Watch Movies in Linux Terminal | Stupid Geek Tricks

Watching Movies in ASCII Text

Despite the prevalence of high-definition video content today, including platforms like YouTube, a niche group of tech enthusiasts might choose to view films as ASCII text within a terminal window. Surprisingly, some videos are actually viewable using this method.

Cartoons generally perform best due to their simpler visual details. Notably, the concluding installment and likely final Futurama movie is scheduled for release on DVD tomorrow! Pre-orders for Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder are currently available on Amazon.

How to Watch Movies in ASCII

The initial step involves ensuring that mplayer is installed on your system. This can be easily accomplished via the command line:

sudo apt-get install mplayer

To initiate playback of videos within a terminal window, utilize the following command structure, substituting 'MovieName' with the actual filename of your video file.

mplayer -vo caca MovieName.avi

The “caca” parameter specifies the color text driver. Alternatively, you could employ “-vo aa” for a black and white display, though this is arguably less appealing.

These images don't fully convey the experience; it's genuinely as imperfect as it appears when viewed directly.

Scenes with significant contrast tend to render more effectively…

Maintaining a viewing distance of approximately eight feet from the monitor is also recommended.

This technique certainly qualifies as a Stupid Geek Trick!