kplayer/doc/en/howto-configuration.docbook

<sect1 id="howto-configuration">
<title>Basic configuration</title>

<para>As a general rule, the initial &kplayer; settings are chosen for optimal
performance and playback, so no additional setup is needed. However, in some
cases changing the initial settings can improve &kplayer; performance.</para>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-video">
<title>Video setup</title>

<para>XVideo is the video output &kplayer; uses by default. For many systems
this is the optimal choice. Make sure your X Server has XVideo extension
enabled. Look in your <filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</filename> file for a line that reads</para>

<para><userinput>Load "extmod"</userinput></para>

<para>This is the line that loads the XVideo extension, so make sure it is not
disabled. Also check <filename>/var/log/Xorg.0.log</filename> or
<filename>/var/log/XFree86.0.log</filename> to make sure that XVideo is loaded
without error.</para>

<para>If &kplayer; cannot use XVideo for any reason, it will fall back on using
X11 video output in the default configuration. X11 output is OK except it forces
the use of software scaler, which will consume significantly more processor
cycles, and it does not support changing contrast, brightness, hue and
saturation, so those controls will not be functional.</para>

<para>Depending on your video card, you may find that a different
&mplayer; video output type(s) work better for you. For example you can try
VIDIX output if you have a Matrox or ATI card. For Matrox cards there is also
XMGA output.</para>

<para>You can change the video output type on the
<link linkend="settings-video">Video page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
Settings</guilabel>. However, some video outputs may not support embedding video
into &kplayer; and will open their own window instead. Those video outputs are
not recommended.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-audio">
<title>Audio setup</title>

<para>The optimal audio output to use with &kplayer; is <acronym>ALSA</acronym>,
which is the default setting when &kplayer; is first installed.
If <acronym>ALSA</acronym> is not available, <acronym>OSS</acronym> is the
second best choice.</para>

<para>If the audio output is configured correctly, but &kplayer; cannot use it,
usually it is because another program has locked the audio device. The optimal
solution for this is to allow multiple programs access the audio device at the
same time.</para>

<para>For example, to set up <acronym>ALSA</acronym> to allow more than one
program to use the same device, put something along these lines into your
<filename>~/.asourndrc</filename>:</para>

<screen>pcm.!default
{
  type dmix
  ipc_key 1234
  slave.pcm "hw:<replaceable>card-name</replaceable>"
}</screen>

<para>where <replaceable>card-name</replaceable> is the name of the audio card
that you can find out by running <userinput><command>cat</command>
<filename>/proc/asound/cards</filename></userinput>. Before trying the new
configuration, be sure to stop any programs that are known to lock audio devices
and keep them locked, for example <userinput><command>killall</command>
artsd</userinput></para>

<para>You can change the audio output type on the
<link linkend="settings-audio">Audio page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
Settings</guilabel>.</para>

<para>However, some audio outputs like <acronym>SDL</acronym> or sound server
outputs like <acronym>ARTS</acronym> or <acronym>ESD</acronym> are not
recommended since they may cause stability problems, degraded performance and
a broken volume control.</para>

<para></para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-mplayer">
<title>&mplayer; setup</title>

<para>Depending on how you installed &mplayer; you may have gotten a global
<filename>mplayer.conf</filename> file in a directory like
<filename>/etc/mplayer</filename>. The local version of that file is
<filename>~/.mplayer/config</filename>. Make sure that those files do not have
a <option>gui=yes</option> option. Remove or comment it out if you find it.
If you ever want to use &mplayer;'s own <acronym>GUI</acronym> (not
recommended), you can get it by running <command>gmplayer</command>.</para>

<para>Also make sure there are no other options that may interfere with
&kplayer; operation. If you see any, either comment them out or override them
in <guilabel>&kplayer; Settings</guilabel>.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-smooth">
<title>Smooth playback</title>

<para>A while ago Arpi wrote a
<ulink url="http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/747/">Fine-tuning
&mplayer;</ulink> article where you can find more useful tips on optimizing
&mplayer;.</para>

<para>One thing you can do to get smoother playback is enable the hardware
<acronym>RTC</acronym> timer. Run</para>

<para><userinput><command>echo</command> 1024 >
<filename>/proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq</filename></userinput></para>

<para>as root, and also make sure <filename>/dev/rtc</filename> is user
readable.</para>

<para>Arpi also recommends trying options like <option>-mc 0.001</option> and
<option>-autosync 30</option>. Put them into the <guilabel>Additional command
line arguments</guilabel> field on the
<link linkend="settings-advanced">Advanced page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
Settings</guilabel> and see if they make a noticeable difference for you.</para>

<para>The <option>-vop</option> &mplayer; option has since been replaced by the
<option>-vf</option> option, so that section of the article may be somewhat
obsolete or the tips may need some adjustment for the current &mplayer;.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-preview">
<title>Previews in the Open File dialog</title>

<para>There is some obsolete &kde; based software, like &kaboodle;, that tells
&kde; that it wants to be used for previewing media files, even those it does
not support, in the standard <guilabel>Open File</guilabel> dialog, which is
what &kplayer; uses. This makes browsing directories with media files painfully
slow, and unfortunately there is no option to turn off previewing selectively
for certain file types. Even if you turn off the <guilabel>Play
automatically</guilabel> option, the preview program will still be loaded. The
workaround is to either turn off previewing in &kplayer; entirely if you don't
need it, or remove the offending program from your system.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-configuration-donkey">
<title>Previewing files in &kmldonkey;</title>

<para>The recent official &mldonkey; <acronym>GUI</acronym>s have been badly
broken, leaving <ulink url="http://kmldonkey.org/">&kmldonkey;</ulink> as
the most usable, albeit crashy, &mldonkey; frontend. &kmldonkey; supports
embedding of &kplayer; for previewing files, but it is recommended that you
change your <application>mldonkey_preview</application> script to start the
full &kplayer; for previewing partial downloads, since that will give better
interface and more options. If &mplayer; cannot play a partial download,
probably nothing else will, so just wait for a larger chunk to get
downloaded.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>