Add video panels to MultiPhotoQuotes?

[mouser]

I'm thinking of adding video panels to MultiPhotoQuotes.

I think the idea would be to make them like the rest of the MPQ panels, they would be tile-able, and be able to show multiple videos at once.. most (or all) would be made silent; perhaps options to seek random positions in videos, maybe some effects like slow-motion play.  Maybe an option to simply show random frames from videos instead of images.

Any thoughts?

[Kursplat]

I love it.  I am trying to download it now (seem to be having an issue downloading this one - multiple attempts, while other apps are downloading all around it - go figure).  Anyway, if this works like I think/hope it will, I'll probably make good use of it during trade shows.  Videos would be an excellent addition!  Especially if we can control the tile layouts, what is displayed in each tile (text, pic, or video) and have a set up for a period of time and then move to the next set (a slideshow of tilesets, if you will).  The ability to control what video file the audio is coming from, or from an additional audio file specified, would be awesome as well.

[mouser]

well give the current version a try and see if you can figure out what kind of features would be useful.

right now you can't do the kind of micro-managing you seem to be interested in -- it's much more focused on showing random items (though you can say things like i always want at least one photo, one text quote, etc., and if i add video you would always be able to say things like i want one and only one video frame, etc.).

as for audio -- i think we are definitely drifting further away from the intended use as a screensaver thing.. but i'm always open to the possibility of other uses.

however it does need to be said that you are the only person in 6 months to express the slightest interest in this so it's not exactly high on my priority list..

[mouser]

Support now added for showing random frames from video files; try the beta (just exe so overwrite your existing exe with this one):
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/mpq/downloads/beta/MultiPhotoQuotes.zip

Just put your video files (avi,mpg,wmv) in with your images and MPQ will treat them exactly as if they were images, showing random frames.  All options about cropping, stretching, aspect ratios, etc., all apply as normal.

NOTE 1: MPQ will not play the video so you won't see any motion -- it's just showing random frames from the videos.
NOTE 2: There should be no problem using large gigabyte sized files.

[mouser]

Pretty darn cool, I think

[cranioscopical]

Pretty darn cool, I think

Positively icy, well done!  :-)

[mouser]

I'd love to hear if anyone actually uses it..

[mouser]

This would be a perfect feature to combine with a book of quotes from a movie..
Maybe I should add support for subtitle files to show random subtitle lines from a movie. DONE.

[mouser]

MPQ now will read .srt subtitle files, perfect for combining with a movie file.

The best way to do this is as follows.

• Let's assume you have a movie "StarWars.avi" and a subtitle file ("subsforswars.srt").
• Create a new directory called something like C:\Program Files\MultiPhotoQuotesMpsMedia\Books\StarWars\ and also C:\Program Files\MultiPhotoQuotesMpsMedia\Books\StarWars\Images
• Put in that first directory the srt file and the avi in the Images subdirectory.

Now in MPQ options, in the quote books tab you will be able to enable StarWars.

The benefit of creating a new quote "book" subdirectory is that MPQ will know to associate the srt file with the movie file, and only show subtitle lines from the movie when showing images from the movie, and it will enable you to enable and disable that folder from the options.

Note that you could also use a simple file of quotes from the movie instead of the srt file -- placing them in the same directory as the movie above will have same effect.

[mouser]

One feature that is missing is a smarter way to avoid showing frames from the credits at the very end or opening logos at the very start.  The credits are worse since they can go on for so long.

The dumb way to solve this would be to avoid showing frames from say the first 60 second and the last 10 minutes.  The drawback being that it's inexact and you might never see frames from the very end of the movie.

An alternative would be to let user specify a start and end offset for a movie with an extra moviename.info file.. but i wonder if anyone really wants to go through the hassle of doing that.

[mouser]

Random sample screenshots of screensaver with a movie from Homeland tv show season 1, and the srt subtitle file from it
(Note I have 4 monitors so normally these are giant and spread out across multiple monitors):

[attach]

[tomos]

This looks great!

[mouser]

Is anyone on the planet using the Video feature?

[mouser]

Anyone?

[skwire]

Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller? 

[xesenif]

Great program!  And yes, I am using the video feature.  Very cool.  Thanks.

[mouser]

Finally someone using the video feature!!!!!! 

[s-fad]

I've just started to use this screensaver and find this fiture cool! Even without playback.

Thank you!

[mouser]

Glad to hear it