Xine vs Xfmedia

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer audio hardware
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yorkiesnorkie
Posts: 504
Joined: Mon 04 Jun 2007, 13:11
Location: George's Island

Xine vs Xfmedia

#1 Post by yorkiesnorkie »

Hi,

I'd been having some problems with Xine. Well, it was driving me crazy, chopping, stopping, freezing. For the following test I got an mp3 music file and a flash video file and used the same ones for comparison with both Xine and Xfmedia.

I noticed that Xine plays mp3s and movies like a chopped blender. So I gave Xfmedia a whirl and it plays them beautifully, no chopping, etc.

Another benefit is that when I run Xfmedia on a video file it pops open and gives me the entire video in a small visible area, Xine by contrast only gives me 1/4 of the top left of the image area. If I try to expand that it freezes or plays part of the video and then freezes.

Xine also freezes part way through playing the video files. Whereas Xfmedia can play the whole thing flawlessly.

My thought is that Xfmedia works far better than Xine. Just an opinion.

Yorkiesnorkie
:)

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Béèm
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Joined: Wed 22 Nov 2006, 00:47
Location: Brussels IBM Thinkpad R40, 256MB, 20GB, WiFi ipw2100. Frugal Lin'N'Win

#2 Post by Béèm »

How did you install xfmedia?
Time savers:
Find packages in a snap and install using Puppy Package Manager (Menu).
[url=http://puppylinux.org/wikka/HomePage]Consult Wikka[/url]
Use peppyy's [url=http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html]puppysearch[/url]

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yorkiesnorkie
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xfmedia-0.9.1: Audio Player, uses libxine

#3 Post by yorkiesnorkie »

Hi Beem,

I believe I just used the built-in petget manager (Pet Install on the default desktop), its listed as "xfmedia-0.9.1: Audio Player, uses libxine".

I've also been using PSI as well to install various things and I found it by simply searching PSI, xfmedia, and it turns up as a listing, one of which is a pet, but a pup and tar are also available.

I've also got the xine_extra_codecs-1 installed. Again I just used petget.

Hardware: My laptop is an old IBM 380XD 96mb of ram, and I'm running Puppy 3.01 (the retro version). I configured the sound card through the wizard. That worked fine. I guess that's about it.

Yorkiesnorkie
:-)

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Eyes-Only
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#4 Post by Eyes-Only »

I'm wondering if it might have to do with the 96megs of RAM Yorkie? That would be my first thought anyway. I say this as I've got 512megs of RAM and Xine works fine for me all the way around, be it hard drive installs, non-Puppy installs, or Frugal Puppy installs. In fact, that's all my grandson and I use to watch DVDs as it's so easy to use system-wide.

So that would be my first guess anyway.

Myself? I've never had any luck with Xfmedia, and barely any luck with MPlayer (except via browser plugins). Next best to Xine for me is VLC---but I strongly dislike that as the GUI isn't highly intuitive IMHO.

Oh well... "Chacun a son gout!" as we say, eh? ;)

I hope this comparison helped? Good to see you again too Yorkie!

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

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yorkiesnorkie
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Interesting Observation

#5 Post by yorkiesnorkie »

Hi Eyes-Only,

Its nice to hear from you again. :-)

You make an interesting point. I suppose its because I'm such an ol' stubborn geezer I expect everything to work in 96 mb of ram. I forget that most machines have far more, in fact lots more.

Oddly, exactly the same little flv video's play beautifully in xfmedia but stutter in xine on my old laptop. I'm not sure what to make of that.

Obviously I'm in a ram challenged environment, where the maximum ram for the IBM 380 XD is 96 mb. I've maxed out. I don't really consider it a multimedia machine in any sense since I use it mostly for mail and writing. I've no DVD of course. Of course 96 mb is not Puppy's ideal ram space, and I use a swap space as well.

We've another ram challenged Compaq Presario pc here (over 190 mb+) that exhibits the same problem with Xine running under Puppy 3.01. I should put xfmedia on it as well and see if that makes a difference there as well. It might be useful for some if it works consistantly and ends the stuttering issue I have in my low ram situation. I never tried VLC.

Basically, the video thing has come about because I'm trying to learn guitar, and I'm watching some tutorials in flv format. Not large files but its nice to finally be able to watch them in xfmedia using my Puppy Linux OS.

Until later,

Yorkiesnorkie
:-)

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yorkiesnorkie
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Xfmedia works better

#6 Post by yorkiesnorkie »

Hi,

Yes, I can report that at least in my situation xfmedia works much better than gxine. I still can't get gxine to work, but xfmedia does play the same flv files flawlessly. So it works better than the default player.

You can download it using normal installation of online files using petget, PSI (which is great) or download the pet file from: http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... -0.9.1.pet

Yorkiesnorkie
:-)

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yorkiesnorkie
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Changing the "play" desktop shortcut to point to xfmedia

#7 Post by yorkiesnorkie »

Hi All,

Since Gxine doesn't work so well, I want to avoid using it entirely. I decided to open the "play" icon in a text editor which opens Gxine by default and change the file so that it would point to xfmedia instead. Its remarkably simple. Anyone can do it.

Right click on the file, choose "File Play", then "Open as text". The file opens and displays the following text:

Before

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
exec gxineshell "$@"
Copy and paste the second line, change the second line to read, exec xfmedia "$@" then comment out the third line which points to Gxine with a #

After

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
exec xfmedia "$@"
#exec gxineshell "$@"
Notice I commented out the old line with a #. Save the file and your done. Whenever you click on it from now on the file will open xfmedia.

Cool!

Yorkiesnorkie
:-)

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Eyes-Only
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#8 Post by Eyes-Only »

Hi Yorkie! :)

I wanted to thank you for that tip mate! For the past 2+ years that I've been using Linux now whenever I've changed these little .conf files in whatever distro I happen to be using at the time (usually Puppy but I do use others of course) it's always been my practice to wipe out the original programme replacing it with MY programme of choice.

Don't care for Geany being default and prefer Medit? No problemo! Just wipe out Geany and replace with Medit and presto!---new default editor, eh? I give this as an example of many which I change. (BTW: I usually make it Leafpad. ;) )

However, after reading your above manner of doing this I think I'll adopt that approach from now on. Why? Because it has the added convenience of reminding me later on just what the default originally was. In some cases when I've made changes I've discovered afterwards why the default was the defacto default---but working with this leaky brain of mine? It's only too easy to forget what that default was!

Your method shows me at a glance. Thanks my fellow Puppian friend! :)

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge d'Acadie"
*~*~*~*~*~*
Proud user of LXpup and 3-Headed Dog. 8)
*~*~*~*~*~*

Pelo

Xfmedia was removed for Parole.

#9 Post by Pelo »

Xfmedia installed by mistfire on his experimental X-Slacko Slim was removed for Parole.
Sure media player like Gxine VLC Gnome Mplayer are less vintage.
But Mistfire challenge are two words : Slim and XFCE. Unfortunately Xfmedia is unable to play MP4 files.
DVDs : no trouble with the (only) one tested on my Medion p7624. But Gxine get nice result too.
Gxine is better, i shall say.
That is to be noticed : 2016 Puppy builders, and BK come back to Gxine..
Attachments
Xmedia.jpg
Files from computer , but what about CDs ?
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Last edited by Pelo on Sat 01 Oct 2016, 07:58, edited 1 time in total.

Pelo

Mistfire comes back to XFmedia after tries with Parole

#10 Post by Pelo »

XFmedia with my DVDs used for test . Mistfire has just released a new Slacko XFCE Slacko.He comes back to XFmedia after tries with Parole ( XFCE official MediaPlayer too)
I install GXine on My Slim slacko to compare.
I hope our Puppy makers have CDs and DVDs to test before public release.
DVD are not only for Puppy ISOs.. Puppy remains my Prefered OS, untill now, to play my videos.
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Zidane.jpg
DVD at home are Gifts, or sold with magazines
(158.2 KiB) Downloaded 437 times

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