[Finished] ViewModeSwitcher for 1.4.0 (3 Viewers)

[Owlsroost]

Could probably do with a detailed explanation of settings.

Thanks for the reminder

Updated my suggested settings https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/attachments/kiwijunglist-16x9-zip.132751/

Thanks - note added to changelog.

 

[vuego]

Hi Owlsroost
I was looking for documentation on ViewModeSwitcher but couldn't find any, however according to the Wiki there's supposed to be another plugin installed with MediaPortal called AutoCropper. I have MediaPortal 1.3 and 1.4 installed and both comes with (the old) ViewModeSwitcher and none have AutoCropper so I guess it was replaced earlier without any Wiki updates. I can move AutoCropper to Plugins removed from MP if this is true.

Normally we document updates on the What's New pages and then merge with the old page once the next MP version is released but in this case there's no old page to update so we should probably just document this feature from scratch at What's New. I think that you are probably not finished with everything yet but I can still offer to start a What's New page for this plugin. It might save us some time later during release. What do you think?

About the plugin I have some small wishes:

• Can you make the Configuration window a bit wider so that MaxCrop fits without scrolling? (it's possible for the user to make the rows higher but not the columns wider which seems a bit strange)
• Add possibility to enable and disable rules by the checkbox in the grid instead of first clicking Modify Selected.
• Allow to close the configuration and rule detail window by pressing Esc.
• Perhaps let the link at the bottom take the user to the Wiki page when it is finished, instead of a forum thread

 

[sdf]

Worderful plugin!
Two suggestions:
1) How about a manual /automatic switch (by pressing F4)? Most channels are already without black bars and I want to switch VMS on only on certain (rare) channels;
2) Possibility to enable rules by channel name (there are in Hotbird some channels that are really specific, and need a particular rule that applies only to them).
Thank you!
sdf

 

[Owlsroost]

I can move AutoCropper to Plugins removed from MP if this is true.

Yes please - it was removed years ago....

I think that you are probably not finished with everything yet but I can still offer to start a What's New page for this plugin. It might save us some time later during release. What do you think?

Yes please. I've never modified/started anything in the Wiki, so that would be great

Can you make the Configuration window a bit wider so that MaxCrop fits without scrolling? (it's possible for the user to make the rows higher but not the columns wider which seems a bit strange)

The window is already 800 pixels wide, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea (but it's easy to do) - anyone got an opinion ?
The column widths are auto-sized to fit the content.

Add possibility to enable and disable rules by the checkbox in the grid instead of first clicking Modify Selected.

If it's easy, I'll do it.

Allow to close the configuration and rule detail window by pressing Esc.

As above.

Perhaps let the link at the bottom take the user to the Wiki page when it is finished, instead of a forum thread

Of course

 

[Owlsroost]

1) How about a manual /automatic switch (by pressing F4)? Most channels are already without black bars and I want to switch VMS on only on certain (rare) channels;

Just disable the Black Bar detection in the 'rules' and then use F4 to enable BB detection temporarily (until a channel change or play stops) - it overrides the 'rule' setting (except for the global disable tick box).

Possibility to enable rules by channel name (there are in Hotbird some channels that are really specific, and need a particular rule that applies only to them).

Much too complicated for me....

 

[vuego]

The window is already 800 pixels wide, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea (but it's easy to do) - anyone got an opinion ?

Maybe leave it at 800 pixels but let the users change window size if they wish.

About the advanced settings mode. Is it possible to use the Expert/Standard mode that is already in use in MediaPortal Configuration instead of creating your own? I've already selected the Expert mode in Configuration but ViewModeSwitcher is displayed in "Standard" mode anyway.
Something like this

And here's the link to the Wiki page where the documentation will be placed once the plugin is released.

 

[Pat Clark]

I have a suggestion -- when zooming 4:3 content onto a 16:9 screen, would it be feasible to raise the cropping rectangle a bit? It seems to me that a normal zoom more frequently cuts off info at the top than at the bottom. No idea how much to raise -- variable amount?

 

[vuego]

Alright here's the Wiki documentation. I've combined the old AutoCropper Wiki with information from this thread.
Owlsroost please have a look to see that it is accurate. You may directly add, remove or change anything you like. I also need help explaining the advanced Black Bar (BB) detection options since I don't know what they do
Also Use fallback rule if no match found needs some explanation..

 

[Owlsroost]

Alright here's the Wiki documentation. I've combined the old AutoCropper Wiki with information from this thread.
Owlsroost please have a look to see that it is accurate. You may directly add, remove or change anything you like. I also need help explaining the advanced Black Bar (BB) detection options since I don't know what they do
Also Use fallback rule if no match found needs some explanation..

Thanks for that - looks great and I haven't spotted any errors so far

I'll add the advanced setting stuff to this thread soon - real life has been a bit busy recently....

 

[mm1352000]

Heya Tony

Been meaning to test this for several weeks now given the fact that the old plugin broke stuff badly for me when enabled. I don't know if it was "the XP factor"; all I know is that video and TV no longer worked...

I don't have a lot of content to test with, so my results are hardly robust... but in any case your version seems to work reasonably well.

Installed and configured with defaults. My screen is 16:10.

Analog 4:3 TV is detected and zoomed to 14:9 correctly as configured by default.

I tried playing a widescreen (21:9) version of the Lord Of The Rings Fellowship Of The Ring DVD ISO.
In the opening "piracy is bad" sequence (which is very dark) I observed the picture being significantly over-zoomed so that parts of the text were unreadable. I guess that would be difficult to avoid.

At various stages in the movie I also noticed obvious "detection points" - normal => 14:9 changes.
CPU (first gen Core 2 e6600 2.4 GHz) runs at < 10% CPU without the plugin enabled; that jumps to between 15 and 30% with the plugin enabled. I guess this is normal, but having never used VMS or IFC I'm not really sure.

One question for you in relation to the CPU load:
I observed that when I manually set the zoom mode (via right click + change aspect ratio - aside, I've always thought "change aspect ratio" to be an "interesting" description) that the CPU drops down to "normal" levels. As if that action disables VMS. That's cool. I just wondered if there were any way to re-enable it without stopping and restarting the movie. Don't get me wrong - behaviour is great as-is for both movies (reset on stop-start) and TV (reset on change channel). Just curious...

...and with that I end my report. I'll leave the plugin installed and enabled for the moment of course. Please don't hesitate to ask if there is anything specific that you want an XP user to test.

Warm regards and thanks!
mm