[pjclark1]

OK, so I've been trying XBMC for a few weeks.
As a front end it's great.

As a video player it's really poor
At various times I can see,
picture instability at top of movie screen
black 'blinks' across the whole of the screen

About the standard that all the other video players were at 5 years ago.

Oh yes, you say, you must have selected the wrong combination of video blanking, blah, blah
To which I reply, WMP, MPlayer Classic, VLC player all work perfectly out of the box.

How about perfecting the video playing abilities first.
Or alternatively allow XBMC to work as a launcher for a video player that works.

[pjclark1]

This playercorefactory.xml file placed in the userdata folder
cures most of the problems by using mediaplayer classic as the video player for .avi, .mp4 and .mkv files
(place mplayerc.exe in the folder the file suggests)


<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="mplayerc" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>G:\XBMC\portable_data\userdata\Player\mplayerc.exe</filename>
<args>"{1}" /fullscreen /close</args>
<hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
<hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
<warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<rule filetypes="avi" player="mplayerc"/>
<rule filetypes="mp4" player="mplayerc"/>
<rule filetypes="mkv" player="mplayerc"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

[Chris!]

Or alternatively allow XBMC to work as a launcher for a video player that works.

It can launch other programs, example can load external blu-ray players.

Sounds like you need to do trouble shooting. XBMC is a lot more complex than the media players you mentioned "that work out of the box", as a result it can do more things



Irrespective though, you need to improve your tone.
No-one likes the person who complains so bitter and harshly, i'd like to see your media player.

[pjclark1]

Here is a slightly better script
Uses VLC player and Media Player Classic to run the various videos
You have to alter the lines to match where your .exe files are placed

<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="mplayerc" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>G:\XBMC\portable_data\userdata\Player\mplayerc.exe</filename>
<args>"{1}" /fullscreen /close</args>
<hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
<hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
<warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
</player>
<player name="vlc" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>C:\Program Files\videolan\vlc\vlc.exe</filename>
<args>"{1}" /fullscreen /close</args>
<hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
<hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
<warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<rule dvd="true" player="vlc" />
<rule filetypes="iso" player="vlc" />
<rule filetypes="mkv" player="mplayerc" />
<rule filetypes="avi" player="mplayerc" />
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

I won't complain at the poor instructions on how to write custom scripts in the manual.
As nobody likes a winger.
Just to point out though, better documentation, brings more users.

Maybe it's me I can be a bit slow!

[pjclark1]

........ XBMC is a lot more complex than the media players you mentioned "that work out of the box", as a result it can do more things .......

Yep, it can do more things!
But it's core function (playing video) is poor which sort of defeats the purpose.

[TugboatBill]

This should be posted in the XBMC for Windows specific support forum. Read the HOW-TO sticky at the top of that forum.

[jmarshall]

@pjclark1: What is your system hardware like, what OS are you running (XP by the looks?)

[pjclark1]

I'm running Xp
ATI video card with HDMI connected to a Samsung Series 5 TV @ 720p60

[ccMatrix]

Exactly which ATI video card, which drivers and what is your CPU? If you press "o" when playing a movie what does the information on the screen say about CPU usage, codec etc.?