Playing Audio and Video Files with FreeBSD
Pages: 1, 2, 3
To augment plugger's audio/video support, I'll install three
more applications from the ports collection: realplayer,
divxplayer, and netshow. Each of these applications
can be used as stand-alone players. They can also be called by Mozilla to play
files directly from the browser.
The following chart shows which extensions I've successfully been able to play through Mozilla and which application provided the necessary support:
program mov avi mp4 rm ram mpg mp3 m3u asf asx wma wmv plugger X X X X X realplayer X C X C divxPlayer X X X netshow ? ? ?
The C means choppy; I found that realplayer spent a lot of
time buffering RAM and m3u files when played directly over the Internet. Your
mileage will probably vary depending upon the speed of your Internet
connection. However, plugger seemed to buffer m3u files nicely and
played without choppiness. If I downloaded a RAM file and then played it
through realplayer, it played without choppiness. I'll explain
the ? in the chart when I describe the netshow port.
Let's start with the realplayer port. In order to install this
port, you must first verify that your system is running Linux emulation:
$ pkg_info | grep linux
linux_base-7.1_1 The base set of packages needed in Linux modeIf you don't receive this output, install the Linux base:
$ cd /usr/ports/emulators/linux_base
$ make install cleanIf you're running an older version of the Linux base, remove the old version before installing the latest version:
$ pkg_delete linux_base-"yournumber"Replace "yournumber" with whatever version you received when you ran the
above pkg_info command. Better yet, if you have learned how to use
cvsup and portupgrade, let portupgrade
upgrade the port for you.
Once you have the latest Linux base, you can install
realplayer. This utility does have license restrictions, so first
visit the Real.com
website. You'll be prompted to fill in a short registration form. When you
choose your OS, select Linux 2.x(libc6 i386) RPM and save your download to:
/usr/ports/distfiles/rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2_rpm. Then:
$ cd /usr/ports/audio/linux-realplayer
$ make install cleanOnce you've installed the port, exit the superuser account and as your regular user:
$ cd /usr/local/lib/RealPlayer8
$ ./mimeinstall.sh
$ ./pluginstall.shThe executable will be installed to /usr/local/bin/realplay.
If you already have a Window Manager open when you install
realplayer, close it and restart it before using the program for
the first time.
This utility can be used as a stand-alone player that supports several file formats: rm, ram, mp3, and m3u. If you've never used it before, the Real.com channel list is a good place to start your experimentations.
If you have a fast Internet connection, you can play files directly over
the Internet. Otherwise, save the file to disk and then use
realplayer to play it.
Next, I'll install the DivX player. Again, note that this port requires the latest Linux base in order to install.
$ /usr/ports/graphics/linux-divxplayer
$ make install cleanThe executable will be installed to /usr/X11R6/bin/divxPlayer.
The "P" in the filename is case-sensitive. This player can be used as a
stand-alone player for movies that you have downloaded and saved to disk. When
downloading the movie, it may have an avi, mov, or mp4 extension. Make sure
that it was advertised as a DivX movie as this player will hang if you try to
use it to play a Quicktime movie. On my system, I've made separate directories
called DivX and Quicktime, so I remember which movies are which.
To get you started on DivX movies, try these sites:
http://www.divx.com/movies/
http://www.divxmovies.com/trailers/
If you're using the plugger port, it also plays DivX movies.
This means if you click on a movie link, the movie will play in your browser.
If you want to instead download the movie to play it later with
divxPlayer, right click on the link and choose "Save link target
as." Remember to save it to remember that it is a DivX movie.
Sometimes you'll come across zipped movies. For example, all of the
trailers at divxmovies.com are zipped. You won't be able to play a zipped movie
directly from the browser, and you'll have to unzip it before you can play it
with divxPlayer. Even though the movies will have a
zip extension, you can still unzip it from your FreeBSD system
using the unzip utility. You may already have this utility if
you've installed a port that uses it. To see if you do, use this command:
$ pkg_info | grep unzip
unzip-5.50 List, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archiveIf you don't get any results back, install the utility like so:
$ /usr/ports/archivers/unzip
$ make install cleanNow, whenever you need to unzip a file with a zip extension, simply do this:
$ unzip name_of_file.zipFinally, the netshow port:
$ cd /usr/ports/graphics/netshow
$ make install cleanThe executable will be installed to /usr/X11R6/bin/netshow.
This player is intended to play Windows media file formats. Now, why did I put
question marks in my chart? I think I didn't have any problems playing these
files as netshow didn't complain. It told me it was buffering, and
the little slider bar dutifully informed me how much of the file it was
playing. However, the video consisted of a line about 1 mm wide. I assume that
line should have been a larger screen displaying the video. And there was no
audio. Now, this is the same computer that mplayer didn't like, so
perhaps your mileage will vary. I'd be interested in hearing your experiences
with this application.
