To specify what you want xine to play, we use a system called MRL, Media
Resource Locator. As the name suggests, MRLs are very similar to the URLs you
know from your webbrowser. In fact, there is a common superset of both, the URIs
(Uniform Resource Identifier) as defined in RFC2396.

xine's MRLs are divided into two major parts, the input source and the stream
setup. The latter is optional. If it exists, it is separated from the input
source by a crosshatch '#' character.


input source
------------

The input source part tells xine, where to get the data to play. To start with
something well known, almost all UNIX-like paths and filenames are valid here.
There are some characters which require special treatment, but xine tries to
handle even slightly invalid MRLs gracefully.

For input sources other than filenames, you must start with the class of input
followed by a colon ':'. What comes after that depends on the actual input.
Some prominent examples should clarify:

     file:/path/to/file             plays the given file
     stdin:/                        receives a stream from standard input
     fifo:/path/to/file             receives a stream from the given fifo
     
     cdda:/                         plays a CD audio
     cdda:/5                        plays track 5 from a CD audio
     
     dvd:/                          plays a DVD
     dvd:/2                         plays a DVD starting at title 2
     dvd:/2.4                       plays a DVD starting at title 2, part 4
     
     http://server/location/file    plays a file from the web
     mms://server/location/file     plays a file via MMS streaming
     pnm://server/location/file     plays a file via PNM streaming
     rtsp://server/location/file    plays a file via RTSP streaming
     
     tcp://host:port                receives a stream through a TCP socket
     slave://host:port              receives a stream from a xine broadcast
     
     udp://host:port                receives a multicast stream through UDP
     udp://host:port?iface=eth0     receives a multicast stream through UDP from eth0
     rtp://host:port                receives a RTP multicast stream
     rtp://host:port?iface=eth0     receives a RTP multicast stream from eth0
     
     dvb:/                          shows a Digital Video Broadcast
     dvb:/7                         shows DVB station 7
     
     v4l:/tuner/frequency           receives a stream from a Video4Linux device


stream setup
------------

The stream setup part allows you to pass special options for playback directly
in the MRL. The various options are separated by a semicolon ';'.
Possible options are:

     novideo                        ignore the stream's video data
     noaudio                        ignore the stream's audio data
     nospu                          ignore the stream's subtitle data
     
     volume:value                   set the volume to the given value
     compression:value              set the compression level to the given value
     
     subtitle:file                  show subtitles from a separate file
     
     save:filename                  save the stream in the designated file
     
     config_entry:config_value      change the config entry to the given value
     
     demux:demuxer_plugin           use the given demuxer "demuxer_plugin"
     lastdemuxprobe:demuxer_plugin  used for debugging
     

examples
--------

Some examples should show you, how powerful the MRLs are:

     yourmovie.avi#subtitle:yoursubtitles.srt
     
                                    plays the specified avi overlayed with the
                                    subtitles from the given file

     http://some.server.org/stream.mpg#save:savedstream.mpg
     
                                    streams the file over HTTP and saves it
                                    to disk while playing it

     dvd:/1.1#novideo
     
                                    plays the first part in the first title
                                    of the DVD, but audio only

     stdin:/#demux:rawdv
     
                                    plays a DV stream from standard input,
                                    can be used for live DV streams