Downloading, Compiling and Installing MPlayer on a Ubuntu System

We are going to download MPlayer sources and binary codecs, configure, compile and install them on our Ubuntu system.

I do not want a graphical interface, so I will compile MPlayer without it.

DOWNLOADING MPLAYER SOURCES

We first download the sources: (I pick up the latest source version, if it does not work pick up latest stable one)

(I choose to download it from a German mirror: MPlayer source download page)
$wget http://www7.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/mplayer-export-snapshot.tar.bz2

DOWNLOADING BINARY CODECS

MPlayer binary codecs download page

As I have a Linux x86 platform ,I choose its corresponding package:
$wget http://www7.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/essential-20071007.tar.bz2

This page shows an updated list of supported codecs: Codec Status page


In order to install the binary codecs

We create the directory where we will place the codecs:
$sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs

We untar the codecs and then move them into their place:
$tar xvfj essential-20071007.tar.bz2
$cd essential-20071007/
$sudo cp * /usr/local/lib/codecs

CONFIGURING OSD FONTS

To be able to support truetype fonts:
$sudo aptitude install libfreetype6-dev

Look after this directory to find some fonts on your system: /usr/share/fonts/...
To install some fonts: $sudo aptitude install ttf-freefont

Now we create a symlink to the font file we choose:
$cd #We go to our home directory:
$mkdir .mplayer
$cd .mplayer
$ln -s /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf subfont.ttf

Our subtitle font will be automatically selected


NOTE: Another way to select a font file is using -font switch when executing mplayer command.
e.g: $mplayer -font /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf -vo x11 -framedrop ....

Some more font configuration info.

COMPILING MPLAYER SOURCES

First we untar the sources:
$tar xvfj mplayer-export-snapshot.tar.bz2
$cd mplayer-export-2008-08-13/

We choose and add some video drivers:
x11 support ----> $sudo aptitude install libx11-dev libxext-dev
Xv support -----> $sudo aptitude install libxv-dev
AA library support ----> $sudo aptitude install libaa1-dev
Alsa sound support ----> $sudo aptitude install libasound2-dev
Add ogg theora support ----> $sudo aptitude install libogg-dev libtheora-dev

Avoid X screensaver activation.
$sudo aptitude install libxss-dev

And finally configure, compile and install mplayer:
$./configure
$make
$sudo make install


Now we can enjoy our multimedia files:
e.g $mplayer -vo xv -framedrop -sub foo.srt foo.avi

NOTE: If you want to switch off MPlayer console messages pass this argument -msglevel all=0 when calling mplayer command.
e.g $mplayer -vo xv -framedrop -msglevel all=0 -sub foo.srt foo.avi

You can obtain more info executing $man mplayer.


NOTE: Mplayer also provides mencoder utility, which you can use to encode multimedia files.

REFERENCE URLS:

MPlayer official site.
Installation instructions from MPlayer site. This text is also available within MPlayer sources.

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