Notes / F.A.Q.

Notes

Linux distinguishes the case of letters in file names. E.g. Film.AVI and film.avi are two different files on Linux systems. But when using file systems like FAT, NTFS and Joliet extension for CD-ROM the case of letters has no significance.
on Linux systems directories are separated by / character (slash) and on Windows by \ (backslash)
there are no drive letters in Linux, drive is mounted in a file system and is seen as a directory.
Linux uses LF (Line Feed) character for end of line in text files as opposed to CR/LF (Carriage Return/Line Feed) pair used in Windows.
national characters coding can be different.

file with subtitles must be in the same directory as the movie
file with subtitles must have the same name as file with movie but a .txt extension
case of letters in file names of both files should be the same
subtitles can be in frame or time format (TMPlayer, MicroDVD, VPlayer, MPL2)

If you have a Matrox, ATI, Cyberblade or Permedia graphics card you can try usind vidix drivers with h/w acceleration. Start the system with vidix driver or in MPlayer's arguments specify cvidix or vesa:vidix as video output (-vo cvidix).

In the case when Matrox G200/G400/G450/G500 graphics card is detected, mga_vid driver will be used. It accelerates graphics speed and supports panscan and fullscreen options.

In the case of very old graphics card not supporting VESA 2.0 (as well as some newer ones like i810) native framebuffer module will be used. If this fails, VGA16 module will be used so that a proper text mode can be displayed. However when using VGA16, fbdev driver and displaying pictures is not possible (only 16 color framebuffer is accessible).

The kernel has built in support for many popular sound cards. Others, less popular, are supported by additional modules. If the system does not detect any known card the sound will be played through built in speaker (if processor speed permits).

In case of an old hardware, MMX processor is not required but recommended. Theoretically a Pentium class processor is sufficient but its computing power is usually too small. You can play audio files and watch pictures but there's no point in watching films on it.

In case of errors during playback choose Help from menu, then Help from menu, then Show MPlayer error output and read last messages. Solutions to many issues can be found in MPlayer's documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: During movie playback the picture sometimes skips, flickers etc.
A: It sometimes happens on some graphics cards (especially newer ones) in VESA mode. There are 3 ways to solve this issue:
1) disable double buffering, but then subtitles and OSD flicker
2) adding to MPlayer's options -vf scale (not always works)
3) changing driver to framebuffer.

Q: After starting film the playback stops immediately (or the screen is empty all the time).
A: It may happen when cvidix or vesa:vidix driver is selected. These drivers don't support some graphic cards. Run the system with forced VESA or FB driver (before starting type vesa or fb) or remove cvidix (vesa:vidix) from MPlayer'sarguments.

Q: I can't boot Cinemix from a CD, at best Loading Linux... appears on screen and nothing else happens.
A: It can happen on older or dirty CD drives. Try booting a few times and if this doesn't help change the drive. Sometimes burning the CD with a smaller speed (e.g. 8x) helps. Another reason might be that your computer's BIOS is faulty and emulates FDD incorrectly. Newest Cinemix versions should not have any problems with booting on these computers.

Q: I have SIS 6326 graphics card, which is VESA 2.0 compatible, and I can't get it working.
A: Unfortunately although this card is VESA 2.0 compatible it doesn't work in VESA mode. The solution is using a framebuffer driver - it works quite well. The same applies to older ATI cards. If you can get a better graphics card.

Q: During playback I press < and > keys and I can't jumpt to previous/next movie (track).
A: These characters are written on the upper part of the key so you have to hold down SHIFT while you depress these keys.

Q: I have a jerky playback with some movies even if I enter cdspeed off.
A: Some movies are badly recorded and even with no speed limit set it can be heard as the head in the drive works hard. Try playing back from hard drive.

Q: I want to play a movie from hard drive with hdplay but my c: drive is now d: and d: is c: etc.
A: It happens when the order of entries in partition table differs form order of partition creation (e.g. after repartitioning). Cinemix uses simplified partition detection and it may sometimes happen.

Q: During startup the system hangs after writing Partition check: hda:
A: The kernel is compiled so that it turns on UDMA for hard disks if it's possible. Situation described above can happen with older drives. You can add ide=nodma to kernel parameters during boot.

Q: During playback no sound can be heard (or there's no picture).
A: Cinemix hasn't got proper audio (video) codec.

Q: Can subtitles font size be changed?
A: Yes. You can substitute fonts. When creating a new compilation add CINEMIX/font directory (in root CD directory) and add selected fonts for MPlayer. Cinemix supports only bitmap fonts.

Q: Can Cinemix be installed on a hard drive?
A: Yes. If there is a FAT partition on the HDD used hdinst package which helps in the installation.

Q: I have changed screen resolution but film resolution has not changed.
A: This change applies only to frame buffer (FBDEV driver), text console and displayed pictures. It has no effect on VESA driver.

Q: Can I change subtitles location so that they are under the picture, change panscan, change picture size during playback?
A: Unfortunately subtitles can't be moved. Panscan works only on Matrox G200/G400/G450/G550 with mga_vid driver (loaded by default). Picture size can only be changed by changing its proportions choosing appropriate option from the menu.

Q: When playing movies on a laptop the sound from its speakers is noisy and cracking.
A: There is an unsupported sound card in the laptop (like HD Audio (Intel Azalia)). In this case Cinemix cannot use it for sound playback and uses built-in PC-speaker which gives this poor quality sound. The same may happen on a desktop PC - here the sound will be reproduced by the built-in speaker (or not at all on newer nVidia chipset mainboards).

Q: Cinemix does not support ...
A: The basic assumption of the project is that everything must fit into 2.88MB. Because of this an older Linux kernel is used which does not support newer hardware and only the most popular codecs are used.