Posts: 51
wayne128
Joined: 05 Sep 2010
#1
Issue: using antiX 8.5, can browse network file, but cannot play movie files.

I have windows machine that save files and are on the Local Area Network.
When i use antiX to browse network file and play or copy, i encountered some issues. My steps are

1. click file manager, see file manager windows popup
2. click Go, then Network Drives, now i see the network drives and Windows Network icon
3. click Windows Network Icon, then click workgroup Icon, now all network drives appear
4. click selected network drive, click selected folder, click selected file

the default movie player pop up, however, it cannot run, the screen display is
Stream from smb://mycomputername/folder/filename-GNOME MPlayer
and it is Stopped.

out of curiosity, i also try another distros with xfce desktop and have the same issue

My question:
5. is this the expected behaviour on pcmanfm?
6. am i missing some procedure to open/play a network file?

just another trial and error and my learning curve, i learned elsewhere on network file browsing with gigolo, so i install gigolo to experiment with it.
once gigolo is installed successfully, run by typing gigolo on terminal,
make a change on file manager, click Edit>>Preference and type pcmanfm on the File Manager field.
close windows. restart.

now i could use gigolo to browse network file, and when i click a selected file, it will play on default or selected player.

at least i am even happier now that i can play files on LAN, using antiX __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#2
I just tried the following:

1. use smbnetfs to mount my network to /home/network.
2. browsed my shares using pcmanfm to my shared media folder
3. played a avi movie using gnome-mplayer.

The movie took a moment to load and then started. Possible depending on the size of the movie and the file type, the movie might not play or just may take a long time to start.
Posts: 51
wayne128
Joined: 05 Sep 2010
#3
hi dolphin_oracle,
Thanks for your reply. I get some hints, so i try some more and find the 'clicking way' below works:

1. Open file manager
2. in file manager, click Go>>Network Drives >> 'computer name'>> 'directory wanted'

3. open GNOME Mplayer
4. in GNOME Mplayer, click File>>Open>> see that 'directory wanted' already appeared on left panel
5. choose the movie file, double click, enjoy __{{emoticon}}__

it works, almost immediately.... so i m __{{emoticon}}__