Playing RMVB files, but NO ADMIN RIGHTS on machine.

[frankmaster100]

Here's the deal, I work the night shift, and we watch movies here at work. However, I have some RMVB files that I would like to watch, and can't install the codecs because they don't give us admin rights on our PC's. I have media player classic, but I can't install the RealAlt codec pack because I don't have admin rights.

With Xvid and Divx, I have been able to just put the codecs in the same folder as MPC, and put a filter in the command line when I run MPC, and they play just fine. Does anyone know if I can do the same thing with rmvb files? Anywhere I can just get the codec, and not the installation package? Can I just put the codec in the folder and call it in the command line with a fileter in MPC?

I'm so bored at work, and I want to watch these files! Help!

Edit: If no answer to the above, does anyone know of a stand alone rmvb player that I don't have to install? Or at least don't have to have admin rights to install.

[celtic_druid]

Your best bet would be mplayer. Requires some real dll's in your codec dir, but no install. Also supports XviD and DivX decoding. No extra files required. Basically it supports just about everything.

[frankmaster100]

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded it and am trying to use it, but when I click on the exe, it just pops up a dos prompt, and goes away, and nothing happens. I can't figure out how to use it. But I'll keep playing around with it. But along with not having admin rights, I also can't write anything to the system32 folder, which is where all the dll's go. So if it's going to do that, it's a no go. Anyway, I'll keep trying.
Thanks.

[bigmicka]

VLC should play it without anything special.

mic

[frankmaster100]

Well VLC installed just fine, but has a problem playing the files. The audio playes, but in shaky bits, a split second of audio, a split second of no audio, etc. There is no video. But I will play with it more and see if I can't get something working.
Thanks again.

[celtic_druid]

VLC can play the audio since cook audio was reverse engineered and added to libavcodec (assuming cook audio). VLC also has faad and liba52 for aac and AC3 decoding (rm can use these to along with ATRAC). There is no OS solution for real video though, so VLC can't decode it (the one downfall of VLC. No propritary format decoding until it gets reverse engineered). As I said, mplayer can make use of real's dll's to decode it (also has libavcodec, liba52, libfaad, etc.)

The app is cli (command line interface). Not a problem really, since if you drag and drop the file, it should play (assuming you have the real dll's). You can set extra options by running it from a command line or adding default settings to your config file, such as channels=6 for 5.1 sound or fs=true to have it play fullscreen ("f" still toggles). 8,9, adjust volume. Basically there are keyboard shortcuts for everything. There are however also GUI's for those who want/need one.

[frankmaster100]

Thanks. I was starting to play around with the CLI, and I did find a windows based gui that someone wrote, but still am unable to play the file successfully. I'm not going to fret about it too long. I'll just try to convert them, or find them in a different format.
Thanks!

[celtic_druid]

Unpack http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/rp9codecs-win32-20050115.tar.bz2 to your codecs folder and you should be good to go.

[frankmaster100]

It comes up as an unsupported archive. What can I use to unpack it?

Edit: WinRar worked. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks.

[frankmaster100]

Hmm, still not working. Just giving me a bunch of errors on the DLL's. The error says "The application or DLL C:\Documents and SEttings\my.name\My Documents\mplayer\codecs\cook.so.6.0 is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette."

I've got to be doing something wrong

[celtic_druid]

The .so's are for linux. You should get an error about a dll after that. The package contained dll's anyway and if unpacked to C:\Documents and SEttings\my.name\My Documents\mplayer\codecs\ there shouldn't be an error about missing dll's anyway since they shouldn't be missing.

[frankmaster100]

Well the only files available on this page: http://www2.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/ are for either Mac OSX, or for linux. I can't seem to find windows dll's there.
Thanks.

Edit: Of course except for the windows-essential one, which I am downloading now, but I assumed that didn't have the dll's I was looking for.

[frankmaster100]

Well that seemed to do it. I downloaded the windows essentials one, and the correct dll is in there. It's playing great now! Thanks for your help!

One other thing. I'm running dual monitors, and it seems to only be able to play on the left monitor. If I start it on the right monitor, or drag it to the right monitor, the screen goes green.

I know, one problem after another, but I'm havin fun now.