[arch-general] What about codecs?

David C. Rankin

21 Apr 2009 21 Apr '09

4:04 p.m.

List, In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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Christos Nouskas

21 Apr 21 Apr

4:16 p.m.

2009/4/21 David C. Rankin :

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In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc?

# pacman -S codecs -- ##### # ##### ####### ##### # ##### "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Eric Bélanger

4:31 p.m.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Christos Nouskas wrote:

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2009/4/21 David C. Rankin :

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In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc?

# pacman -S codecs

None of the A/V apps in Arch (at least in extra repo) use the codecs so installing the codecs package might have no effect. Most popular video formats are handled well by ffmpeg. I would suggest to post back if you have problems playing a specific video format.

Jan de Groot

4:32 p.m.

On Tue, 2009-04-21 at 12:31 -0400, Eric Bélanger wrote:

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On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Christos Nouskas wrote:

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2009/4/21 David C. Rankin :

...
In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc?

# pacman -S codecs

None of the A/V apps in Arch (at least in extra repo) use the codecs so installing the codecs package might have no effect. Most popular video formats are handled well by ffmpeg. I would suggest to post back if you have problems playing a specific video format.

Don't mplayer and xine use these codecs still? Or is everything in the codecs package handled by ffmpeg nowadays?

Aaron Griffin

4:41 p.m.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Jan de Groot wrote:

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On Tue, 2009-04-21 at 12:31 -0400, Eric Bélanger wrote:

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On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Christos Nouskas wrote:

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2009/4/21 David C. Rankin :

...
In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc?

# pacman -S codecs

None of the A/V apps in Arch (at least in extra repo) use the codecs so installing the codecs package might have no effect. Most popular video formats are handled well by ffmpeg. I would suggest to post back if you have problems playing a specific video format.

Don't mplayer and xine use these codecs still? Or is everything in the codecs package handled by ffmpeg nowadays?

I think they try ffmpeg first, and then try to look for binary codecs if they exist. I know I haven't had the codecs package installed in a LONG time and have no problems with flv, mkv, ogv, divx, and anything else I could think of.

Pierre Schmitz

4:56 p.m.

Am Dienstag, 21. April 2009 18:41:32 schrieb Aaron Griffin:

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I think they try ffmpeg first, and then try to look for binary codecs if they exist.

For me its the other way round; mplayer loads the dll if available otherwise complains about it and uses ffmpeg. -- Pierre Schmitz Clemens-August-Straße 76 53115 Bonn Telefon 0228 9716608 Mobil 0160 95269831 Jabber pierre@jabber.archlinux.de WWW http://www.archlinux.de

Aaron Griffin

5:10 p.m.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Pierre Schmitz wrote:

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Am Dienstag, 21. April 2009 18:41:32 schrieb Aaron Griffin:

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I think they try ffmpeg first, and then try to look for binary codecs if they exist.

For me its the other way round; mplayer loads the dll if available otherwise complains about it and uses ffmpeg.

I may be flip-flopping the output in my memory :) Either way, ffmpeg works fine

Thomas Bächler

6:01 p.m.

Pierre Schmitz schrieb:

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Am Dienstag, 21. April 2009 18:41:32 schrieb Aaron Griffin:

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I think they try ffmpeg first, and then try to look for binary codecs if they exist.

For me its the other way round; mplayer loads the dll if available otherwise complains about it and uses ffmpeg.

That's either a bug in mplayer or you changed something in codecs.conf.

David C. Rankin

4:35 p.m.

Eric Bélanger wrote:

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On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Christos Nouskas wrote:

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2009/4/21 David C. Rankin :

...
In openSuSE for A/V codecs you need to add two extra repositories (packman & videolan [vlc]), is there an equivalent (mod or set) for Arch or do we just build from vlc?

# pacman -S codecs

None of the A/V apps in Arch (at least in extra repo) use the codecs so installing the codecs package might have no effect. Most popular video formats are handled well by ffmpeg. I would suggest to post back if you have problems playing a specific video format.

Thanks Eric and Christos, I post back after I have kde installed and give it a go. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

Thomas Bächler

4:40 p.m.

Eric Bélanger schrieb:

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None of the A/V apps in Arch (at least in extra repo) use the codecs so installing the codecs package might have no effect. Most popular video formats are handled well by ffmpeg. I would suggest to post back if you have problems playing a specific video format.

At least mplayer uses them for formats it doesn't support natively (not too many) and you can use codecs.conf to prefer the binary codecs over the native ones. I think it is similar for xine(-lib) and thus for basically any video application in KDE or GNOME. That said, virtually every video I have come across in the last few years plays fine with the codecs that are natively compiled into mplayer, vlc or xine. The codecs package was important to make mplayer useful over 5 years ago, but not anymore. In contrary to SuSE, all those packages are contained in our main repositories with all codecs enabled, so there is nothing special to do besides pacman'ing those packages.

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participants (7)

Aaron Griffin
Christos Nouskas
David C. Rankin
Eric Bélanger
Jan de Groot
Pierre Schmitz
Thomas Bächler