Video Formats and VLC Player

[mortymoose]

Firstly, great piece of Software Tom, been using Mamewah in my arcade box, but your software caught my attention in a big way, well done...

Questions to anyone that feels like entertaining me: 1) What video formats are supported.... as I have 457 music video's in avi, mpeg and divx format , all in the same folder, Gameex only see's about 232 of them! What is driving the video's to play in Gameex , Windows Media Player? Can I use Vlc Player, as this machine playes everything. If I can, can somebody please let me know where and how I set this up? I'm loving this program.....

Thanks

M

[Brian Hoffman]

Firstly, great piece of Software Tom, been using Mamewah in my arcade box, but your software caught my attention in a big way, well done...

Questions to anyone that feels like entertaining me: 1) What video formats are supported.... as I have 457 music video's in avi, mpeg and divx format , all in the same folder, Gameex only see's about 232 of them! What is driving the video's to play in Gameex , Windows Media Player? Can I use Vlc Player, as this machine playes everything. If I can, can somebody please let me know where and how I set this up? I'm loving this program.....

Thanks

M

Mortymoose,

I love national lampoon vacation (pretty sure thats what inspired your user name)Wait its marty moose..oh well.

To answer one of your questions if VLC will work via the command line you can set it up as an emulator.

example VLC.exe c:\Mymovies\movie.avi --- If this works just point the working path to the location where vlc is installed...

the command will be VLC.exe (or whatever it is) "[rompath]/[romfile]" ROM PATH would be the folder where all your videos are and ROM FILTER would be *.* which would be all files in that folder.

Gameex uses a built in player supporting anything you have a codec installed for already. I'am not aware of it filtering any particular file types... I do not do alot of video in gameex but I'am not sure exactly what is going on...

When you say you have AVI and DIVX... Arent they one in the same.. I thought divx was an AVI using a diffrent compression... Oh well I'm not trying to split hairs... Just trying to determine if it shows some AVI's and not Others..

Does it seem to be affecting anything with a particular file extension? Like you have 400 vids various formats and all the MOV files dont work or all the MPEG ... This will help trouble shoot as we need to find whats in common about these files that do not work... Just sayng half wont help very much I'am afraid...

Im sure this will get resolved... Keep us posted

And welcome to the board.

Brian Hoffman

[iano]

Mortymoose,

I love national lampoon vacation (pretty sure thats what inspired your user name)Wait its marty moose..oh well.

To answer one of your questions if VLC will work via the command line you can set it up as an emulator.

example VLC.exe c:\Mymovies\movie.avi --- If this works just point the working path to the location where vlc is installed...

the command will be VLC.exe (or whatever it is) "[rompath]/[romfile]" ROM PATH would be the folder where all your videos are and ROM FILTER would be *.* which would be all files in that folder.

Gameex uses a built in player supporting anything you have a codec installed for already. I'am not aware of it filtering any particular file types... I do not do alot of video in gameex but I'am not sure exactly what is going on...

When you say you have AVI and DIVX... Arent they one in the same.. I thought divx was an AVI using a diffrent compression... Oh well I'm not trying to split hairs... Just trying to determine if it shows some AVI's and not Others..

Does it seem to be affecting anything with a particular file extension? Like you have 400 vids various formats and all the MOV files dont work or all the MPEG ... This will help trouble shoot as we need to find whats in common about these files that do not work... Just sayng half wont help very much I'am afraid...

Im sure this will get resolved... Keep us posted

And welcome to the board.

Brian Hoffman

Hi folks. I believe VLC is usable from the command line but i just can't find the options/switches you need on the website/forum. I do use VLC for watching films and it would be a nice option for those formats you can't watch via GameEX.

[Brian Hoffman]

Hi folks. I believe VLC is usable from the command line but i just can't find the options/switches you need on the website/forum. I do use VLC for watching films and it would be a nice option for those formats you can't watch via GameEX.

What formats are they that dont work.. All I can see are like realplayer and whats captured from satellites...

I found this link that has command line options for vlc (hope it helps)

http://www.videolan.org/doc/vlc-user-guide/en/ch04.html

[iano]

What formats are they that dont work.. All I can see are like realplayer and whats captured from satellites...

I found this link that has command line options for vlc (hope it helps)

http://www.videolan.org/doc/vlc-user-guide/en/ch04.html

Cheers Brian for the info (i must of overlooked it ). I read a post a while ago (i think it was in the feature requests thread) about not being able to watch AVIs (.mkv) via GameEX and also i couldn't seem to get GameEX to play my dvds on hard drive via powerdvd etc (but i'd say that's just me being me). I like this little media player (VLC) because it seems to play almost everything you can throw at it so i think it would do no harm to have it set up as an emulator as you suggested.

Thanks again,

ian.

[mortymoose]

c:\MUSIC VIDEOS -----> this contains all my mpgs and avi's and a folder called snap.

C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC ------> this contains my Vlc stuff, including vlc.exe

When I run gameex with the following in my gameex config file......

********************************************************************

[Emulator_6] *

Enabled=True *

STARTPAGENAME=MUSIC VIDEO'S *

TITLETEXT=MUSIC VIDEO's *

StartPageLogo=MUSIC VIDEO'S *

ROMFilter=*.* *

RomPath=C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\ *

SnapPath=C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\snaps *

TitlePath= *

BoxPath= *

CartPath= *

ManualPath= *

WorkingPath=C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC *

MapKeys= *

WaitBeforeKeys= *

SendKeys= *

ReplaceDash= *

ReplaceUnder= *

Capitals= *

RemoveBrackets= *

ShowDesktop= *

Debug= *

MAPFile= *

AlsoLaunch= *

Command=vlc.exe *

OLDatZip= *

LaunchBefore= *

LaunchAfter= *

configFile= *

ExcludedFiles= *

CustomBackground= *

PlayMusic= *

********************************************************************

the following things happen:

1) I can see all my music video's listed, (no previews, which is fine)

2) When I launch a video, the screen , goes black, no sound, I have CTRL,ALT,DEL to shutdown

Gameex, but I notice that vlc player has launched,, but has not opened the video.

So now I'm stuck, and I have yet to pay for gameex, living in a 3rd world can be a bitch, and the

nag screen is annoying me to no end..... so if anyone is running vlc player, or can help, I

would greatly appreciate it.....Thanks Brian for your input so far....

I suppose I could just get my hands on a batch video converter and convert all my files to

mppegs..... YAWN!..... Sigh! etc.....

[iano]

c:\MUSIC VIDEOS -----> this contains all my mpgs and avi's and a folder called snap.

C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC ------> this contains my Vlc stuff, including vlc.exe

When I run gameex with the following in my gameex config file......

********************************************************************

[Emulator_6] *

Enabled=True *

STARTPAGENAME=MUSIC VIDEO'S *

TITLETEXT=MUSIC VIDEO's *

StartPageLogo=MUSIC VIDEO'S *

ROMFilter=*.* *

RomPath=C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\ *

SnapPath=C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\snaps *

TitlePath= *

BoxPath= *

CartPath= *

ManualPath= *

WorkingPath=C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC *

MapKeys= *

WaitBeforeKeys= *

SendKeys= *

ReplaceDash= *

ReplaceUnder= *

Capitals= *

RemoveBrackets= *

ShowDesktop= *

Debug= *

MAPFile= *

AlsoLaunch= *

Command=vlc.exe *

OLDatZip= *

LaunchBefore= *

LaunchAfter= *

configFile= *

ExcludedFiles= *

CustomBackground= *

PlayMusic= *

********************************************************************

the following things happen:

1) I can see all my music video's listed, (no previews, which is fine)

2) When I launch a video, the screen , goes black, no sound, I have CTRL,ALT,DEL to shutdown

Gameex, but I notice that vlc player has launched,, but has not opened the video.

So now I'm stuck, and I have yet to pay for gameex, living in a 3rd world can be a bitch, and the

nag screen is annoying me to no end..... so if anyone is running vlc player, or can help, I

would greatly appreciate it.....Thanks Brian for your input so far....

I suppose I could just get my hands on a batch video converter and convert all my files to

mppegs..... YAWN!..... Sigh! etc.....

Hi. Have you tried setting 'ShowDesktop' to False or True ? If that doesn't work try running VLC from the command line outside GameEX to make sure you have the command line right.

[Brian Hoffman]

Hi. Have you tried setting 'ShowDesktop' to False or True ? If that doesn't work try running VLC from the command line outside GameEX to make sure you have the command line right.

Morty..

You are NOT telling vlc to run anything...

Command=vlc.exe *

change it to

vlc.exe "[rompath]/[romfile]"

this way it will pull your path and file into the command

vlc.exe "C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\MYVIDEO.avi" The end result will look lke this once gameex builds the command.

[iano]

Morty..

You are NOT telling vlc to run anything...

Command=vlc.exe *

change it to

vlc.exe "[rompath]/[romfile]"

this way it will pull your path and file into the command

vlc.exe "C:\MUSIC VIDEOS\MYVIDEO.avi" The end result will look lke this once gameex builds the command.

Got it working (it works a treat !). Thanks Brian for your help. One small thing - GameEX displays 'Play Game' & 'Add to Favourites'. I know this is to be expected because i have it setup as an emulator but is there anyway to get it to just display 'Play Movie'. I don't think so, but i thought i'd ask anyway !

Cheers,

ian.

[Brian Hoffman]

Got it working (it works a treat !). Thanks Brian for your help. One small thing - GameEX displays 'Play Game' & 'Add to Favourites'. I know this is to be expected because i have it setup as an emulator but is there anyway to get it to just display 'Play Movie'. I don't think so, but i thought i'd ask anyway !

Cheers,

ian.

Not that I'am aware of...

[mortymoose]

Brian, thanks it's going like a boeing...... just taking about 24 hrs to make snaps... WOuld any of you guys suggest, I should convert all my music clips to mpg, in order for it to "fit" in with Gameex..... or just bite the bullet....

Thanks anyhow.... I'm a happy chappie now........

[Tom Speirs]

Brian, thanks it's going like a boeing...... just taking about 24 hrs to make snaps... WOuld any of you guys suggest, I should convert all my music clips to mpg, in order for it to "fit" in with Gameex..... or just bite the bullet....

Thanks anyhow.... I'm a happy chappie now........

Could you tell us exactly what formats are not showing up in GameEx? As far as I am aware it should support just about everything, including .divx and .mkv

[Tom Speirs]

Got it working (it works a treat !). Thanks Brian for your help. One small thing - GameEX displays 'Play Game' & 'Add to Favourites'. I know this is to be expected because i have it setup as an emulator but is there anyway to get it to just display 'Play Movie'. I don't think so, but i thought i'd ask anyway !

Cheers,

ian.

You can't change the "play this game" but what you can do is turn off that info page under the emulator settings, so it just launches the video.

[iano]

You can't change the "play this game" but what you can do is turn off that info page under the emulator settings, so it just launches the video.

Thanks Tom !

EDIT: I thought GameEX would not play .mkv files. Sorry !

[mortymoose]

Basicaly it appears that my machine only picks up mpegs under Gameex, bearing in mind that this is a clean machine, just plain ol XP sp2 installed, nothing extra, I wonder if I should install a video codec pack or something...

in my movie folders , there are extensions, mpg, avi, winamp media file, wma, divx, it appears that only the mpgs are picked up.

to be honest, I would rather run my music video's through Gameex the way it's meant to, as opposed to VLC.....

Thanks

Mortymoose

ps... Tom, I do intend to pay for Gameex, I just want to first get it up and running........

[mortymoose]

Ok..... I disabled winamp from covering the filetype for itself..... and now I see that all the files that won't play in Gameex, are registered as mp4 files......... Does Gameex support mp4 files?

Getting there...phew!

[mortymoose]

Aaaaggggh! in my haste, I converted an mpg4 video file to mpg2, put it in the director with the rest of the music videos. and now it shows up on the listing, with the little video snap running of the track. The only problem , when I press, Play this track, The screen goes black, wait for 4 seconds and goes back to play this track, what did I do wrong now...... This happens to all my video tracks now.... I don't recollect changing anything!

Help!

Pls

[LB11]

Before you waste time converting stuff, make sure the files that don't show up play in media player. VLC player has many built in codecs that don't work with any other player. It might be something as simple as installing a codec.

I know you need haali media splitter to play .mkv files and then also a video and sound codec respective of what compressions are in there.

So basically if you have always been using VLC before, your computer might not actually be set up properly to play those files.

I think im going to request an option to change the video player used by gameex. I think that would be useful to some people.

[mortymoose]

Thanks for that LB11, I stopped conversion last night, in the hope that there was an easier way to do this, I always had used VLC player before, due to the range of formats it suppports, Your comment sounds viable, it was for this reason I asked how does playing video files in Gameex work. Like mp3 files does it run through windows media player, this being the case I would then have to find a codec pack for windows Media player, as all those video's that don't show up in Gameex are the same one's that Don't play in media player...... mmmmh! The plot thickens M'lud!

[LB11]

I believe it does use media player.

Just get ffdshow. In my opinion its one of the best codec packs availible. and will probably be the only thing you need. Also haali media splitter to play the MKV files.

Haali splitter (link in top right of screen)

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

FFDshow

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm

[mortymoose]

I have Fddshow, I think it's running properly, I have enable the mp4 video codecs, but Gameex is still not picking up the mp4... Is gameex running the the video's through WMP?

Codec Shcmodecs.....

[mortymoose]

I've downloaded 3 different codec packs that have mp4 codecs, with no luck, man this is driving me up the wall, Vlc works fine, but it just dooes'nt seem like the correct thing to bedoing when there is a multimedia/video tag in Gameex, Tom any chance of using VLC as the default media player?

thanks

[Tom Speirs]

I've downloaded 3 different codec packs that have mp4 codecs, with no luck, man this is driving me up the wall, Vlc works fine, but it just dooes'nt seem like the correct thing to bedoing when there is a multimedia/video tag in Gameex, Tom any chance of using VLC as the default media player?

thanks

The latest version should pick up files with extension .mp4. So not sure what's going on there. I've also not heard of videos having this extension though. Are the files just not showing up in GameEx, or will they not play? What are .mp4 video files? Have you tried renaming them to .avi?

For information, GameEx only uses windows media player to play wmv files (so it plays drm) otherwise it uses DirectX.

[LB11]

Did you download the haali splitter? You need a splitter to open the container. Haali also splits open those containers.

Just incase there is confusion here.

mpeg-4 is just a standard for a video file

.mp4 is a container type

under mpeg-4 standard you can have divx, xvid h.264 etc.

This site will give you a little more info...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s&threadid=62723

But basically you need something that opens the file a (splitter) and then you need a codec that decodes the streams inside the container that you split open.

haali will open .mp4, then if the file inside is a standard mpeg4 format, any of the mpeg4 codecs you downloaded should be able to play it. Sometimes people go out of spec and put different stream types in there.

heres a quote from that site:

1) if you want to play any multimedia file in a directshow based player (for example media player classic, bsplayer, zoomplayer or the crappy windows media player) first of all two things are needed for playback:

- a splitter/parser filter, which splits up the container file into the included streams (audio, video, subtitles) during playback

- a decoder filter, which decodes the encoded streams (for example ffdshow, 3ivx, CoreAAC)

btw. the only reason why you don't have to install a splitter for AVI is that it is already installed on windows by default

[mortymoose]

Sorry guys I was away for awhile, but thought I'd just let you all know, that I ran outta time and recoded all my music videos to mpeg1, and now all my music video's play fine, thanks for the input anyhow...

cheers

Morty