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[sraymond]

I remember a post a while back by Grinch maintaining that MC isn't focused on video...  JimH responded quickly that JRiver was certainly not ignoring video.  But I'd think no one can deny that MC is not the best "video player" on the market.  

A few weeks have passed and, while I understand that MC is soon to release (so no new features), I think it would be "comforting" to know where (or if) JRiver was going to head vis-a-vis video.

To that end, I thought it might be nice to start a video "features" list that is currently missing in MC.

cjdshaw made a good start in another thread:

Except that Zoom is much better than MC for video playback. MC is getting there, but here's a selection of Zoom's advantages:

Variable speed playback
Frame jog control
Colour control
Bookmarks
Aspect ratio control for Quicktimes
Access to DirectShow filters' properties
Mouse wheel assignable to various functions (zoom, skip through file etc.)
Direct go to

Don't get me wrong. MC's organisation and audio functions beat Zoom hands down, and its much easier to use. I use MC for all my day-to-day video watching, but there are times I can't do something and I have to reach for Zoom.

So:
1.  Variable speed playback
2.  Frame jog control
3.  Colour control
4.  Bookmarks
5.  Aspect ratio control for Quicktimes
6.  Access to DirectShow filters' properties
7.  Mouse wheel assignable to various functions (zoom, skip through file etc.)
8.  Direct go to

And slikvik said:

1) Multi Region DVD playback (Maybe zoomplayer would be a good place to look on how to do this, as it also uses third party filters.)

2) Shortcut to hide/unhide an advanced control bar (DVD controls) This should be used for all types of Media, with a slightly different control panel for each type (PVR, Photos etc.) The right click stuff is too unweilding and cannot be put into a remote control.

3) Hairspray does not start a DVD in full screen. (small window!)

so:
9.  Multi-region DVD
10.  Advanced control bar with hide/unhide
11.  Start DVD in full screen

I'm not sure I understand what 11 is all about..

To which I'll quickly add:
12.  "resume where last left off" playback
13.  Support for multi-language audio tracks in AVIs (does MC do this now?)
14.  Full support of OGM (whatever this would mean)

I'll also think about this more in-depth, as I'm dying to see MC become the Holy Grail of multimedia.

Oh, and the one that started all this (which I guess I'll now have to call number 0)
0:  AutoPlay V2

Anyone other features?

Scott-

[clout]

Add the ability to crossfade the audio of videos (mpg's)like we can with mp3s and we'd have a killer program for video discos.

How i long to be able to dump my two instances of winamp, with 2 video plugins, and a crossfader between the two players.  Having 2 playlists with almost non existant library facilities is driving me nuts.

[daven]

variable speed playback is a biggie for me.  on my old imac i can scroll live through a video by dragging the positional cursor.  i haven't yet found a windows program that can do this smoothly.

[DocLotus]

I would be perfectly happy if they would just add hotkeys for the TV as was promised some time ago.

[JimH]

I promise we will devote at least a week to adding some of these for the _next_ version.  Thanks for sharing them.  A lot of them are new to me.

[DWAnderson]

For those of you using MC for video. Have any of you been using Media Server to watch video on a Remote PC. I have a slew of problems when I do this. Is it just me, or is no one else doing this?

[kiwi]

Ahh... I was just going to write up something about High Quality Video on MC.

I would love to be able to use MC as my one means of watching movies and listening to music.  This would let me replace my exsiting home theater & music systems.

For movies, I want to be able to save all of movies to hard drives as raw DVD files.  (I have no problems using other programs to do this.)  And then I want to be able to view and manage them with MC.  I'd like to have cover art associated with the files and be able to easily select and playback any DVD from my HD.  This works right now, but it is a bit quirky at times.  Additionally, there should be tags that come up that are geared toward DVDs and/or video files.  (Note, I'd also like to have this for image files.)  

One thing that I noticed was that I can import one DVD file, but when it goes to play, it brings in a bunch of other files, which is a bit confusing.  Similarly, the files all have a little red "X" over part of the icon (seeming to imply that the file does not exist even though it does.)

As for playback of the files.  I'd like to have the option to have more control over the playback, both audio and video.  The current setup is a vast improvement, however, I'd love for it to have the functionality of Zoom Player Professional.  It looks like it may be on its way there.  In particular, I'd love to be able to have control over scaling and other picture filter effects.  (And anyone please tell me if it can already be done, and I'm just not figuring out how.)

I would love for this to truely be a one stop shop "MediaCenter."  Particularly with the addition of a networked remote control PocketPC to control everything.

Thanks,
kiwi

[nila]

As sad as it sounds - for me one of the biggest things is the GUI - the full screen controls just aren't as obvious and easy as WMP or RealOne's controls - I always use WMP for video playback on my system - often Media Player 6.4 Classic (a hacked version fo 6.4 which has had feature updates etc so it can support DVD, and more) for quick playback (light program - loads almost instantly - great for previewing!)
If full screen mode could be skinned it would tempt me to use it a LOT more.

The little 'thumb pin' to make the controls stick I like.
Clicking on the video as it's playing DOESN'T pause the video
Pressing Space DOESN'T Pause the video.

The last two alone would make me consider using MC for video alot more.

[gpvillamil]

Add the ability to save colour profiles, and associate them with specific DVDs. (Basically I want to save the settings that correct the red tinge in "Spirited Away")

[JimH]

For movies, I want to be able to save all of movies to hard drives as raw DVD files.  (I have no problems using other programs to do this.)  And then I want to be able to view and manage them with MC.  I'd like to have cover art associated with the files and be able to easily select and playback any DVD from my HD.  This works right now, but it is a bit quirky at times.

What do you find "quirky"?  I believe you can specify what you want to use as the cover art by pausing the movie and right clicking.

One thing that I noticed was that I can import one DVD file, but when it goes to play, it brings in a bunch of other files, which is a bit confusing.  Similarly, the files all have a little red "X" over part of the icon (seeming to imply that the file does not exist even though it does.)

If the red x is there, the file isn't there.  It may have been moved?  File/update library will get rid of these.

As for playback of the files.  I'd like to have the option to have more control over the playback, both audio and video.  The current setup is a vast improvement, however, I'd love for it to have the functionality of Zoom Player Professional.  

I'm not sure we'll ever make MC as complex as Zoom Player.  If we had a definitive list of what people agreed on, we'd chip away at some of it.

I would love for this to truely be a one stop shop "MediaCenter."  Particularly with the addition of a networked remote control PocketPC to control everything.

I assume you know about NetRemote.  It's in the FAQ near the top of this board.

[kiwi]

What do you find "quirky"?  I believe you can specify what you want to use as the cover art by pausing the movie and right clicking.

For some reason, when I did this, it applied that cover art to multiple different DVDs.  It might have been that some of them had unassigned album names.  Then when I went to change them, it caused some confusion, I had to remove everything and start again.

Are the coverart and tags put into the files?  Or is it just in the library?

Edit: I think that the issue was just the name of the image was the unassigned album value.  For videos, it would be great if the name could be something else... and/or the tags were changed.

One thing that I noticed was that I can import one DVD file, but when it goes to play, it brings in a bunch of other files, which is a bit confusing.  Similarly, the files all have a little red "X" over part of the icon (seeming to imply that the file does not exist even though it does.)

If the red x is there, the file isn't there.  It may have been moved?  File/update library will get rid of these.

Nope, it hasn't been moved.  This is the result I get from any file.  Upon importing, only the selected playing file is ok, all the others say "File Not Found" in the status bar.

I may not be importing the correct file, and/or the files are automatically importing with different names.  

However, I can click on any of hte movies and they play.

I noticed that the imported file name is:
E:\Panic Room\PANIC_ROOM\\DVD Title 1 (28 chapters).dvd;1

I don't know whether that is the problem.  I have extracted the raw vob files, and am not exactly sure which one it thinks it's pointing to.

These are the files in that directory:
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_0.VOB
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB
VTS_01_5.VOB
VTS_01_6.VOB
VTS_02_0.BUP
VTS_02_0.IFO
VTS_02_0.VOB
VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_03_0.BUP
VTS_03_0.IFO
VTS_03_0.VOB
VTS_03_1.VOB
VTS_04_0.BUP
VTS_04_0.IFO
VTS_04_0.VOB
VTS_04_1.VOB

Edit: Also, the file type is "Data" changing this to video has no real effect.

I'm not sure we'll ever make MC as complex as Zoom Player.  If we had a definitive list of what people agreed on, we'd chip away at some of it.

I'll take a look at it and see what seem to be the most important features.  I don't want it to be as complex as ZP either, I'd just like to feel comfortable with it outputing to a high quality display.  (As I have now become comfortable with using it to rip CDs and don't really use EAC anymore.)

I assume you know about NetRemote.  It's in the FAQ near the top of this board.

I do and have played with it, however, I have found it moderately complicated to use (just PC to PC, since I Don't have a pocketpc to play with) and couldn't recomend it to my father, who is looking to setup such a system. Also, it seems to miss on some of the searching of the library that would make it a real killer.

kiwi

Edit: I'm using 9.1.305, but will be upgrading to 310 when I get a chance.

Also, I have a screen shot of MC with the files, if that helps.


Also, I just tried chaning the name of the file to the first VOB:
VTS_01_0.VOB

This works, however, updating the file messes it up.

[phelt]

JimH said

I'm not sure we'll ever make MC as complex as Zoom Player.

Frankly, I'm happy to hear that.

Like Nila, I don't often use MC for video mainly because of the UI. I would like to see the windowed mode touched up some - this or fullscreen is the way I like to watch. (That's 'watch' in a Being There sort of way. Usually

[Cindy_B]

Add the ability to crossfade the audio of videos (mpg's)like we can with mp3s and we'd have a killer program for video discos.

How i long to be able to dump my two instances of winamp, with 2 video plugins, and a crossfader between the two players.  Having 2 playlists with almost non existant library facilities is driving me nuts.

Yes, yes. yes... please!  I have been waiting and wanting this for sometime now. This would be an awsome feature!
-Cindy