AnimeSuki Forums

DonQuigleone · 2008-09-24, 10:22

So yesterday I was wrestling with trying to play gg macross 24 with Mplayer OSX, it was misbehaving on me, so out of desperation I downloaded the newest version of VLC, and it worked. Not only that, but it displayed styled subtitles too. I later tried it on BSS Natsume no Yuujinchou, but the subs were displaying weird colours, and it worked better with Mplayer. This is probably something I could fix later.

Which begs the question, is VLC now worth using? And does it still have a major failing compared to MPlayer, or CCCP?

martino · 2008-09-24, 10:48

Yes, it still has major flaws...

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...83#post1910683

Dark Shikari · 2008-09-24, 18:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by donquigleone

So yesterday I was wrestling with trying to play gg macross 24 with Mplayer OSX, it was misbehaving on me, so out of desperation I downloaded the newest version of VLC, and it worked.

This is because the VLC version you were using was compiled with a more recent version of libavcodec than the mplayer version you were using.

The bugs causing the playback issues were fixed in August.

DonQuigleone · 2008-09-25, 03:57

Yeah, I should update my MPlayer, it's a little bit annoying to reinstall, this was just a casual observation on my part, I knew I needed to update MPlayer.

Epyon9283 · 2008-09-28, 11:04

VLC is definitely better than it used to be IMO. I just tried 0.9.3 and it renders subtitles as well as mplayer does. It hasn't crashed yet either which is cool since the older versions crashed constantly.

ZeroSama · 2008-09-30, 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Epyon9283

VLC is definitely better than it used to be IMO. I just tried 0.9.3 and it renders subtitles as well as mplayer does. It hasn't crashed yet either which is cool since the older versions crashed constantly.

VLC

is better than it was before, however thats not saying much. Before it was like a car with no wheels, engine, steering wheel or seats. Now that they've updated it and added extra "features"(more bugs) it has seats now but the electrics have fried, the exhaust has fallen off and the fuel tank is leaking.

Don't get me wrong, one day it may be a viable alternative to those poor souls who don't want to use the CCCP

(do these people really exsist?) and enjoy using things like k-lite

because their more fun(annoying) to use.

SeijiSensei · 2008-09-30, 08:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeroSama

one day it may be a viable alternative to those poor souls who don't want to use the CCCP

(do these people really exsist?)

VLC does have the attraction of being cross-platform; not everyone uses Windows. That said, I'll stick with mplayer.

ZeroSama · 2008-09-30, 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

VLC does have the attraction of being cross-platform; not everyone uses Windows. That said, I'll stick with mplayer.

Exactly on Windows you have CCCP. On Linux you have MPlayer. Who in their right minds would want to use anything other than these two? Well apart from those people who are masochists obviously.

They do the job and they do it well plus you don't have to wait years(most likely for the fixes since i remember watching a sub of Kanon in 2006 on VLC with broken subs and it seems they've only gotten around to fixing it now).

musume_no_hoshi · 2008-10-11, 18:44

I would say VLC is for the lazy people who can't be bothered to install multiple programs on their computer to view videos, back when I used my laptop.

VLC is great for putting on USB sticks. It just works after you plug it in and can play modern video files without downloading a codec pack. I found it very useful to use on school computers, because you're not allow to install anything on them.

martino · 2008-10-11, 18:58

So does mplayer for all those points... It even comes with a GUI now! I mean... omg. O_o

Artemis3 · 2008-10-13, 01:43

mplayer (in Ubuntu) tends to do annoying things, especially when failing. It takes some habit and skill to configure it properly and not do things that will make it crash (perhaps because of gmplayer?)

One problem i have now is i can't let it use alsa output, else it will peak. Using oss output cures this, but blocks the audio (I'm not using pulseaudio).

Also i got used to VLC shortcuts, ctrl right, alt right is insta op skip (1:30 skip), ctrl up/down for volume, N for next ep, P for prev, etc. I use it all the time. Font rendering is its only flaw, need to test .9 more ^_^

Craymel · 2008-10-13, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Artemis3

mplayer (in Ubuntu) tends to do annoying things, especially when failing. It takes some habit and skill to configure it properly and not do things that will make it crash (perhaps because of gmplayer?)

One problem i have now is i can't let it use alsa output, else it will peak. Using oss output cures this, but blocks the audio (I'm not using pulseaudio).

Also i got used to VLC shortcuts, ctrl right, alt right is insta op skip (1:30 skip), ctrl up/down for volume, N for next ep, P for prev, etc. I use it all the time. Font rendering is its only flaw, need to test .9 more ^_^

Don't use gmplayer. Use smplayer. It's much more complete and easier to use. I don't even use a gui though.

martino · 2008-10-13, 16:48

Uhmmm what? Don't they use the same backend anyway, so why does it matter? All you get is a fancier GUI...

Craymel · 2008-10-13, 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by martino

Uhmmm what? Don't they use the same backend anyway, so why does it matter? All you get is a fancier GUI...

"Here you can find everything needed to get MPlayer up and running. The recommended way to install MPlayer is to compile from source. Look at the unofficial packages section of our projects page if you do not wish to compile from source and/or are looking for packages that may be more tightly integrated with your platform. You might also want to check out the other frontends since there is no further development and limited bug fixing for the included graphical user interface."

Straight from the mplayer front page. I also have had bad experiences with gmplayer myself and found that I had laggy playback with it (maybe I imagined that).

martino · 2008-10-13, 19:13

Well, if you had laggy playback it was almost definitely caused by the mplayer backend itself, and not the GUI frontend (unless they screwed up extremely badly somewhere).

Ascaloth · 2008-10-13, 21:40

I do use VLC a lot for a very simple, heck I'll admit it's stupid, reason; taking snapshots with it is easy-peasy. And I am an animeblogger, so I DO need that snapshot function.

Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I can't find any other player that has a snapshot function, or the snapshot function is just OH-MY-GOD-THAT'S-F***IN'-COMPLICATED compared to the one-click snapshot of VLC. Yeah, I'm pretty much computer illiterate. Anyone can come up with alternatives?

Craymel · 2008-10-13, 22:57

with mplayer you specify the location to put the screenshots in and just press s to take them.

Daiz · 2008-10-14, 04:09

Ascaloth, in MPC(-HC), you can go to File -> Save image and define the folder where snapshots are saved (as well as the format), after that you can just press F5 to take snapshots whenever you want (as long as you aren't using Overlay Mixer as the renderer).

Ascaloth · 2008-10-14, 10:00

@Craymel & Daiz,

Thanks, guys. I figured it out now. There must have been something wrong with my previous MPC such that it always has an error, but I tried reinstalling it and it worked, as well as the snapshot function.

SeijiSensei · 2008-10-14, 14:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craymel

with mplayer you specify the location to put the screenshots in and just press s to take them.

From the command line you need to include "-vf screenshot" don't you? Perhaps it's built into the GUI's, but when I first started running KPlayer as a front-end for mplayer, the "s" command wasn't enabled until I added the screenshot filter to the list of options I have the program pass to mplayer.

2008-09-24, 10:22	Link #1
DonQuigleone Knight Errant Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Dublin, Ireland Age: 35	VLC, better than it used to be? So yesterday I was wrestling with trying to play gg macross 24 with Mplayer OSX, it was misbehaving on me, so out of desperation I downloaded the newest version of VLC, and it worked. Not only that, but it displayed styled subtitles too. I later tried it on BSS Natsume no Yuujinchou, but the subs were displaying weird colours, and it worked better with Mplayer. This is probably something I could fix later. Which begs the question, is VLC now worth using? And does it still have a major failing compared to MPlayer, or CCCP?

2008-09-24, 10:48	Link #2
martino makes no files now Join Date: May 2006	Yes, it still has major flaws... http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...83#post1910683 __________________ "Light and shadow don't battle each other, because they're two sides of the same coin"

2008-10-11, 18:44	Link #9
musume_no_hoshi ~Eternal Bakaness~ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Cheesecake wonderland	I would say VLC is for the lazy people who can't be bothered to install multiple programs on their computer to view videos, back when I used my laptop. VLC is great for putting on USB sticks. It just works after you plug it in and can play modern video files without downloading a codec pack. I found it very useful to use on school computers, because you're not allow to install anything on them. __________________

2008-10-11, 18:58	Link #10
martino makes no files now Join Date: May 2006	So does mplayer for all those points... It even comes with a GUI now! I mean... omg. O_o __________________ "Light and shadow don't battle each other, because they're two sides of the same coin"

2008-10-13, 16:48	Link #13
martino makes no files now Join Date: May 2006	Uhmmm what? Don't they use the same backend anyway, so why does it matter? All you get is a fancier GUI... __________________ "Light and shadow don't battle each other, because they're two sides of the same coin"

2008-09-25, 03:57	Link #4
DonQuigleone Knight Errant Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Dublin, Ireland Age: 35	Yeah, I should update my MPlayer, it's a little bit annoying to reinstall, this was just a casual observation on my part, I knew I needed to update MPlayer.

2008-09-28, 11:04	Link #5
Epyon9283 Geek Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New Jersey Age: 40	VLC is definitely better than it used to be IMO. I just tried 0.9.3 and it renders subtitles as well as mplayer does. It hasn't crashed yet either which is cool since the older versions crashed constantly.

2008-10-13, 01:43	Link #11
Artemis3 Yui~Nyan♡ Join Date: Feb 2003	mplayer (in Ubuntu) tends to do annoying things, especially when failing. It takes some habit and skill to configure it properly and not do things that will make it crash (perhaps because of gmplayer?) One problem i have now is i can't let it use alsa output, else it will peak. Using oss output cures this, but blocks the audio (I'm not using pulseaudio). Also i got used to VLC shortcuts, ctrl right, alt right is insta op skip (1:30 skip), ctrl up/down for volume, N for next ep, P for prev, etc. I use it all the time. Font rendering is its only flaw, need to test .9 more ^_^

2008-10-13, 19:13	Link #15
martino makes no files now Join Date: May 2006	Well, if you had laggy playback it was almost definitely caused by the mplayer backend itself, and not the GUI frontend (unless they screwed up extremely badly somewhere). __________________ "Light and shadow don't battle each other, because they're two sides of the same coin"

2008-10-13, 21:40	Link #16
Ascaloth I don't give a damn, dude Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: In Despair Age: 37	I do use VLC a lot for a very simple, heck I'll admit it's stupid, reason; taking snapshots with it is easy-peasy. And I am an animeblogger, so I DO need that snapshot function. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I can't find any other player that has a snapshot function, or the snapshot function is just OH-MY-GOD-THAT'S-F***IN'-COMPLICATED compared to the one-click snapshot of VLC. Yeah, I'm pretty much computer illiterate. Anyone can come up with alternatives?

2008-10-13, 22:57	Link #17
Craymel Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008	with mplayer you specify the location to put the screenshots in and just press s to take them. __________________ For proper anime playback use: CCCP--Mplayer--Perian

2008-10-14, 04:09	Link #18
Daiz Pioneer in Fansub 2.0 Join Date: Aug 2007	Ascaloth, in MPC(-HC), you can go to File -> Save image and define the folder where snapshots are saved (as well as the format), after that you can just press F5 to take snapshots whenever you want (as long as you aren't using Overlay Mixer as the renderer). __________________ "A good user is remembered from his posts, not from his 160px tall animated 'pink flying unicorns' signature picture." --- The Guide for best H.264 playback

2008-10-14, 10:00	Link #19
Ascaloth I don't give a damn, dude Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: In Despair Age: 37	@Craymel & Daiz, Thanks, guys. I figured it out now. There must have been something wrong with my previous MPC such that it always has an error, but I tried reinstalling it and it worked, as well as the snapshot function.