[Morien]

hi,

i'm wasn't sure how to phrase this in the topic, but hopefully an idea came through.
i requested this feature in the channel some time ago to frodo, at which time he told me that it was a good idea and that it would be added to the to do list, however i've now found out that frodo hasnt developed xbmc in quite some time now.

so...

could it be made so when videos are stacked, their play settings are maintained for that stack?
that was putting it poorly, so for an example:
if i have movie - cd 1.ogm and movie - cd 2.ogm they're stacked together. when i play it i select the audio/subtitle track (and possibly zoom level and pixel ratio) for it. what i would like is for those same options to be automatically used when movie - cd 2.ogm starts playing.

if i need to explain it a bit more clearly then i will.
thanks
morien

[Morien]

hi,
i requested this a while ago to frodo and he said he liked the idea and would add it to his to-do list, but i thought since frodo is now out of the picture, and i'm not sure how the team members interact, i should resubmit on a more permanent means than irc.
so,
could it be done so that:

1) file settings remain constant when the next file in a stack is played (eg. cd1.ogm is playing audio track 2, and subtitle 3, so then when cd2.ogm plays audio 2 and sub 3 automatically play.)

2) when the next file plays it plays seamlessly. so when cd1.ogm finishes and cd2.ogm starts i don't even notice. (<-- i don't think i got any feedback from frodo on this one, but i think it fits in with this feature request)

thanks
morien

[gglaze]

since i've been working on related features, i'll chip in here...

from what i can tell, a major part of the delay between stacked files may simply be that the app is re-scanning the directory and re-parsing all the file names every time it needs to switch to the next volume in the stack. if the list of volumes in the stack was cached in memory while playing, such that this scan could be eliminated, that would probably significantly decrease the delay. this is definitely the case for videos, and i'm guessing is also the case for music.

beyond that, it may still be necessary to start pre-loading the next volume in the stack, in the background as the current volume is about to finish.

i would also love to see this fixed, so i could definitely take a look at the first piece, and maybe also the second piece.

as for the first part of your request, i think this should also be fairly easy to resolve, as the context just needs to maintain state across multiple volumes. i'll have a look.

[Mental Block]

i would love to see point 1 implemented

with point 2 - i think there is a problem with getting the two video files to "join" as xbmc can't load two mplayers cores at once, which is what would be needed to be done (i think).

but to make the time between as small as possible there must be a few things that can be done. eg, if using hdd spin down this needs to spin up the hdd before the first file ends.  also all the information that needs to be gathered to open the second file could be done before the first finishes?

the only delay then would be mplayer filling the buffer i guess.

[Gamester17]

fyi, point 2 is not possible because mplayer does not support it, read why here (link)and here (link) (yes same goes for video as audio/music)

[elupus]

audio track and subtitle is supposed to be remebered between stacked items, if they aren't. that really would be a bug.

however since mplayer doesn't support seamless playing, it's not really possible at the moment to support that.

[FastShow]

whilst on the subject, when streaming from lan, is there any reason the hd feels the need to spin up when switching to the next file in the stack? i can see no reason for it...

[Morien]

ok, fair enough. just thought i'd bring it to the table.

and is there any truth to what gglaze said?
could the delay, althought perhaps not as seamless and joining the files on computer, be reduced? or no?

[gglaze]

i'm working on it now, should have an answer for you soon. obviously i don't think this will completely eliminate the delay, but it could make a noticeable difference.

[MidKnight]

for those of us using smb and watching multi cdz of media, it would be nice for the cache system to start caching the next file to be run when using stacking. this way the change over when viewing a movie should be very quick and not very noticable.

cheers

[MidKnight]

mmm thought many would like to see such a thing

[Livin]

yes, this would be a great feature!

[csharper]

first off, xbmx rules, but you all know this.

call me crazy, and maybe this should just be a help ticket but i have an idea.

here's a scenario for you. let's say you're watching a movie that has 2 parts and you're using the stacking feature (which i admit rocks). the thing is that a few seconds before the end of the first part network traffic stops, presumably b/c the cache already holds all it needs to complete showing the remaining video/audio of this part. then once the first part is complete (and only once the first part is complete from what i can tell), the second part gets loaded. i would assume that if you're watching from the hard drive the delay would be nominal. however, i'm watching from an smb share, so there is a 3-5 second delay in watching the movie while the second part gets loaded.

it would seem well within the reach of reality to think that xbmc could begin to cache the second part as soon as the remaining first part has arrived and been loaded fully in the cache. this would help to shorten or eliminate the delay that i'm experiencing while switching from one part to another.

so, is anyone else experiencing this? i've asked 1 other person and he is. let's hear it people.

i'm a c# programmer myself, but if i were more proficient in c++ (and had the time) i'd try to help out.

just my $0.02

[Munde]

has definately been discussed before. if i remember correcly, the problem is that 2 mplayer cores needs to be run simultanously... and that's impossible (soomeone correct me if i'm wrong).
-munde

[Jynks]

often you have a video of a film or somthing that is 2 cds or more.

a way of pre loading the start of the 2nd disk before the 1st finishes and so on would be cool..

this could stop the slight pause you get between disks at the moment.