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danco
2005-11-12, 09:58
I had a major problem getting AlienBBC 0.99 to work until I realised the significance of one of the changes between 0.98 and 0.99. A couple of checks seem to show it is now working ok.

(1) In the "What's new in 0.99" section, you say

Default configuration is now for mplayer pre7.

I think this needs to have added to it something like

"Users of pre6 will therefore need to edit their slimserver-convert.conf and mplayer.sh files"

I think it is best put there, as those knowitalls like myself who have installed various versions of AlienBBC over the past year or so probably will think they don't need to read the instructions.

(2) Anyway, the instructions are still for the 0.98 and earlier versions. You need to put new instructions about what needs commenting out and what needs uncommenting for those using 0.99.

(3) I don't think any of the instructions mention that (depending on version of mplayer and AlienBBC being used) one may need to comment out and uncomment lines in mplayer.sh, not just in slimserver-convert.conf.

(4) On another point, the AlienBBC Downloads only mentions Windows and Linux. You would avoid unnecessary hassles (for you and for users) if you added in that section.

"Mac users should download the Linux version."

(5) On the Mac, if one runs mplayer from the terminal, one gets a message

mplayer dev-CVS-date.

I don't know any way of finding out whether one is using pre6 or pre7. I would guess that I may be one of the few people who has used AlienBBC for long enough that I am still on pre6. But how does one find this out? Is there a date from which the version of mplayer is pre7? I don't know if Windows and Linux users have this issue.

Neil Sleightholm
2005-11-12, 11:29
Am I correct in assuming you are using a Mac? If so, I'm afraid none of us who work on AlienBBC have a Mac so the instructions rely on users (hence the 3 different versions of the Mac instructions). If you would like to provide updated instructions I'd be happy to post them.

On Windows and Unix running mplayer from the command line prints the version e.g. "MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team" unless you are using a version that is not an official release in which case is prints "MPlayer dev-CVS-051107-16:13-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team" which I think is what you see. I think the problem is that the Mac compile is unsupported by the mplayer team so you get unofficial releases. In this case the only way to know is to refer to the release date of pre7 only the mplayer site.

Neil

danco
2005-11-12, 12:12
Yes, I use a Mac. But my points 1, 2, and 3 apply cross-platform.

Point 4 is just that in the Download section you should tell Mac users to download the Linux version. They then have to follow the instructions as given for the Mac, with - if necessary - Linux instructions regarding 1, 2, and 3.
Thanks for explaining the situation regarding versions of mplayer. Somewhere in the middle of the main mplayer site I managed to find

2005.04.16, Saturday :: MPlayer 1.0pre7 released

which gives the answer I was looking for.