Integrated mplayer support

[Xetick]

Reason for request:
Currently windows has its codecs hell. It's confusing and frustrating for the user to get a HTPC up and running so it plays all formats it should. To add to the confusion you often need to install multiple players to play all formats.

Solution:
My suggested solution to this problem is to integrate mplayer with mediaportal.

What would needed to be done:
- Install mplayer with mediaportal
- Add option to use mplayer instead of directshow
- Fix so dos box doesn't show up when playing
- Integrate mediaportal OSD into mplayer

Conclusion:
Doing the suggested would help mediaportal get an even better reputation because then users could take a clean machine. Get their soundcard & gfx to work and just install mediaportal. Everything else would be handled by mediaportal! Something not even Windows MC can do.

Links:
MPlayer homepage
Good working builds of mplayer

My current mplayer config. Would ofcourse need to be changed depending on the machine.

#General
quiet=yes
cache=20000
cache-min=10 

#Render
vo=directx
double=yes
autosync=100
framedrop=yes
fs=yes

vf=dsize=1368:768       # Comment out line to skip zooming
monitoraspect=16:9

# Subtitles
ffactor=0.8
subfont-blur=2
subfont-osd-scale=3
subfont-outline=2
subfont-text-scale=1.8

# Sound
ao=dsound
channels=6
volnorm=1

Keep up the good work! It's a geat piece of software!

/Joakim E. - Plane9

[ramon]

I love mplayer i use Mplayer in linux its a great player much better than Mediaplayer.

I think it`s not much work if your programmer

[FlipGer]

Hi,

yeah. This would be very sweet. Another possibility would be VLC.

But please be carefull with sentences like "I think it`s not much work if your programmer"!

Mplayer and VLC are written in C / C++ while MP uses C#. I did a look into both sources and in my eyes it does not look easy at all. But on the other hand, I am only a hobby programer.

Flip.

[Bram]

I have no experience with mplayer. But maybe the makers of the k-lite mega codec pack could be so kind to allow integration with MP. Media Player classic i.c.w. real alternative an quicktime alternative and the codecs included (the Mega Codec pack) does the trick for me. The only codecs that are not yet supported are DivX6 an FLAC.

So I think MediaPlayer classic would be a good alternative! No probs playing any file at all.

[Callifo]

The general sensis around here are to stay far away from codec packs so the dev's wouldnt include a pre-installed one. It would be easier to assemble a pack of needed codecs and have them as optional.

[Bram]

I don't see the difference between creating a codecpack by yourself and using it, and using a codecpack created by someone else. I've tried a few codecpacks. Most of them didn't include all codecs I needed an some of them filled up my registry with dirt. I'm using K-Lite for over three years now. Still satisfied.
So I agree a lot of the codecpacks are crap... but k-lite isn't!
www.tweakers.net (the biggest ICT website for Dutch/Belgium people) is also promoting it to. They don't promote bad software.

Still.... there will always be discussion about this subject I guesse

[Spragleknas]

Originally Posted by Bram

I have no experience with mplayer. But maybe the makers of the k-lite mega codec pack could be so kind to allow integration with MP. Media Player classic i.c.w. real alternative an quicktime alternative and the codecs included (the Mega Codec pack) does the trick for me. The only codecs that are not yet supported are DivX6 an FLAC.

So I think MediaPlayer classic would be a good alternative! No probs playing any file at all.

I belive MPC is open source
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

[Xetick]

Using something like Mediaplayer classic wouldn't solve the problem. It still uses codecs that are complicated to understand and can mess up you computer. The reason I suggest mplayer is that all you need is your mplayer directory on any computer and you have what you need to play all formats. No registry tweeking, no strange ordering issues of what to use for specific formats. Mplayer hasn't won all linux awards for nothing. It would be nice to put all that knowledge and hard work to good use in mediaportal also. Just to put mediportal further ahead of all the others when it comes to usability and ease of use.

You can probably use mplayer just fine as an external exe file. That would be the prefered way because then we could easily use any newer version of mplayer when they came out. Also the mediaportal developers wouldn't need to bother with it as much.

Joakim

[NLS]

Originally Posted by Xetick

Using something like Mediaplayer classic wouldn't solve the problem. It still uses codecs that are complicated to understand and can mess up you computer. The reason I suggest mplayer is that all you need is your mplayer directory on any computer and you have what you need to play all formats. No registry tweeking, no strange ordering issues of what to use for specific formats. Mplayer hasn't won all linux awards for nothing. It would be nice to put all that knowledge and hard work to good use in mediaportal also. Just to put mediportal further ahead of all the others when it comes to usability and ease of use.

You can probably use mplayer just fine as an external exe file. That would be the prefered way because then we could easily use any newer version of mplayer when they came out. Also the mediaportal developers wouldn't need to bother with it as much.

Joakim

you are a bit misinformed about mpc... you see media player classic ALSO plays just by throwing the executable anywhere and plays whatever you throw at it

no registry, no messing with anything else on the computer, no anything

the most problem free and light media player I've seen

[EMKO]

doesnt FFdshow work fine ?