[Mplayer-users] GUI

[mgraffam at idsi.net]

On Mon, 23 Apr 2001 rodolfo.borges at mail.com wrote:

> Erlend Steinsvik wrote:
> > 
> > How about making a nice and simple GUI ? If I knew GTK programming, I'd
> > do it myself. But I don't :)
> > 
> > Erlend Steinsvik - erlend at steinsvik.com
> 
> i much prefer to define a stdio text interface to control mplayer,
> just like mpg123 -R. so anyone can create a front end easely.

This exact approach will work for Mplayer in all scenarios. 

Consider what would happen if you wanted a voice-activated control for
mpg123. Your front-end opens /dev/dsp to sample the voice, and launches
mpg123 to play the mp3. But, unless you have a full-duplex soundcard
you can't do this. 

Now, consider someone that is using Mplayer and TV output. The movie
is playing on the TV, so what resource do you use for GUI interaction
then? 

The sort of front-end control that you ask for is nice: but it requires
some flexibility with resources that we may not have.

A built-in OSD (on screen display) in Mplayer would allow us to display
messages to the user regardless of our output driver or configuration.

What I suggest is a synthesis of the two ideas:

Have commands be given to Mplayer via stdin to do stuff like fast-forward,
rewind, etc. Also have a command that will overlay a text message on the
Mplayer video output. 

This will allow the front-end program to control Mplayer, and give 
messages to the user directly through the movie video if need be, it
could get commands from the user via the keyboard, an IR remote, or
whatever. Some other front-end could open an X11 window using Gtk widgets
to display and get information from the user. 

This allows the flexibility of a generic front-end interface written with
Tcl/Tk, C & Qt, or whatever. Along with the (rather awesome) ability for
OSD in situations where Mplayer will own the only video output device.

-- 
Michael Graffam (mgraffam at idsi.net)
The importance of a suburban struggle has usually been underestimated;
it is really very great. - Che Guevara (Guerilla Warfare, "Suburban Warfare")


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