On Dec 18, 2007 3:54 AM, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin@gmail.com> wrote:

I know this package is in [extra], feel free to ignore me.

I removed the dep on codecs, and want to get some testing for
different formats WITHOUT codecs installed. I want to attempt to
predict any formats we may lose (such as real media) so that I can
react properly when people complain. All of my videos I have here work
fine in both mplayer and xine, without codecs installed, so I wanted
to get some outside opinions.

I've done a bit of testing with every video type I had on my box (x86_64), and here are the results:

I upgraded xine-lib, and then did a 'pacman -Rd codecs' (I couldn't do it with just -R since it was still required by xine-lib.. strange since the upgraded xine-lib shouldn't be asking for codecs..possible pacman bug?)

Another point, i686 codec package is ~ 9MB, x86_64 is ~0.22 MB

Anyway, back to the issue at hand:

Xvid with .avi extension:

No issues with mplayer/xine

AVC/h264 with .mov extension:

No issues with mplayer/xine

Divx (DX50 - DivX 5.0 i assume)

No issues with mplayer/xine

Divx (DIV3)

No issues with mplayer/xine

3gp File: (Commonly a mobile phone format)

Video works for both mplayer/xine. Audio doesn't, but it doesn't work with codecs installed anyway.

Xine says: unavailable samr codec
Mplayer: Cannot find codec 'libamr_nb' in libavcodec

MPEG-2 with .VOB extension (basically an uncompressed dvd rip) & .mpg extension

No issues with mplayer/xine

MPEG-1 with .mpg extension

No issues with mplayer/xine

SVQ1 with .mov extension

No issues with mplayer/xine

MPEG-4 V3 with .asf extension:

No issues with mplayer/xine

WMV3 with .wmv extension

No issues with mplayer/xine

Real Media with .rm extension (RV20)

Mplayer plays this fine without codecs, including sound.
But xine does not play this at all without codecs, and with codecs installed, it only plays audio, in a very scratchy, metallic way

RV30 - with .rm extension

Quite the opposite of RV20, this plays fine in xine ONLY if codecs is *uninstalled* (though xine spews error messages, it works fine when you start playback. Transient audio lag while seeking). If codecs is installed, xine displays video fine, but the same metallic sound as RV20 is produced

On the other hand, mplayer can play this well only if codecs is installed. If not, it does not display any video, but sound works.

RV40 with .rmvb/.rm extension:

Both mplayer and xine need codecs to play this. Mplayer doesnt display video without codecs, but sound works. Xine produces shit metallic sound with codecs installed, and nothing at all without codecs.

I assume i686 behaves the same way, but am not really sure about this. brain0, why is the codec package size so different across the architectures? I don't seem to have a DivX 4 file, but I'm sure it'll work without codecs.

Thanks,

Varun