problem. I had to install the 'mad' stuff which, by the way, I was unable to find mentioned anywhere in the documentation. (More lawyer stuff?)
You nailed it... welcome to teh wonderful world of software patents. :-(
After much investigation and a comment from a single individual on the list, I installed MPlayer which has so far played anything I've asked it to. (Why isn't MPlayer a part of the default install?)
MPlayer was included in a previous release from SUSE... 9.0 or something like that.. but was removed from all subsequent releases. Basically... the player itself isnt' the problem or the solution to playing the videos (Xine, Totem etc all play videos)... it's the codecs... and they fall into that fuzzy grey area of legality... and you'll never see the W32 codec pack that gets included as a dependancy when you install the MPlayer RPM from Packman as part of an official SUSE release - unless the codecs are released to the public domain and open sourced...
IMHO, the SuSE disto has gotten progressively worse since SuSE was purchased by Novell.
I'm of the opposite opinion. I'm pretty OK with the way things are going (I've been using SUSE since 6.2). SUSE is very easy to install.. easy to use... I try all the distros just cuz I like ot tinker. Ubuntu is prob the next favorite of mine.. but it's a VERY distant fav. The rest.. RH.. Gentoo, Debian, DSL, etc etc etc... all work... but NONE have the polish and ease of use of SUSE. SUSE isn't perfect and has it's wobbly moments, but the good far outshines the bad in the big picture. Hope you are able to stick around and contribute to SUSE :-) C. -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com