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[JimH]

I'm preparing a presentation of MC's video features for a customer.   I could use your help.

Are there any mainstream video formats that MC12 doesn't support now?

Any general comparisons you could make against other video players?

Thanks.

[Alex B]

Since MC supports DirectShow it can play pretty much everything if the appropriate DS filters are installed.

On a vanilla Windows installation the support is limited to what Windows offers: mainly WMV, MPEG1 and AVI containers if the used codec is one of the old and quite obsolete video codecs that come with Windows.

QuickTime and Real Media can be added by installing these players and support for the rest can be added with DS filters (e.g. by installing the CCCP filter pack or similar).

One thing that is rare among video players is a fully featured database. MC has probably the best available media database, which is fully functional with video files too. Things like unlimited custom tags, automatic video thumbnailing, custom video thumbnail from a screenshot, possibility to add custom cover art from file, searches, various view scheme options with thumbnail and details views, smartlists etc are not common. Windows Media Player has only a few of these features and the rest of the video players usually have only a simple playlist that shows the filename.

EDIT

You should also mention the multi zone possibility and detachable displays. For example, MC can run two or more videos simultaneously in separate Zones.

[jmone]

Are there any mainstream video formats that MC12 doesn't support now?
Thanks.

Blu Ray / HDDVD

[JimH]

Thanks, Alex.  I used it just about verbatim in my presentation!

jmone,
It's on our list.

I'm going to move this onto the MC12 board for more general discussion.

[gappie]

Are there any mainstream video formats that MC12 doesn't support now?

Any general comparisons you could make against other video players?

Thanks.

to be honest. i think the database feature is great. but there are some basic features lacking when playing a video with chapters or undertitles. when i want to go to the next chapter when playing a mkv file i have to click on an icon underneath the display. when using zoom player it is integrated in the player and i can use my remote to do that. same for subtitles. i think you could say that the support is not full for those files.

[glynor]

Built-in Chapter support would be much appreciated here.  Haali and whatnot can do it, but it would be nice to be able to click "next chaper" or FF or whatever from within MC and get the next chapter.  Subs I think can be better handled by Gabest's VSFilter (DirectVobSub).

However, one thing you might want to mention is that there is a very nice help document on your Wiki that can assist users in getting their DirectShow components all configured to properly support all the different common video formats.

[JimH]

Yes.  And grazi for that.

[Osho]

Multiple video formats support and database/organization features are way better compared to the other players.

Subtitles and aspect ratio support is below par compared to other video/dvd players, particularly for remote control users:

• No custom aspect ratio definition capability.
• No capability to remember aspect ratio per each video/DVD
• Poor suport of 16:9 aspect display for automatic detection of aspect ratios of the video file - this is probably more of an issue with the filters than MC but still I find it lacking compared to other players in overall experience
• No remote control capability to change aspect ratio/subtitles! I can't believe such a basic feature is still missing from such an advanced player as MC12.
• Very poor OSD in display view. OSD is more important for video  for display seek position, chapters, subtitles, aspect ratios etc.

ATI Video/DVD player, Theatertek, CinePlayer, ZoomPlayer and many other players provide such capabilities.

thanks,
Osho

[jmone]

Multiple video formats support and database/organization features are way better compared to the other players.

Subtitles and aspect ratio support is below par compared to other video/dvd players, particularly for remote control users:

• No custom aspect ratio definition capability.
• No capability to remember aspect ratio per each video/DVD
• Poor suport of 16:9 aspect display for automatic detection of aspect ratios of the video file - this is probably more of an issue with the filters than MC but still I find it lacking compared to other players in overall experience
• No remote control capability to change aspect ratio/subtitles! I can't believe such a basic feature is still missing from such an advanced player as MC12.
• Very poor OSD in display view. OSD is more important for video  for display seek position, chapters, subtitles, aspect ratios etc.

ATI Video/DVD player, Theatertek, CinePlayer, ZoomPlayer and many other players provide such capabilities.

thanks,
Osho

Hi Osho - I agree there are many things that MC could do on aspect ratios etc but try the nVidia codec - for me It as ALWAYS got it right....

[jmone]

I agree on the issues of poor DVD Navigation, I may eat these words as I've not tried in a while but from a previous post....."DVD Structures (on either HDD or Disk) allows for multiple "Titles" each of which can containing multiple "Chapters".  MC happly plays from the last chapter of Say Title 1 to the first chapter of Title 2 but you can only select Chapters from the Title you are in and can not navigate across a Title boundry with either FF/RW or FWD/BACK.

Both Showtime & MS Media Player can display and let you select your Title/Chapter combo such as:
Title 1 (corresponding VTS_01 files)
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- etc
Title 2 (corresponding VTS_02 files)
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- etc
etc

Thanks
Nathan

[trott]

This is not reallly a codec issue, but I think theater view should distinguish between movies and tv shows. When I select 'movies', i want to see all movies. When i select 'tv shows', i would like to see only tv shows, with an additional submenu for the series name.

[jmone]

This is not reallly a codec issue, but I think theater view should distinguish between movies and tv shows. When I select 'movies', i want to see all movies. When i select 'tv shows', i would like to see only tv shows, with an additional submenu for the series name.

MC12 can - I assign under the Genre field "TV Series, Movies, TV Recordings, Home Vidoes etc" and the view scheme using Genre sorts them accordingly.

[Osho]

Hi Osho - I agree there are many things that MC could do on aspect ratios etc but try the nVidia codec - for me It as ALWAYS got it right....

I have ATI graphics cards on all 3 PCs that I use MC12 on. So, I don't know if I can get nVidia codec? Is it free for everyone or only nVidia graphics card owners?

Thanks,
Osho

[glynor]

I have ATI graphics cards on all 3 PCs that I use MC12 on. So, I don't know if I can get nVidia codec? Is it free for everyone or only nVidia graphics card owners?

Nvidia's PureVideo decoder is not free for anyone, including Nvidia card owners.  You might want to try the ATI Cyberlink decoder first, since it is free for ATI card owners (most ATI cards anyway).  You can download updated versions of the DVD decoder from AMD/ATI's web site, but to use it you need to still have a physical copy of your original install disc for the video card.

The Nvidia decoder does work just fine on ATI hardware, of course.  I doubt it still does it's hardware decode offloading then, but then, that's a pretty useless feature (ooh, I get 1% CPU time back -- sometimes, under the right circumstances -- maybe).  However, in independent quality comparisons done recently (since ATI updated the codec in Dec 2005) the ATI Cyberlink decoder beat the Nvidia PureVideo decoders by a wide margin.  Previous versions of the ATI decoder were bad compared to the PureVideo decoders though, so make sure to get a new version if you go that route.

[jmone]

Hi glynor - do you have a link to the review (may have to try the ATI ones) - always on the lookout for something better 

[glynor]

There's been a bunch of them, but here's one from Anand: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2645&p=1

Oops, that's the wrong story.  Hold on.

Okay... Got it: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2691&p=3

Now, this review was done before Nvidia announced their new PureVideo HD decoders.  These were released for the 8800 series of cards and the improvements were mostly focused on AVC HD Decoding (VC-1) for BluRay and HD-DVD content.  Anand has promised but not yet really delivered a comparative quality review showing the differences between the ATI and Nvidia decoders for HD AVC content.  He's probably been waiting for the new HD 2900XT to come out, which it now has...

EDIT: It appears that the ATI DVD Decoder is only available free if you have an (install disc for) one of their All-in-Wonder line of cards.  I do -- I have an older X800XT AIW, and it came with the Decoder on the disc.  The new decoder, which you can download from http://ati.amd.com/ works fine on that card.  However, you have to insert the AIW install disc to get the Decoder to install.