Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:58 pm

Installing Amarok packages from amarok-nightly server I've found with pleasure that a new option to choose between DirectShow, Mplayer and VLC is in place.

As I am experiencing this nasty bug:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=209085
and it looks like something Phonon related I'd like to try how Mplayer and VLC Phonon backends behave.

Unfortunately when I select them I get the following error:

Unable to use the Mplayer Multimedia Backend:
The shared library was not found.

and the same for VLC:

Unable to use the VLC Multimedia Backend:
The shared library was not found.

Am I missing some package / library? VLC 1.0.1 is installed in the system but I don't think it is relevant to the problem.

Thanks for the help.
Diego

Installing Amarok packages from [url=http://mafia-server.net/amarok-nightly/README]amarok-nightly server[/url] I've found with pleasure that a new option to choose between DirectShow, Mplayer and VLC is in place.

As I am experiencing this nasty bug:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=209085
and it looks like something Phonon related I'd like to try how Mplayer and VLC Phonon backends behave.

Unfortunately when I select them I get the following error:
[quote]Unable to use the [b]Mplayer[/b] Multimedia Backend:
The shared library was not found.[/quote]
and the same for VLC:
[quote]Unable to use the [b]VLC[/b] Multimedia Backend:
The shared library was not found.[/quote]

Am I missing some package / library? VLC 1.0.1 is installed in the system but I don't think it is relevant to the problem.

Thanks for the help.
Diego

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:24 pm

Could it be a Qt installation problem?
I found these:
http://techbase.kde.org/Talk:Projects/K ... ion#ktouch
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot ... -yast.html

Could it be a Qt installation problem?
I found these:
http://techbase.kde.org/Talk:Projects/KDE_on_Windows/Installation#ktouch
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/395472-kde-yast.html

[bcooksley]

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:36 am

It is not likely to be. It is more likely that KDE cannot find the VLC or MPlayer DLL's required to load the MPlayer / VLC Phonon backend. To resolve this you will need to set variables / copy files, but unfortunately only someone familiar with how this works on Windows will know exactly what to do.

It is not likely to be. It is more likely that KDE cannot find the VLC or MPlayer DLL's required to load the MPlayer / VLC Phonon backend. To resolve this you will need to set variables / copy files, but unfortunately only someone familiar with how this works on Windows will know exactly what to do.

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:59 am

In kde-vc90/bin/phonon_backend I have:

Code: Select all

phonon_ds9.dll  phonon_mplayer.dll  phonon_vlc.dll

So we can narrow down the problem to:

• some variable is not set;
• the files are not installed in the right place.

I'll ask on the IRC Windows channel, thanks.

In [i]kde-vc90/bin/phonon_backend[/i] I have:
[code]phonon_ds9.dll phonon_mplayer.dll phonon_vlc.dll[/code]
So we can narrow down the problem to:
[list]
[*] some variable is not set;
[*] the files are not installed in the right place.[/list]

I'll ask on the IRC Windows channel, thanks.

[SaroEngels]

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows  

Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:21 pm

Ok, the problem about the ds9 backend is that I don't have the time to fix these bugs, they depend on each computers ability to play a song with a directshow filter.
About the phonon-vlc and phonon-mplayer backends:
Please download this package (by hand for now) http://winkde.org/pub/kde/ports/win32/repository-4.3/other/phonon-vlc-vc90-20091030-bin.tar.bz2 and unpack it into your KDE installation directory. Then put either the path of libvlc.dll (for the vlc backend) or mplayer.exe (for the mplayer backend) into your PATH variable and 'prefer' the backend in amarok or your systemsettings.
Both should work more or less, for any bugs you can find please open new bugreports in bugs.kde.org.
We will support those for now as they are easy to install (at least when we have made our homeworks and uploaded the packages) and remove the point of fixing bugs we cannot change...

Ok, the problem about the ds9 backend is that I don't have the time to fix these bugs, they depend on each computers ability to play a song with a directshow filter.
About the phonon-vlc and phonon-mplayer backends:
Please download this package (by hand for now) [url]http://winkde.org/pub/kde/ports/win32/repository-4.3/other/phonon-vlc-vc90-20091030-bin.tar.bz2[/url] and unpack it into your KDE installation directory. Then put either the path of libvlc.dll (for the vlc backend) or mplayer.exe (for the mplayer backend) into your PATH variable and 'prefer' the backend in amarok or your systemsettings.
Both should work more or less, for any bugs you can find please open new bugreports in bugs.kde.org.
We will support those for now as they are easy to install (at least when we have made our homeworks and uploaded the packages) and remove the point of fixing bugs we cannot change...

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:09 pm

Tested with VLC 1.0.1 and it works fine with both mp3s and oggs.
It seems overall pretty reliable, no lags, no skips. Overall CPU usage is generally low, memory consumption doesn't seem so good, but that's an impressive improvement over Phonon-DirectShow.
Finally I can use my Amarok on Windows installation without crashes and crappiness all over the place!

Uh, and for those how wonder how to set variable use, for example, this command:

Code: Select all

set PATH=%PROGRAMFILES%\VideoLAN\VLC\;%PATH%

Of course change the values accordingly to your installation / where you installed VLC.
Then start Amarok:

Code: Select all

%PROGRAMFILES%\kde\bin\amarok.exe --debug

and set the VLC backend in "Settings", "Configure Amarok...", "Playback". Then in "Sound system configuration" click "Configure", go to the "Backend" tab, bring VLC as the first option and "Apply".

Of course if it works you can set the PATH permamently (this page should help) so you don't need to do it all the times, and you can run Amarok from the menu.

The same should apply to MPlayer.

What can I say?
Thank you Amarok, Phonon, KDE for Windows, VLC and Phonon-VLC developers! You rock!

Tested with VLC 1.0.1 and it works fine with both mp3s and oggs.
It seems overall pretty reliable, no lags, no skips. Overall CPU usage is generally low, memory consumption doesn't seem so good, but that's an impressive improvement over Phonon-DirectShow.
Finally I can use my Amarok on Windows installation without crashes and crappiness all over the place!

Uh, and for those how wonder how to set variable use, for example, this command:
[code]set PATH=%PROGRAMFILES%\VideoLAN\VLC\;%PATH%[/code]
Of course change the values accordingly to your installation / where you installed VLC.
Then start Amarok:
[code]%PROGRAMFILES%\kde\bin\amarok.exe --debug[/code]
and set the VLC backend in "Settings", "Configure Amarok...", "Playback". Then in "Sound system configuration" click "Configure", go to the "Backend" tab, bring VLC as the first option and "Apply".

Of course if it works you can set the PATH permamently ([url=http://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml]this page should help[/url]) so you don't need to do it all the times, and you can run Amarok from the menu.

The same should apply to MPlayer.

What can I say?
Thank you Amarok, Phonon, KDE for Windows, VLC and Phonon-VLC developers! You rock!

Re: Phonon Mplayer and VLC on Windows

Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:13 am

Now that I'm using it a bit more I can see some minor issues:

• a cmd.exe opens up on startup to display VLC logger, if you close the logger Amarok closes too. I think this can be disabled somehow;
• fade out isn't fading at all, it just cuts the sound after a timeout.

However these are issues that will be ironed out as Phonon-VLC matures.

Regards,
Diego

Now that I'm using it a bit more I can see some minor issues:
[list]
[*] a cmd.exe opens up on startup to display VLC logger, if you close the logger Amarok closes too. I think this can be disabled somehow;
[*] fade out isn't fading at all, it just cuts the sound after a timeout.[/list]

However these are issues that will be ironed out as Phonon-VLC matures.

Regards,
Diego