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MPlayer, as I had mentioned in my previous post on my Top 3 Audio/Video players, is a media player for Linux, which supports almost all kinds of audio and video formats. It can even play semi-corrupted, and semi-downloaded files. And it rates # 1, as my most favourite and preferred video player.

It is, by creation, a player for Linux, coded by Astral and team. It is essentially a command line operated player, but later on GUIs were introduced for it. Of late, it has GUIs even in Windows, but these GUIs are not very stable, and often destroy the stable credibility of MPlayer. The MPlayer is now available for all operating systems – Linux, Unix based OSes, Windows, and Mac OS X.

How to install MPlayer -

For Linux, go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html . They have a very good explanation on how to install MPlayer on Linux. Of late, MPlayer comes as the default AV(audio/video) player in many Linux distros.

For Mac OS X, go to http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/ . They’ve developed a very good GUI for MPlayer on Mac. Its as simple as download, install, and drag and drop to play.

For Windows, the procedure is a bit more tedious, but worth the effort.

1. Go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html and download the MPlayer 1.0rc2 Windows.
2. After downloading, unzip the package to somewhere easy to remember. For example, unzip it to C:\Program Files\MPlayer so that its easy to locate at a future date.
3. For Windows XP and 2000, go to Step 4. For Windows 98 and previous, go to step 5.
4. Next, go to your Documents and Settings folder. By default, it will be in the root directory, C:\, but could differ if you’ve changed the location or have installed Windows in a different directory. In Documents and Settings, chose the folder which corresponds to your Windows username. i.e. If your Windows username is Geekboy. open the folder Geekboy in the Documents and Settings folder. Inside that folder, there will be a hidden folder called SendTo. If you can see it, open it. If you can’t, either enable the View Hidden Folders (Tools > Folder Options > View > Show Hidden Files and Folders > OK) or append "SendTo" (without the quotes) in the address bar. Go to step 6.
5. (for Windows 98 and previous versions) Go to your Windows folder (by default, it should be C:\Windows\). There will be a hidden folder named "SendTo". Open it. (if you can’t see it, either append SendTo to the address bar, or enable viewing of hidden files by going to Folder Options).
6. Create a shortcut (Right Click > New > Shortcut) and point the shortcut to a file named mplayer.exe in our MPlayer folder (in our example, C:\Program Files\MPlayer\mplayer.exe). You’re all set to go!
7. Now, to play a file using MPlayer, right click on the file, and scroll over Send To  and click Mplayer. Enjoy!

To get an idea of the controls in Windows, go to Interactive Control in the MPlayer Manual.

But here are a few basic controls -

• f – to toggle fullscreen
• arrow keys – to fast forward/rewind
• Page Up and Page Down – to fast forward/rewind by 10 minutes
• p – Pause/Play
• q or Esc – to quit
• / and * OR 9 and 0 - increase and decrease volume
• m – to mute sound
• o – to toggle timer

Those are the basic controls. There are more advanced controls for everything from increase/decrease movie speed to adjusting hue/brightness/colour etc. Check out Interactive Control for more information.

Supported Media Formats

• Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CDs* Container formats: 3GP, AVI, ASF, FLV, Matroska, MOV (QuickTime), MP4, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia
• Video formats: Cinepak, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo, Sorenson, Theora, WMV
• Audio formats: AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Intel Music Coder, Monkey’s Audio, MP3, RealAudio, Shorten, Speex, Vorbis, WMA
• Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, Sami, SRT, SubViewer, VOBsub, VPlayer

I hope that this post was useful and informative. Enjoy the MPlayer world!

[tags]MPlayer, media player for linux, linux media player, MPlayer windows, Windows media, play all formats, movie player, best media player[/tags]

Hello all,

I’ve often been asked which was my favourite AV player. Five years ago, I used to respond with "Winamp" or "Power DVD". But now, I should say, my opinions have changed. And thats why I laugh when people say that their favourite player is Real Player, or QuickTime. Right now, after having used most of the available audio/video playing software, I have formed a few of my favourites. And I thought that I would share them with you…

# 1 – Mplayer

Mplayer – an audio/video player for Linux, comes in as my all time favourite AV player. It can play as many video or audio clips as you want simultaneously. It has never crashed for me. It can play semi downloaded files, files with the wrong extension, and once, it has even played a zipped file! Any file with an audio or video track can be played with Mplayer. On Windows, you need to do a manual install, with a Send To shortcut to make it work. It does not have a GUI, but its amazingly powerful. Visit the Mplayer website for more information. Information on how to install and use Mplayer in your Windows system coming up in my next post.

# 2 – VLC Player

Almost as powerful as Mplayer, with a neat GUI, ladies and gentlemen, in second position comes VLC Player. Cross platform support and freeware – 2 words which make VLC magical! It can, like Mplayer, play isolated DVD files, all sorts of music and video files. But sometimes, especially in case of a defective DVD video file, your system hangs. If you like power, and no fancy stuff, but still a GUI, go in for VLC Player.

# 3 – Windows Media Player 11

Stylish and hot, WMP 11 creates a whole new AV experience for Windows users. Free to install for "genuine" Windows users, this awesome looking player is a complete package for any home user. Vista looks, audio/video tweaking, library feature, sync with music players, stable performance etc. are the main features of WMP 11. It comes in as # 3, even above iTunes, because of its fast and stable performance, cool looks, and easy to use sync feature. You can download WMP 11 from the Microsoft website.

Yes, thats my top 3. I hope that you’ve found this post useful. And no, Real Player, QuickTime etc. are not among my favourites. In fact they feature at the end of my favour list… Just below my top 3, comes DivX, iTunes, Powe DVD etc.

[tags]top 3, audio video players, audio players, video players, audio software, video software, av software, top 3 audio video players[/tags]

Hi all,
    The Linux for people, Ubuntu Linux, has rolled out its latest version, Ubuntu 7.04. Its supposed to be “cool”. I’m not a linux fan myself, but I’ve used Ubuntu before, and I’ve found it the best among the various versions of Linux which I’ve used…

    For newbies, Ubuntu Linux is a FREE version of Linux. You can get it for free by downloading the ISO file, or by ordering a free cd/dvd(takes 4-6 weeks for delivery).

    You can try out the various options to get Ubuntu 7.04 on the Get Ubuntu page, or download it(click here).

[tags]ubuntu, linux, ubuntu 7.04, released, download, get it free[/tags]

Aloha!
    The much awaited version 2 of the popular mail client Mozilla Thunderbird has been released! Boasting of faster service, live search, better graphics, tagging and more, this beauty has become my favourite!

    A “What’s New” list from the Mozilla website -

•   Message Tags: Create your own tags for organizing email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.

•  Visual Theme: Thunderbird 2’s theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability and maximize screen real estate.

•  Session History Navigation: Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.

•  Advanced Folder Views: Customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.

•  Easy Access to Popular Web Mail Services: Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.

•  Improved Support For Extensions: Extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database.

•  Improved New Mail Notification Alerts: New mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message preview text.

•  Folder Summary Popups: Mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder.

•  Saved Search Folder Performance: Search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance.

•  Find As You Type: Finds and highlights message text as you type.

•  Improved Filing Tools: Recent folder menu items for moving and copying messages to recently used folders. Move / Copy again functionality.

•  Updates to the Extension System: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.

•  New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.

•  Windows Vista Support: Many enhancements and fixes for Windows Vista.

    Reportedly, very many bugs have also been fixed.

    You can download Mozilla Thunderbird 2 at the Mozilla Website.
    You may also want to read up the Known Issues.

[tags]thunderbird, mozilla, released, release notes, bug fixes, download, known issues[/tags]

Hi all,
    Every now and then, we might be required to surf anonymously. Sometimes, its just to redo a test or something, which you were supposed to have taken only once. Sometimes, its a case of mistaken banning. Sometimes, you just are purely evil and naughty

    I’ve had to surf anonymously very many times. Sometimes to check how my website looks to people from other countries, sometimes to test a friend’s website, sometimes to security check a client website, sometimes to bypass a ban, or sometimes, just because I feel crazy

    Anonymous surfing websites are sites which act as aliases on your behalf. Your web request is routed through different IPs. For example, imagine you type in yahoo.com into your browser. Your browser fetches the page, and displays it. When you type in yahoo.com into an anonymous browsing site, the site server fetches the page, and your browser fetches the site, thereby hiding your true identity to yahoo.com.

    There was a time when “the-cloak” was the only available anonymous online browsing website. Its not functioning now… So I decided to compile 5 of the most useful anonymous surfing websites.

1. Box of Prox Internet Proxy

    I give this site the highest rank. They have 2 versions. One is the ordinary one, for browsing sites which require no form action(logging in, signing up, sumbitting forms etc.). And the other, the CGI version, is for browsing sites which REQUIRE form action.

    Now this is very important, since none of the other free anonymous surfing sites offer form action.

    There are, as expected, a high amount and volume of ads. So you might need to be careful. Look carefully to find the space where you enter the URL.

2. Anonymouse

    A beautiful new site, which SUPPORTS FORM ACTION. Doesnt have too many ads. Clean interface. But while submitting forms, a few AJAXified ads may pop up in the same window, which you will have to close manually.

    They’ve got fast servers, and quick loading. Very less processing time. But I wouldnt gaurantee too much of anonymousity…

3. Proxify

    An experienced anonymous browsing site, which uses a variety of proxies to route you through an anonymous center. This site does not support form action,
but then, there are many options available for security – like “Remove
all cookies”, “Remove all scripts”, “Remove ads”, “Text only” etc.

   
    Additionally, you can sign up for a paid account,with much more secure options, and ways to increase anonymousity.

    One good thing about Proxify is the lack of ads and fast servers.

4. ShadowSurf

    A relatively new site. Extremely clean. Very fast loading. No unneccassary graphics or banners. NO ADS! Clean interface. But unfortunately, its not very dependable since its down many a time, and it does not support form action.

5. Gaurdster

    The premier in anonymous surfing. They have 2 paid versions, as well as one free version. No form action. And no SSL sites. i.e. You cant access sites with the protocol “https://”. All this is enabled in the paid version. And I have to say, their paid versions are the best. They offer extremely hi-tech protection and anonymity.

    Gaurdster does not have ads, but if you’re looking for a quick free anonymous session, I wouldnt reccomend it…
—-

    That concludes my post ladies and gentlemen. Comments are welcome, do share your experiences, and do tell if you know a better anonymous surfing sites than these

[tags]anonymous, surfing, online, surf, proxy[/tags]