How to play mp4 videos in Gnome Player?

[coldmonday]

I have been trying to use Gnome Player to watch .mp4 videos.

The progress bar (at the bottom) indicates that the video is running, but there is no picture.

I'm using Lucid 5.2.8

Any ideas ?

Dave.

[nic007]

I would try a newer Puppy (Precise should be okay if your specs are on the low side ). Precise does have Gnome MPlayer as default but I suggest you use mpv or VLC player instead. Your problem is probably codec related so you need a more up to date codec pack and the two players mentioned are more likely to work with a greater variety of mp4 files than Gnome MPlayer in my experience anyway.

[coldmonday]

Thanks nic007,

I'll try downloading Precise onto a spare machine and see how it goes.

CM

[coldmonday]

Hi,

I'm trying to download

Precise 5.7-retro.iso

But am sent to Ibiblio. This returns a error 404.

Can you suggest another active repository.

CM

[OscarTalks]

Precise 5.7.1 retro is under BK's quirky here:-
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/precise-5.7.1/

This mplayer will be better than the original in Precise:-
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/mplayer- ... recise.pet

There is even a bit of an update for the Gnome MPlayer front end but install the above MPlayer as well:-
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/gnome-mp ... recise.pet

[coldmonday]

Oscar,

Thanks for the links.

I have managed to download and create a bootable CD for Precise 5.7.1

Boots ok, but I have made a small error in that I opted to close the CD when I burnt it. so I can't use it to save to.

I'll burn another and leave it open.

I did try to get Precise retro. But It won't boot from the CD. May try another one.

I'm new to burning CDs, so it's all on a learning curve.

CM

[Flash]

Coldmonday, a guaranteed way to make a multisession CD or DVD that you can save to is to boot the Puppy CD you made and use either burniso2cd (if it's not in the Multimedia menu, you can start it from a console) or Pburn to burn a new Puppy CD or DVD. Those 2 programs leave the CD or DVD open by default.

Having said that, multisession doesn't work in some laptops. Usually they will save the first session but not any more. One session may be all you need to save, if you get everything set up the way you want first.

[mikeb]

Gnome player is pretty awful but the mplayer underneath should handle anything mp4 like.
Its more likely that the video output in preferences needs changing xvideo or xshm... which suggests that you lack a video driver and the fallback used cannot handle video that well.

You may get similar problems regardless of puppy version so just something to look out for.

mike

[coldmonday]

Thanks both.

The mp4 is working ok with the Precise I have.

But it may be an idea to make an open copy of Precise from the version I have running. I can always keep the original in case of emergency.

I do find that I am going to have to change the browser from the Google default as it won't let me access Duckduckgo or any site that does not have https (as opposed to http). Claims security reasons.

I do hear that Google is to stop using tracking cookies in Chrome. Sometime in the next couple of years.

CM

[mikeb]

Claims security reasons.

Yes a common sales ploy at the moment... i mean cake recipes need encryption lol.... more to do with promoting newer browsers which allow easy tracking and advert pushing.....ie money.

I digress...glad you got sorted

Mike

[kuman11]

'Gnome player is pretty awful but the mplayer underneath should handle anything mp4 like'

mikeb,
How do u separate Gnome from the mplayer underneath?

[mikeb]

How do u separate Gnome from the mplayer underneath?

well in the lucid case you have the command line mplayer and gnome player as a front end.

I that case I did rebuild mplayer to include its GUI for lucid as a solution. It also means a nice choice of interfaces.
This make work on other systems as this is a static build of it so does not need the lucid shared media libraries.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wo6z4i3xi6fe2 ... 4.sfs?dl=1

mike

[coldmonday]

Claims security reasons.

Yes a common sales ploy at the moment... i mean cake recipes need encryption lol.... more to do with promoting newer browsers which allow easy tracking and advert pushing.....ie money.

I digress...glad you got sorted

Mike

Haven't looked too deeply into it yet. Busy with other non-Linux things.

Thanks for asking.

CM

[coldmonday]

Now that precise is Running, another problem rears it's head.

I have downloaded Google Earth. (The .deb version) and although Precise is telling me it has indeed downloaded and resides in My Documents, I can't open it.

I did get a message saying that it wasn't in the menu, and that this was being sorted.

So, how do I use Google Earth from Precise ?

[nic007]

Now that precise is Running, another problem rears it's head.

I have downloaded Google Earth. (The .deb version) and although Precise is telling me it has indeed downloaded and resides in My Documents, I can't open it.

I did get a message saying that it wasn't in the menu, and that this was being sorted.

So, how do I use Google Earth from Precise ?

Start a new thread for this.

[coldmonday]

Done it.

CM