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163 lines
6.9 KiB
163 lines
6.9 KiB
<sect1 id="howto-configuration">
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<title>Basic configuration</title>
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<para>As a general rule, the initial &kplayer; settings are chosen for optimal
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performance and playback, so no additional setup is needed. However, in some
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cases changing the initial settings can improve &kplayer; performance.</para>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-video">
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<title>Video setup</title>
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<para>XVideo is the video output &kplayer; uses by default. For many systems
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this is the optimal choice. Make sure your X Server has XVideo extension
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enabled. Look in your <filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
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<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</filename> file for a line that reads</para>
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<para><userinput>Load "extmod"</userinput></para>
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<para>This is the line that loads the XVideo extension, so make sure it is not
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disabled. Also check <filename>/var/log/Xorg.0.log</filename> or
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<filename>/var/log/XFree86.0.log</filename> to make sure that XVideo is loaded
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without error.</para>
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<para>If &kplayer; cannot use XVideo for any reason, it will fall back on using
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X11 video output in the default configuration. X11 output is OK except it forces
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the use of software scaler, which will consume significantly more processor
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cycles, and it does not support changing contrast, brightness, hue and
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saturation, so those controls will not be functional.</para>
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<para>Depending on your video card, you may find that a different
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&mplayer; video output type(s) work better for you. For example you can try
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VIDIX output if you have a Matrox or ATI card. For Matrox cards there is also
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XMGA output.</para>
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<para>You can change the video output type on the
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<link linkend="settings-video">Video page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
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Settings</guilabel>. However, some video outputs may not support embedding video
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into &kplayer; and will open their own window instead. Those video outputs are
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not recommended.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-audio">
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<title>Audio setup</title>
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<para>The optimal audio output to use with &kplayer; is <acronym>ALSA</acronym>,
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which is the default setting when &kplayer; is first installed.
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If <acronym>ALSA</acronym> is not available, <acronym>OSS</acronym> is the
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second best choice.</para>
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<para>If the audio output is configured correctly, but &kplayer; cannot use it,
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usually it is because another program has locked the audio device. The optimal
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solution for this is to allow multiple programs access the audio device at the
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same time.</para>
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<para>For example, to set up <acronym>ALSA</acronym> to allow more than one
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program to use the same device, put something along these lines into your
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<filename>~/.asourndrc</filename>:</para>
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<screen>pcm.!default
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{
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type dmix
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ipc_key 1234
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slave.pcm "hw:<replaceable>card-name</replaceable>"
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}</screen>
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<para>where <replaceable>card-name</replaceable> is the name of the audio card
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that you can find out by running <userinput><command>cat</command>
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<filename>/proc/asound/cards</filename></userinput>. Before trying the new
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configuration, be sure to stop any programs that are known to lock audio devices
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and keep them locked, for example <userinput><command>killall</command>
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artsd</userinput></para>
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<para>You can change the audio output type on the
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<link linkend="settings-audio">Audio page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
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Settings</guilabel>.</para>
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<para>However, some audio outputs like <acronym>SDL</acronym> or sound server
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outputs like <acronym>ARTS</acronym> or <acronym>ESD</acronym> are not
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recommended since they may cause stability problems, degraded performance and
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a broken volume control.</para>
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<para></para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-mplayer">
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<title>&mplayer; setup</title>
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<para>Depending on how you installed &mplayer; you may have gotten a global
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<filename>mplayer.conf</filename> file in a directory like
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<filename>/etc/mplayer</filename>. The local version of that file is
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<filename>~/.mplayer/config</filename>. Make sure that those files do not have
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a <option>gui=yes</option> option. Remove or comment it out if you find it.
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If you ever want to use &mplayer;'s own <acronym>GUI</acronym> (not
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recommended), you can get it by running <command>gmplayer</command>.</para>
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<para>Also make sure there are no other options that may interfere with
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&kplayer; operation. If you see any, either comment them out or override them
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in <guilabel>&kplayer; Settings</guilabel>.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-smooth">
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<title>Smooth playback</title>
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<para>A while ago Arpi wrote a
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<ulink url="http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/747/">Fine-tuning
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&mplayer;</ulink> article where you can find more useful tips on optimizing
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&mplayer;.</para>
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<para>One thing you can do to get smoother playback is enable the hardware
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<acronym>RTC</acronym> timer. Run</para>
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<para><userinput><command>echo</command> 1024 >
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<filename>/proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq</filename></userinput></para>
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<para>as root, and also make sure <filename>/dev/rtc</filename> is user
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readable.</para>
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<para>Arpi also recommends trying options like <option>-mc 0.001</option> and
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<option>-autosync 30</option>. Put them into the <guilabel>Additional command
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line arguments</guilabel> field on the
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<link linkend="settings-advanced">Advanced page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
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Settings</guilabel> and see if they make a noticeable difference for you.</para>
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<para>The <option>-vop</option> &mplayer; option has since been replaced by the
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<option>-vf</option> option, so that section of the article may be somewhat
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obsolete or the tips may need some adjustment for the current &mplayer;.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-preview">
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<title>Previews in the Open File dialog</title>
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<para>There is some obsolete &kde; based software, like &kaboodle;, that tells
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&kde; that it wants to be used for previewing media files, even those it does
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not support, in the standard <guilabel>Open File</guilabel> dialog, which is
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what &kplayer; uses. This makes browsing directories with media files painfully
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slow, and unfortunately there is no option to turn off previewing selectively
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for certain file types. Even if you turn off the <guilabel>Play
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automatically</guilabel> option, the preview program will still be loaded. The
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workaround is to either turn off previewing in &kplayer; entirely if you don't
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need it, or remove the offending program from your system.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="howto-configuration-donkey">
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<title>Previewing files in &kmldonkey;</title>
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<para>The recent official &mldonkey; <acronym>GUI</acronym>s have been badly
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broken, leaving <ulink url="http://kmldonkey.org/">&kmldonkey;</ulink> as
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the most usable, albeit crashy, &mldonkey; frontend. &kmldonkey; supports
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embedding of &kplayer; for previewing files, but it is recommended that you
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change your <application>mldonkey_preview</application> script to start the
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full &kplayer; for previewing partial downloads, since that will give better
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interface and more options. If &mplayer; cannot play a partial download,
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probably nothing else will, so just wait for a larger chunk to get
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downloaded.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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