[RandomXBMCUser]

finally I am one step closer to External Player that works! BUT, there is still a big but :

I removed the line <args>-fs</args> and now MPC-HC start running but ONLY with my HD content (separate .mkv and .wmv files). I also have a lot of movies that contains a (regular) VIDEO_TS folder (standard def. dvd's). With this content MPC-HC does NOT start but the internal player of XBMC starts running. Is there a solution to make this work for the ext. player too or do I have to fill this in as a request with Jester?

This is not implemented (hopefully it will be at some point in time), I've asked the question multiple times before, to be able to play my DVDs externally, by default, too.

[THX-UltraII]

@RandomXBMCUser: see Jesters last post in this thread. Looks like it s close now for us!

@Jester: great job that this will be included in the next -ext release. Do you have any idea when this will be? Hope you can make this before the weekend! Would be great.

[timdog82001]

This is not implemented (hopefully it will be at some point in time), I've asked the question multiple times before, to be able to play my DVDs externally, by default, too.

Regular DVD's play fine on the in house dvd player for me, but what would be really great is if it could automatically detect blu-ray and HD-DVD disks and automatically send those to the external player. I'm in no rush and don't even own a blu-ray drive, but seems to me like potentially the most useful aspect of an external player, allowing xbmc to play DRM'd files and blu-ray.

[THX-UltraII]

for ME the abbility to play VIDEO_TS folder content with MPC-HC is a MUST HAVE or else XBMC is worthless for me. Sure, the internal player plays the VIDEO_TS folder but a HTPC Guru like me (with a digital projector) really NEEDS mpc-hc (ReClock, Haali, CoreAVC, Powerstrip etc etc). Some of these might be possible to use with the internal player of XBMC but most of them not.

So yes, the VIDEO_TS folder option is priority number one for me.

BR capability, I don t care about because I have a stand-alone player for this.

You see that everyone has his own demands and priorities. Lucky for me (and many others) Jester is working on a release with VIDEO_TS compatibility.

[jeey]

Thanks for the good work on the external player patch.

Is there any way to force xbmc to not look inside rar files? just parse a rar file directly to the external player.
Thanks to RARFilesource direct show filter(http://www.v12pwr.com/RARFileSource/), we are now able to watch rar material directly in external players. like zoomplayer and MPC-HC that most of us use.

But the problem is since xbmc unpacks the rar volum, things get fucked up.

Anyone got any clues on how to solve the rar issue?

[ashlar]

Anyone got any clues on how to solve the rar issue?

I've meant to ask this for a very long time. What's the advantage in keeping media files RARed? I don't get it.

[RandomXBMCUser]

for ME the abbility to play VIDEO_TS folder content with MPC-HC is a MUST HAVE or else XBMC is worthless for me. Sure, the internal player plays the VIDEO_TS folder but a HTPC Guru like me (with a digital projector) really NEEDS mpc-hc (ReClock, Haali, CoreAVC, Powerstrip etc etc). Some of these might be possible to use with the internal player of XBMC but most of them not.

So yes, the VIDEO_TS folder option is priority number one for me.

BR capability, I don t care about because I have a stand-alone player for this.

You see that everyone has his own demands and priorities. Lucky for me (and many others) Jester is working on a release with VIDEO_TS compatibility.

I concur with this, but the only problem is playing externally by default, it will play VIDEO_TS externally if you manually pick it on each DVD.

[RandomXBMCUser]

Another problem - on the newer builds, XBMC refuses to launch batch files for the external player.

[THX-UltraII]

@RandomXBMCUser:
If I m correct you can only use the -ext version of Jester's builds so not his newest ones.

[THX-UltraII]

I concur with this, but the only problem is playing externally by default, it will play VIDEO_TS externally if you manually pick it on each DVD.

Don t understand what you mean?

[THX-UltraII]

I think I ve made a mistake by saying that VIDEO_TS folder support for the external player will be in the next -ext release. Jester told the following a few days ago:

this will be included in the next update of the patch, so the next build i release with the patch (-ext build) will include this (and hopefully work

I was so happy to read this line that I didn t mentioned that it did involve something else then VIDEO_TS support. It was a reply from Jester to Unicode support.

I ll ask Jester if he can maybe intergrate VIDEO_TS support in the -ext release (IF this is possible somehow).

[THX-UltraII]

I ve thought about the VIDEO_TS problem a little longer and the workaround until a VIDEO_TS folder compatible -ext version comes out is simple:

Use VOB2MPEG to convert the dvd to a single file that is supported bij the -ext version.

[Dannydeman]

I really want to give this a try, but it seems I have a big problem. Video in MPC-HC is very choppy, but the CPU is like 4% since it uses DXVA. When I close xbmc.exe in the taskmgr, everything plays fine. So there is something in XBMC whats conflicting with something in MPC-HC.

It's neccesary to use MPC-HC since it's the only player that supports dxva in combination with DXVA.

Specs:
Intel CD2 2.1GHZ (mobile)
Ati Mobillity Radeon 3450 with 9.1 catalyst
Everything is finetuned, works perfect i.c.w. Mediaportal.
Windows Vista 32bit SP1
Aero disabled (If i enable it..believe me, it's bad )
But I will always prefer XBMC since it is just the best mediacenter out there (UI wise anyways..)

[BlueSpam]

Dannydeman, I started to see the same behavior you're reporting with MPC-HC after I upgraded to the latest SVN build. I worked around it since I use a script to start MPC, by killing xbmc, starting MPC, and then restarting xbmc when MPC finishes. Only drawback is that I'm back on the main menu, but it's not a huge crisis since I only use the external player for my 1080p videos. Something definitely changed recently however, since a few builds earlier xbmc was running in the background but mpc was working flawlessly...

[moby-uk]

I really want to give this a try, but it seems I have a big problem. Video in MPC-HC is very choppy, but the CPU is like 4% since it uses DXVA. When I close xbmc.exe in the taskmgr, everything plays fine. So there is something in XBMC whats conflicting with something in MPC-HC.

Dannydeman, I started to see the same behavior you're reporting with MPC-HC after I upgraded to the latest SVN build. I worked around it since I use a script to start MPC, by killing xbmc, starting MPC, and then restarting xbmc when MPC finishes. Only drawback is that I'm back on the main menu, but it's not a huge crisis since I only use the external player for my 1080p videos. Something definitely changed recently however, since a few builds earlier xbmc was running in the background but mpc was working flawlessly...

Something did change. In my last version of the path I tried to avoid locking the graphicscontext while the externalplayer was running as that was what was still causing some people issues with the externalplayer being behind XBMC. When I get some time to work on it, the next version will go back to locking the context but after a user-configurable time (the delay needs to be long enough to allow the externalplayer window to open and bring itself to the front but not so long as the still-running XBMC causes the issue you're seeing now at the start of the video).

I'm also looking at providing a way for externalplayers that support it to playback DVD folder structures.