[CS-FSLUG] Multimedia support in SUSE 9.2

[Jukka]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 01:25:17 -0600, N. Thompson <n.thomp at sasktel.net> wrote:
> I've encountered something rather disheartening about SUSE Linux 9.2, it works
> nice and fast but kaffeine (the video player) doesn't play back any media
> formats I've tried that actually have a video, it doesn't go far beyond a few
> simple formats. There is also an issue with amaroK in which some streaming
> media such as mp3s from one of the internet radio stations I listen to
> doesn't play but rather simply pops up a download dialog which tries to
> download the stream data to a temporary file instead of playing it and that
> goes on infinitely until I click the cancel button but I never get any music
> out of it.
> 
> For the most part Juk works and I can listen to streaming music with kaffeine
> but I hate having things that don't work in the operating systems I use, I
> filled out an information request form on the SUSE web site where I was
> asking them whether or not these issues would also be present in the
> professional edition but I'm not likely to get an answer for another 16 hours
> at least and I'm impatient.
> 
> Can someone here with SUSE 9.2 professional tell me whether these issues also
> affect the professional edition, I'm very sadened that multimedia support is
> still rather poor, the video files I tried to play in kaffeine were .mov
> files of my cat back when she was just a few months old.
> 
> amaroK would also crash a fair bit but I think that was because of the problem
> with the streaming media, most likely a bug in the program that doesn't cause
> a crash until it tries to close at which point the crash would occur for me.
> 
> Mandrake didn't have that great of multimedia support either, back when I was
> using 10.0 I would fetch the mplayer and codec rpms from plf, I could have
> probably compiled the same for SUSE from source on my computer but at the
> rate I have accidents and have to reinstall it wouldn't be worth it to do
> that every time. I want a distribution that works with as little modification
> as possible after the installation, I'm hoping that SUSE 9.2 pro will be that
> distribution but if the multimedia support in the free DVD download is any
> indication I'd be better off waiting for the next version of SUSE or whatever
> distribution might grab my fancy during the wait.
> 
> Fred, please tell me the multimedia support in SUSE pro is better than in the
> downloaded DVD version I have, everything else worked so well :-( .
> 

I think the problem is with multimedia codecs which Novell doesn't
include in their distributions (some of those codecs may violate
patents or something and Novell doesn't want to take a risk to be
sued). It is possible to download/install them separately from the net
- there is also instructions how to install them - as far as I know
there is no need for recompilation of anything).

Blessings,
Jukka

(btw. that downloadable SUSE DVD *is* SUSE 9.2 Pro)