Install Mplayer and Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs) in Debian 5.0 (Lenny)

MPlayer is a movie and animation player that supports a wide range of codecs and file formats, including MPEG 1/2/4, DivX 3/4/5, Windows Media 7/8/9, RealAudio/Video up to 9, Quicktime 5/6, and Vivo 1/2. It has many MMX/SSE(2)/3Dnow(Ex) optimized native audio and video codecs, but allows using XAnim’s and RealPlayer’s binary codec plugins, and Win32 codec DLLs. It has basic VCD/DVD playback functionality, including DVD subtitles, but supports many text-based subtitle formats too. For video output, nearly every existing interface is supported. It’s also able to convert any supported files to raw/divx/mpeg4 AVI (pcm/mp3 audio), and even video grabbing from V4L devices.

The first package to install is debian-multimedia-keyring

First download the debian-multimedia-keyring package using the following command

wget http://www.debian-multimedia.org/pool/main/d/debian-multimedia-keyring/debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16_all.deb

Install this .deb packge using the following command

#dpkg -i debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16.deb

Edit sources.list file using the following command

#vi /etc/apt/sources.list

add one of the following line

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main

or

deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org lenny main

or

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main

or

deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org stable main

Save and exit the file

Update the source list using the following command

#apt-get update

Install Mplayer using the following command

#apt-get install mplayer

If you want to install blueskin for mplayer use the following command

#apt-get install mplayer-skin-blue

Open mplayer from Applications—>Sound&Video—> Mplayer Movie Player

Install Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs) in Debian 5.0

Install Codecs using the following command

#apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2

Mplayer Plugin for Firefox

If you want to install Mplayer with plug-in for Mozilla Firefox run the following command

#apt-get install mozilla-mplayer

Sponsored Link

18 thoughts on “Install Mplayer and Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs) in Debian 5.0 (Lenny)

  1. Thanks for the very useful post. NOTE: this didn’t work for me, though, until I added “_all” after the “16” in this line:

    #dpkg -i debian-multimedia-keyring_2008.10.16.deb

    Note also that the “#” prompt means you need to be root.

    cheers,
    KB

  2. I note that the package w32codecs does not seem to be available on debian-multimedia.org for amd64 architectures. You can install w64codecs instead. I’m not sure if the w64codecs exactly replace the w32codecs but I would hope that they are pretty close.

  3. @ Gary Dale – Yes, w64codecs are the replacement for those using AMD64 versions of Debian 5 Lenny.

  4. Wouldn’t the new user be better served by explaining how to add a repository (and its respective gpg key) and then listing the various external repositories like the included debian-multimedia, debian-unofficial, backports, etcetera rather than being told how to use apt-get to install a few packages from a single repository without bothering to mention why I should install mplayer from debian-multimedia instead of the version from /main or the legal issues around the various codecs and libdvdcss?

  5. Just to let you know you can also do this with the extras command. Many places have how to do this and then it brings up a menu with all the files you can install. You can install more but it has the majority of them and it also installs the multimedia line as well in your sources list.

  6. Watch out! After installing mplayer as above (lenny source) Gnash can no longer play Flash videos. Mplayer can play them but not within Iceweasel (mozilla-plugin installed).

  7. mozilla-mplayer is no longer developed, perhaps you should try out and then possibly recommend that people use ‘gecko-mediaplayer’. This will bring in a browser plugin and a much better GUI to the default and no longer supported mplayer gui.

  8. T_T ERROR:

    Leyendo lista de paquetes… Hecho
    Creando árbol de dependencias
    Leyendo la información de estado… Hecho
    Tal vez quiera ejecutar `apt-get -f install’ para corregirlo:
    Los siguientes paquetes tienen dependencias incumplidas:
    gnome-mplayer: Depende: libasound2 (> 1.0.17) pero 1.0.16-2 va a ser instalado
    Depende: libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.14.1) pero 2.12.12-1~lenny1 va a ser instalado
    Depende: libmusicbrainz3-6 (>= 3.0.1) pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.21.6) pero 1.20.5-3+lenny1 va a ser instalado
    kdewebdev: Depende: kfilereplace (>= 4:4.2.2-1~mea1) pero 4:3.5.9-3 va a ser instalado
    mplayer: Depende: libamrnb3 pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libamrwb3 pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libfaac0 (>= 1.26) pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libggi2 (>= 1:2.2.2) pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: liblzo2-2 pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libopenal1 pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libx264-65 (>= 1:0.svn20090115) pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: libxvidcore4 (>= 1:1.0.0-0.0) pero no va a instalarse
    Depende: mplayer-skin
    E: Dependencias incumplidas. Intente ‘apt-get -f install’ sin paquetes (o especifique una solución).

  9. Hmm, followed the instructions to the letter, except that I installed w64codecs, and did not install the skins. I used
    deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main
    as my sources.list entry, and still can’t see the embedded quicktime on this page:
    http://www.mocapclub.com/Pages/LayeredAnim01.htm

    The two animations at the top of the page just show the blank white boxes with the “Click here to download plugin” messages. Any ideas on what might be going on, or how I might be able to diagnose the problems further?

    Thanks

  10. Ah, I was under the impression that the mplayer plugin could handle quicktime stuff. Apparently not.

  11. Hello everybody!
    I have done everything according to the order: mplayer and codecs are downloaded. But the player does not want to play DVD (*.vob files). When been doubleclicked the player shows a fatal error: “Error opening\initializing the selected vodeo-out (-vo) device”. Can you advice me how to resolve the problem?

    Thanks beforehand.

  12. Jeff: I installed vlc, it doesn’t play the wmv’s from MSDN.
    MPlayer does, but when images change as in slide show images, often the playback goes jerky.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *