light .exe-player for autostart VCD out there?

[michael28]

I know it is possible to do autostart on PC with the help of WM-Player. But is there something available which is very light and just an exe-file to start (without a need to install a player first).

If so, it would help a lot to create autostart VCD with it. Especially if it is freeware.

I guess I saw some SVCD-Player out. If I find it again, I will let you know.

So any ideas or links ???


Keep on rockin'

Michael

[michael28]

As I did not get any answer yet, I have already found a player called Roxio Videodisc-Player. I guess I comes out with Roxio WInonCD software.

It's not bad, as it is just a pretty small player (ca. 500 kb) an no installation is needed.

But as far as I have tested it, it can't handle menus, where you can select a chapter pressing 1-9 ...

Any other ideas or is there a version which can handle this???

Michael

[Cornucopia]

The Roxio/Adaptec/Cequadrat VCD player CAN do menus. Just make sure you have the disc authored correctly and that you have a recent version of the player software.

If you want more info on Autostart and VCDPlayers, look at some of my past posts.

Scott

[michael28]

I used the demo VCD, which I got from the DVDRHelp website. So I guess it is authored correctly. But maybe I have an old version of the player. Do you know where I can get a newer version?

I have been visiting www.roxio.com recently but could not find a player download...

I gonna check your recent posts about autostart now.

Best regards,

Michael

[michael28]

Hi Scott,

I have been reading almost all of your post about autostart.

You have a realy good post there, which contains a pretty good expaination.

Your are not recommending the Roxio player as it has several bug, right?
So making an autostart VCD should be possible, but what would be useful are menus and no WMP is able to do this.

How about autostarting a flash.exe App. , doing the menu there???

Of course you need to "embed" a Media-Player to play the *.dat file but this should work...

Michael

[Cornucopia]

Most of the bugs I mentioned in Roxio player seemed in the final analysis to be more due to incorrect MPEG Still encoding using an earlier version of MJPEGTools (part of VCDEasy). This has since been corrected. If you DL and use the newest VCDEasy, I think all should be well.

I much prefer a unified VCD 2.0 compliant player, if possible. Smoother, more consistent user experience--especially for some of the grannies and corp. exec noobies I end up giving my stuff to.

WMP (and friends) are useful when you want to integrate video playback with other computer file/web functions. That or have a totally ZERO footprint CD.

If you want to do Flash, it should work, but your menus will have to be realized within Flash. This could be a good thing, however, since it could allow you to do more things than possible within the VCD spec--such as fancy previews and rollovers.

I have a couple of posts that deal with the topic, not all is encompassed within just one post, sorry.
Gee, I guess it's about time I make a guide for this. Maybe in a month after I've moved.

Glück,

Scott

Let us know how it works...

[JamesB69]

Its not really light, but WinDVD Platinum plays VCD 2.0 Discs, DVD's, Divx, Audio CD's. WinDVD Recorder does all of the above and allows you to view/capture from TV tuner/capture card.

Also, you can get ahold of ATI Multimedia Center which has a VCD player in it.

[Cornucopia]

Yes, those work, but I don't believe you can include them on disc for a self-contained, low footprint, autorunning CD.
They would have to be pre-installed on users' HD 1st, or go through an installing routine. Also, I would guess that they user a greater amount of of system resources than something like the Roxio VCD player.

Scott

[michael28]

Hi Scott,

thanks a lot for your help!!!

So I guess I end up with to options:

- using the roxio player for an autostart VCD on the PC

- creating a flash based exe-application, which contains a manu (maybe better than regular VCD-Menus) and then "embed" WMP to let play the different VCD chapters


I am going to try out the flash option. I don't know yet, if this could also work on a mac, programming a routine which checks if WMP is available. If not switches to Quicktime...

I will let you know you it works - it should be possible to find a way to solve this problem. This would help a lot to give VCDs a better chance on the market.

Michael