Questions about Videos and Page Art

[sty151]

Hello,

First, let me tell you how great I think GameEx is. I tried several other frontends before finding GameEx and it's the best looking and most usefull of them all. Second, I want to say that this is my first post on an internet forum (so be gentle). But if I break any unwritten rules, please feel free to let me know. And, Third, after useing GameEx for several months successfully I have a couple of questions that I could not find the answers to in your documentation, here or by trial and error:

1. I want to put some of my DVD collection on my arcade machine but compress them to save drive space. The only videos/movies I can get to play are .avi videos. I have not been able to play movies I ripped from, my personal, DVDs (as VIDEO_TS files in a folder) or converted to MPEG-4 format by Nero (with the supplied codex). I even tried a program (ratDVD) that packages a DVD in one file like the Nero Digatel that was designed to be used by Windows but that didn't work either. Are these formats supported the GameEx media player or do I need to find another plug-in or codex?

2. I also wanted to know how to change the pictures/artwork for Daphne and Mame. I can direct GameEx to look for a certain graphic for the consoles, like a picture of the 2600 console but couldn't find that for Daphne or the Mame screens. For Daphne I have been putting a new graphic in the media folder but this gets changed back everytime I update GameEx. Is there a way to change this in the configuration menus? I probably just missed it.

Let me know if I need to send anything about my system or setup. Thanks in advance for your help.

[WTB]

Welcome to the forum!

1) If I understand it correctly, GameEx uses the same resources as Windows Media Player. ( I could be very wrong) If you can view your videos in WMP, you can in GameEx as well. It may be as simple as finding the right codec. What do you use to view the files now? I'd just google for the codecs and see if you can get it running in WMP.

2) The Daphne and Mame screens don't have any user defined paths that you can change, so don't feel bad that you didn't find any. The way to change them is exactly as you have: alter the graphics in the media folder. What I would suggest is creating your own theme file. Basically, just copy/rename one of the existing themes. Maybe change "Default - Default" into "Default - sty151." Then alter the graphics in the new theme. That way GameEx won't overwrite any of your changes.

I hope this helps. And, again, welcome to the forum!

-Matt

[sty151]

Thank you WTB. Your right, WMP 10 does not see the files and I never even though about making my own theme. That's what I will do.

To expand on the video issue; I was playing the files on the Nero player and codices (whatâ??s the plural of codec? oh well) that came with my DVD-RW drive. In the config of GameEx I had a choice of three Nero codices but none ever worked. I downloaded some additional codec packages and they still did not open in WMP 10. The package did include a FFDshow and Media Player Classic. I don't know what FFDShow is and I don't know if Media Player Classic is compatible with GameEx. I will continue to look for a codec that is compatible with WMP 10 and my files but if someone knows of one please let me know.

Thanks again for your help.

Update: WMP 10 does not see the files if you explore from within WMP. But if I just click on the file and say play with WMP 10 it does play it, just fine. Still no luck getting these .mp4 (or anything except .avi) files to play in GameEx.

[GotMame]

sty151,

Try this site.

http://www.xpcodecpack.com/

[sty151]

Hello,

Thanks GotMame and WTB for your help. I finally figured out that GameEx and WMP could play all the movie/video files I had but they were just not showing up in the lists. I changed the file extensions from .mp4 (Nero's finished product) to .avi. And now they show up and play. This may have changed with GameEx version 5.17 since it sounds like it relies less on WMP but I haven't updated yet. I haven't taken advantage of many of GameEx's features yet. There are so many now it may be time to update its documentation. I hope this helps someone else with their video problems.

Thanks,

Sty151