Feature Request: VLC or MPlayer for Media Playback

[junkixl]

I'm using mediacenter software several years now (not only Media Portal) and all of it has the same drawback: Video codecs. I have a rather big selection of videos encoded in all kinds of formats. using the windows codec system is a pure mess and installing several hundred filters couldn't simply be the solution.
We have VLC and MPlayer out there. they are both open source and under GPL. And they play nearly everything, regardless how bad the files are encoded. so where is the problem of using them in MP? VLC has a full API to include it into other software projects.
the plug-ins existing for MP1 is not a solution. they are slow and you can't use all the features from MP.
I hope you drop Windows Mediaplayer out of MP2 or at least leave the option to integrate VLC or MPlayer flawlessly

greez
JunkiXL

[shadow2000]

I thing its a little bit to early to talk about feature requests but the mediaplayer is a main part of mediaportal and in my point of view its a god suggestion to use vlc or mplayer.
On my normal PC i play every mediafile (except music) with vlc because i had never trouble to play some files. With WMP i cannot use the fastforward and skip option.
So are there any reason not to use VLC?

[cedric]

I agree with junkixl to use VLC inside MP. Now I use vlc with MP1 to watch movie. Better quality, all kind of formats are playable (maybe ffdshow or other could be configured to play movie as good as VLC, but it's realy difficult and take much more time), the only problem with vlc and MP for the moment is it's not totaly integrated.

Cédric

[tester2k7]

VLC use the inbuilt codecs, so if you play files with VLC you cannot use ffdshow.
I'd prefer Media Player Classic + ffdshow best combo in my opinion

[frodo]

The default media player in MP-II will be directshow based
The reason for this is that we can integrate it perfectly in MP-II
This means we can do advanced things like:

- video pixel shader (intelligent zooming for example)
- overlay & alpha blend graphics with video (e.g. menus, subtitles, OSD)
- get H/W acceleration support if your card supports it

As we all know the downside is the codecs mess in windows.
Although i must say that i can play 99.9% of all movies by installing:
- powerdvd codecs
- ffdshow
nothing more needed


Now I understand there will be people who like another player like VLC , MPC, zoomplayer
in MP-II

That might be added in a later stage.
At the moment we need to add the 'basic' stuff first before thinking about things like this.

Offcourse anybody is free to develop a VLC/MPC/zoomplayer/... player plugin for MP-II
and submit us a nice clean patch.

We are an opensource application after all.


Frodo

[zxao]

Originally Posted by frodo

The default media player in MP-II will be directshow based
The reason for this is that we can integrate it perfectly in MP-II
This means we can do advanced things like:

- video pixel shader (intelligent zooming for example)
- overlay & alpha blend graphics with video (e.g. menus, subtitles, OSD)
- get H/W acceleration support if your card supports it

As we all know the downside is the codecs mess in windows.
Although i must say that i can play 99.9% of all movies by installing:
- powerdvd codecs
- ffdshow
nothing more needed


Now I understand there will be people who like another player like VLC , MPC, zoomplayer
in MP-II

That might be added in a later stage.
At the moment we need to add the 'basic' stuff first before thinking about things like this.

Offcourse anybody is free to develop a VLC/MPC/zoomplayer/... player plugin for MP-II
and submit us a nice clean patch.

We are an opensource application after all.


Frodo

I think this is the right decision. I honestly never have codec issues and all i have installed is ffdshow, vsfilter, and Haali Media Splitter.

[Paranoid Delusion]

Video codecs. I have a rather big selection of videos encoded in all kinds of formats.

Why ?

If you are going to make life hard work, take the pressure off by using consistant formats.

Better to make your CPU suffer whilst converting, than go through codec hell.

[cedric]

Originally Posted by zxao

I think this is the right decision. I honestly never have codec issues and all i have installed is ffdshow, vsfilter, and Haali Media Splitter.

I don't have realy codecs issues but
Play a dvd with VLC without configuration, very good quality
Play a dvd with MPC without configuration, very good quality
Play a dvd with WMP without configuration, very good quality
Play a dvd with MP without configuration, poor quality

And when I read the formum, I'm not alone, lot of people have quality problem with ffdshow and others, so I think less configuration for good quality is a good choice


Cédric

[zag2me]

Maybe a plugin could be written to listen for a particular file extension and simply launch an external application when this file is played from Mediaportal 2. This would enable any type of video player such as mpclassic, zoomplayer, VLC or Powerdvd(Blueray + HDdvd support) be used. Any of these applications can take a playlist from the commandline.

Then simply use HIP control the remote, I do this independently already with zoomplayer and it works perfectly. It even has a beautiful OSD and can be skinned.

[shadow2000]

Originally Posted by frodo

The default media player in MP-II will be directshow based
The reason for this is that we can integrate it perfectly in MP-II
This means we can do advanced things like:

- video pixel shader (intelligent zooming for example)
- overlay & alpha blend graphics with video (e.g. menus, subtitles, OSD)
- get H/W acceleration support if your card supports it

Frodo

Ok these reasons count for me