[vlc-devel] Various issues with extended gui, video filter, transcode fps, PTS (late data), fast forward, hotkeys...

[Dennis van Amerongen]

Hi VLC developers,

Thanks for the outstanding support and a very versatile media
application :)

I've collected a list of some vlc issues which are reproducable on XP
SP2 with the current 20050426-svn version. Lots of these issues have
already been discussed on the #videolan irc channel (hotkey, late data,
etc.) or are known issues (and perhaps on hold for a while) but
nevertheless I thought I'd share them all again so they wouldn't go
unnoticed before another final release comes out...

1) Turning on Extended gui gives screen corruption
Start stream, settings, ext gui -> screen corruption, shows a part of
the ext gui in grey on TOP of the video. Depending on the resolution of
the stream it's better noticable. Changing to opengl doesn't help. The
problem is also noticable when pausing a stream, then turning on/off ext
gui. The workaround is to stop/start or minimize/maximize to "refresh"
the video window correctly. The problem doesn't seem to exist under
linux/wx2.5 :)

2) Pausing with Adjust image gives late picture skipped
Start stream, settings, ext gui, turn on View, Messages. Now turn on
Adjust image under video, pause stream, check Messages -> continuous
late picture skipped. This was reported to be a known issue.

3) Video filter status not properly updated
Start stream, ext gui, turn on adjust image, pause, select any of the
video filters example transformation -> video disappears. Deselect
transformation, click play -> it DOES give transformation. Select
transformation -> again it uses transformation.

4) Enable audio equalizer status/selection doesn't update properly
Start stream, settings, turn on ext gui, Audio, equalizer, full base ->
enable equalizer turns on. Disable equalizer with button (not from gui)
-> you hear equalizer is off. Audio, equalizer, rock -> you hear
equalizer turns on but the enable button doesn't turn on. Disable
equalizer from gui -> enable button doesn't turn off

The reset to defaults button imho should not be usable when equalizer is
disabled (not grayed out) same as under Video, Adjust image.

5) --sout-transcode-fps screws up timestamping (PTS) 
Using a transcode fps will give an extremely high value for a late
packet, this happens at least with mmsh/asfh and udp/ts. [00000277]
access_output_udp private debug: packet has been sent too late
(1154494394803). For udp/ts an additonal line sometimes comes up:
[00000275] access_output_udp private warning: putting two PCRs at once.
This problem with transcode fps even happens when transcoding to 25 fps
if source is 25 fps. So when source is 25 and target is 25 the option
--sout-transcode-fps 25 should not be speficied for proper usage! This
was reported to be a known issue in #videolan

6) Asf muxer doesn't support --meta tags
The asf muxer is unable to use meta tags in transcoding --meta-author,
--meta-description, etc.

7) Scroll/fast forward speed has rather large values
x1, x2, x4, x8, x16.13, x32.26, x66.67, x142.86, x333.33, x1000.00,
x1.#J. The way down for any value above 8x, it goes immediately down to
x4, x2, x1. (This also applies to slower than 1x). Perhaps the fast
back/forward motion could be limited to 3 or 4 steps max?

8) Directx warnings when minimizing
When minimizing a videofeed just before it starts (heh) the debug window
quickly fills up with these with an interval of probaly the frames per
second: vout_directx warning: could not blit surface (error
-2005532522). Press play, quickly minimize (preferably http streaming
which takes a while to set up), maximize and there's no video window. I
agree this is not your average day usage :)

9) PTS problem and late picture skipped when receiving late data
This is a known issue but is very much a problem for http streaming over
the net. VLC would need to be able to distinguish between late data
because of underrun versus CPU not being able to process data in time.

10) Hotkey only characters are "accepted" from keyboard
In the hotkey section it will only allow you to type characters, not
special function, you have to use those from dropdown. Which insert is
refered to here, KEYPAD_INS or the other INSERT? perhaps making this
clear from dropdown (or make them both assignable) is preferable

11) Hotkey changes need vlc to restart
Hotkey changes only seem to work "on-load" so after changing you need to
restart vlc in order to get them work (so having --reset-config in your
startup will surely cause frustration). Also the loading of the hotkey
menu in the gui is relatively slow.

12) Hotkey binding to multiple functions
It's possible to bind the same key to multiple functions (first one
works?). Can the gui block this and/or only show available keys?

13) VLC commandline output to file for windows (show all commands) is
broken
It's not possible to redirect all vlc commandline options into a text
file under windows since it opens an extra window.
But WIKI is here to help out:
http://wiki.videolan.org/index.php/VLC_command-line_help 

Regards

- D -

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