looking for simpler divx/media player

[john blox]

I've tried micro-dvd, bsplayer, zoom player, power-dvd etc etc and none of them are really any good for me. I have built a standalone machine with a huge hard drive connected to a tv (no monitor)for playing divx's and mp3's. I control it currently from a laptop via vnc but would ideally use a tv-type remote control with a less complex front end. Using all the prev mentioned players its just too fiddly and awkward to actually enjoy the movies, some of the programs have hundreds of ridiculous options, but none seem to have just the basic ones.

I want a simple front end database to allow selection of movies or music using arrow keys (a telextext style front end) with a control panel featuring play, pause, stop, rewind, forward, postition bar, zoom in / zoom out and thats it. if it could remember the settings for each movie that would help. If the transport bar overlayed the movie transparently (which always plays full screen) that would be good too.

Then I could use a remote control to pause, rewind, zoom etc as required without interrupting the flow of the movie. The only player that seems to actually zoom (some movies have black boxes around them that needs to be got rid of so this is essential) is bsplayer but that has too much other confusing stuff + seems to have no keys linked to zoom. It occured to me that a telextext type of front end might suit this sort of application. I wonder are there any others of you out there doing a similar thing and if so what program is most suitable for building a pc based standalone media player, is there anything?

[Emp3r0r]

well, your not alone buddy in your quest for a good media player but remember, options are options and you don't have to use them! You can set zoomplayer up do do exactly what you want and use a remote to do it. just takes some time to setup exactly how you want it, but the more time you spend, the better in the long run.

[diji1]

Hi :),

The only player that seems to actually zoom (some movies have black boxes around them that needs to be got rid of so this is essential) is bsplayer but that has too much other confusing stuff + seems to have no keys linked to zoom

For BSPlay version 0.84 use:
Numpad + = resize movie window ( zoom in, keep centred in full screen )
Numpad - = " " ( zoom out, " " )

Ctrl+Numpad + = zoom in
Ctrl+Numpad - = zoom out

..... you can also assign keys to functions.

For a really basic player have you tried Tha Playa which comes with the DivX 4.xx codec and is certainly very simple - i think its kinda a demo of what can be done for other developers to look at.

[Mikele]

I'm a Zoom Player fan... so that's my first recomendation, but I guess that what you're looking for is this: http://www.showshifter.com.

[john blox]

hmmmm showshifter looks interesting, I'll try the demo. It looks especially interesting as it interfaces with digiguide which I already use, I don't yet have a record card though, i bought a radeon 7000 as an interim until the 7500 AIW becomes available/reasonably priced in the UK. I thought that that hauppage card looked interesting that could record terrestrial digital transmissions, though it was a shame it couldn't accept an itv-digital card for the other channels. I presume a card like this would dump the mpeg2 transmission straight to hard drive without messing it up which would give dvd quality recordings off the tv. Though Hauppage tv products don't seem to be very well reviewed quality wise. Is there a card that can record encrypted digital transmissions when equipped with a valid card?

[john blox]

BSPlay seems to be the best option though I use a laptop to control the multimedia machine so don't have a numpad. BTW I should have said that the Custom Pan & Scan was the essential option within bsplay to lose black borders, zoom is no use when you're watching a movie on a TV.

Here are my current problems with bsplay which though over feature rich (imho) is not absurdly so.

1) I want to click on a movie and bsplay to run up with the movie full screen, but it always appears in a window. You can make it remember each movies settings so it runs full screen (usefull if you keep re-watching the SAME movie) but it forgets any custom pan&scan settings. if you check the option in video to remember pan&scan it mutually excludes remember movie settings on video tab and actually remembers nothing.

2) I watch on a widescreen tv, so I presume I need to set the aspect ratio to 4:3 which stretches the movie horizontally, the tv then stretches it vertically which puts it back as it shoud be OR does it??? if i leave it I end up with a really narrow pic on my tv.

I'll give zoom player another go and report back. Maybe I should just use WMP though, if only it could custom pan&scan to remove black borders. I mean fairuse for example automatically detects and removes this stuff. Instead of a program stuffed full of options why can't programmers make the program do its own analysis and automatically adjust for each movie by analysing the video/audio itself? Then all I need is a simple jog shuttle to control it, videos, hifi's , toasters don't have all these options, cos if they did noone would use them.

[Zhnujm]

microdvd can pan+scan every movie atomatically to 16:9 format.
divxg400 filter can do this also and can be used by almost every player. (+ wmp)

to 2:

-set the aspect ratio to original and use the tv to strech horizontally + vertically.
or
-set the aspect ratio to 16:9 and use the tv to strech horizontally.

[Flay]

Taste the LightAlloy multimedia player:
http://lightalloy.softdepia.com/

I've tried to make it most user friendly.

Good luck,

[natopotato]

www.pcremote.com

great sofware that can be used to program any standard ir remote control using standard irda serial thingy...

any way it works great

[downloada]

hi,

i'd say zoomplayer is the prog to go. i also use it on my htpc that is connected to a 16:9-tv and i don't have any problems.

ok, you have to take the time to setup the player, but after that, it runs smoothly without any changes. just use the aspect ratio "anamorphic" and let your tv do the resizing, i do that also and it works great, quality is just like dvd, much sharper than with normal aspect ratio.

you can also control zp with a remote, there's a shortcut for every single command zoomplayer has to offer. just use girder and assign the corresponding keyboard-key to a button on your remote.

a little hint: you can select files easily by pressing "enter" when zoomplayer has launched up. if you add "/F" (iirc) to the commandline, zp launches up fullscreen, if you add "/FILENAV" it shows the file navigator (same as pressing enter).

cu