out</link> section.
  <emphasis role="bold"> If you don't use Linux</emphasis>, your only
  possibility is the VIDIX driver: read the <link linkend="vidix">VIDIX</link> section.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">3Dfx Voodoo3/Banshee cards</emphasis>: please see
  <link linkend="tdfxfb">tdfxfb</link> section in order to gain big speedup.
  It is important to do these steps <emphasis role="bold">before</emphasis>
  compiling <application>MPlayer</application>, otherwise no 3Dfx support will be
  built. Also see the <link linkend="tvout-voodoo">3dfx TV-out</link> section.
  If you use X, use at least <emphasis role="bold">4.2.0</emphasis>, as 3dfx Xv
  driver was broken in 4.1.0, and earlier releases.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">ATI cards</emphasis>: <link linkend="vidix">VIDIX</link>
  driver is provided for the following cards:
  <emphasis role="bold">Radeon, Rage128, Mach64</emphasis> (Rage XL/Mobility, Xpert98).
  Also see the <link linkend="tvout-ati">ATI cards</link> section of the TV-out documentation,
  to know if you card's TV-out is supported under Linux/<application>MPlayer</application>.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">S3 cards</emphasis>: the Savage and Virge/DX chips have
  hardware acceleration. Use as new XFree86 version as possible, older drivers are
  buggy. Savage chips have problems with YV12 display, see <link linkend="s3">S3 Xv</link>
  section for details. Older, Trio cards have no, or slow hardware support.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">nVidia cards</emphasis>: may or may not be good choice for video playing.
  If you do not have a GeForce2 (or newer) card, it's not likely to work without bugs.
  <emphasis role="bold">the built-in nVidia driver in XFree86 does not support
  hardware YUV acceleration on all nVidia cards.</emphasis> You have
  to download nVidia's closed-source drivers from <ulink url="http://nvidia.com">nVidia.com</ulink>.
  See the <link linkend="nvidia">nVidia Xv driver</link> section for details. Please also check
  the <link linkend="tvout-nvidia">nVidia TV-out</link> section if you wish to
  use a TV.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">3DLabs GLINT R3 and Permedia3</emphasis>: a VIDIX driver
  is provided (pm3_vid). Please see the <link linkend="vidix">VIDIX</link> section
  for details.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">Other cards</emphasis>: none of the above?
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    Try if the XFree86 driver (and your card) supports hardware
    acceleration. See the <link linkend="xv">Xv</link> section for details.
    </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    If it doesn't, then your card's video features aren't supported under
    your operating system :( If hardware scaling works under Windows, it
    doesn't mean it will work under Linux or other operating system, it depends on
    the drivers. Most manufacturers neither make Linux drivers nor release
    specifications of their chips - so you are unlucky if using their cards.
    See <xref linkend="non-yuv-cards"/>.
    </simpara></listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
  </para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect2>


<sect2 id="non-yuv-cards" xreflabel="Non-YUV cards">
<title>Non-YUV cards</title>

<para>
Fullscreen playing can be achieved by either enabling <emphasis role="bold">
software scaling</emphasis> (use the <option>-zoom</option> or <option>-vf</option> option,
but I warn you: this is slow), or switching to a smaller video mode, for example
352x288. If you don't have YUV acceleration, this latter method is recommended.
Video mode switching can be enabled by using the <option>-vm</option> option and
it works with the following drivers:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><simpara>
  <emphasis role="bold">using</emphasis> XFree86: see details in <link linkend="dga">DGA driver</link> and
  <link linkend="x11">X11 driver</link> sections. DGA is recommended! Also
  try DGA via SDL, sometimes it's better.
  </simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>
  <emphasis role="bold">not using</emphasis> XFree86: try the drivers in the
  following order:
  <link linkend="vesa">vesa</link>,
  <link linkend="fbdev">fbdev</link>,
  <link linkend="svgalib">svgalib</link>,
  <link linkend="aalib">aalib</link>.
  </simpara></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect2>

<!-- FIXME: find a more logical organization for this section -->
<sect2 id="cirrus-logic-cards" xreflabel="Cirrus-Logic cards">
<title>Cirrus-Logic cards</title>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  GD 7548: present on-board and tested in Compaq Armada 41xx notebook series.
  <itemizedlist>
  <listitem><simpara>
    XFree86 3: works in 8/16bpp modes. However, the driver is dramatically slow
    and buggy in 800x600@16bpp. <emphasis role="bold">Recommended: 640x480@16bpp</emphasis>
   </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    XFree86 4: the Xserver freezes soon after start unless acceleration is
    disabled, but then the whole thing gets slower than XFree86 3. No XVideo.
   </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    FBdev: framebuffer can be turned on with the <systemitem>clgenfb</systemitem>
    driver in the kernel, though for me it worked only in 8bpp, thus unusable.
    The clgenfb source had to be extended with the 7548 ID before compilation.
   </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    VESA: the card is only VBE 1.2 capable, so VESA output can't be used. Can't
    be workarounded with UniVBE.
  </simpara></listitem>
  <listitem><simpara>
    SVGAlib: detects an older Cirrus chip. Usable but slow with
    <option>-bpp 8</option>.
  </simpara></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>


<sect1 id="sound-cards">
<title>Sound cards</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><simpara>
  <emphasis role="bold">Soundblaster Live!</emphasis>: with this card you can use
  4 or 6 (<emphasis role="bold">5.1</emphasis>) channels AC3 decoding instead of 2. Read the
  <link linkend="swac3">Software AC3 decoding</link> section. For hardware AC3
  passthrough you <emphasis role="bold">must</emphasis> use ALSA 0.9 with OSS emulation!
  </simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>
  <emphasis role="bold">C-Media with S/PDIF out</emphasis>: hardware AC3
  passthrough is possible with these cards, see
  <link linkend="hwac3">Hardware AC3 decoding</link> section.
  </simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>
  Features of <emphasis role="bold">other cards</emphasis> aren't supported by
  <application>MPlayer</application>. <emphasis role="bold">It's very recommended
  to read the <link linkend="audio">sound card</link> section!</emphasis>
  </simpara></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>


<sect1 id="features">
<title>Features</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  Decide if you need GUI. If you do, see the <link linkend="gui">GUI</link>
  section before compiling.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  If you want to install <application>MEncoder</application> (our great
  all-purpose encoder), see the
  <link linkend="mencoder"><application>MEncoder</application></link> section.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  If you have a V4L compatible <emphasis role="bold">TV tuner</emphasis> card,
  and wish to watch/grab and encode movies with <application>MPlayer</application>,
  read the <link linkend="tv-input">TV input</link> section.
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  There is a neat <emphasis role="bold">OSD Menu</emphasis> support ready to be
  used. Check the <link linkend="subosd">OSD menu</link> section.
  </para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>
Then build <application>MPlayer</application>:
<screen>
./configure
make
make install</screen>
</para>

<para>
At this point, <application>MPlayer</application> is ready to use. The
directory <filename class="directory">$PREFIX/share/mplayer</filename>
contains the <filename>codecs.conf</filename> file, which is used to tell
the program all the codecs and their capabilities. This file is needed only
when you want to change its properties, as the main binary contains an internal
copy of it. Check if you have
<filename>codecs.conf</filename> in your home directory
(<filename>~/.mplayer/codecs.conf</filename>) left from old
<application>MPlayer</application> versions, and remove it.
</para>

<para>
Note that if you have a <filename>codecs.conf</filename> in
<filename>~/.mplayer/</filename>,  the builtin and system
<filename>codecs.conf</filename> will be ignored completely.
Do not do this unless you want to fiddle with <application>MPlayer</application>
internals as this can can cause many problems. If you want to change the codecs
search order, use the <option>-vc</option>, <option>-ac</option>, <option>-vfm</option>,
or <option>-afm</option> options either on the command line or in your
config file (see the manual page).
</para>


<para>
Debian users can build a .deb package for themselves, it's very simple.
Just exec
<screen>fakeroot debian/rules binary</screen>
in <application>MPlayer</application>'s root directory. See
<link linkend="debian">Debian packaging</link> for detailed instructions.
</para>

<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Always browse the output of</emphasis>
<filename>./configure</filename>, and the
<filename>configure.log</filename> file, they contain information about
what will be built, and what will not. You may also want to view
<filename>config.h</filename> and <filename>config.mak</filename> files.
If you have some libraries installed, but not detected by
<filename>./configure</filename>, then check if you also have the proper
header files (usually the -dev packages) and their version matches. The
<filename>configure.log</filename> file usually tells you what is missing.
</para>

<para>
Though not mandatory, the fonts should be installed in order to gain OSD,
and subtitle functionality. The recommended method is installing a TTF
font file and telling <application>MPlayer</application> to use it.
See the <link linkend="subosd">Subtitles and OSD</link> section for details.
</para>

</sect1>

<!-- ********** -->

<sect1 id="gui">
<title>What about the GUI?</title>

<para>
The GUI needs GTK 1.2.x or GTK 2.0 (it isn't fully GTK, but the panels are).
The skins are stored in PNG format, so GTK, <systemitem class="library">libpng</systemitem>
(and their devel stuff, usually called <systemitem class="library">gtk-dev</systemitem>
and <systemitem class="library">libpng-dev</systemitem>) has to be installed.
You can build it by specifying <option>--enable-gui</option> during
<filename>./configure</filename>. Then, to turn on GUI mode, you have to
execute the <command>gmplayer</command> binary.
</para&