The MPlayer package contains mplayer, gmplayer and mencoder. mplayer manages the input formats, the CODECs and the output formats to play video files, DVDs, (S)VCDs or network streams containing audio and/or video information on your system. Examples: mplayer -fs blfs.avi mplayer -vo fbdev -fb /dev/fb0 dvd://1 -aid 128 -sub en -framedrop mplayer -fs vcd://1 # works both for VCDs and SVCDs mplayer http://www.students.uni-marburg.de/~Klossa/hapkidofight_lo.mpg For further information, have a look at the very good documentation included in the package in the subdirectory DOCS/. gmplayer is MPlayer with a graphical user interface. mencoder is used to encode any MPlayer playable movie to DivX4, XviD or any CODEC in libavcodec with PCM/MP3/VBRMP3 audio. Example: rm frameno.avi mencoder -dvd 1 -aid 128 -ovc frameno -oac mp3lame \ -lameopts vbr=3 -o frameno.avi # mencoder should output bitrates for average encodings # now, choose one you like best! In the following lines, # replace <bitrate> and <name.avi> with statements of your # personal liking. mencoder -dvd 1 -aid 128 -oac copy -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=1:vhq:vbitrate=<bitrate> -o <name.avi> mencoder -dvd 1 -aid 128 -oac copy -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vpass=2:vhq:vbitrate=<bitrate> -o <name.avi> mencoder -forceidx <name.avi>