[conspire] Ubuntu RestrictedFormats pages

[David E. Fox]

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:51:51 -0800
Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:


> sure what's wrong these, yet), and mplayer seems fixated on having 
> defaulted to being configured for some video chipset I don't have
> (again, not yet diagnosed, just noted).  (I've installed but not

Sure, on ppc that might be an issue. Mostly, I use -vo x11 or -vo sdl.

Those work well - what doesn't work is -vo (x)mga, and hasn't worked on
debian. Have had it working sometime ago on Mandriva. But -vo sdl is
halfway decent. At some time in the past I had to append -vo x11 to
nearly every video file I played, but I don't have to do that anymore
(on Etch).

As far as multimedia is concerned, one or two of my tests on worthiness
of distributions in this department is to open up a browser to BBC
radio 3, (www.bbc.co.uk/radio3), .click the radio player, and see if I
get sound out the speakers. Some distributions fail this test. Haven't
gotten around to trying ubuntu (no speakers on bruce's box) :(..

This part is working OK, at least on Etch, but requires workarounds
(sometimes using the right browser helps, i.e., firefox vs. konqueror,
which tells me it's basically a set up issue). For instance, as of now,
the radio player doesn't by default play anything, but "use standard
Realplayer" does. Curiously, konqueror wants to open amaroK (actually
preferable to some extent) to play the feed. And, lo and behold that
works.

Another station that really gives me trouble from time to time is
Portland (OR) station KBPS. (www.classical.org). I have from time to
time been able to point a browser there, and get audio out the
speakers. Recently, they've migrated to a windows-only platform (they
showcase it more) but mp3/realaudio should be doable, and it (clumsily)
is - by saving the "pls" file and playing it with mplayer -playlist.
But it would be nicer to a) just click the link on the web site and 2)
(even better) just throw the URL somewhere, and point/click/go (as with
amaroK radio streams, or another method, which I've actually employed
in the past -- use little script files that I can launch from my kde
desktop, each of which play the desired station (think car radio
buttons). I'm gonna see if I can coax amarok into playing it just from
the url. I have had hit/miss experiences doing precisely that.



Actually, listening to bbc radio 3 and kbps simultaneously is
interesting to say the least.



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