MovieBox

[Patrice Terrier]

I wanted to see if i could translate my C# zMoviePlayer to PowerBASIC,
and here is the PowerBASIC result, that is XP and VISTA compatible:



MovieBox uses DirectX 9c and the ActiveMovie.inc from José Roca.

To play a movie, just use drag & drop from the Explorer onto the MovieBox, or click on the play button to open the file dialog selector.

This first version has already most of the common features you would expect from a movie player (except playing in full screen mode).

MovieBox adjust its size to the real size of the video being played, however you can drag the borders to resize the window as you want.

If you encounter a problem while playing a movie, most of the time this is because you are not using the good codec.
There are plainty of Codec packages on the Internet, thus you should be able to find the right one on a dedicated web site.

You can download MovieBox.zip there

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[Patrice Terrier]

MovieBox has been updated to version 1.03.

Added button "Full screen" mode.

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[Elias Montoya]

Light and confortable. Im using it.

Wish:
Support for dragging the movie in the quick launch icon.
Option for "Keep Ratio on maximize".

Reports:
You can click to maximize, but double click to return to normal doesnt work.

[Patrice Terrier]

The ZIP file has been updated with:

• Support for dragging the movie onto the quick launch icon (short cut) like in BassBox.
• Now you can restore from maximized using double click on caption bar.

Option to "Keep Ratio on maximize".

No need for it, because MovieBox always uses the best ratio info provided by the DirectX video assembly.

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[Elias Montoya]

Then... why the long faces?

Thanx for the update patrice.

[Patrice Terrier]

long faces

Hard to answer without seeing at the movie you are trying to play.

DivX, Xvid, mpg and mpeg HD movies are playing just fine here.
But sometimes the video have been improperly recorded using a bad aspect ratio (and most of the time these movies have black bands around them, causing the havoc).

Note: The DirectX ActiveMovie exposed several methods to handle this, see the IVideoWindow/IBasicVideo interface documentation.
See also:
- IVideoWindow Get.MinIdealImageSize
- IVideoWindow Get.MaxIdealImageSize
- IBasicVideo Get.VideoWidth
- IBasicVideo Get.VideoHeight
- IBasicVideo Get.VideoSize

And MovieBox retrieves the real video size using this:
nRetLNG = IBasicVideo_GetVideoSize(pIBasicVideo, lWidth, lHeight)
and it assumes that the returned values are correct.
And DirectX auto adjust the size of the Video while its parent window container is being resized.

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[Elias Montoya]

Here you go:

[Patrice Terrier]

Which version of DirectX are you using?

I am using the latest version from november 2007.

Somebody else having the same problem?

And also very important to check the codec you are using.
(I am using "VISTA Codec package")

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[Elias Montoya]

I think im using DX 9c.
Im going to try the VISTA Codec pack, i hope it works in XP.

[Patrice Terrier]

--Elias

From the top of my head i think to remember that the problem you have, could occure with movies that have been encoded with older DivX codec version (prior to version 4).

So before doing anything, try to download a recent DivX movie (see VUZE.COM)

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[Roger Garstang]

I get this on my Set Top DVD Player because I tell it I have a 16x9 screen when I have 4:3 just to have less black bars...could be that his monitor isn't widescreen.

BTW, how come your screenshot shows Aero radio buttons, but the download doesn't have them?

[Patrice Terrier]

BTW, how come your screenshot shows Aero radio buttons, but the download doesn't have them?

Because these buttons are disabled on XP, and they are enabled only on VISTA.

I am using wide screen (dual display) on VISTA, and 19" 4/3 LCD display on XP, they both work fine. Moreover i didn't had any report of this on the José Roca's forum where MovieBox can be also downloaded, nor on the C# forum has you can read it there:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/graphi...viePlayer.aspx

Note: The main difference between the two versions is that, the C# one uses the DotNET managed AudioVideoPlayback assembly, while the PowerBASIC version bypass the DotNET encapsulation to tap directly into the low level DirectX COM interface.

The problem i had with PB is that, currently, using the COM interface is not as trivial as using it on DotNET. However using the ActiveMovi.inc translation from José I was able to do it in one weekend.

[Patrice Terrier]

MovieBox MCI version, based on the MMengine that has been posted there:
http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ad.php?t=36585

You can download the MCI version there

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[Patrice Terrier]

MovieBox version 2.00

Screen shot of Version 2.0



This version uses a new skinned interface (same as in the latest BassBox),
and supports matroska MKV multi-format (very often uses to embed HD movies)
(requires ffdshow codec + MatroskaSplitter or CCCP codec)


The zip file is there

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[Pierre Bellisle]

Salut Patrice,

Under Vista Ultimate, as soon as I try to move the sound volume trackbar
I got this message "MovieBox.exe a cessé de fonctionner", ("MovieBox.exe stopped working") !

Tell me if you need more infos...

Signature du problème :
Nom d’événement de problème: APPCRASH
Nom de l’application: MovieBox.exe
Version de l’application: 0.0.0.0
Horodatage de l'application: 00003039
Nom du module par défaut: MovieBox.exe
Version du module par défaut: 0.0.0.0
Horodateur du module par défaut: 00003039
Code de l’exception: c0000005
Décalage de l’exception: 00015ede
Version du système: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Identificateur de paramètres régionaux: 3084
Information supplémentaire n° 1: 8cdf
Information supplémentaire n° 2: 9425270cabc23b639a64f1ebfbfc3f24
Information supplémentaire n° 3: 0de1
Information supplémentaire n° 4: b8416d2b800fc7fb0c9180176c9a7f63

[Patrice Terrier]

Pierre

What is the DirectX # version installed on your computer?

MovieBox is designed to work with at least DirectX 9 from october 2007.

Also make sure you are using the latest codec for VISTA,
For example, if you want to play HD movie in MKV format try this one:
CCCP codec

Note: Before to install a new codec pack, make sure to uninstall first any other codec package.
And make first a backup copy of your registry...

Microsoft as just released a new DirectX version from march 2008.
It works well with MovieBox.

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[Pierre Bellisle]

It's a fresh installation of Vista Ultimate with service pack 1,
DirectX is version 10.

I'll try with CCCP codec installed in my test partition.

Stay tuned

[Patrice Terrier]

Pierre

Les codecs ne savent pas utiliser DirectX 10, il faut absolument installer DirectX 9 en plus !

Because most movies are encoded to work on XP, the codec they are using are based on DirectX 9, also the VFW DirectX API is still based on DX9.

Installing DirectX9 on VISTA won't affect DirectX10, they can work together!

Indeed except WPF and DWM they are very few VISTA applications using DirectX10, and only a few graphic cards (even on VISTA) are able to use it already, and these graphic cards are much more expensive than those installed in standard on most of the computers being sold.

The price for a good graphic card that is DirectX 10 certified is almost Euro 150.

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[Pierre Bellisle]

I see,

I did also Try with XP sp2, DX 9.0c
and have the same crash problem,
I must say that I do not feel like uninstall and reinstall
codec files, so I'll pass my turn for this one.

The graphics interface is splendid as usual.
I really like you work Patrice.
One of these days, I will have to buy your skin engine stuff...

[Patrice Terrier]

Pierre,

MovieBox follows the latest DirectX specifications, thus using a wrong DirectX version is like trying to use a WinNT API on 95/98/ME.
That's Microsoft not me.

The graphics interface is splendid as usual.
I really like you work Patrice.
One of these days, I will have to buy your skin engine stuff...

The MovieBox interface uses the same skin engine that I have provided in open source on the José Roca's forum.
Search for the BassBox project, it is FREE, and i have put many of my secrets in it to learn from!

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