[elupus]

nope, but i tend to agree. might switch it back to dvdplayer.

[captain_obvious]

I recently experimented with Hd material downsized to HRHD (960x540) resolution and fiddled with the "target bitrate" settings in XVID until i made a realization; it was not an issue with DVDPlayer! Where the default MPlayer would give me massive framedrops and great frustrations with my encoding, the clips simply floated like a dream as long as I used DVDPlayer to play them.

So I started asking myself; why.. WHY?! is'n this the default player, or at least kicks inn when the resolution goes over 720x576 or whatever? It's not even possible to select it to play the file when you're in File Manager mode.. you have to add the movie to the "Movie" library and actually figure out that there is such a thing hidden in XBMC.

Can anyone please explain this?

[petejo]

I think what Captain Obvious says is a good idea but he kinda didn't 'ask' did he!

If there's one thing I've learned around here is it pays to be nice and polite if you want stuff done......which is exactly as it should be. Rudeness breeds contempt!

That said, I am requesting politely of the geniuses that code this awesome app......please add in some sort of option to have DVD Player as the default.

perhaps there could even be certain pre-conditions for this, ie, I have several avi's over 2gb and the lack of seeking etc in Mplayer is a royal pain in the butt when you get interupted by kids and want to rewind! DVDPlayer gives this functionality but you try training the house-female to learn to select it for the movie BEFORE she begins....too hard and my ears end up burning!

So, DVDPlayer for >2gb movies, HD content........and whatever else.

Is this even possible to add ?

Thanks for considering it!

[captain_obvious]

I think what Captain Obvious says is a good idea but he kinda didn't 'ask' did he!

I kinda did.

[DrDDT]

I made a small patch to be able to select DVDPlayer as the default (except for the hardcoded overrides).

Code:

Index: xbmc/cores/PlayerCoreFactory.cpp

===================================================================

--- xbmc/cores/PlayerCoreFactory.cpp    (revision 13158)

+++ xbmc/cores/PlayerCoreFactory.cpp    (working copy)

@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@

#include "URL.h"
#include "GUIWindowManager.h"
#include "FileItem.h"
+#include "Settings.h"

using namespace AUTOPTR;

@@ -218,10 +219,17 @@

   //Add all normal players last so you can force them, should you want to
   if( item.IsVideo() || item.IsAudio() )
   {
-    vecCores.push_back(EPC_MPLAYER);
-
-    vecCores.push_back(EPC_DVDPLAYER);
-
+    
+    if ( g_advancedSettings.m_defaultVideoPlayer == "DVDPlayer" )
+    {
+      vecCores.push_back(EPC_DVDPLAYER);
+      vecCores.push_back(EPC_MPLAYER);
+    }
+    else
+    {
+      vecCores.push_back(EPC_MPLAYER);
+      vecCores.push_back(EPC_DVDPLAYER);
+    }
     if( item.IsAudio())
       vecCores.push_back(EPC_PAPLAYER);
   }
Index: xbmc/Settings.cpp

===================================================================

--- xbmc/Settings.cpp    (revision 13158)

+++ xbmc/Settings.cpp    (working copy)

@@ -139,6 +139,7 @@

   g_advancedSettings.m_videoPercentSeekForwardBig = 10;
   g_advancedSettings.m_videoPercentSeekBackwardBig = -10;
   g_advancedSettings.m_videoBlackBarColour = 1;
+  g_advancedSettings.m_defaultVideoPlayer = "MPlayer";

   g_advancedSettings.m_slideshowPanAmount = 2.5f;
   g_advancedSettings.m_slideshowZoomAmount = 5.0f;
@@ -1063,6 +1064,8 @@

     GetInteger(pElement, "percentseekforwardbig", g_advancedSettings.m_videoPercentSeekForwardBig, 10, 0, 100);
     GetInteger(pElement, "percentseekbackwardbig", g_advancedSettings.m_videoPercentSeekBackwardBig, -10, -100, 0);
     GetInteger(pElement, "blackbarcolour", g_advancedSettings.m_videoBlackBarColour, 1, 0, 255);
+    GetString(pElement, "defaultplayer", g_advancedSettings.m_defaultVideoPlayer, "MPlayer");
+
   }

   pElement = pRootElement->FirstChildElement("musiclibrary");
Index: xbmc/Settings.h

===================================================================

--- xbmc/Settings.h    (revision 13158)

+++ xbmc/Settings.h    (working copy)

@@ -141,6 +141,7 @@

     int m_videoPercentSeekForwardBig;
     int m_videoPercentSeekBackwardBig;
     int m_videoBlackBarColour;
+    CStdString m_defaultVideoPlayer;

     float m_slideshowBlackBarCompensation;
     float m_slideshowZoomAmount;

With this patch applied, you can add:
<defaultplayer>DVDPlayer</defaultplayer>

to the <video> section of advancedsettings.xml to make DVDPlayer the default.

[captain_obvious]

Awesome, now the optimal result would be where the DVDPlayer and MPlayer get's selected depending on the input file, as I guess each player has it's advantages and disadvantages (I guess this is why the MPlayer is still there?)

[DrDDT]

Awesome, now the optimal result would be where the DVDPlayer and MPlayer get's selected depending on the input file, as I guess each player has it's advantages and disadvantages (I guess this is why the MPlayer is still there?)

Players are selected depending on the input file or requested protocol to select the 'best' player for the file. This is hardcoded behaviour.
The quick and dirty patch above only selects DVDPlayer as default for all other video files.

[captain_obvious]

ok, but clearly, resolution has not been taken into the equation. for example HD/HR xvid files. But at least it would also be preferrable to be able to select DVDPlayer in the file manager too.

[Gamester17]

I guess each player has it's advantages and disadvantages (I guess this is why the MPlayer is still there?)

Yes, MPlayer has one 'major' feature which stands out as our DVDPlayer does not yet have that feature, and that is the ability to load and use proprietary closed source binary DLL decoder codecs for those few decoder codecs that FFmpeg does not yet support naively, (such as for WMV9, WMA9, RealMedia/RealAudio/RealVideo, VP4/VP5/VP6, and QuickTime audio). FFmpeg is by the way the open source codec suit that XBMC uses to decode most video and audio formats out there, ...and the amount of codecs that FFmpeg supports grows each year.

MPlayer currently also feature better internet streaming than Team-XBMC's own DVDPlayer video-player, and a few other bits and bobs, see:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=DVDPlayer

Please also read this:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Codec_and_Format_requests



PS! We would rather see that FFmpeg would support all codecs out there then we having to use proprietary closed source binary DLL decoder codecs. All proprietary technologies are really bad for open source software like XBMC, ...if you can then refrain from supporting proprietary technologies, use open source software and open standards technologies instead.

[elupus]

don't mind that change actually. ie making dvdplayer default for >2gb avi movies. but making it globally default i don't like as much (yea sure it could be a user option). mplayer still has a wider range of supported files.

[captain_obvious]

Yes, MPlayer has one 'major' feature which stands out as our DVDPlayer does not yet have that feature, and that is the ability to load and use proprietary closed source binary DLL decoder codecs for those few decoder codecs that FFmpeg does not yet support naively, (such as for WMV9, WMA9, RealMedia/RealAudio/RealVideo, VP4/VP5/VP6, and QuickTime audio). FFmpeg is by the way the open source codec suit that XBMC uses to decode most video and audio formats out there, ...and the amount of codecs that FFmpeg supports grows each year.

So why does it handle XVID files and so on? Are there any advantages with these formats since MPlayer handles them?

Anyways; Would it be complicated to build in a detection of the resolution? So that the DVDPlayer kicks in when you play HR xvid, x264 over a certain resolution where the extra performance is needed.

[petejo]

Firstly, DrDDT, thanks for that 'patch'. I'll put it in and give it a go to see what it does and doesn't allow.

Secondly, Elupus, yeah, I'm with you, having read what Gamester17 said it is definitely more prefferable to have the switch to using DVDPlayer as an "on condition" switch.

From my little understanding and what I've read between the lines of this thread, it would seem that adjusting the 'hard coding' would take considerable time.
Perhaps I/we can compile a list of what file types DVDPlayer handles better than MPlayer so it can be set for specific file types, ie AVI MPG etc rather than dependant on file size etc?
Would it be easier to adjust the code to specific file types or is the size condition easier?

Thanks

Pete

[captain_obvious]

Size is not a reliable measure for the quality of the file. It would have to be a trigger on the resulution. F. ex the limit could be 720x576= 414720 = if the result of x * y is above 420000, then DVDPlayer kicks in. Or if it's a x264, 640x480 or something if it has no cabac. Maybe code from the OS application "G-Spot" codec detector could be used?

[Gamester17]

Maybe code from the OS application "G-Spot" codec detector could be used?

GSpot is not open source, but I have make a similar request myself for MediaInfo support and that is open source.
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph...tid=581841

[nikorc]

Is there a way to set mkv files to default to the DVDplayer and not the mplayer in xbmc?