Whenever i select mplayer to play a video file, i get this fatal error msg : Error opening/initializing the selected video_out(-vo) device. anybody can help me solve this problem??

It probably has to do with dvd patents and copyrights. What distro do you use? I can't remember..

I'm using FC 2 now. I never had this problem when i was using Red Hat 9.

Mplayer does not work for me in FC2 either. It flashes through and won't read correctly, however Xine works perfectly. You can install Xine that works via apt-get rpm using the Fresh RPMS repositories. Make sure you point it to /dev/cdrom, or /dev/dvd, whichever, rather than /mnt/cdrom etc. Are you using apt?

Hi there!

Maybe it's set to use the wrong video driver?

Please start mplayer without any video, then go to the Preferences/Video section, choose xv driver and close the Preferences dialog...

Retry to play the file now....
This usually works for me!

I use mandrake 10 (my graphics card is from NVidia) but I've tried Fedora 2 a few weeks ago and Mplayer worked fine

See ya! Hope this solves it!

Thanks! That's very good information to know!

I did all that but the problem still persists. i tried installing xine but cant. The rpms have multiple dependencies and the source code doesn't install.

If you are using apt with the Fresh RPMS repositories as I have under Core 2, it should install without incident. Xine under Core 2 plays my new encrypted Northern Exposure DVD without a hitch. I had no problems whatsoever installing Xine via apt. Are you using the Fresh RPMS repositories or trying to install from the regular .RPMs?

Regular RPMs. I dont know how to use apt.

iamroot, installing and using apt is very easy and will make your life with Linux far simpler than it is now! If you want to try it, here's how...

Download this and this.

Then, install them:

rpm -ivh apt-0.5.15cnc6-1.1.fc2.fr.i386.rpm apt-devel-0.5.15cnc6-1.1.fc2.fr.i386.rpm [enter]

Once installed, and with an Internet connection present, do:

apt-get update [enter]

Do the above update step once more.

Then go:

apt-get install synaptic [enter]

After it has downloaded and installed, type (still as root):

synaptic [enter]

You now have the Synaptic front end for apt.

In the search box in the upper right hand corner, type:

xine [enter]

Then, install it via the intuitive interface. Apt solves all dependency issues for you!

That's it!

Thanks! I'll try it ASAP..

I just installed apt and it works great! Finally managed to install xine and managed to play videos. Thanks a million!