[MPlayer-users] Need help playing specific files

[John McKee]

First off, the MPlayer page suggested searching the archives.  My
questions may be answered there, but I don't know if there is a specific
method to search the archives.  Maybe somebody can tell me.

Curently, I have been using mplayer rather successfully to play the
windows media from a web page.  What I did was save the link address
into a file, Thus, to play the content, I use the following command:

mplayer `cat linkname`

That works for the specific site.  Maybe there is a more elegant way to
do this?

However, there are two other sites that I cannot get to work.  Both are
using javascript to determine whether the stream should be sent as
Windows Media or RealAudio.  I saved both of those links to files as
well.  Looking at the content, I saw, for example, mms:// at the start
of a line.
I first attempted to access the site using the method above.  But,
nothing happens.  I do sometimes get a 404 error.  On a Windows
computer, I can click on the link and the program is there.  I have even
edited the file to remove HTML components.  The results are the same.

Here is on of the links:

mplayer
mms://abcrad.wmod.llnwd.net/a49/external/0102cABAAHQAAAAcDle6yKhvE1c0LnEJnNwFajD8QD92LOnSD/harvey/pm/harveypm11252004.wma



(A line break is being artificially inserted above.  )

Sometimes, that link works, sometimes, it doesn't.  If I add the
-dumpstream and -dumpfile parameters, the file (again, sometimes) does
not play properly.  Playback starts but audio jumps over large
segments.  Might be silent for 5 seconds, then a second of speech.


Another site has two links embedded in the file that is saved.  First
URL starts with http: and the second starts with wma://  Otherwise, they
are identical.  The file is html tags in it, but neith Windows Media
Player or Linux RealAudio is bothered by the embedded html.

Here is that content:

<asx version = "3.0">
<title>NPR's Talk of the Nation - Friday, December 24, 2004</title>
<abstract>more info at : NPR's Talk of the Nation Web site</abstract>
<moreinfo href="http://www.npr.org/programs/totn/" />

<PARAM name="ShowPlayList" value="true"/>
<entry>
<param name="track" value="4" />
<title>Diagnosing and Treating Celiac Disease</title>
<author>NPR's Talk of the Nation - Friday, December 24, 2004</author>
<copyright>(c) 2004 NPR</copyright>
<ref
href="mms://wm.npr.na-central.speedera.net/wm.npr.na-central/totn/20041224_totn_04.wma"
/>
<ref
href="http://wm.npr.na-central.speedera.net/wm.npr.na-central/totn/20041224_totn_04.wma"
/>
</entry>

</asx>


So, finally, my question:  How can I use mplayer to play  the content
from these links?

Again, my apologies if this has already been throughly dealt with
already.

John McKee