KinoAMP User Guide

An MPEG Movie player

v0.27   10^th April 2003

This version of the Kino MPEG movie player uses the AMPlayer module to decode and play the soundtrack. Once the !KinoAMP application has been 'seen' by the filer, double click Select on an MPEG file to start the player. The file must be filetyped BF8 (MPEG). To view or change playing options, launch the !KinoAMP application. It is not necessary to have the Setup Tool running to use the player.

The player is based on Kino v0.3 from eQ R&D but is self-contained and does not require the original in order to work.

Contents

• Controls
• Multitasking
• Control Panel
• Options Setup
• Requirements
• Supported Formats
• Installation
• Technical Description
• Command Line Options
• Known Problems
• Credits

Controls:

Left Mouse Button or Return key:

Pause/Resume.

Centre Mouse Button or Q or Escape:

Exit.

Right Mouse Button or Space Bar:

Frame advance, whilst paused. All frames are displayed when single stepping. This means that the sound may become slightly out of sync with the vision if many frames are stepped through.

Number keys 0..9:

Audio channel select, see the Audio channel setup option.

S:

Whilst paused, save the current frame as a sprite file, <KinoSave$Dir>.frameXXXXX where XXXXX is the frame number. This is a screen dump of the picture area, which means; The sprite will have the same magnification (zoom setting) and colour depth as the display. If the picture does not fit completely on the screen, only the visible part will be saved.
When multitasking, the above rules do not apply and the sprite is always 100% magnification. If saving from the player menu, the filename is created from the frame number when the menu was opened. The sprite name is created from the frame number when the sprite is actually saved. These two will be different if the player was not paused before the menu was opened.

KinoSave$Dir is set to "<Kino$Dir>.saved" in the !Boot file.

note. The frame number is the number of displayed frames since starting or restarting. It is not reset or recalculated after rewind or fast forward.

+,- (plus and minus):

Adjusts the audio volume.

Cursor keys:

Whilst paused, the UP and DOWN keys cycle through the following controls,

Brightness, Contrast, Colour, Volume

The LEFT and RIGHT keys adjust the value of the control.

An On Screen display is provided with the default value indicated. The player starts with the default settings.

When not paused, the LEFT and RIGHT keys perform Rewind and Fast Forward functions by jumping 5% of the file length. For small files the positioning can be very approximate.
There is a delay after repositioning before the video playback starts. This is because although the sound can start immediately, the video must wait until the next 'key' frame is encountered.

Z:

Increase Zoom setting.

X:

Decrease Zoom setting.

R:

Restart the film.

L:

Switches on and off continuous looping or repeating of the film.

A:

Switches on and off auto exit. This has no effect if looping is selected.

M:

Mutes and restores the audio.

F3:

Saves the current choices. When the player is multitasking, the choices window will be updated if it is open. When not multitasking, to update the choices window after the player has finished use the reload option from the Icon bar menu.

Multitasking:

Dragging an MPEG file to the player window will stop the current playback and start the new file playing.

A Drawfile banner (<Kino$Dir>.Banner) will be displayed for 1 second before the film starts. If there is no file, this is skipped.

Control Panel:

Play:

Resume normal playback.

Step:

Single frame advance.

Pause:

Stop playback at the current location.

Stop:

Stop playback and restart the film.

Rewind:

Go back 5% of the file length.

Fast forward:

Go forwards 5% of the file length.

Mute:

Mute/restore audio.

For small files the Fast forward and Rewind positioning can be very approximate and clicking to new position using the timeline can be more accurate.
There is a delay after repositioning before the video playback starts. This is because although the sound can start immediately, the video must wait until the next 'key' frame is encountered.

Player Menu:

File Info:

Opens a window containing information on the currently playing file. If the window is already open this will update it. The information is similar to that obtained from the Icon bar menu but is the currently playing file and not the last played file.

Zoom:

Select the zoom setting, as 'Z' and 'X'.

Lock aspect:

When locked, the aspect ratio of the display is kept the same as the original picture. When unlocked, the adjust size icon can be used to adjust the x and y scale factors independently.

Lock size:

When locked, the picture size always just fills the window. When unlocked, the picture is allowed to be larger but not smaller than the window.

Pause:

Pause/Resume.

Restart:

Restarts the film.

Loop:

Switches on and off continuous looping or repeating of the film.

Auto exit:

Switches on and off auto exit. This has no effect if looping is selected.

Mute audio:

Mutes and restores the audio.

Controls:

Opens and closes the control panel.

Save choices:

Saves the current choices. See the notes for key F3.

Save frame:

Similar to 'S', but being a normal dialogue box, this allows the frame to be saved by dragging, and the name to be changed. The path defaults to the 'saved' directory. Once a path is provided, by dragging or typing, it will be remembered for the duration of the currently playing file.

Options Setup:

Audio Options:

Play Soundtrack:

Enables the soundtrack.

Save Soundtrack:

Saves the soundtrack as an Audio MPEG file, <KinoSave$Dir>.Soundtrack

Re-synchronize:

This will attempt to re-synchronize the audio if it gets out of step. It can be disabled if adjustments are made too often and become noticeable.

Audio Channel:

Select the audio channel to play. This is only of use with clips that contain more than 1 audio channel. e.g. 2 languages. Most clips only contain channel 0.

Video Options:

Screen Mode:

These options select between using the desktop and a full screen mode.

Desktop:

Use the desktop for display.

Auto:

A full screen mode is automatically selected to give the largest display with as many colours as possible. Only modes with an aspect ratio between 6:5 and 3:2 are used. Zoom is fixed at 100% when the player starts, but can be altered whilst playing.

Colours:

When Auto mode is selected, the maximum colour depth can be specified using the Colours menu. This is a separate colour depth setting from the Manual setting.

Resolution:

When Auto mode is selected, the minimum screen size can be specified using the Resolutions menu. This is a separate resolution from the Manual setting.

Manual:

Manually select a screen mode for display with the following Colours and Resolution.

Colours:

Select the colour depth for full screen operation. Some combinations of colour/resolution may not be possible.
'16 million' provides the highest quality but is slowest.
'32 thousand' provides reasonable quality and speed.
'256 colours' provides lower quality but is fastest.

Resolution:

Select the screen x,y resolution for full screen operation. The available screen resolutions will vary between machines. The visible aspect ratio of the picture may not be correct with non-square pixel modes. A resolution of 480 x 352 will suit most MPEG 1 clips.

Zoom:

Picture magnification. Options are 50% 100% 200% 300% 400% The higher the magnification, the slower the player and more frames may be skipped to keep time. There are separate settings for Desktop and Manual modes. For Auto screen mode, zoom is always started at 100%, but can be altered whilst playing.

All Frames:

The player will drop or skip frames if it is running late. This option forces it to display all frames ignoring timing constraints. The sound may break up if not disabled.

Monochrome:

This uses optimised greyscale drivers to display the video. These drivers do not support Brightness, Contrast and Colour control.

Dither:

Enables dithering on 256 and 32 thousand colour modes. This improves the display by increasing the number of perceived colours.

Desktop Options:

Multitask:

Selects desktop multitasking operation.

Lock aspect ratio:

When multitasking, the height and width can be adjusted independently. Setting this option keeps the aspect ratio the same as the original picture.

Lock size to window:

When multitasking, this option makes the picture always just fill the window. When not set, the picture is allowed to be larger but not smaller than the window.

Control Panel:

When selected, the player will start with the control panel open when multitasking.

Skin:

Select the control panel skin from those available.

General Options:

Auto exit:

When selected, the player will exit when the file has finished. When not selected, the player will stop at the end of the film. Play will resume from the begining. If the player is set to continuously loop, the auto exit option has no effect. When the player stops at the end of the film, the positioning controls, fast forward, rewind, and time bar will not work until play has resumed from the begining again.

Continuous loop:

When selected, the film will restart when finished.

Iconbar Menu:

Choices:

Opens the configuration window. This has the same effect as clicking Select on the Iconbar Icon.

Saved:

This opens the directory where sprites and soundtracks are saved. Clicking Adjust on the Iconbar Icon has the same effect.

File Info:

Opens a window containing information on the last file played. If the window is already open this will update it. Information is only available after a file has been played.

Reload:

Selecting this will reload the Choices file and update the current options. It resets the options to the last save or 'OK'. Avoids having to quit and re-run if the Choices file has been edited by hand. e.g. when changing debug options.

Help:

Opens this file.

Requirements:

Supported formats:

• MPEG 1/2 video stream on channel 0.
• Any MPEG audio stream that AMPlayer can cope with on channels 0 to 9.

The Video decoder is libmpeg2. It should be able to decode all MPEG video streams that conform to certain restrictions : "constrained parameters" for MPEG 1, and "main profile" for MPEG 2.

Installation:

If you want to keep the old one, rename it first or hide it away, so it isn't 'seen' by the filer.

To make sure the new version runs properly, either reboot the machine or go inside the new version (shift double click Select) and double click Select on the !Boot file to force the filer to 'see' the new version.

Technical:

The line "debug options = " cannot be edited via the setup window. It has to be added manually and should contain any options that are not handled by the desktop setup program, including text output redirection if required. This string is appended to the command line so any redirection must come last.

e.g.
   debug options = -d17
   debug options = -d62 2><Kino$Dir>.log
   debug options = -sp
etc.

Command line Options:

-@XX,YY

In desktop mode, define the bottom left co-ordinates of the display in pixels relative to the bottom left of the screen. Adjustments will be made to make the picture fit completely on the screen. Without this switch, the default is a centered display. Both parameters must be given. i.e. -@400,300

-a

Save the soundtrack as the AMPEG file, <kinoSave$dir>.SoundTrack The default is not to save the soundtrack.

-bBB,CC,CC

Set the initial values for Brightness, Contrast, Colour. These have default values of 100 and can be set between 0 and 200. All 3 values must be given. i.e. -b100,66,120

-cN

Play audio channel N. where N is a number between 0 and 9. This is only of use with clips that contain more than 1 audio channel. e.g. 2 languages. The default is channel 0.

-dN

Debug level N. This defaults to 0 (no debug). Obtain combinations by adding up the values (in decimal). The number can be entered in hexadecimal if preferred. i.e. -d0x7e

Bit	Value	Function
0	1	display all frames (ignore timing constraints)
1	2	print demux time stamps.
2	4	print audio buffer stats.
3	8	print picture header stats.
4	16	print end of file summary.
5	32	print non fatal errors and some extra info.
6	64	print frame draw stats.
7	128	print seek stats.

The Debug options are used for testing and can produce a lot of output to the screen. If you're into this sort of thing, redirect output to a file. e.g. -d62 2><kino$dir>.log To just display the end of file timing stats on the screen use, -d16

-f[choices file]

Read options from [choices file]. eg. -f<Kino$Dir>.Choices

-l

Desktop multitasking options.

-la	Lock the aspect ratio. The default is unlocked.
-ls	Lock the size to the window. The default is unlocked.

-m

Select the monochrome video drivers. These are slightly faster than the colour drivers and will also be selected whilst playing if the colour is turned right down and contrast and brightness are kept at their default values.

-r

Audio sync control. This will attempt to re-synchronize the audio if it gets out of step. It is an option because it can make matters worse if adjustments are made too often.

-s

Select stream type. By default, the file is checked for being either an Elementary Video stream or a Program stream and the demultiplexer is selected as required. This option overrides the check and is only necessary if the file check fails.

-se	Assume video stream.
-sp	Assume program stream.

-v

Video only, the default is to play the audio. note. The combination -a -v is allowed and will not play the audio track but will save it to file.

-w

Enables desktop multitasking, the default is to singletask.

-xa

Automatically select the full screen mode to give the largest display with as many colours as possible. Only modes with an aspect ratio between 6:5 and 3:2 are used. This option forces Zoom to start at 100%. The maximum colour depth can be specified following the -xa option. i.e. -xa32k or -xa256. The default is 16m which will be used if -xa is used without a colour modifier.

-xNNNyNNNcNNN

Select the screen display mode. By default the player uses the desktop. For 'Full Screen' or 'Big Mode' operation, specify the mode to use. e.g. -x480y352c16m

Supports 256, 32k and 16m colour modes. It can only use modes that are defined in your machine.

-z

Picture Zoom control.

-z05	50% magnification.
-z2 or -z	200% magnification.
-z3	300% magnification.
-z4	400% magnification.

Without this switch the magnification is 100%, actual size. This switch has no effect when -xa is specified and in this case the magnification will always start at 100%.

--nodither

Disable dithering for 256 and 32k colour modes. The default is to enable dithering.

--loop

Continuously loop or repeat the film. The default is to not repeat.

--ctrl

When multitasking, display the control panel. The default is not to display it.

--skin,[skin directory]

Defines the control panel used when multitasking. e.g. --skin,Black
The actual location is <Kino$Dir>.skins.[skin directory]
The default is to use the Black skin.

--volNN

Sets the starting volume to NN, from 0 to 127. The default is to use the current AMPlayer setting.

--noexit

Stops the player from exiting at the end of a film. The default is to exit.

Known Problems:

Credits: