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@@ -0,0 +1,441 @@ + + ---------------------- + xine FAQ + ---------------------- + + +please note: this FAQ covers xine version 0.5 and newer + + + +how do I build this beast? +-------------------------- + +first make sure you use a stable, official release of gcc to compile. +You can try patched gcc versions, but these are not supported and will +probably not work (pgcc for example is known to make libmpeg break). + +You'll have to use gnu make to compile xine, on most GNU/Linux systems +make is gnu make, on other platforms use "gmake" instead. + +xine comes in two (official) parts now, xine-lib and xine-ui. + +First you have to build and install xine-lib: + +./autogen.sh <--- only neccessary if you checked xine out of CVS +./configure +make +make install + +if you have installed xine-lib to a non-standard prefix, make +sure you have <prefix>/bin in your PATH and your linker will +find libs in <prefix>/libs, in bash you can use something like + +export PATH="<prefix>/bin:$PATH" +export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="<prefix>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" + +to make sure this works. + +Now you can build and install xine-ui, same procedure as for xine-lib: + +./autogen.sh <--- only neccessary if you checked xine out of CVS +./configure +make +make install + + +how can I supply additional CFLAGS for the compilation ? +-------------------------------------------------------- + +you can do so by setting the GLOBAL_CFLAGS variable and then run +configure again. + +This can be usefull to specify additional include paths or library +paths to the compiler. Example: + +export GLOBAL_CFLAGS="-I/usr/include -L/home/guenter/xine_libs" + + +are there binaries for my K7 available? Can I build them? +--------------------------------------------------------- + +At the moment we do not provide K7 binaries, since the latest +stable gcc version (2.92.2 at the time of this writing) doesn't +have K7 support. Use the 686 binaries instead. These binaries +should run ok and will use 3DNow! + +If you have a newer gcc you can try to compile "more" k7 support +in (esp. better instruction sheduling). If the configure script +should fail to detect your processor/gcc correctly, try setting the +XINE_BUILD envvar explicitly to a valid description string for +your configuration, e.g. + +export XINE_BUILD=k7-pc-linux-gnu +rm -f config.cache +./autogen.sh +make +make install + + +how can I make xine use the Xv extension? +----------------------------------------- + +xine -V Xv foo.mpg + +xine fails with "no video port found" +------------------------------------- + +you got the Xv extension, but your video card driver doesn't +support it. First try to find a driver that does support Xv on +your hardware (check your graphics card vendor). If your driver +has Xv support but you can't get it working, try at a lower +resultion (1024x768 is still enough even for anamorphic mpeg-2). + +If all that fails, you can still use plain X11/XShm + +xine -V XShm foo.vob + + +xine fails complaining about audio drivers/devices +-------------------------------------------------- + +you can select the audio driver using the -A option. So try + +xine -A null + +if you have ALSA drivers installed, try + +xine -A alsa + +if you run ESD, try + +xine -A esd + +if you run artsd, try + +xine -A arts + + +xine displays it's logo but I don't see my video? +------------------------------------------------- + +use the play button of the gui or press RETURN for PLAY. + + +xine plays audio but I don't see a picture +------------------------------------------ + +If you see lot's of "rejected" messages, your hardware isn't +set up right for xine. It might be your sound card doesn't +support the "realtime" feature (xine tests that on startup +so you might want to look at the messages again). Try to +find better drivers then. + +Perhaps your hardware is simply to slow - see "xine drops a +lot of frames" below for speed tips. + + +Where should I put the windows codec dlls for xine? +--------------------------------------------------- + +xine uses + +/usr/lib/win32 + +by default to search for dlls, but you can change this in your +.xinerc by editing + +win32_path:/usr/lib/win32 + + +I get this message: demux error! 00 00 00 (should be 0x000001) +-------------------------------------------------------------- + +Probably xine can't access your input source. Most commonly this happens +when you're trying to play locked/encrypted DVDs. Remember that xine +can't play such DVDs out-of-the box (for legal reasons). + +You could use an css-enabled DVD input plugin to avoid this. + +Another reason could be that your (RPC-2) DVD drive isn't set up +for the right region. + + +when I play this stream, xine shows some pictures but there's no audio +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Try another audio channel: + +xine -a channel stream.vob + +some .vob files have audio on strange channels (e.g. 3, 7, 10) + + +can xine play (S)VCDs ? +--------------------- + +Yes, use a MRL like + +xine VCD://<track number> + + +xine drops a lot of frames +-------------------------- + +Your hardware is too slow for xine. Make sure you turn on all +speed optimizing options. A few point you should check: + +- use a recent kernel optimized for your hardware + +- use the latest gas/gcc + +- close other applications (use a tool like "top" to find out + what applications are using up CPU power) + +- if you are not using Xv, make sure your display is set up + to 16bpp, not 24 or higher (reduces memory bandwith) + +- make sure the hard drive which supplies the video data + is in DMA mode (if supported) + Under linux, you can use hdparm to check this, for example + + hdparm /dev/hda + + => + ... + using_dma = 1 (on) + + more information about this may be found here: + + http://oreilly.linux.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html + +- xine needs high speed memory access which depends on your chip set. + Make sure you enable all speed-improving options. + + especially the via apollo pro chipset is known to be quite weird, + (most of all on my gigabyte board). If you can't configure the ram + access thoroughly using the bios you might want to try some really + nasty tricks, as explained on (for example) + http://www.overclockers.com/tips105/index03.asp + this website centers around a windows-tool to tweak the chipset, + you can do the same on FreeBSD with pciconf. On some linux + distributions there are similar tools. + + please contact heiko if you have any problems or tips about via + apollo pro chipset tweaking. + +- a nice performance tuning tool can be found here: + + http://powertweak.sourceforge.net + +- enable MTRR support in your kernel. If you are still using XFree 3.x, + you'll have to tell the kernel yourself where the graphics memory is. + You'll find details about that in the linux dvd howto. + + If you're using XFree 4.x enabling MTRR support should be enough. + + Try a cat /proc/mtrr - if the file exists and you find an entry + corresponding to the amount of graphics memory you have, everything + should be fine. + +- set up and use raw devices for dvd access + + raw devices should be available in linux kernel 2.4.x and there + are patches for older kernels available from + + ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/sct/raw-io/ + + to use raw devices, first connect a free raw device to your dvd + device, use something like + + raw /dev/raw1 /dev/hdc + + then create a link named "rdvd" pointing to that raw device + + ln -s /dev/raw1 /dev/rdvd + + +Now how do I get this Xv extension to work? +------------------------------------------- + +First you need to install/use XFree 4.x. Once you got that you have to +make sure the XFree drivers you're using are supporting Xv on your +hardware. Here are some locations to look for suitable drivers: + +g200/g400 : xfree 4.x supports these out-of-the-box +nvidia cards : www.nvidia.com (the've got binary drivers) +ATI cards : GATOS www.linuxvideo.org/gatos/ +i815 : the latest xfree 4.x code supports these +3dfx (voodoo): the latest xfree 4.x code supports these + + +The AC3 via S/PDIF does not work with my soundcard +--------------------------------------------------- + +The AC3 via S/PDIF is supported by ALSA only for soundcards +with Trident 4DWaveNX and YMF chips. So if you have a +soundcard with one of these chips use + +xine -S -A alsa + +The -S switch disables the internal AC3 decoder. For very +slow machines you could improve video playback (without +sound) when you start xine as + +xine -S -A null + + + +where and how do I get the latest development version? +------------------------------------------------------ + +check it out of our CVS: + +cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine login + +<empty password> + +cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine co xine-lib +cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.xine.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/xine co xine-ui + + + +How do I use the dvd plugin? +---------------------------- + +First of all: +The dvd plugin delivered with xine currently does not support playback +of locked and/or encrypted dvds. You will need external programs +or something like an "improved" xine_dvd_plugin to view these +DVDs with xine directly. Of course you could +play back the decrypted mpeg2 stream (technically speaking) that is the +movie on the dvd with xine with the help of additional programs. +Due to the uncertain legal situation regarding css encryption we do +not include anything of that nature in the xine distribution, nor do +we generally endorse the use of such software (you should check if +the use of such software is legal where you live). +We hope that this situation will change soon. + +For unlocked/unencrypted dvds it is a good idea first to check what +files are on the dvd by mounting it. The files are called something +like .../VIDEO_TS/VTS_xx_x.VOB, where x are numbers. +If you look for the big .VOB files on a dvd these are probably where the +movie is in. Currently we don't support seamless playback of complete +movies - you will have to play back all of its individual parts. + +To play that VOB file use something like + +xine dvd://VTS_xx_x.VOB + +make sure you do not supply any path name (no VIDEO_TS/) and use +capital letters for the file name. + +xine tries to open the dvd using /dev/cdrom. On freebsd this will only +work if you create a symlink to your dvd-devicenode for the time being. + + +unable to open dvd drive (/dev/dvd) +----------------------------------- + +You probalby don't have /dev/dvd (check that). If so, simply +create a link /dev/dvd that points to your DVD device. +Something like + +cd /dev +ln -s hdc dvd + +should do the job. + + +The aspect ratio is wrong! +-------------------------- + +Try pressing "A" to toggle the aspect ratio + + + +How do I play streams from STDIN ? +---------------------------------- + +use something like + +cat stream.mpg | xine stdin://mpeg1 + +or, if you've got an mpeg-2 stream use + +cat stream.vob | xine stdin://mpeg2 + + +How do I change the skin? +------------------------- + +Run xine at least once - it should write it's config file +.xinerc to your home directory. Now edit that file and change +the line "skin:default" to mach the skin you would like to use. + + +How can I change color/brightness/contrast? +------------------------------------------- + +At the moment this is only supported on some Xv drivers. You'll find +three entries like these in our ~/.xinerc: + +brightness:0 +saturation:0 +contrast:128 + +the values and possible ranges depend on your Xv driver so you'll have +to experiment a bit to get a good picture. + + +Some parts of my X Desktop get transparent when xine plays the video! +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Looks like some colors on your GUI match the colorkey Xv uses. You can +change the colorkey value to avoid this. There should be a line like + +colorkey:2110 + +to your ~/.xinerc where you can change the color that's used by xine +for the video overlay. + + +I get no sound, but "audio driver 'oss' failed, using null driver instead." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +First of all, make sure that your OSS Audio drivers are working (ie you can +play music with other software). + +The most common reason for this is that some other program is accesing your +audio device. If you're using linux, the command "fuser /dev/dsp" should give +you the PID of the process. + +If you are using GNOME, chances are, that this is caused by ESD. Now you +have two possibilities. Either deactivate ESD (temporarily) by right +clicking on the sound monitor applet and selecting "Place Esound in +standby". Then xine will use OSS audio output. The other method is to make +xine use ESD for audio output with + +xine -A esd + +This may result in more jerkier playback, so the first method is the +preferred one. + + +i have problems when using xine on FreeBSD, Solaris +--------------------------------------------------- + +check out the the corresponding README files in the doc directory + + +I think I found a bug! +---------------------- + +xine is still under heavy developement. Please be patient. +If you got time, please contact us and send us a full bug report. +Please include all xine console output and some details about +your hardware and operating system. + +You can reach us via email: + + Xine Mailing List <xine-user@lists.sourceforge.net> |