Problem with fragmentation in Linux

[risho]

So I'm running arch and I'm trying to get a proper set up, but there's so much fragmentation that I'm not sure what to even use anymore.

There's mplayer, mplayer2, and mpv which are all forked off of eachother and then there's the frontend that everyone uses smplayer. But then there's also smplayer2 which I assume is supposed to support mplayer2, but I don't know what direction mpv is going since it could be breaking all compatibility with mplayer/mplayer2 in the long run and thus making it unable to run under smplayer/smplayer2. So I compiled smplayer with mplayer2 and ordered chapters aren't working correctly. From what I understand mplayer doesn't support ordered chapters and it's old and living in the past. mplayer2 was supposed to fix that problem but apparently some group of people thought that they were moving too slow or not doing it right so they forked it again..


anyways TLDR: Is there a proper combination of frontend and backend for mplayer/2/mpv/etc that works properly with all the files I have? VLC works just fine, but I want graphics accelerated playback and plus VLC has problems of it's own, and it's considered "not correct" in the community.

[ices]

I don't use mplayer anymore nowadays. but as I recall, there always some issue and another that bugged me when using it. So in the end I just choose VLC that just works (TM).

[larethian]

Originally Posted by risho

So I'm running arch and I'm trying to get a proper set up, but there's so much fragmentation that I'm not sure what to even use anymore.

There's mplayer, mplayer2, and mpv which are all forked off of eachother and then there's the frontend that everyone uses smplayer. But then there's also smplayer2 which I assume is supposed to support mplayer2, but I don't know what direction mpv is going since it could be breaking all compatibility with mplayer/mplayer2 in the long run and thus making it unable to run under smplayer/smplayer2. So I compiled smplayer with mplayer2 and ordered chapters aren't working correctly. From what I understand mplayer doesn't support ordered chapters and it's old and living in the past. mplayer2 was supposed to fix that problem but apparently some group of people thought that they were moving too slow or not doing it right so they forked it again..


anyways TLDR: Is there a proper combination of frontend and backend for mplayer/2/mpv/etc that works properly with all the files I have? VLC works just fine, but I want graphics accelerated playback and plus VLC has problems of it's own, and it's considered "not correct" in the community.

I use fedora, ubuntu and mint. I just install smplayer let the package manager resolve the dependencies.

[root@cm210 /]# rpm -qR smplayer
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
kde-filesystem
libQtCore.so.4()(64bit)
libQtGui.so.4()(64bit)
libQtNetwork.so.4()(64bit)
libQtSolutions_SingleApplication-2.6.so.1()(64bit)
libQtXml.so.4()(64bit)
libc.so.6()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1()(64bit)
libgcc_s.so.1(GCC_3.0)(64bit)
libm.so.6()(64bit)
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libpthread.so.0()(64bit)
libquazip.so.1()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3)(64bit)
libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)
libz.so.1()(64bit)
mplayer
qt4(x86-64) >= 4.8.4
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rtld(GNU_HASH)
rpmlib(PayloadIsXz) <= 5.2-1

[root@cm210 /]# rpm -qa | grep smplayer
smplayer-0.8.5-1.fc18.x86_64

[root@cm210 /]# rpm -qa | grep mplayer
smplayer-0.8.5-1.fc18.x86_64
mplayer-common-1.1-4.20121008svn.fc18.x86_64
mplayer-1.1-4.20121008svn.fc18.x86_64

Seems like smplayer uses mplayer for its backend. So far, I don't have any issue with smplayer on all my anime. I prefer it over VLC because it's able to resume my media files if I happen to stop midway. Though I find VLC performs better deblocking on niconico streams.

[Haiprbim]

I use Fedora and play my files on the VLC Media Player.
I really do not see any drawbacks on it, and 1080p HD files run smooth as well.
I don't know what you mean by "not correct in the community".

[risho]

i've noticed their being a huge stigma attached to vlc since it didn't handle things correctly. almost every single fansub group reccommends against using vlc. they say to use mpc or mplayer. vlc adding additional artifacts, not stylizing subs correctly and not supporting chapters etc.

[larethian]

risho, I just checked my smplayer. It supports chapters, but it's only accessible from the menu bar and absent from the slider

EDIT: and linux VLC supports chapters on the slider......

[risho]

which version of mplayer did the dependancies resolve? mplayer/mplayer2/mpv?

[larethian]

Well, specifically, I'm using mplayer-1.1-4.20121008svn, which should be the normal mplayer.

[SeijiSensei]

I've used smplayer with mplayer2 for quite some time now. That combination became the default Ubuntu configuration around 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) or so. Before that I compiled mplayer2 from source. I preferred it over stock mplayer because it had better support for Matroska ordered chapters and ASS subs. Now I just install smplayer with apt-get, and it pulls in mplayer2 as a dependency.

Smplayer doesn't care which mplayer you are using as long as you specify the correct path to the executable in Options > Preferences > General.

Smplayer/mplayer2 has played every anime file I have up to 10-bit color 1080p Blu-ray rips. It handles stylized subs perfectly, too. I don't see any reason to change to another player.