The kplayerui.rc file was misplaced during installation, and KPlayer cannot find it. If you installed using a binary package, complain to the package maintainer. When compiling from source, be sure to follow the instructions in the Compilation micro-HOWTO, especially the part about kde-config. Before starting, run

kde-config --prefix

from the command line to make sure that it returns the KDE prefix path.

You may have a file called kplayerui.rc in ~/.kde/share/apps/kplayer. Removing it will get you the new menus, but it will also reset any keyboard shortcuts you may have changed in the Key Bindings dialog.

The kplayer.desktop file needs to be installed in the correct place, under either share/applnk/Multimedia or share/applications/kde in the global KDE directory.

There also may be a file called kde-kplayer.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications. Removing it will get the Multimedia menu updated automatically again when you install or uninstall KPlayer, but it will also reset changes you made to KPlayer associations with media types on the File Associations page in Konqueror configuration dialog or in KDE Control Center.

The Contents tab in KHelpCenter should also list KPlayer in the Multimedia section under Application Manuals.

If you get this error when trying to play a file, you need to install MPlayer before you can use KPlayer. This error can also happen if the name of your MPlayer executable is not mplayer or it is not in the current path. In that case go to the Advanced page in KPlayer Settings and give the executable name or the full path in the Executable path field.

That means that you are missing the X include files, which normally come with the X development package. So look for a package in your distribution that has files like X.h and XEvent.h. For example, on Debian it is called xlibs-dev.

Similarly, if configure complains about missing Qt files, you need to find and install the Qt development package. If you look in the config.log, it will probably tell you the exact name of the file it couldn't find, somewhere near the bottom. The config.log file is quite verbose, so you would have to scroll a few pages up from the bottom to find the place where it reports the error.

Look at the end of the message log to see what errors MPlayer gives when trying to play the files. Hit Ctrl+G if KPlayer does not show the log automatically.

Try playing the files with mplayer from the command line. If MPlayer can play them, compare the options you used on the command line to the ones KPlayer passed to MPlayer. Set the required options in KPlayer Settings. The most important ones are the Driver options on the Video and Audio pages. On the Advanced page check the Executable path option to make sure KPlayer will be able to find the MPlayer executable, and if there are any options that are not found anywhere in the KPlayer Settings dialog, put them in the Additional command line arguments field.

Look at the end of the message log to see what errors MPlayer gives when trying to play the file. Hit Ctrl+G if KPlayer does not show the log automatically.

Try playing the file with mplayer from the command line. If MPlayer can play it, but requires special option to play this particular file, put them in the File Properties for that file. Two options that sometimes help MPlayer when it cannot detect the file type automatically are -vc and -ac, which correspond to the Codec options on the Video and Audio pages in File Properties. If there are any options that are not found anywhere in the File Properties dialog, put them in the Additional command line arguments field.

If it is a playlist file but it does not have one of the standard playlist file extensions, go to the General page in the File Properties and set the Playlist option to yes. In rare cases a file that is not a playlist may have a playlist extension. Then you will need to set the Playlist property to no. For more details see the Playlist files section in the Playlist micro-HOWTO.

If KPlayer only plays audio files but not video files, there may be a problem with the video output. By default KPlayer uses XVideo extension for video output. If the extension is not enabled or is being used by another program like Kino, KPlayer may not be able to use a different video output. You can either enable the XVideo extension or tell KPlayer to use another video output. See the Configuration micro-HOWTO for details.

Look in the Message Log to see why MPlayer cannot play audio. The most common problem is the audio device being locked by another program. In this case the chief suspect is artsd. Try running

killall artsd

from the command line. If that helps then the permanent solution is to go to the KDE Control Center and disable aRts. aRts and everything based on it is by far the worst part of KDE. Fortunately it seems there are plans to finally get rid of it in KDE 4.

For more information on audio setup in KPlayer see the Configuration micro-HOWTO.

When KPlayer is in Running or Playing state, run

ps auxww

from the command line. Compare the command line options that KPlayer uses to run MPlayer to what you are using to play the file with MPlayer. Then start adding missing options one by one until you get the same problem you are getting in KPlayer. After you find out what option is causing the problem, you can open the configuration dialog in KPlayer and remove or change that option. If you need to make the change just for that one file, go to the File Properties instead.

If you are getting problems when you try to go back to normal window size from full screen mode, for example the window becomes too large or you are seeing endless flickering, you can try unselecting the Resize main window automatically option on the General page in KPlayer Settings. Also read the thread about this problem at the KPlayer user forum and watch it for updates.

By default KPlayer lets MPlayer choose an optimal cache size. When playing low bitrate media like a radio station, it may take a long time to fill the cache if it is too big. If that happens, you can either choose a lower Cache size setting or give a lower minimum cache size on the Advanced page either globally in KPlayer Settings or in the individual File Properties. Enter the minimum cache size into the Additional command line parameters field, for example -cache-min 5, or choose set size for the Cache option and enter a size in kilobytes. For more information on playing online media see the Streams micro-HOWTO.

You may have set the Cache size option too low in KPlayer Settings. If you need to set it higher or lower for an individual file or stream, you can do so on the Advanced page in File Properties.

If you open a web page with an embedded multimedia object in Konqueror, only the video area is displayed, with no controls. Then you should right click the video area and choose the Start KPlayer command. Playback will then stop, and the full KPlayer will open up and start playing the file or URL.

You need to enable the XVideo extension in your X11 configuration and make sure the XVideo video output is selected on the Video page in KPlayer Settings. However, if you cannot use the XVideo output, you can still make the video controls to work by putting the -vf eq2 or -vf eq option into the Additional command line parameters field on the Advanced page in KPlayer Settings.