perhaps a really really stupid question re movie playback

[mynci]

I have just downloaded xlobby and had spent a few hours playing with it. I love the mp3 playback interface, it seems to do everything I could want of it.
I do have a few questions.
they are probably really stupid but I can work it out even after several searches and reads of the forum.

my main problem is getting the video playback to work. can xlobby play my divx xvid files etc? if so does it work by launching zoomplayer or similar or will it play them back within the interface using say a windows media player type window?
if I have overlooked a guide on this I apologise, but searches for 'avi' and 'divx' don?t return a great deal on the searches.

a really minor issue is I cant work out what the teardrop button does on the mp3 interface, this probably does deserve a bit of a mocking. but I cant find anything in the forum, or see any obvious functionality.

lastly, how do you set up the xmltv interface? I am happy setting up xmltv on my pc, but does xlobby need to be told where the db file is, or does it need to be placed in a specific place?
can the TV guide be linked up with software like dabdig, so it can send record commands and the like to my TV software?

many thanks for any help that you can offer

[jowaldo]

Well I can help you with one of your questions. The teardrop is for the winamp visualization Milkdrop. Just do a search for Milkdrop on winamp.com and download/install/configure it. Then when running xlobby just click that to launch milkdrop.

I'm not sure if it can be configured to launch a different visualization, does anybody know?

[Tracie]

If you're using Winamp 5, it comes with Milkdrop built in. You just need to configure it in Winamp to get it to work with the button in Xlobby. As far as using the other visualizations with that button, they work but I haven't been able to make them start fullscreen, so when I hit that button, Winamp & the visualization window come to the front & you have to double click the vis window to make it fullscreen. With Milkdrop, you can set it to automatically start fullscreen.

Milkdrop is the best anyway. I see something new in it every time I fire it up.

[Twit]

Movies,

Hit F2 to get setup screen , under general put the path to the dvd player, in your case zoomplayer, usually c:\programfiles\zoomplayer\zplayer.exe.

I have (/F "%Files|" "/queue:|||%") - without the ( ) but including the " in the command line options.

Need to set the path to you dvds - it will pick up mpeg's and avi's.

Click on the movie then click play. - Zoomplayer does have a staying in the background problem so you may have to minimize xlobby to see if it worked. There is a thread about this.

XMLTV - I think there is a thread or instructions in the help section - sorry i do not use it.

Later
Simon.

[mynci]

thanks a lot guys, the milkdrop makes sense now.

simon, i had that set up almost exactly as you say, the problem is that i dont get any of the avi's, mpegs, cues or bins that are in the directories that i have aded to the dvd part. i just get 3 files found, and they are the folders i have added.

then within the movies screen i just get the folders and the navigation buttons.

i can see this software being great, when i finally get it set up:)

thanks again
mynci

[jrg]

I think when using zoomplayer for dvds, you need to have the dvd ripped into this format: (this is folder or windows explorer view)

movie title
--------VIDEO_TS
---------------(all the movie files)

You may can use the bin/cue format, but I just have all the IFO and VOB files and it works great.

[Twit]

Strange,

I have 'y:\movies' as the path to my avi's. I do not even put explicit paths.

ie the path to the avi is y:\movies\kids\101dalmations\101dal.avi etc and when i clickload dvd's it finds them.

You are clicking the top buttons to load and not the dvd profiler button?

You need deamon tools to play a bin/cue file (I think).

If you do not have a picture in the same folder as the movie then xlobby shows a blank white block with the name written on it.

Later
Simon

[Twit]

OK, did some testing and may have found your problem.

TEST1 - Make movies folder with movie1 and movie2 folder in them. (both contain avi's)

Put c:\movies\movie1 AND c:\movies\movie2 as the paths THEN xlobby finds folders not avi's

TEST2 - Put only c:\movies as the path and works no problem!!!!

I think xlobby need to process a folder before a movie.(Uses folder name as movie name)

ie use c:\movies as path instead of c:\movies\shrek

Later
Simon.

[Twit]

If you have 2 or more avi's in the same folder it only finds 1.

[mynci]

aha, i see you cant see multiple files in one directory. so they all need there own separate one. thats a bitr of a pain, as when they record/download they all get dumped into either 'tv' or 'movies' i suspect there isnt any way to get xlobby to recognise each one by, say file name.

also it seems that there is a preview window in xlobyy yet pressing play just launches zoom, is that the correct behaviour? ie there is no preview function as yet?

its not a problem at all, xlobby is still 100 times as good as zoom player for playing mp3's. and i can use zooms built in, albeit ugly interface to find movies to play.

is it not possible to use winamps movie playback features (in the same way as the audio is done) to show preview screens etc? just a thought as its so much nicer to have all your enntertainment in one piece of software, less remote control programming etc.

lastly, does xlobby handle cd audio (with freedb and cd text support ideally) or dvd playback (ie from the actual disk)? or am i better to use autorun to launch zoom.

mmany thanks again.

mynci.

[Twit]

Preview window??? You click on a cover and that movie is loaded to the movie viewer screen then click play and zoom will launch. If you launch zoom and play a movie full screen and set the remember last screen defaults in zoom it will restart in full screen with your movie out of xlobby. If you do not want to go to the movieviewer screen but play on the click then hit pause/break to load the skin editor and click on a movie cover, this will put a block around all the movies. Under edit category delete the movieviewer as the Info screen.

You can try winamp for movies - put it as the dvd player but i do not know the command line switches.

In the tips and tricks section there is a tip on cd music playing.

To play a dvd in the drive you must set the offline drive letter in setup (F2).

You will manually have to enter the dvd into the movies database or load them with dvd profiler.

Later
Simon.

[smurgle]

also it seems that there is a preview window in xlobyy yet pressing play just launches zoom, is that the correct behaviour? ie there is no preview function as yet?

I think you are talking about the 'blank' area on the movie info page? If so, that is for screenshots not a preview. If you have a directory in the movie directory titled "stills" with screenshots in it, then XLobby will show them in a slideshow type format in that space.

You can also have XLobby automatically try to download stills for the movie with the category editor.

I can't tell for sure if this is what you are talking about here.

[mynci]

cheers it was that area i was talking about, sorry it wasnt my most eloquent post ever:)

re winamp for movies, i simply wondered if it was possible to mimic the way xlobby controls mp3 playback but with movies, in a way that xlobby can control the playback and display the picture, whether its full screen or as a preview.

just an idea. as i said before, i shall go with xlobby for mp3 and then use zoom for all dvd/cd duties.
if it was ever to be included in xlobby then i would certainly suggest cd playback should inclde features such as cd text and freedb access, but im not sure if its the kind of inclusion that would ever be made.
thanks again for all your help.

mynci

[smurgle]

re winamp for movies, i simply wondered if it was possible to mimic the way xlobby controls mp3 playback but with movies, in a way that xlobby can control the playback and display the picture, whether its full screen or as a preview.

just an idea. as i said before, i shall go with xlobby for mp3 and then use zoom for all dvd/cd duties.

You can have XLobby launch and control ZoomPlayer, but full screen only. Search for posts about how to contol girder / sendmessage with XLobby which will then pass it on to ZoomPlayer to control it.

Technically I'm not sure it is possible to show ZP in a window inside another application. It may or may not have that ability. I'll see if I can find out if Steven doesn't beat me to it

[mynci]

oh yes the zoom player launch functions perfectly, its just to browse and show movies, it is simpler for me to use zoom players own interface. if xlobby could use, say, file names or hidden tags to browse movies then i would no doubt use it for that as well as the music interface. a complete integration would just be a bonus.

as an aside(re music):
i am currently going to use my remote control to send keys to the xlobby window, then set up winamp 5 to catch some of those key presses as global hot keys, ence i can unclutter the interface by removing the play pause etc. i shall post a screen shot when im finished, should anyone be interested.

cheers
mynci