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<chapter id="install">
<title>Installation</title>

<para>
A quick installation guide can be found in the <filename>README</filename>
file. Please read it first and then come back here for the rest of the gory
details.
</para>

<para>
In this section you will be guided through the compilation and configuration
process of <application>MPlayer</application>. It's not easy, but it won't
necessarily be hard. If you experience a behavior different from this
description, please search through this documentation and you'll find your
answers.
</para>


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<sect1 id="softreq">
<title>Software requirements</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">binutils</emphasis> - recommended version is
  <emphasis role="bold">2.11.x</emphasis>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">gcc</emphasis> - recommended versions are 2.95
  and 3.4+. 2.96 and 3.0.x are known to generate faulty code, 3.1 and
  3.2 also had problems, 3.3 some minor ones. On PowerPC, use 4.x.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">Xorg/XFree86</emphasis> - recommended version is
  4.3 or later. Make sure the
  <emphasis role="bold">development packages</emphasis> are installed,
  too, otherwise it won't work.
  You don't absolutely need X, some video output drivers work without it.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">make</emphasis> - recommended version is
  3.79.x or later. To build the XML documentation you need 3.80.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">FreeType</emphasis> - optional,
  required to have a font for the OSD and subtitles. At least 2.0.9 is required.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libjpeg</emphasis> - optional JPEG en/decoder,
  required for the JPEG video output driver and decoding MJPEG video
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libpng</emphasis> - optional (M)PNG en/decoder,
  required for the GUI and the PNG video output driver
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">lame</emphasis> - 3.90 or later is recommended,
  necessary for encoding MP3 audio with <application>MEncoder</application>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">zlib</emphasis> - recommended, necessary for compressed
  MOV header and PNG support
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold"><ulink url="http://www.live555.com/mplayer/">LIVE555 Streaming Media</ulink></emphasis>
  - optional, needed for some RTSP/RTP streams
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">directfb</emphasis> - optional, use 0.9.13 or later.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">cdparanoia</emphasis> - optional, for CDDA support
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libxmms</emphasis> - optional, for XMMS input plugin
  support. At least 1.2.7 is required.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">libsmb</emphasis> - optional, for smb networking support
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">ALSA</emphasis> - optional, for ALSA audio output
  support. At least 0.9.0rc4 is required.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>


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<sect1 id="features">
<title>Features</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  Decide if you need GUI. If you do, see the <link linkend="gui">GUI</link>
  section before compiling.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  If you want to install <application>MEncoder</application> (our great
  all-purpose encoder), see the
  <link linkend="mencoder"><application>MEncoder</application></link> section.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  If you have a V4L compatible <emphasis role="bold">TV tuner</emphasis> card,
  and wish to watch/grab and encode movies with
  <application>MPlayer</application>,
  read the <link linkend="tv-input">TV input</link> section.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  If you have a V4L compatible <emphasis role="bold">radio tuner</emphasis>
  card, and wish to listen and capture sound with
  <application>MPlayer</application>,
  read the <link linkend="radio">radio</link> section.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  There is a neat <emphasis role="bold">OSD Menu</emphasis> support ready to be
  used. Check the <link linkend="subosd">OSD menu</link> section.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>
Then build <application>MPlayer</application>:
<screen>
./configure
make
make install
</screen>
</para>

<para>
At this point, <application>MPlayer</application> is ready to use. The
directory <filename class="directory">$PREFIX/share/mplayer</filename>
contains the <filename>codecs.conf</filename> file, which is used to tell
the program all the codecs and their capabilities. This file is needed only
when you want to change its properties, as the main binary contains an internal
copy of it. Check if you have
<filename>codecs.conf</filename> in your home directory
(<filename>~/.mplayer/codecs.conf</filename>) left from old
<application>MPlayer</application> versions, and remove it.
</para>

<para>
Note that if you have a <filename>codecs.conf</filename> in
<filename>~/.mplayer/</filename>,  the builtin and system
<filename>codecs.conf</filename> will be ignored completely.
Do not do this unless you want to fiddle with <application>MPlayer</application>
internals as this can can cause many problems. If you want to change the codecs
search order, use the <option>-vc</option>, <option>-ac</option>,
<option>-vfm</option>, or <option>-afm</option> options either on the command
line or in your config file (see the manual page).
</para>

<para>
Debian users can build a .deb package for themselves, it's very simple.
Just exec
<screen>fakeroot debian/rules binary</screen>
in <application>MPlayer</application>'s root directory. See
<link linkend="debian">Debian packaging</link> for detailed instructions.
</para>

<para>
<emphasis role="bold">Always browse the output of</emphasis>
<filename>./configure</filename>, and the
<filename>configure.log</filename> file, they contain information about
what will be built, and what will not. You may also want to view
<filename>config.h</filename> and <filename>config.mak</filename> files.
If you have some libraries installed, but not detected by
<filename>./configure</filename>, then check if you also have the proper
header files (usually the -dev packages) and their version matches. The
<filename>configure.log</filename> file usually tells you what is missing.
</para>

<para>
Though not mandatory, the fonts should be installed in order to gain OSD,
and subtitle functionality. The recommended method is installing a TTF
font file and telling <application>MPlayer</application> to use it.
See the <link linkend="subosd">Subtitles and OSD</link> section for details.
</para>
</sect1>


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<sect1 id="gui">
<title>What about the GUI?</title>

<para>
The GUI needs GTK 1.2.x or GTK 2.0 (it isn't fully GTK, but the panels are).
The skins are stored in PNG format, so GTK,
<systemitem class="library">libpng</systemitem> (and their devel stuff, usually
called <systemitem class="library">gtk-dev</systemitem>
and <systemitem class="library">libpng-dev</systemitem>) has to be installed.
You can build it by specifying <option>--enable-gui</option> during
<filename>./configure</filename>. Then, to turn on GUI mode, you have to
execute the <command>gmplayer</command> binary.
</para>

<para>
As <application>MPlayer</application> doesn't have a skin included, you
have to download them if you want to use the GUI. See the <ulink
url="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/dload.html">download page</ulink>.
They should be extracted to the usual system-wide directory (<filename
class="directory">$PREFIX/share/mplayer/skins</filename>), or to <filename
class="directory">$HOME/.mplayer/skins</filename>.
<application>MPlayer</application> by default looks in these directories
for a directory named <filename class="directory">default</filename>, but
you can use the <option>-skin <replaceable>newskin</replaceable></option>
option, or the <literal>skin=newskin</literal> config file directive to use
the skin in <filename class="directory">*/skins/newskin</filename>
directory.
</para>
</sect1>


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<sect1 id="fonts-osd">
<title>Fonts and OSD</title>

<para>
You need to tell <application>MPlayer</application> which font to use to
enjoy OSD and subtitles. Any TrueType font or special bitmap fonts will
work. However, TrueType fonts are recommended as they look far better,
can be properly scaled to the movie size and cope better with different
encodings.
</para>

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<sect2 id="truetype-fonts">
<title>TrueType fonts</title>

<para>
There are two ways to get TrueType fonts to work. The first is to pass
the <option>-font</option> option to specify a TrueType font file on
the command line. This option will be a good candidate to put in your
configuration file (see the manual page for details).
The second is to create a symlink called <filename>subfont.ttf</filename>
to the font file of your choice. Either
<screen>
ln -s <replaceable>/path/to/sample_font.ttf</replaceable> ~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf
</screen>
for each user individually or a system-wide one:
<screen>
ln -s <replaceable>/path/to/sample_font.ttf</replaceable> $PREFIX/share/mplayer/subfont.ttf
</screen>
</para>

<para>
If <application>MPlayer</application> was compiled with
<systemitem class="library">fontconfig</systemitem> support, the above methods
won't work, instead <option>-font</option> expects a
<systemitem class="library">fontconfig</systemitem> font name
and defaults to the sans-serif font. Example:
<screen>
mplayer -font <replaceable>'Bitstream Vera Sans'</replaceable> <replaceable>anime.mkv</replaceable>
</screen>
</para>

<para>
To get a list of fonts known to
<systemitem class="library">fontconfig</systemitem>,
use <command>fc-list</command>.
</para>
</sect2>

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<sect2 id="bitmap-fonts">
<title>bitmap fonts</title>

<para>
If for some reason you wish or need to employ bitmap fonts, download a set
from our homepage. You can choose between various
<ulink url="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/fonts/">ISO fonts</ulink>
and some sets of fonts
<ulink url="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/contrib/fonts/">contributed by users</ulink>
in various encodings.
</para>

<para>
Uncompress the file you downloaded to
<filename class="directory">~/.mplayer</filename> or
<filename class="directory">$PREFIX/share/mplayer</filename>.
Then rename or symlink one of the extracted directories to
<filename class="directory">font</filename>, for example:
<screen>
ln -s <replaceable>~/.mplayer/arial-24</replaceable> ~/.mplayer/font
</screen>
<screen>
ln -s <replaceable>$PREFIX/share/mplayer/arial-24</replaceable> $PREFIX/share/mplayer/font
</screen>
</para>

<para>
Fonts should have an appropriate <filename>font.desc</filename> file
which maps unicode font positions to the actual code page of the
subtitle text. Another solution is to have UTF-8-encoded subtitles
and use the <option>-utf8</option> option or give the subtitles
file the same name as your video file with a <filename>.utf</filename>
extension and have it in the same directory as the video file.
</para>
</sect2>

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<sect2 id="osdmenu">
<title>OSD menu</title>

<para>
<application>MPlayer</application> has a completely user definiable
OSD Menu interface.
</para>

<note><para>
the Preferences menu is currently UNIMPLEMENTED!
</para></note>

<orderedlist>
<title>Installation</title>
<listitem><para>
  compile <application>MPlayer</application> by passing the
  <option>--enable-menu</option> to <filename>./configure</filename>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  make sure you have an OSD font installed
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  copy <filename>etc/menu.conf</filename> to your
  <filename class="directory">.mplayer</filename> directory
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  copy <filename>etc/input.conf</filename> to your
  <filename class="directory">.mplayer</filename> directory, or to the
  system-wide <application>MPlayer</application> config dir (default:
  <filename class="directory">/usr/local/etc/mplayer</filename>)
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  check and edit <filename>input.conf</filename> to enable menu movement keys
  (it is described there).
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  start <application>MPlayer</application> by the following example:
  <screen>mplayer -menu <replaceable>file.avi</replaceable></screen>
  </para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
  push any menu key you defined
</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect2>
</sect1>


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<sect1 id="rtc">
<title>RTC</title>

<para>
There are three timing methods in <application>MPlayer</application>.

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">To use the old method</emphasis>, you don't have to do
  anything. It uses <systemitem>usleep()</systemitem> to tune
  A/V sync, with +/- 10ms accuracy. However sometimes the sync has to be
  tuned even finer.
</para></listitem>
<listitem>
  <para>
  <emphasis role="bold">The new timer</emphasis> code uses the RTC (RealTime
  Clock) for this task, because it has precise 1ms timers.
  The <option>-rtc</option> option enables it,
  but a properly set up kernel is required.
  If you are running kernel 2.4.19pre8 or later you can adjust the maximum RTC
  frequency for normal users through the <systemitem class="systemname">/proc
  </systemitem> filesystem. Use one of the following two commands to
  enable RTC for normal users:
  <screen>echo 1024 &gt; /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq</screen>
  <screen>sysctl dev/rtc/max-user-freq=1024</screen>
  You can make this setting permanent by adding the latter to
  <filename>/etc/sysctl.conf</filename>.
  </para>
  <para>
  You can see the new timer's efficiency in the status line.
  The power management functions of some notebook BIOSes with speedstep CPUs
  interact badly with RTC. Audio and video may get out of sync. Plugging the
  external power connector in before you power up your notebook seems to help.
  In some hardware combinations (confirmed during usage of non-DMA DVD drive
  on an ALi1541 board) usage of the RTC timer causes skippy playback. It's
  recommended to use the third method in these cases.
  </para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>
  <emphasis role="bold">The third timer code</emphasis> is turned on with the
  <option>-softsleep</option> option. It has the efficiency of the RTC, but it
  doesn't use RTC. On the other hand, it requires more CPU.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>

</chapter>
