matroska - tray icon for ds filter?

[thoralf]

Hi there,

a little feature request: what about adding a tray icon (similar to the one in the ogg demuxer) to the matroska splitter? This would be really handy for players whose developers don't get the idea that ,ultimedia files might well have different audio- and subtitle streams ...
It would be great if someone could implement this feature - due to my limited programming skills i can't do it myself :-(

TIA,
Thoralf.

[Rash]

And show the chapters as well. ;)

[bond]

ugh, but plz also add an option which allows to disable the tray icon, cause i hate these

[ChristianHJW]

Originally posted by bond ugh, but plz also add an option which allows to disable the tray icon, cause i hate these ... we didnt say we do it, did we ;) ....
We gladly accept an external patch for this, if its done in a nice way, so that people can deactivate it. But the team definitely has different priorities ( gstreamer port, new editor ), sorry ....

[thoralf]

Originally posted by ChristianHJW
... we didnt say we do it, did we ;) ....
no, you didn't, did you? :-))
We gladly accept an external patch for this, if its done in a nice way, so that people can deactivate it. But the team definitely has different priorities ( gstreamer port, new editor ), sorry ....
that's perfectly fine with me, but I just want to reiterate my point of view:

Imagine Joe User trying to play a Matroska file. If SHe has got a bit of a clue, downloading and installing the Matroska Filter Pack is the first thing to do. Joe User is then all set to play simple mkvs with only one video and one audio stream. So far, so good.
However, one of the killer features of mkv is its clean implementation of various audio streams. Now, if the mkv in question contains more than one audio stream and Joe User double-clicks on this one, a media player will open. Let's face the sad truth: this will be the crappy WMP in about 90-something per cent of all cases. SHe will see the video play just fine and have the pleasure of listening to all audio streams simultanously, without having the possibility to choose one if them, because crappy WMP just isn't designed to handle more than one audio stream. Joe User will think: "wow, that's strange, I have installed all the necessary codecs and it doesn't work, so I'll stick with avi and never touch this strange matroska thingie again."
A tray icon that allows the user to choose an audio stream would prevent such a thing from happening, and it would also decrease the cpu usage needed to play the video - quite a benefit, too; since even recent computers will hiccup with an mpeg4 video, post processing and some ac3 streams ...

Unfortunately, I'm only one of those open source advocates with limited programming skills - otherwise I would have provided the patch a long time ago ...

[stephanV]

isnt this why there is thing like morgan stream switcher? should work for everything as well: avi, mkv, ogm, mp4 (?).

[thoralf]

Originally posted by stephanV
isnt this why there is thing like morgan stream switcher? should work for everything as well: avi, mkv, ogm, mp4 (?).
Yeah ... but this one is a known troublemaker (regarding to zoom player, never had any problems with it myself), and iirc it only supports two audio streams. I'd prefer a solution handled by the demuxer ...

[Cyberman]

Originally posted by thoralf
Imagine Joe User trying to play a Matroska file. If SHe has got a bit of a clue, downloading and installing the Matroska Filter Pack is the first thing to do. Joe User is then all set to play simple mkvs with only one video and one audio stream. So far, so good.
However, one of the killer features of mkv is its clean implementation of various audio streams. Now, if the mkv in question contains more than one audio stream and Joe User double-clicks on this one, a media player will open. Let's face the sad truth: this will be the crappy WMP in about 90-something per cent of all cases. SHe will see the video play just fine and have the pleasure of listening to all audio streams simultanously, without having the possibility to choose one if them, because crappy WMP just isn't designed to handle more than one audio stream. Joe User will think: "wow, that's strange, I have installed all the necessary codecs and it doesn't work, so I'll stick with avi and never touch this strange matroska thingie again."

Good point, but wrong. Joe User won´t even realize what MKV is, and would have just the same problems were it an AVI file with dual audio.

So, instead of a try icon signaling MATROSKA, what would help would be a try icon signaling MULTIPLE AUDIO STREAMS.

[thoralf]

Originally posted by Cyberman
Good point, but wrong. Joe User won´t even realize what MKV is, and would have just the same problems were it an AVI file with dual audio.

So, instead of a try icon signaling MATROSKA, what would help would be a try icon signaling MULTIPLE AUDIO STREAMS.
There's some truth in this. Then again, neither we nor the matroska developers will be able to convince microsoft (after all, it's their media player as well as their direct-show-framework) to implement such an icon into the next service pack for win2k onwards. On the other hand, the matroska developers (once again, not we :-( ) have in their hands to change this behaviour for matroska files and demonstrate the superiority of this container ...

[stephanV]

Originally posted by thoralf
Yeah ... but this one is a known troublemaker (regarding to zoom player, never had any problems with it myself), and iirc it only supports two audio streams. I'd prefer a solution handled by the demuxer ...

never had problems with MSS, but i dont use zoom player. it also does seem to support more than 2 audio streams (just made an avi with 3... worked fine).

we dont need container specific solutions but general ones, MSS is that. besides, a switcher in the demuxer might cause some troubles: it would have to use decoder filters internally, unless you can dynamically update a directshow graph.

[filewalker]

Zoomplayer uses a similiar( to MSS) internal stream switcher. So a second stream switcher like MSS is interfferring.

MSS is just needed if the player doesn't support stream switching itself (like WMP).

If you use Zoomplayer, MPC and TCMP you don't need an extra switcher...


Besides, latest versions of MSS should work nicely.

[Cyberman]

Originally posted by thoralf
neither we nor the matroska developers will be able to convince microsoft (after all, it's their media player as well as their direct-show-framework) to implement such an icon into the next service pack for win2k onwards. On the other hand, the matroska developers (once again, not we :-( ) have in their hands to change this behaviour for matroska files and demonstrate the superiority of this container ...
True.
So what if the Matroska Splitter put that icon in the try, signaling multiple streams?
I just don´t want to draw attention to Matroska itself, because the dummys won´t realize Matroska is trying to HELP them, they´d think it´s an error message or a bug.

Originally posted by filewalker
If you use Zoomplayer, MPC and TCMP you don't need an extra switcher...

Yeah, but we´re talking about the average dummy here - the kind of people who´ll readily click on anything that says "click me"...

[thoralf]

Originally posted by Cyberman
True.
So what if the Matroska Splitter put that icon in the try, signaling multiple streams?
That's exactly what I imagine. A matroska file gets opened, the icon appears with a little bubble saying "choose your audio stream here, available are hebrew, sanskrit and simplified chinese.".

[unmei]

what about a "feature" of the matroska splitter detecting WMP and delivering a static image only that reads "use a decent video player" :D

[thoralf]

Originally posted by unmei
what about a "feature" of the matroska splitter detecting WMP and delivering a static image only that reads "use a decent video player" :D
Yeah. Also, let the splitter detect the content that is being played. If it's silly than print out a message like "Hey, don't waste your time with that sort of stuff. Get a beer instead!"