[MPlayer-dev-eng] More Mozilla Plugin, asx and caching issues

[Andrew Docherty]

Hello,

Some more thoughts on the plugin for Mozilla.

1) Simple changes that would be nice for the plugin's operation:

Problem: On playing an asx format file (i've been testing on streams from
atomfilms.shockwave.com) if there is a stream that mplayer cannot handle
it quits immediately, this occurs in atomfilms for the splash at the 
beginning - but mplayer can handle the actual movie itself fine, but it
will quit before getting there.

Suggestion: Perhaps if one stream in an asx list cannot be played, mplayer could 
ignore it and go on to the next one?

Problem: When caching I would like to have a message on the gui saying "10% cached"
however, if the cache is bigger than the stream this will be stated
incorrectly. Is there any way of getting the size of the initially?

Suggestion: A good option for low-bandwidth streams would be providing a "cache all"
option which will cache the entire stream before playback. This of course,
requires the knowledge of the stream size.


2) There are, to my mind, two ways to implement the plugin.

One is using the slave switch, running mplayer externally, redirecting the
output and running the gui internally (to the plugin)
Pros: 	We can capture mplayers output and have informative 
Cons: 	There seems to be no way to put up a progress bar, or therefore to do
	 random seeking.
	The controls are limited by the possible command set of slave mode
	 (which doesn't seem to work that well currently)

Two using the plugin to run mplayer, and having a simple gui built into
	a 'plugin version' of mplayer.
Pros: 	A progress bar is possible, as is random seeking and everything that
	 the gui can (and will) be capable of.
Cons: 	Requires building with mplayer (however no part of the mplayer source
	 will need to be changed as it simply uses the existing gui hooks.)
	I can't see (yet?) how to redirect the output messages (eg caching,
	connecting) to the gui.

[ A third possibilty, that of mplayer and the plugin interface being built
 together would be too bulky and have problems with multiple
 instanciation if multiple plugin windows are opened. ]

I have prototype versions of both techniques that i am fiddling with, so 
both ways seem to be quite practical. I have currently got the to work on
cnn.com and xtra.co.nz - and but for the aforementioned asx issue
atomfilms.shockwave.com

What other sites are people interested in watching that i should test?

Of course, with crossover supporting windows media player, it's all a
bit less exciting, isn't it?

Andrew






On Wed, 27 Feb 2002 12:30:47 +0100
Alex Beregszaszi <alex at naxine.org> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> <20020227130754.5dbcd546.a.docherty at student.unsw.edu.au>; from a.docherty at student.unsw.edu.au on Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 01:07:54PM +1300
> > After having a look at the options, plugger (which i could never get to work
> > with mozilla) and mozstreamer which I could never compile, I would like
> > to see the following in an mplayer plugin:
> > 
> > * ability to play embedded media player files (asx asf)
> > 	(as mplayer does this already it only requires passing
> > 	the correct window and src info to mplayer)
> > * minimal gui components, initially play, pause, stop and a progress
> >  	bar.
> Yes, very nice, i think mozzila should provide api for this?
> 
> > * XPCOM components to enable script interaction with the plugin
> > 	(compatible with media player)
> What's that?
> 
> > * Interactive stream download (ala quicktime) so the stream can be
> > 	progressivly saved and replayed.
> Needed!
> 
> > 
> > I plan to do use the existing gui implementation get embedded and
> > mplayer output and minimal buttons running. The other points can
> > wait for that to be acheived.
> 
> This looks very nice. You know, this should be implemented in the mozzila
> plugin, not in mplayer - you need to call mplayer as external program with
> -slave switch.
> 
> -
> alex
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