Moving away from Mame to Multimedia

[supergojira]

Hey Tom, might just be my opinion but how about giving the multimedia side of gameex an overhaul? It seems there is ongoing microsurgery on trivial mame issues but the multimedia side of game ex is largely ignored. A friend of mine runs the xbmc media center and I have to grudgingly admit it looks and works brilliantly for audio/video collections, any plans for a flashier design sometime soon?

Cheers

[Paul O'Nolan]

  supergojira said:

Hey Tom, might just be my opinion but how about giving the multimedia side of gameex an overhaul? It seems there is ongoing microsurgery on trivial mame issues but the multimedia side of game ex is largely ignored. A friend of mine runs the xbmc media center and I have to grudgingly admit it looks and works brilliantly for audio/video collections, any plans for a flashier design sometime soon?

Cheers

I would love to see a resume feature for the videos.... I'm sure that's in a feature request somewhere. Also, folder navigation for music files would be appreciated. I never really spent much time maintaining my ID3 tags but my folder structure is impeccable.

[frosty-theaussie]

I've had several recommendations on how to thoroughly improve the multimedia functions of GameEx but none of them have really been heeded !

a quick list of some key additions though:

• support for internal/external subtitles that can be activated and disabled while playing the video (also swapping between audio tracks)
  
• filename.jpg support for videos instead of searching the internet for cruddy, non-fitting bluray dvd covers
  
• being able to disable the 'video information' page and immediately playing the video; or at the very least allowing us to add key, interesting information to it.
  

[Lawrence]

  frosty-theaussie said:

I've had several recommendations on how to thoroughly improve the multimedia functions of GameEx but none of them have really been heeded !

a quick list of some key additions though:

• support for internal/external subtitles that can be activated and disabled while playing the video (also swapping between audio tracks)
  
• filename.jpg support for videos instead of searching the internet for cruddy, non-fitting bluray dvd covers
  
• being able to disable the 'video information' page and immediately playing the video; or at the very least allowing us to add key, interesting information to it.
  

I like those ideas -- subtitle options would be nice. JPGs for videos would be nice too. They seem to change on their own too. The cover for Chronicles of Riddick was correct on my machine before. Today it has suddenly changed to a Blue Ray box (filling up more than half the box with Blu Ray), and The Matrix has suddenly changed from a correct cover to a yoga video box (no idea how that happened).

For the Info page -- would be neat if it grabbed info from IMDB.

[supergojira]

For my movies collection I use the library feature (registered) with folder.jpg to display the cover. Some googling for a decent image is all it takes for that, but running off a 40 inch LCD TV the whole multimedia setup is really basic and dated looking. A side scrolling album cover based system for me is the way forward with regards to audio/video, c'mon Tom get the finger out

[Tom Speirs]

  Paul O said:

I would love to see a resume feature for the videos.... I'm sure that's in a feature request somewhere. Also, folder navigation for music files would be appreciated. I never really spent much time maintaining my ID3 tags but my folder structure is impeccable.

GameEx already does that. On the info page for a video there is a resume item. The Media Library allows that for music.

[Tom Speirs]

  JellyBelly said:

I like those ideas -- subtitle options would be nice. JPGs for videos would be nice too. They seem to change on their own too. The cover for Chronicles of Riddick was correct on my machine before. Today it has suddenly changed to a Blue Ray box (filling up more than half the box with Blu Ray), and The Matrix has suddenly changed from a correct cover to a yoga video box (no idea how that happened).

For the Info page -- would be neat if it grabbed info from IMDB.

Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention, I changed GameEx to read from MEDIA\VIDEOS\BOXART\ instead MEDIA\VIDEOS \and prefixing BOXART_. Its just a better way of doing things. So just copy your images and rename them.

[Tom Speirs]

  supergojira said:

For my movies collection I use the library feature (registered) with folder.jpg to display the cover. Some googling for a decent image is all it takes for that, but running off a 40 inch LCD TV the whole multimedia setup is really basic and dated looking. A side scrolling album cover based system for me is the way forward with regards to audio/video, c'mon Tom get the finger out

Dont you like thumbnail view?

[Tom Speirs]

  frosty-theaussie said:

I've had several recommendations on how to thoroughly improve the multimedia functions of GameEx but none of them have really been heeded !

a quick list of some key additions though:

• support for internal/external subtitles that can be activated and disabled while playing the video (also swapping between audio tracks)
  
• filename.jpg support for videos instead of searching the internet for cruddy, non-fitting bluray dvd covers
  
• being able to disable the 'video information' page and immediately playing the video; or at the very least allowing us to add key, interesting information to it.
  

filename.jpg is already supported. Put them in MEDIA\VIDEOS\BOXART

Im looking into subtitle/language support, and Im probably going to have to pay for someone to do it.

Im also planning on adding a movie.mdb database to the install, where you will be able to put a description for a video.

[supergojira]

  TSpeirs said:

Dont you like thumbnail view?

Yeah Tom its fine if Im running off my laptop only but hooked through my tv the thumbnails are too small to be legible from the couch, any option to make them bigger?

Cheers man

[Tom Speirs]

  supergojira said:

Yeah Tom its fine if Im running off my laptop only but hooked through my tv the thumbnails are too small to be legible from the couch, any option to make them bigger?

Cheers man

It shouldnt be a problem adding that. What other suggestions (not moans) do you have?

[Paul O'Nolan]

  TSpeirs said:

GameEx already does that. On the info page for a video there is a resume item. The Media Library allows that for music.

Sorry Tom, I didn't realize that as I don't use the info page. I'm used to the XBOX 360 interface where it asks if you'd like to resume or restart as soon as you load a movie. I'll mess around with it. Thanks!

[supergojira]

  TSpeirs said:

It shouldnt be a problem adding that. What other suggestions (not moans) do you have?

Good man! Sorry if I'm moaning, just feel the media side is falling behind compared to the mame side which is undoubtedly excellent. Here's what Im thinking for a lcd tv setup.

Three album covers side by side onscreen at any one time, the middle one being 'active'. Pushing left or right scrolls through the album covers with a bold font description below the currently active album. Selecting an album shows all the album tracks in an identical format, three to a screen with the usual clear and queue all & add all to queue dialogs. I've attached a quick image to roughly illustrate the idea. A larger Now Playing screen in the bottom left corner would also be excellent.

All in all the design exists already really, I'm just thinking on a bigger more TV friendly scale. What do you reckon Tom?

Cheers

[frosty-theaussie]

  TSpeirs said:

filename.jpg is already supported. Put them in MEDIA\VIDEOS\BOXART

Im looking into subtitle/language support, and Im probably going to have to pay for someone to do it.

Im also planning on adding a movie.mdb database to the install, where you will be able to put a description for a video.

This is just an oddball theory, but do you know if it would be easier to use GameEx as a frontend for VLC or another video player that is capable of changing those things? The idea seems like a bit too much work for so little payoff, though.

[Salpula]

  frosty-theaussie said:

This is just an oddball theory, but do you know if it would be easier to use GameEx as a frontend for VLC or another video player that is capable of changing those things? The idea seems like a bit too much work for so little payoff, though.

If you go into advanced options GameEX (I think) offers you the option of using an external player, you could try setting up VLC or MPC to work that way, then right click on the video thats playing. I've never tried it because its not enough of a solution for my HTPC which is supposed to be mouse-less. . .but it seems like that would work.

I think that this is the single most lacking feature of this otherwise very full featured and robust program. I am currently trying out front ends for my HTPC and the only thing stopping me from donating $25 and just going with gameEX instead of shopping around is the lack of ability to switch audiotracks and subtitles from within the front end. No other front end comes even close to GameEx's gaming integration. I broke a media portal install just trying to get the plugin that launches external programs working - I never even got close to using an emulator with it.

Other than that its almost perfect. With ffdshow it plays most anything out of the box and I have it using coreAVC to decode full 1080p x264 video flawlessly - except that they all come on with subtitles!

I stress that for me this is the only thing that makes this not really a viable option for my HTPC. . .I love it otherwise. If I get around to building my MAME cabinet I will definitely go with GameEx.