kplayer/doc/en/howto-troubleshooting.docbook

<sect1 id="howto-troubleshooting">
<title>Troubleshooting</title>

<sect2 id="howto-troubleshooting-support">
<title>Getting support</title>

<para>There are several ways to get help with &kplayer;. If you want to ask a
question, go to the <ulink url="irc://irc.freenode.net/#kplayer">#kplayer
channel</ulink> on FreeNode <acronym>IRC</acronym> or post it on the <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=244388">user
forum</ulink> where other users will be able to see it, as well as the developer
who is of course subscribed to receive e-mail when a message is posted there.
The <acronym>IRC</acronym> channel and the user forum are also good places to
get help with a problem.</para>

<para>Bugs should be reported through the <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=532182&amp;group_id=71710">bug
tracking system</ulink>, following the instructions in the
<link linkend="howto-bug-reporting">Bug reporting micro-HOWTO</link>. Also there
are special sections at the
<ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/kplayer/">&kplayer; project</ulink>
on SourceForge for <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=532183&amp;group_id=71710">support
requests</ulink>, <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=532185&amp;group_id=71710">feature
requests</ulink> and <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=71710&amp;atid=532184">code
patches</ulink>.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="howto-troubleshooting-problems">
<title>Common problems</title>

<sect3>
<title>Most commands on the menu and on the toolbar are missing</title>

<para>The <filename>kplayerui.rc</filename> file was misplaced during
installation, and &kplayer; cannot find it. If you installed using a binary
package, complain to the package maintainer. When compiling from source, be sure
to follow the instructions in the <link linkend="howto-compilation">Compilation
micro-HOWTO</link>, especially the part about <command>tde-config</command>.
Before starting, run</para>

<para><userinput><command>tde-config</command>
<option>--prefix</option></userinput></para>

<para>from the command line to make sure that it returns the &kde; prefix
path.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>After a &kplayer; upgrade new features are missing</title>

<para>You may have a file called <filename>kplayerui.rc</filename> in
<filename>~/.kde/share/apps/kplayer</filename>. Removing it will get you the new
menus, but it will also reset any keyboard shortcuts you may have changed in
the <link linkend="configuration-shortcuts">Key Bindings dialog</link>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>&kplayer; is not showing up on the <guisubmenu>Multimedia</guisubmenu>
submenu of the &kmenu;</title>

<para>The <filename>kplayer.desktop</filename> file needs to be installed in the
correct place, under either <filename>share/applnk/Multimedia</filename> or
<filename>share/applications/kde</filename> in the global &kde;
directory.</para>

<para>There also may be a file called <filename>kde-kplayer.desktop</filename>
in <filename>~/.local/share/applications</filename>. Removing it will get the
<guisubmenu>Multimedia</guisubmenu> menu updated automatically again when you
install or uninstall &kplayer;, but it will also reset changes you made to
&kplayer; associations with media types on the <guilabel>File
Associations</guilabel> page in &konqueror; configuration dialog or in
&kcontrolcenter;.</para>

<para>The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> tab in &khelpcenter; should also list
&kplayer; in the <guilabel>Multimedia</guilabel> section under
<guilabel>Application Manuals</guilabel>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Could not start &mplayer;</title>

<para>If you get this error when trying to play a file, you need to install
&mplayer; before you can use &kplayer;. This error can also happen if the name
of your &mplayer; executable is not <command>mplayer</command> or it is not in
the current path. In that case go to the
<link linkend="settings-advanced">Advanced</link> page in
<guilabel>&kplayer; Settings</guilabel> and give the executable name or the
full path in the <guilabel>Executable path</guilabel> field.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>configure: error: Can't find X includes</title>

<para>That means that you are missing the X include files, which normally come
with the X development package. So look for a package in your distribution that
has files like X.h and XEvent.h. For example, on Debian it is called
<literal>xlibs-dev</literal>.</para>

<para>Similarly, if <command>configure</command> complains about missing Qt
files, you need to find and install the Qt development package. If you look
in the <filename>config.log</filename>, it will probably tell you the exact
name of the file it couldn't find, somewhere near the bottom. The
<filename>config.log</filename> file is quite verbose, so you would have to
scroll a few pages up from the bottom to find the place where it reports the
error.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Cannot play any files</title>

<para>Look at the end of the message log to see what errors &mplayer; gives when
trying to play the files. Hit
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>G</keycap></keycombo> if &kplayer; does
not show the log automatically.</para>

<para>Try playing the files with <command>mplayer</command> from the command
line. If &mplayer; can play them, compare the options you used on the command
line to the ones &kplayer; passed to &mplayer;. Set the required options in
<link linkend="settings">&kplayer; Settings</link>. The most important ones are
the <guilabel>Driver</guilabel> options on the
<link linkend="settings-video">Video</link> and
<link linkend="settings-audio">Audio</link> pages. On the
<link linkend="settings-advanced">Advanced page</link>
check the <guilabel>Executable path</guilabel> option to make sure &kplayer;
will be able to find the &mplayer; executable, and if there are any options
that are not found anywhere in the <guilabel>&kplayer; Settings</guilabel>
dialog, put them in the <guilabel>Additional command line arguments</guilabel>
field.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Cannot play a specific file</title>

<para>Look at the end of the message log to see what errors &mplayer; gives when
trying to play the file. Hit
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>G</keycap></keycombo> if &kplayer; does
not show the log automatically.</para>

<para>Try playing the file with <command>mplayer</command> from the command
line. If &mplayer; can play it, but requires special option to play this
particular file, put them in the <link linkend="properties">File
Properties</link> for that file. Two options that sometimes help &mplayer; when
it cannot detect the file type automatically are <option>-vc</option> and
<option>-ac</option>, which correspond to the <guilabel>Codec</guilabel> options
on the <link linkend="properties-video">Video</link> and
<link linkend="properties-audio">Audio</link> pages in <guilabel>File
Properties</guilabel>. If there are any options that are not found anywhere
in the <guilabel>File Properties</guilabel> dialog, put them in the
<guilabel>Additional command line arguments</guilabel> field.</para>

<para>If it is a playlist file but it does not have one of the standard playlist
file extensions, go to the
<link linkend="properties-general">General page</link> in the <guilabel>File
Properties</guilabel> and set the <guilabel>Playlist</guilabel> option to
<guilabel>yes</guilabel>. In rare cases a file that is not a playlist may have a
playlist extension. Then you will need to set the <guilabel>Playlist</guilabel>
property to <guilabel>no</guilabel>. For more details see the
<link linkend="howto-playlist-files">Playlist files</link> section in the
Playlist micro-HOWTO.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Cannot play any video files</title>

<para>If &kplayer; only plays audio files but not video files, there may be a
problem with the video output. By default &kplayer; uses
<link linkend="howto-installation-xvideo">XVideo extension</link> for video
output. If the extension is not enabled or is being used by another program like
<application>Kino</application>, &kplayer; may not be able to use a different
video output. You can either enable the XVideo extension or tell &kplayer; to
use another video output. See the
<link linkend="howto-configuration">Configuration micro-HOWTO</link> for
details.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Video plays fine, but there is no sound</title>

<para>Look in the <link linkend="parts-message-log">Message Log</link> to see
why &mplayer; cannot play audio. The most common problem is the audio device
being locked by another program. In this case the chief suspect is
<command>artsd</command>. Try running</para>

<para><userinput><command>killall</command> artsd</userinput></para>

<para>from the command line. If that helps then the permanent solution is to go
to the &kcontrolcenter; and disable &arts;. &arts; and everything based on it is
by far the worst part of &kde;. Fortunately it seems there are plans to finally
get rid of it in &kde; 4.</para>

<para>For more information on audio setup in &kplayer; see the
<link linkend="howto-configuration-audio">Configuration
micro-HOWTO</link>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>&kplayer; cannot play a file that plays fine with &mplayer;</title>

<para>When &kplayer; is in <guilabel>Running</guilabel> or
<guilabel>Playing</guilabel> state, run</para>

<para><userinput><command>ps</command> <option>auxww</option></userinput></para>

<para>from the command line. Compare the command line options that &kplayer;
uses to run &mplayer; to what you are using to play the file with &mplayer;.
Then start adding missing options one by one until you get the same problem
you are getting in &kplayer;. After you find out what option is causing the
problem, you can open the <link linkend="settings">configuration dialog</link>
in &kplayer; and remove or change that option. If you need to make the change
just for that one file, go to the <link linkend="properties">File
Properties</link> instead.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Problems when coming back from full screen mode</title>

<para>If you are getting problems when you try to go back to normal window size
from full screen mode, for example the window becomes too large or you are
seeing endless flickering, you can try unselecting the <guilabel>Resize main
window automatically</guilabel> option on the
<link linkend="settings-general">General page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
Settings</guilabel>. Also read the thread about this problem at the <ulink
url="http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1122221&amp;forum_id=244388">&kplayer;
user forum</ulink> and watch it for updates.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Radio station takes too long to start playing</title>

<para>By default &kplayer; lets &mplayer; choose an optimal cache size. When
playing low bitrate media like a radio station, it may take a long time to fill
the cache if it is too big. If that happens, you can either choose a lower
<guilabel>Cache size</guilabel> setting or give a lower minimum cache size on
the <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> page either globally in
<link linkend="settings-advanced">&kplayer; Settings</link> or in the
individual <link linkend="properties-advanced">File Properties</link>.
Enter the minimum cache size into the <guilabel>Additional command line
parameters</guilabel> field, for example <literal>-cache-min 5</literal>, or
choose <guilabel>set size</guilabel> for the <guilabel>Cache</guilabel> option
and enter a size in kilobytes. For more information on playing online media see
the <link linkend="howto-streams">Streams micro-HOWTO</link>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Large video files take too long to start playing</title>

<para>You may have set the <guilabel>Cache size</guilabel> option too low in
<link linkend="settings-advanced">&kplayer; Settings</link>. If you need to
set it higher or lower for an individual file or stream, you can do so on the
<link linkend="properties-advanced">Advanced page</link> in <guilabel>File
Properties</guilabel>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Only the video area is shown in &konqueror;</title>

<para>If you open a web page with an embedded multimedia object in &konqueror;,
only the video area is displayed, with no controls. Then you should
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click the
<link linkend="parts-video-area">video area</link> and choose the
<guimenuitem>Start &kplayer;</guimenuitem> command. Playback will then stop, and
the full &kplayer; will open up and start playing the file or
<acronym>URL</acronym>.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3>
<title>Contrast and brightness controls do not work</title>

<para>You need to enable the <link linkend="howto-installation-xvideo">XVideo
extension</link> in your X11 configuration and make sure the XVideo video output
is selected on the <link linkend="settings-advanced"><guilabel>Video</guilabel>
page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer; Settings</guilabel>. However, if you cannot
use the XVideo output, you can still make the video controls to work by putting
the <literal>-vf eq2</literal> or <literal>-vf eq</literal> option into the
<guilabel>Additional command line parameters</guilabel> field on the
<link linkend="properties-advanced">Advanced page</link> in <guilabel>&kplayer;
Settings</guilabel>.</para>

</sect3>

</sect2>

</sect1>