Multimedia Playback Under Linux/Unix

[kintwerp]

This may sound like a daft question (initially) but if I wanted to, could I at least playback ANY media format I wanted to under Linux/Unix ??

By this I mean say divX - Xvid encoded avis, mpeg1 and mpeg2 standard movie files, mp3s, wavs, cds, vcds, dvds and so on.

In a nutshell, are all the codecs - required playback files available under linux at this point in time?

The reason I ask is that I would like to build a dedicated media-centre type machine which would sit next to my television - one of the cheif motovations for this being NOT having to spend so much time re-encoding, chopping hacking etc at the multimedia sources I already have and frequently obtain in a variety of formats and packages. I would like the ability to just "get" a movie, at most transfer it to another machine and then play the damn thing straight off.

I would prefer to use Linux for this (free, proper, stable etc) as a semi-embedded op sys which I could tailor to make thje machine appear to be a media centre only (by developing a filing / menuing system for external users to be able to use but not screw up).

Any and all feedback on this question and the idea in general most welcomed and gratfully received.

Also, if you have an opinion, please take a tic to answer the poll I have started along with this message.

[kintwerp]

<<==!!DOH!! ==>>

http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.com/

[kintwerp]

To the untrained eye it may seem like I have created and am perpetuating a topic all on my own - partly true. It also occurs to me that peeps may think this is me advertising or looking for customers or the like - NAH!

Honest, I am just looking ofr an answer to my question and would be chuffed if people would answer the poll.

The URL I posted above I have just this scond found - funnily enough by looking at another poll (will you still be burning vcd/svcds' in a year from now - link: http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117908).

Would be nice if someone answered !! (Is that an echo I hear ??)

[ching0]

i have everything installed in linux to play perfectly. everything but asf's because they're microshaft patented. everything else plays perfectly. and fullscreen might i add.

something sweet i came across a few months ago is MoviX at sourceforge.net i'd post a link but i'm lazy. you could just get that mini linux distribution, and have a crappy 500 mHz computer with a video card and a tv out, and you all of a sudden have a multimedia entertainment center that plays divx movies. hell... i even got it to run on a pentium 233 with a 4 meg video card, and it was perfect quality.

[kintwerp]

Thank you for that reply ! I suspected that this may be the case (basically - yes all can be done in linux/unix). The idea of using an old PC for this function - hehe I also thought that and have ordered a vga card to handle tv out. I'm gonna try and use an old P200 MMX so fingers crossed xD - I'll post a progress reply in here when I get it done

I'll look up that miniLinux distrib as well - ta for that ching0 !

[sterno]

I wouldn't expect a P200 to play DivX or MPEG-2 files, but MPEG-1/VCD, MP3, WAV, audio CD, etc. will play fine. I think the documentation for xine (a general-purpose video player, which can directly play VCD, SVCD, and DVD) said that a P2/400 was about the minimum to play DVD.

[ching0]

sterno, believe it or not, the P200 will play divx. see, i didnt think it would either, and i was amazed when it was playing fullscreen without jumping or anything. then, i realized, the minimum requirements for MoviX were a computer with 128 megs of ram. (all the resources for the minidistro are focused on the video) you can run it on 64 off of the boot floppy distro but i was getting a blinking cursor in the top left corner. that can be fixed by setting the cursor to off in the movix.pl script.

there is a 20Mb (?) cd distribution of MoviX that you boot off of, then pop in any divx or mpeg disk and it will play everything in alphabetical order. the guy who put it all together is working on a playlist.

http://movix.sourceforge.net

[snowmoon]

Divx ( aka mpeg-4 ) scales based on bitrate and resolution. I don't doubt there are some divx that do playback ok on a p200. I have also seen divx that's too intensive for playback on a PIII700.

Youe best bet is the new sigma card ( mpeg-1, mpeg-2 ( all formats ), and mpeg-4 ) it also has true TV out including componient and progressive scan. Unfortunatly they have not ported the drivers to linux ( yet ).

[kintwerp]

A quick progress report !! I went in search of a desktop case for my media centre type p200 box - do you know how hard they are to find nowadays ?? lol - I need a desktop case so that the missus will "allow" the box to sit under the tv in the lounge

Anyway, the upshot is that I bought some second hand kit real cheap - a pII 400 - with the bits I needed to build the box from the bits I had, there wasnt much difference in terms of codst and it will save me aggro (and time!)

BTW, I have also purchased the new sigma divx decoder card - not yet tried but looks like it will do the job a treat.

Anyone who reads this and has NOT tried moviX then you MUST go to http://movix.sourceforge.net , download it and try it now !!!!

Very kewl idea - bit basic at the moment maybe but tonnes of scope for improvment and customization - reallly worth a look.

All 4 now - will post when up and running (sooon ,, very very sooon)

[ching0]

snowmoon: i purposefully encoded a movie in divx 5.02 in high resolution, 720x480, which, believe it or not, worked perfectly fine on the p200. i'd really suggest giving movix a try, it does sound unbelievable but its not.

in fact, i watched all of ice age off of a movix cd. perfect quality. plus, there are hotkeys in case you are too lazy to adjust the audio/video interleave you can just hit plus and minus on the number pad and all sorts of other hotkeys that mplayer for linux offers.

really try it. and if this guy sold it, i'd buy it.

[crahak]

There are lots of websites related to this, and I was just in a 3 page long thread about this (http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=130695). I have even made a website. Still under heavy construction, but I will most likely post the link today

I am not going to use linux tho. No interest in that at all...
As far as CPU goes, a P200 is (sorry to say that) useless. Read the other thread and you'll see that same argument again.

Movix seems to be quite limited for my intents, and on top, it's linux based lol.

[ninboy]

I Tried MoviX after reading this thread and I was pretty impressed .I played a Couple of My DivX dvd rips on it using a K6-2 233 with 64MB, they Played very well and i was impressed that you can use it without a harddrive.The only thing that I didn't like is I haven't been able to get my sound working(but I think that has to do with it not being supported by the drivers)Probably gonna be a real nice solution once its more mature

[disturbed1]

Divx ( aka mpeg-4 ) scales based on bitrate and resolution. I don't doubt there are some divx that do playback ok on a p200. I have also seen divx that's too intensive for playback on a PIII700.

Youe best bet is the new sigma card ( mpeg-1, mpeg-2 ( all formats ), and mpeg-4 ) it also has true TV out including componient and progressive scan. Unfortunatly they have not ported the drivers to linux ( yet ).

The Dreamcast plays DivX, mpeg1, mp3, and ogg, maybe more.

I think it's based on a 200mhz Strong Arm CPU.

The resolution is pretty limited to 320x240 at about 500-700kb/s. So the ability for slow CPU's are there.


We also have the mini ITX boards with fan less Cyrix CPU for about $125. They're fully integrated with LAN, S-Video out, etc. All you need to add is an OS, RAM, hard drive, and case. HD is optional, there's ways to run Linux from ram, across a network, LAN BIOS, floppy, cdrom, etc...... Just stream the files across the LAN, second DVD-ROM, what ever.


The thing about linux is that it can run on a single chip as an interface with hardware decoding chips. There have been single chip mpeg1, mpeg2, ac3, wav, and mp3 decoders for a while that run less than $20 in volume. Sigma has the DivX decoding chip too.

QNX is an excellent choice in markets like this. You can include QNX and a web browser, and have it fit on a 2mb or less EPROM. That's coming next, web enabled set tops using subscription based VOD. It's available in many places now just usually not as web enabled devices, but ran by the cable companies.

But that's another topic

[sterno]

The Dreamcast plays DivX, mpeg1, mp3, and ogg, maybe more.

I think it's based on a 200mhz Strong Arm CPU.

It's not a StrongARM, it's a Hitachi Super-H (SH4) at 200MHz. As I recall, the SH4 has a pretty good math unit for an embedded CPU.

[vitualis]

If I'm not mistaken the Dreamcast had the main processor as the SH4 and it had in addition two supplemental SH3 processors...

Regards.

[courtrrb]

If you use the Mandrake flavor of linux then you can set up as a file source the penguin liberation front and then load all plugins for Xine and it will play 98% of all movie codics. for those very few then Mplay work fine. Mplayer dosn't play the asf but Xine will.

[d4n13l]

I use mplayer, along with all of the W32 codecs that are downloadable from mplayer's homepage. I can't remember the last time something wouldn't play due to a missing codec. It will play the occassional *.asf file that I throw at it too.
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design6/info.html