Multimedia and 3 Test VS 2 Core

[DrummerVin]

I recently downloaded Fedora, to try it out. I've had so many different Linux distros and my main problem is I haven't been able to get my ATI card to work with them. Fedorafaq seems to have solid guide for it, and I do like the distro from what I've seen, but I have a few problems.

First of all, I installed 2.91. I assumed it would be more up to date than Fedora Core 2. However it seems that it's lacking in certain areas. For instance, though it comes with a lot of packages, it doesn't come with a working video player, and for some reason I cant get mplayer or xine installed. Yum and up2date both freeze up midway through, so I'm stuck not being able to play videos at all.

Basically I'm wondering if these sorts of problems are due to the fact that I'm using a test release. If this is the case, I will simply download the ISOs for Core 2 and use that. I don't mind having to do some work to get things working, but on most of the other distros I've used, there's a working media player when it's installed. I'm hoping this is just a test release issue.

Thanks.

[Picomp314]

gstreamer, i think, is supposed to be the video player in FC2
i hate gstreamer so i use either mplayer or vlc

some of the other problems you are experiencing are definitely because of using a test release
you may not be able to install mplayer or xine because your yum repositories are probably not set up

[Lovechild]

Totem (gstreamer backend) and HelixPlayer (Helix backend) are provided with FC3. E.g. Totem's gstreamer backend enables us to stick plugins to play "patent or otherwise encumbered" formats like we do for mp3 support right now, I'm betting livna will supply us with those after release.. or rather hoping, so I don't have to learn .spec.

[sideways]

I have mplayer running in the test 2 release, I downloaded the rpm packages (mplayer, mlpayer-gui, codecs, skins and fonts) from one of the fedora sites here http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html and installed from the command line with the usual "rpm -Uvh mplayer-???.rpm" commands"

To play dvds I just needed to change '/dev/dvd' to '/dev/cdrom'.

Haven't tested all codecs, but a sample wmv file kept crashing out.

Also, in Gnome, the link goes into replicated 'multimedia' folders in 'System Tools', 'Preferences' folders in the launch bar - it appears correctly in 'Sound and Vision' under KDE

I couldn't get the ATI driver to compile for my X800, the instructions at fedorafaq seem to only work for the Fedora Core 2 release.

3D Hardware support isn't a crucial issue for me though.

My Audigy 2 produces basic sound well enough (After enabling 'line 1' and 'analogue mix' in the volume controls') CD player is ok, xmms works once you download/install the mp3 package (xmms-mp3-1.2.10-2.2.p.1.fc2.fr.i386.rpm in my case) http://tettnang.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=296

Firefox web browser is VERY nice.

Fonts look nice and smooth.

KDE doen't seem to mount vfat partitions, though I haven't investigated thoroughly (/etc/fstab looks correct, and if i log into a Gnome session the vfat partition is mounted fine!)

TV Tuner works beautifully on the composite video-in on my TV Card.

BTW I am running the 32 bit version on my ASUS A8V/ AMD64 3500 since I couldn't get past console mode with the 64 bit version.

I installed using the dvd iso images. To download them I used an application called 'Net Vampire' which is shareware but usable for 30 days, othere downloaders seem to struggle with the 4GB file size (net vampire reports the size incorrectly but downloads fine)
NB the downloader may well store a temporary file of size 4gb before writing the final file, so make sure you have > 9gb spare.

[Max Space]

From what I experience so far yum doesn't freeze, but "takes it's time" sometimes...try patience