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jaimzedup · Dec 1, 2004, 07:32 PM

Just ordered an ibook, and I need a rock solid media player.
I've read good things about both mplayer and vlc, and many people report using them both. But if they are both good, why do you need both of them?
Also, I'm used to the PC world of installing a codec for every single type of file i want to play. Do I have to install comparable codecs on my new mac?
I'll need to play all kinds of files: mpegs, avis, wmvs, divx, and so on. What player would be best for all these files? And with this new player, which codecs (hopefully not too many) are essential and where can they be found? Thanks for your help.

Mike S. · Dec 1, 2004, 07:40 PM

I use both because sometimes one will inexplicably play a file that the other will not despite them being based on the same core code.

They're the most compatible players but I'll use QT when possible. The only codecs I've manually installed for QT are DivX and 3iVX. Some types of files can't be played on a Mac with any of the players; usually because they're using some obscure codec that's just not available for anything but Windows.

juanvaldes · Dec 1, 2004, 08:41 PM

Used to use both for the above posted reason. But for the last year or two I have only needed VLC. Handles everything I throw at it.

jaimzedup · Dec 1, 2004, 08:53 PM

Originally posted by juanvaldes:
Used to use both for the above posted reason. But for the last year or two I have only needed VLC. Handles everything I throw at it.

Do you just install the program and go for it? Or do you need to also install various codecs?

OptimusG4 · Dec 1, 2004, 09:05 PM

VLC is just the standalone app with everything already included. I haven't had any need for external codecs yet.

larkost · Dec 1, 2004, 10:15 PM

Just to be pedantic:

mpeg's (mpg) could be MPEG 1, MPEG 2, or MPEG 4 all of which are handled in QuickTime. At the moment most of the files you will probably find are MPEG 4. All of these are full standards and should be playable on a large array of players. Specifically MPEG 4 is handled by WindowsMedia Player, VLC, and Mplayer (among others).

avi's are an old standard from Microsoft and are playable by QuickTime. However, people have been using it's shell format to stuff Divx and the like into. The fact that this violates the spec and breaks software seems to be something a lot of people don't care about. Without adding codecs QuickTime does not handle this. VLC and MPlayer can handle some of this.

... and that brings us to the main point... Divx. This was a developer preview of Microsoft's submission to the MPEG group as their candidate for the MPEG 4 format. Despite the fact that this code was never licensed from Microsoft (stolen is not far off the mark), and was retracted when the official spec came out, a bunch of hacked-up implementations survived and became the basis of divix and 3vix among others. And there were a lot of others... and insane amount of mutually incompatible nearly-MPEG 4 codecs.

In the mean time the final standard for MPEG 4 is long since out (choose the Quicktime Format BTW), and most of the major groups (3vix et all) have migrated their codecs so that they product standard MPEG 4. The have also rewritten their code so that it does not include the code from Microsoft. However, there are still all of those old codecs producing an awful lot of junk... and most of that is coming out of the Windows side.

Both VLC and MPlayer collect a number of these variations together so that you don't have to fiddle as much.

Oh.. and wmvs is WindowsMedis. Sometime people put this tag on MPEG 4's because Windows Media Player plays that format as well. If it is real wmv, the you need to use Windows Media Player.

jaimzedup · Dec 1, 2004, 11:01 PM

Thanks for the prompt replies. It looks like I'm going to go with WMP for wmv files and VLC for everything else. Hopefully those two will handle anything I throw at it. Mplayer sounds like a very good player too but I like the fact that all the codecs are already included in VLC so I've chosen it for convenience (I've had a lot of trouble on my PC with codecs and what not).

mhuie · Dec 2, 2004, 10:10 AM

IMO, mplayer handles WMV files better than VLC and WMP.
For everything else, I use VLC

jaimzedup · Dec 2, 2004, 11:04 AM

Originally posted by mhuie:
IMO, mplayer handles WMV files better than VLC and WMP.
For everything else, I use VLC

Interesting. I was under the impression that wmv had to be played on WMP. Will I need to install the corresponding codec for Mplayer for wmv's?

monkeybrain · Dec 2, 2004, 11:43 AM

Originally posted by jaimzedup:
Interesting. I was under the impression that wmv had to be played on WMP. Will I need to install the corresponding codec for Mplayer for wmv's?

No, I don't think you do. The best thing to do is just have VLC, Mplayer, WMP, and Quicktime of course all on your Mac. None of them take up much space. I use VLC for most things, but fall back on one of the others for anything it can't handle.

Oh, and thanks for that explanation larkost. Why does video have to be so complex? Can't there just be a standard that everyone uses? Well I guess the answer to that is 'no' as long as the Wintel community continues to run the show.

JKT · Dec 2, 2004, 12:21 PM

VLC and MPlayer can't play the latest versions of the WMV codec, they can only play versions 3 (IIRC) and earlier.

Uncle Skeleton · Dec 2, 2004, 12:23 PM

no the answer is "no, as long as you want a better product and don't want to be stuck using only Cinepak or some other awful thing forever." Video and the compression of it is a complicated thing, and progress requires you to be flexible enough to accept new products, and be grateful for their benefits.

larkost · Dec 2, 2004, 01:08 PM

I think that the answer to monkeybrain's question is two part. The first part is basically what Uncle Skeleton said: new codecs take advantage of better techniques, and more often than not, better processors. We are still a long way off from getting the best of either side of that equation.

That being said, there are standard bodies out there (MPEG being an example) whose goal it is to make things interoperable. MPEG's main goal is to allow inter-device interoperability (think: computers, DVD players, cell phones, etc). To do so they often have to compromise on the CPU side. In fact given the much better processors available on computers there are much better codecs available than MPEG 4 out there (in terms of file-size for the same quality).

Now the main problem in this conversation is that a bunch of people wanted to jump the gun on the MPEG 4 standard, and wound up producing a mess of incompatible codecs.

Spheric Harlot · Dec 2, 2004, 01:55 PM

There are always two great dangers to any true computer-related standard:

Microsoft and idiots in the wild.

Toyin · Dec 2, 2004, 10:29 PM

I use Mplayer and VLC. They play every file I've thrown at them except newer wmv files. If you get VLC, try to get 0.7x versions. I've found 0.8 builds to be a little buggier.

Sarc · Dec 2, 2004, 11:59 PM

I have mplayer and VLC around.
mplayer is my default player only because I find inmensly useful the timeline navigation using the arrows, fast and accurate.

aside from that, I use VLC to watch movies on my TV (as it supports multiple screens and I can watch fullscreen video on the TV while, for example, chatting on my powerbook screen).