On 21st December, 2012
on&21st December, 2012 |
You know what’s boring? File managers. Seriously, file managers are dead-boring – they are almost never exciting pieces of software. But here’s the thing – they’re not supposed to be exciting. A good file manager is there when you need it, can do whatever it is you need it to do, and works reliably.
More than half a million downloads and over 18,000 reviews with a staggering 4.8-star average say that $4 utility
is all of those things, and more. So no, it’s not the next Angry Birds, and it won’t keep you entertained for hours (I hope). But when you need a good file manager, this is one app you’ll be grateful to have on your phone or tablet.
That said, it does cost money, and there are excellent free alternatives available (mentioned at the end of the post). So, why should you spend those $4?
Why Not Manage My Files Through My Computer?
I’m glad you asked! It’s true – many Android devices mount as local USB storage devices when you plug them into a PC. This means you can usually manage files on their SD cards and “user-facing” (i.e, data) folders easily using your computer. This is convenient, because you can use a full-fledged desktop file manager to move things around. The downside is that you’re limited to whatever your device makes accessible via USB.
Worse still, many Android ROMs only let you mount the phone as an MTP device, which is tech-talk for “media player”. They convince your computer that the phone is a Sansa-like media player, so you can still move files onto it, but it’s not nearly as easy.
Finally, you might want to do something with your phone’s files when you’re away from a computer. I don’t think messing with your phone’s system files when you’re not near a computer is a great idea, but Root Explorer makes that possible.
Basic Functionality: It’s In The Name
When you first launch Root Explorer, it’s going to ask for… root access!
That’s right. As you might expect from the name, Root Explorer is aimed at users who have rooted their phones. Rooting your phone isn’t difficult. Here’s a tutorial Ryan wrote about , for example. For the rest of this article, I’ll assume you’ve rooted your phone.
This brings us to the other part of the name, the one that says “Explorer“.
That bit looks like this:
It’s a file browser, and it starts off at the very root of your file system – note the /dev and /etc folders, for example. This isn’t your SD card or data directory (which is /data above) – this is the very root of your phone’s file system, and you probably shouldn’t be messing with it too much. That’s why Root Explorer wisely mounts it as read-only (“Mounted as r/o” in the screenshot above). If you’re absolutely sure you want to mess around with your root directory, gaining write access is just a button tap away – Mount R/W.
When you tap and hold a file or folder, you get a very complete menu:
This is the meat of the app, really. The first few functions are obvious, but when you scroll down, things get more interesting:
For example, you can zip or tar the folder right from within Root Explorer, which is nice for manually backing up things. And once you’ve made the folder into a single file, you can proceed to share (i.e, email) it from within Root Explorer. Of course, this should not be your backup strategy (I warmly recommend
if you care about your data even a little bit), but it’s nice when you want to reach into your phone’s innards.
Extra Muscle
Above you can see an XML file within Root E this is one of Titanium Backup’s configuration files, and Root Explorer let me peer into it with just a long-tap and “View as Text“.
If you do a lot of archiving, you may appreciate the Zip/Tap preferences:
These let you specify a default folder where you want Zip files placed. In combination with a tool like , you could easily create a system where you can just zip a folder and have it show up on your Dropbox moment later. Very handy.
One last essential feature I’d like to share:
Search! Again, it won’t blow you away, but it’s a crucial feature in a file manager. This is actually one of the few areas in which I find Root Explorer somewhat lacking: Search is always recursive, always assumes you’re searching for partial strings (so you don’t need wildcards), and only lets you search by filename – there’s no way to search for files modified in the last three days, for example.
Final Thoughts
Root Explorer is far from the only file manager on Android, and it faces formidable competition from excellent free managers
and . It’s solid, lean, and gets the job done – but my honest advice to you would be to try those two free alternatives first. If you really feel neither is delivering the goods, shell out $4 and take Root Explorer for a spin.
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Loading moreCodecs - MPlayer - The Movie Player for Linux
for the complete, daily generated list. Quite a few codecs are available for
download from our homepage. Grab them from our
The most important ones above all:
MPEG1 (VCD) and MPEG2 (DVD) video
native decoders for DivX ;-), OpenDivX, DivX4,
DivX5, M$ MPEG4 v1, v2 and other MPEG4 variants
native decoder for Windows Media Video 7/8 (WMV1/WMV2), and
Win32 DLL decoder for Windows Media Video 9 (WMV3), both
used in .wmv files
native Sorenson 1 (SVQ1) decoder
Win32/QT Sorenson 3 (SVQ3) decoder
3ivx v1, v2 decoder
Cinepak and Intel Indeo codecs (3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.0)
MJPEG, AVID, VCR2, ASV2 and other hardware formats
VIVO 1.0, 2.0, I263 and other h263(+) variants
RealVideo 1.0 codec from libavcodec, and RealVideo 2.0,
3.0 and 4.0 codecs using RealPlayer libraries
native decoder for HuffYUV
various old simple RLE-like formats
If you have a Win32 codec not listed here which is not supported yet, please
and help us add support
This section contains information about the DivX4 and DivX5 codecs of
. Their first available
alpha version was OpenDivX 4.0 alpha 47 and 48. Support for this was included
in MPlayer in the past, and built by default. We also used its
postprocessing code to optionally enhance visual quality of MPEG1/2 movies.
Now we use our own, for all file types.
The new generation of this codec is called DivX4 and can even decode
movies made with the infamous DivX codec! In addition it is much faster than
the native Win32 DivX DLLs but slower than libavcodec.
Hence its usage as a
decoder is DISCOURAGED. However, it is useful for encoding. One
disadvantage of this codec is that it is not available under an Open Source
DivX4Linux works in two modes:
Uses the codec in OpenDivX fashion. In this case it
produces YV12 images in its own buffer, and MPlayer does colorspace
conversion via libvo. (Fast, recommended!)
Uses the colorspace conversion of the codec.
In this mode you can use YUY2/UYVY, too. (SLOW)
The -vc odivx method is usually faster, due to the fact that it
transfers image data in YV12 (planar YUV 4:2:0) format, thus requiring much
less bandwidth on the bus. For packed YUV modes (YUY2, UYVY) use the
-vc divx4 method. For RGB modes the speed is the same, differing
at best according to your current color depth.
Note: If your -vo driver supports direct rendering, then
-vc divx4 may be faster or even the fastest solution.
The Divx4/5 binary codec library can be downloaded from
Unpack it, run ./install.sh as root and do not forget adding
/usr/local/lib to your /etc/ld.so.conf and running
Get the CVS version of the OLD OpenDivx core library like this:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@:/cvsroot login
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@:/cvsroot co divxcore
This core library is split into a decore and encore library that have to
be compiled separately. For the decore Library, simply type
cd divxcore/decore/build/linux
cp libdivxdecore.so /usr/local/lib
ln -s libdivxdecore.so /usr/local/lib/libdivxdecore.so.0
cp ../../src/decore.h /usr/local/include
Alas, for the encore library there is no Linux Makefile available, and the
MMX optimized code only works on Windows. You can still compile it, though,
by using this
cd ../../../encore/build
mkdir linux
cp path/Makefile .
cp libdivxencore.so /usr/local/lib
ln -s libdivxencore.so /usr/local/lib/libdivxencore.so.0
cp ../../src/encore.h /usr/local/include
MPlayer autodetects DivX4/DivX5 if it is properly installed, just
compile as usual. If it does not detect it, you did not install or configure
it correctly.
contains an
open source codec package, which is capable of decoding streams
encoded with
H263/MJPEG/RV10/DivX3/DivX4/DivX5/MP41/MP42/WMV1/WMV2/HuffYUV
video, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) audio codecs. Not only some of
them can be encoded with, but it also offers higher speed than the Win32
DivX4/5 library!
It contains a lot of nice codecs, especially important are the MPEG4
DivX3, DivX4, DivX5, Windows Media Video 7 (WMV1). Also a very
interesting one is the WMA decoder.
If you use an MPlayer release you have libavcodec right in the
package, just build as usual. If you use MPlayer from CVS you have to
extract libavcodec from the FFmpeg CVS tree as FFmpeg releases don't
work with MPlayer. In order to achieve this do:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ffmpeg.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg
Move the libavcodec directory from the FFmpeg sources to the
root of the MPlayer CVS tree. It should look like this:
&&&&main/libavcodec
Symlinking is not enough, you have to copy or move it!
Compile. Configure should detect problems before compilation.
With FFmpeg and my Matrox G400, I can view even the highest resolution DivX
movies without dropped frames on my K6/2 500.
Be advised that the XAnim binary codecs are packaged with a piece of text
claiming to be a legally binding software license which, besides other
restrictions, forbids the user to use the codecs in conjunction with any
program other than XAnim. However, the XAnim author has yet to bring legal
action against anyone for codec-related issues.
INSTALLATION AND USAGE
MPlayer is capable of employing the XAnim codecs for decoding. Follow
the instructions to enable them:
Download the codecs you wish to use from the
. The 3ivx codec
is not there, but at the .
OR download the codecs pack from our
Use the --with-xanimlibdir option to tell configure where
to find the XAnim codecs. By default, it looks for them at
/usr/local/lib/xanim/mods, /usr/lib/xanim/mods and /usr/lib/xanim.
Alternatively you can set the environment variable XANIM_MOD_DIR to
the directory of the XAnim codecs.
Rename/symlink the files, cutting out the architecture stuff, so they will
have filenames like these: vid_cvid.xa, vid_h263.xa, vid_iv50.xa.
XAnim is video codec family xanim, so you may want to use the -vfm xanim
option to tell MPlayer to use them if possible.
Tested codecs include: Indeo 3.2, 4.1, 5.0, CVID,
3ivX, h263.
MPlayer can play Vivo (1.0 and 2.0) videos. The most suitable codec
for 1.0 files is FFmpeg's H263 decoder, you can use it with the -vc
ffh263 option. For 2.0 files, use the Win32 DLL through the
-vc vivo option. If you do not supply command line options
MPlayer selects the best codec automatically.
MPEG1 and MPEG2 are decoded by the multiplatform native libmpeg2
library, whose source code is included in MPlayer. We handle buggy
MPEG 1/2 video files by catching Signal 11 (Segmentation fault),
and quickly reinitializing the codec, continuing exactly from where the
failure occurred. This recovery technique has no measurable speed penalty.
This is a very old and very bad codec from Microsoft. In the past it was
decoded with the msvidc32.dll Win32 codec, now we have our own
open source implementation (by ).
MPlayer uses its own open source, multiplatform Cinepak decoder (by
), by default.
It supports YUV outputs, so that hardware scaling is possible if the video
output driver permits it.
MPlayer supports decoding all versions of RealVideo:
RealVideo 1.0 (fourcc RV10) - en/decoding supported by libavcodec
RealVideo 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 (fourcc RV20, RV30, RV40) - decoding supported by RealPlayer libraries
It is recommended to download and install RealPlayer8 or RealONE, because
MPlayer can use their libraries to decode files with RealVideo 2.0 -
4.0 video. The MPlayer configure script should detect the
RealPlayer libraries in the standard locations of a full installation. If it
does not, tell configure where to look with the
--with-reallibdir option.
Note: RealPlayer libraries currently only work with Linux, FreeBSD,
NetBSD and Cygwin on the x86, Alpha and PowerPC (Linux/Alpha and Linux/PowerPC
have been tested) platforms.
is a forked development of
the OpenDivX codec. It happened when ProjectMayo changed OpenDivX to closed
source DivX4 (now DivX5), and the non-ProjectMayo people working on OpenDivX
got angry, then started XviD. So both projects have the same origin.
ADVANTAGES
open source
its API is compatible with DivX4 so adding support for it is easy
2-pass encoding support
nice encoding quality, higher speed than DivX4 (you can optimize it for
your box while compiling)
DISADVANTAGES
currently it does not properly decode all DivX/DivX4 files (no
problem as
can play them)
you have to choose between DivX4 or XviD support at compiletime
under development
INSTALLING XVID CVS
XviD is currently available only from CVS. Here are download and installation
instructions (you need at least autoconf 2.50, automake and libtool):
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.xvid.org:/xvid co xvidcore
cd xvidcore/build/generic
./bootstrap.sh
./configure
You may have to add some options (examine the output of
./configure --help).
make && make install
If you specified --enable-divxcompat,
copy the divx4.h header file from
xvidcore/src/ to /usr/local/include/.
Recompile MPlayer with
--with-xvidcore=/path/to/libxvidcore.a.
Sorenson is a video codec family developed by Sorenson Media and
licensed to Apple who distribute it with their QuickTime Player. We are
currently able to decode all versions of Sorenson video files with the
following decoders:
Sorenson 1 (fourcc SVQ1) - decoding supported by native
Actually there are two (nearly equal) decoders for SVQ1: one is built in
MPlayer, the other is in libavcodec. You can invoke each of them with the
-vc svq1 and -vc ffsvq1 options respectively.
Some files may work with one of them, and not with the other, so test
both decoders. The decoder was written (reverse engineered) by the
Sorenson 3 (fourcc SVQ3) - decoding supported by Win32
QuickTime libraries
COMPILING MPLAYER WITH QUICKTIME LIBRARIES SUPPORT
NOTE: currently only 32bit Intel platforms are supported.
download MPlayer CVS
compile MPlayer with:
$ ./configure --enable-qtx-codecs
download QuickTime DLL pack from
extract QuickTime DLL pack to your Win32 codecs directory (default:
/usr/lib/win32)
The most important audio codecs above all:
MPEG layer 2 (MP2), and layer 3 (MP3) audio (native code, with
MMX/SSE/3DNow! optimization)
MPEG layer 1 audio (native code, with libavcodec)
Windows Media Audio v1, v2 (native code, with libavcodec)
Windows Media Audio 9 (WMAv3) (using DMO DLL)
AC3 Dolby audio (native code, with MMX/SSE/3DNow!
optimization)
AC3 passing through soundcard hardware
Ogg Vorbis audio codec (native library)
RealAudio: DNET (low bitrate AC3), Cook, Sipro and ATRAC3
QuickTime: Qualcomm and QDesign audio codecs
VIVO audio (g723, Vivo Siren)
Voxware audio (using DirectShow DLL)
alaw and ulaw, various gsm, adpcm and pcm formats and other simple old
audio codecs
This is the default decoder used for files with AC3 audio.
The AC3 decoder can create audio output mixes for 2, 4, or 6 speakers. When
configured for 6 speakers, this decoder provides separate output of all the
AC3 channels to the sound driver, allowing for full "surround sound"
experience without the external AC3 decoder required to use the hwac3
Use the -channels option to select the number of output
channels. Use -channels 2 for a stereo downmix. For a 4
channel downmix (Left Front, Right Front, Left Surround and Right Surround
outputs), use -channels 4. In this case, any center channel will
be mixed equally to the front channels. -channels 6 will output
all the AC3 channels as they are encoded - in the order Left, Right, Left
Surround, Right Surround, Center and LFE.
The default number of output channels is 2.
To use more than 2 output channels, you will need to use OSS, and have a
sound card that supports the appropriate number of output channels via the
SNDCTL_DSP_CHANNELS ioctl. An example of a suitable driver is emu10k1 (used
by Soundblaster Live! cards) from August 2001 or newer (ALSA CVS is also
supposed to work).
You need an AC3 capable sound card, with digital out (SP/DIF). The card's
driver must properly support the AFMT_AC3 format (C-Media does). Connect
your AC3 decoder to the SP/DIF output, and use the -ac hwac3
option. It is experimental but known to work with C-Media cards,
Soundblaster Live! using ALSA (but not OSS) drivers and DXR3/Hollywood+ MPEG
decoder cards.
is a multiplatform MPEG
audio decoding library. It does not handle broken files well, and it
sometimes has problems with seeking.
To enable support, compile with the --enable-mad configure
The audio codec used in VIVO files depends on whether it is a VIVO/1.0 or
VIVO/2.0 file. VIVO/1.0 files have g.723 audio, and VIVO/2.0 files
have Vivo Siren audio. Both are supported.
MPlayer supports decoding nearly all versions of RealAudio:
RealAudio DNET - decoding supported by liba52
RealAudio Cook/Sipro/ATRAC3 - decoding supported by RealPlayer
On how to install RealPlayer libraries, see the
QDesign audio streams (fourcc: QDMC, QDM2) are found in MOV/QT
files. Both versions of this codec can be decoded with QuickTime libraries.
For installation instructions please see the
Qualcomm audio stream (fourcc: Qclp) is found in MOV/QT files.
It can be decoded with QuickTime libraries. For installation instructions
please see the
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is an audio codec sometimes found in MOV and MP4
files. An open source decoder called FAAD is available from
You can download the second generation codec FAAD2 at their
Unfortunately FAAD2 1.1 does not compile under Linux, so you will have to use
the CVS version. Here's how:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@:/cvsroot/faac login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@:/cvsroot/faac co faad2
chmod +x bootstrap
./bootstrap
make install
Binaries are not available , but you can (apt-)get
Debian packages from
and Mandrake RPMs from the
VFW (Video for Windows) is the old Video API for Windows. Its codecs have
the .DLL or (rarely) .DRV extension.
If MPlayer fails at playing your AVI with this kind of message:
&&&&UNKNOWN video codec: HFYU (0x)
It means your AVI is encoded with a codec which has the HFYU fourcc (HFYU =
HuffYUV codec, DIV3 = DivX Low Motion, etc...). Now that you know this, you
have to find out which DLL Windows loads in order to play this file. In our
case, the system.ini contains this information in a line that
&&&&VIDC.HFYU=huffyuv.dll
So you need the huffyuv.dll file. Note that the audio codecs are
specified by the MSACM prefix:
&&&&msacm.l3acm=L3codeca.acm
This is the MP3 codec. Now that you have all the necessary information
(fourcc, codec file, sample AVI), submit your codec support request by mail,
and upload these files to the FTP site:
&&&&ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/
Note: On Windows NT/2000/XP search for this info in the registry, e.g. search for
"VIDC.HFYU". To find out how to do this, look at the old DirectShow method below.
DirectShow is the newer Video API, which is even worse than its predecessor.
Things are harder with DirectShow, since
system.ini does not contain the needed information, instead it
is stored in the registry and
we need the GUID of the codec.
New Method: Using Microsoft GraphEdit (fast)
Get GraphEdit from either DirectX SDK or
Start graphedit.exe.
From the menu select Graph -& Insert Filters.
Expand item DirectShow Filters.
Select the right codec name and expand item.
In the entry DisplayName look at the text in winged brackets
after the backslash and write it down (five dash-delimited blocks, the
The codec binary is the file specified in the Filename
Note: If there is no Filename entry and DisplayName
contains something like device:dmo, then it is a DMO-Codec.
Old Method: Take a deep breath and start searching the registry...
Start regedit.
Press Ctrl-f, disable the first two checkboxes, and enable
the third. Type in the fourcc of the codec (e.g. TM20).
You should see a field which contains the path and the filename
(e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TM20DEC.AX).
Now that you have the file, we need the GUID. Try searching again, but
now search for the codec's name, not the fourcc. Its name can be acquired
when Media Player is playing the file, by checking File -& Properties
-& Advanced.
If not, you are out of luck. Try guessing (e.g. search for TrueMotion).
If the GUID is found you should see a FriendlyName and a CLSID
field. Write down the 16 byte CLSID, this is the GUID we need.
Note: If searching fails, try enabling all the checkboxes. You may have
false hits, but you may get lucky...
Now that you have all the necessary information (fourcc, GUID, codec file,
sample AVI), submit your codec support request by mail, and upload these files
to the FTP site:
&&&&ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/incoming/[codecname]/}