Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > Xine claims to play CDs, DVDs, and streaming audio.
>
> I don't like it as well as MPlayer. It needs many different
> things:
>
> # ldd /usr/bin/xine
>        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40024000)
>        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40034000)
>        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x4003d000)
>        libpng12.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 (0x40054000)
>        libxineutils.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxineutils.so.0 (0x4007a000)
>        libxine.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxine.so.0 (0x40084000)
>        libz.so.1 => /lib/libz.so.1 (0x400a0000)
>        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i686/libpthread.so.0 (0x400af000)
>        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x400c4000)
>        libXtst.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXtst.so.6 (0x400c7000)
>        libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x400cd000)
>        libm.so.6 => /lib/i686/libm.so.6 (0x40198000)
>        libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x401bb000)
>        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)


The version I found at the slackware package site required four packages 
from /gtk1/ as well.  Maybe it depends how you compile whether you need 
those.  One was for esd.  I will add those and see if it works.

 >
> This version I have ^ has trouble playing files that MPlayer works
> correctly with.

Where did you get this version and which number is it?

> > I found xine packages at linuxpackages.net.  They seem to be up to
> > 1.0.1 on xine-lib (for 9.1-10.1) - is that needed in addition to
> > xine?  I found gxine 0.3.3-0.4.4 for SW9.0 9.1 and 10.1 And PLAIN
> > xine 0.4.3 for SW 7 with a two star rating (four is better).
>
> xine is the usual reference to the standard frontend, which is a GUI
> which runs under X11. xine-lib is the actual player.


Could it be used without a gui frontend to play music?

> > Download link:  http:/www.linuxpackages.net/download.php?id=494
> >
> > To play dvds with xine they advise 400MHz PII, also libcss and dvd
> > plugin 'available from this site'
>
> Usually advised with any player.
>
> > In order to download with lynx from this site I had to edit
> > lynx.cfg by addinging REFERER_WITH_QUERY:PARTIAL as instructed when
> > I tried to download.  Lynx.config says the sites requiring this are
> > not properly constructed and this is a workaround.
> >
> > The xine directory for SW7 contains:
> > dvdlibcss.tgz  Feb 23 2001 26K  - the parts you need to add.
>
> Needed for commercial DVDs. MPlayer has this built-in.

> > xine-0.3.7.tgz Feb 23 2001 482K - older version
> > xine.tgz       May 19 2001 527K - more recent version (4 years old)
> >
> > I will try to get this working with BL2.  It offers a choice of four
> > skins with lots of png files, totalling 628K.  It seems to be gui only.
> >
> > Tho the site says the only dependency is libz, ldd produced a page
> > full of dependencies:  The usal ones needed for other X programs,
> > libjpeg, png and tiff, but also (I don't have these):
> > libImlib.so.1    - 186K in /gtk1/imlib.tgz
>
> For loading images.

It refused to play a music file without this.  Is this something needed by 
the gui and is there a way do use it without the gui?

> > libungif.so.4    - 104K in /gtk1/libungif.tgz
> > libesd.so.0     - 30K in /gtk1/esound.tgz
>
> ESD. Blah.

They advised against esd but I doubt xine will load without the library, 
unless maybe you can compile it to do so.


> > libaudiofile.so.0. - 66K in /gtk1/audiofil.tgz
> >
> > Supported audio formats include OSS and ALSO and artsd and esd but
> > esd is NOT RECOMMENDED.
>
> esd is fairly high latency and has serious sync problems.
>
> > Maybe it will work without that library at least.
>
> Doubtful. If it's listed in ldd it won't run without it.

Phooey.  Well, I am still under 4MB.  Beats Realplayer any day.

> > Xine binary expands to 874K, plus about 150K per ski skins and 100K
> > of plugin .so libraries.  If you need to add the above four
> > dependency libraries it is another 350K or so, totalling about
> > 1.5M, much smaller than mplayer despite being gui.  Plus
> > documentation.
> >
> > Can I delete all the .la files and keep just .so if I am not
> > compiling for some program based on xine?
>
> Yes. .la files are not even needed by all compiling situations.


> > I will install the above libraries and test this on a realaudio
> > file (which I would rather play from the command line with mplayer).
>
> I doubt that it has very good realaudio support.

I could not figure out what version is the current one.  This seems to be 
a few years old.  It might play older Realaudio formats at least.
Maybe the most recent version would play better than what you have?

> > The details say it supports mpg ogg wav realaudio voc vox png etc.
> > No mention of Windows media format, but they are working on a Windows xine.
>
> IIRC Windows media is limited to audio.

I don't want streaming video.  Only reason to play DVDs is that our 
stupidly designed free DVD/TV will only play the first of several episodes 
on one library DVD unless you buy a remote control to operate the onscreen 
menu.  I am after a way to listen to internet radio.  I now have five 
streaming MP3 stations but they are all US and I like to listen to other 
languages.  We do have a local Albanian-language program at least.