Howto install accellerated MPlayer variants
All commands to execute the used scripts have to be executed as root, the config file however has to be adjusted in the home of the normal user.
In general it is recommended to use a newer mplayer even without new hardware as more codecs are supported then. Using a current dual core system it will not take more than 10 min compile time, a fast quad core will need less than 2 min. Other users will need more patience, in case of problems ask in the IRC. It's not recommended to backup the scripts as they are often changed.
Simple example configfile (look into $HOME/.mplayer/config)
ao=alsa
subfont-text-scale=3
For users watching movies at night who do not want to raise the global volume too much this is recommended too
It's possible to fix some problems which ID2 tags of mp3 files my selecting a different demuxer just for this filetype (put those options at the end of the file)
[extension.mp3]
demuxer=lavf
This have been of course only examples, it is possible to preset much more there, but leave out vf options, when VDPAU/VAAPI should be used.
for more infos.
MPlayer with VDPAU (NVIDIA) support
This is no special version as Mplayer SVN has got already everything to use the video accelleration of newer NVIDIA cards (most of the GeForce 8+ cards and newer).
The install-nvidia-debian.sh script should have been used already to use VDPAU, just to compile with Excalibur it is not required to be installed before (as libvdpau-dev is used).
All you need to use those new functions is a current Mplayer snapshot and a config file to enable it by default.
wget -N http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mplayer-svn-snapshot.txt
sh mplayer-svn-snapshot.txt
rm -f mplayer-svn-snapshot.txt
Add those options to your config file
vo=vdpau,xv
vc=ffh264vdpau,ffmpeg12vdpau,ffvc1vdpau,ffwmv3vdpau,
!!The "," at the end has to be there!!!
MPlayer with VAAPI (ATI) support
This variant is developed by SPLITTED-DESKTOP SYSTEMS (Gwenole Beauchesne), which works partly different compared to the "default" Mplayer. It is primary needed to use the VAAPI accelleration provided for some cards. Currently there are two native implementations - pure Intel onboard (MPEG2 only) and Intel Poulsbo (GMA 500) - those do not work with Debian Lenny however, but with newer systems it should be possible to use (using the same script). For Debian Lenny VAAPI began to be usefull since there was a XvBA wrapper to provide video accelleration for ATI HD 2+ cards. Basically those are all cards which run with the latest fglrx driver, officially only R700+ cards, but R600 usually works as good/bad as the others. Compared to Nvidia's VDPAU this solution has got some drawbacks. It is not usefull to force always VAAPI as there is no fallback possible which is needed for other than the supported codecs. Using ATI hardware it can be used for H264 (not all material) and VC1 (no older WMV). The first driver which could be used for XvBA was fglrx 9-10, which could crash the pc with some input files. The second driver is the 9-12 hotfix, which usually does not suffer from those full system crashes - rendering problems are identical however (like wrong colors or no usefull picture for H264). It is also possible to use VAAPI with NVIDIA cards (i. e. for VLC 1.1+ tests, which supports VAAPI). Usually video accelleration is active only when using:
mplayer -vo vaapi -va vaapi <URI>
as alternative there are also those variants using OpenGL output (not really ideal for Nvidia and VC1)
mplayer -vo vaapi:gl -va vaapi <URI>
OpenGL can be used with a reflection effect too
mplayer -vo vaapi:gl:reflect -va vaapi <URI>
The needed script is
wget -N http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt
sh mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt
rm -f mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt
Mplayer with MT support
This special variant activates MulitThreaded decoding for H264 (and via a used patch also for VC1). Best select the number of threads matching the number of cpu cores (incl. HT!). Additionally this variant lets you use VDPAU too.
For Dual Core:
mplayer -lavdopts threads=2 <URI>
For Quad Core:
mplayer -lavdopts threads=4 <URI>
The needed script is
wget -N http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mplayer-git-mt-snapshot.txt
sh mplayer-git-mt-snapshot.txt
rm -f mplayer-git-mt-snapshot.txt