Totally confused about avi/divx/mpg playback

[halljb]

Sorry if this is a simple question, but I've spent quite awhile searching for the answer and come up empty.

I'm trying to get avi files to playback from the movies section. I'm using Zoomplayer 3.0 as my player. The settings page has the path to zplayer.exe correctly, and it works great for ripped dvds. My media is on a separate computer, so it's using UNC names (\\blahblah\blah) to access them.

DVDs play no problem in zoom player, but if I try to play an AVI, zoomplayer launches and I get a blank screen. I can use the zoomplayer menus to then open an avi and play it.

What am I missing? I found several posts mentioning having something in the "command line options" field. DVDs work fine with nothing in there, but I tried something from a post I found (something like: /F "%Files|" "/queue:|||" ) and it did the same thing.

What are all of those pipes etc? I can just type zplayer.exe \\blah\blah.avi on a command line and it works like a champ. Is there some guide available that mentions what these parameters are and what they do?

Please help! Thanks.
Brian

[bonarez]

I have my files on a seperate pc too, but I use 'map network drive' so my files are accesible as k:\video3\ instead of \\nebiosname\video3

the way commands get send by xlobby is about to change with the new xlobby, so I'm not getting into those commands just yet

[halljb]

I tried mapping a network drive, and that didn't help. What does xlobby pass to zplayer on the command line?

What are the available options to put in the parameters field?

[halljb]

It appears that xlobby is passing zoomplayer a "z:" on the command line regardless of it being an online dvd or a video file. Does anyone have this working?

Please help!

[bonarez]

you're not the only one trying this method, I have tried figuring out this myself, and never got it to work
what does work is following method.

start up xlobby
go to the setup screen (press F2)
go to dvd
add the path where the movies are (make sure every movie has his own folder within that path)
press 'load dvd's'
at the bottom of the screen you should see ## dvd's loaded (or somethin like it)
the movies will be loaded within movies.xml in the database tab, where you can edit and/or load info/stills/coverart

don't waste too much time on figuring out the correct command parameters because a new release will be out very soon and command parameters handling will be changed totaly.

hope it helps

[halljb]

I have online DVDs working fine, just not standalone AVIs. Are you saying that nobody currently has AVI files working in the movies screen with zoomplayer?

Argh!

[bonarez]

all my avi's are in folders as I discribed, and I load them as online dvd's

the movies screen shows al movies, weather avi or mpeg

[halljb]

all my avi's are in folders as I discribed, and I load them as online dvd's

the movies screen shows al movies, weather avi or mpeg

That's exactly how I have my setup configured, and why I'm so frustrated. It reads in the dvds, and avis just fine. Covers, etc. are all present. When I click on 'play' for one of the avi titles, zoomplayer is launched and I'm greeted with a black screen. Nothing.

I can then load the movie from the zoomplayer menus just fine, but it never plays by itself. Online DVDs play just fine from xlobby though.

So I'm still confused. Do you have anything in the "command line parameters" box in the DVD setup screen, or are you just pointing to the zplayer.exe and no parameters?

Thanks for the help.

[Twit]

All my movies are avi's and they play no problem.

My parameter is - /F "%Files|" "/queue:|||%" with no spaces on either side.

[halljb]

All my movies are avi's and they play no problem.

My parameter is - /F "%Files|" "/queue:|||%" with no spaces on either side.

Thanks for posting your config. Unfortunately, that didn't help me either. I placed your parameter string in the "command line parameters" box on the DVD config screen and it resulted in the same black screen when launching zoom player.

It appears xlobby is using different command lines for directory strings that end in video_ts. When I launch an online dvd, zoomplayer first shows up in dvd mode in a small window and then fullscreens itself and plays. When launching an AVI, zoomplayer just starts out fullscreen and in media mode, but does nothing else.

So at the moment, my DVD configuration is pointing to the zplayer.exe file, and command line options are /F "%Files|" "/queue:|||%".

My avi files are broken into subdirectories like this: \\office\video\jimmyneutron\jimmyneutron.avi.

In the movies DB edit mode, the parameter string displayed is "\\OFFICE\VIDEO\JIMMYNEUTRON\JIMMYNEUTRON.AVI".

Does all of this sound correct? The one thing I haven't tried is putting the avi files in another subdirectory called "video_ts". That is my next move I guess.

Brian

[halljb]

I have now upgraded to the experimental release 5, and STILL have the same problem. I thought there were big changes in how programs were launched?

Can somebody please help me out here. Ripped DVD works fine, but AVI just sits on a blank screen. What, if any, parameters are required in the "command line" section of the zoom player config?

Thanks!
Brian

[noviceboy]

Do you load your AVIs imported into the defaultt movie DB or create a new one.? I recommend a new one. with it#s own Screen/category.


Zp plays my AVI,MPG or whatever from xlobby okay with or without command line parameters.

[halljb]

Well, I finally figured it out! Apparently the version of zoom player matters _a lot_. I was using zoom player 3.0. Online DVDs launched from xlobby worked great. AVIs launched from xlobby just gave me a blank screen.

My database was setup correctly with one avi per folder etc. just like the instructions. Still didn't work.

The solution is to use Zoom Player (professional) 3.2. As soon as I changed the version of zoom, it worked fine. This is without any parameters specified in the command line params box too.

I also tried 3.3, but that does NOT work. It launches the AVI fine, but then xlobby takes over the screen again. I've seen this problem documented elsewhere. This does not happen with the 3.2 version.

So, long story short, you have to use zoomplayer 3.2 if you want to launch AVIs from xlobby.

This begs the question, what in hades is xlobby doing on the zoom command line?? Zoomplayer 3.0 works just fine if you put the name of the file on the command line after zplayer.exe. No fancy params required. This should not be hard.

Does anyone have any idea what xlobby is really putting on the command line for zoomplayer?

Brian

[Twit]

Brian,

I have always used zoom - ver 3 then 3.2 then 3.3.

All of them have always played avi's for me.

All of them (including 3.2) have not stayed in the foreground - x pops in front.

I use girder to trigger a zoomplayer to front keystroke 8 seconds after launching a movie.

I did notice if zoom gets a bad command line (ie avi does not exist) then it stays in front (black screen).

Glad you got it sorted.

Simon.

[halljb]

Bizarre. I didn't change anything besides the zoom version.

3.0 definitely does not work for avi, and xlobby definitely does not pop in front of zoom (for me). I can change to 3.2, and avi works great, and xlobby does not pop in front of zoom. I can change to 3.3, and avi works, but the pop in front prob happens.

I can point to the different versions of zoom (installed in different dirs) without changing anything else, and reproduce these results.

Oh well, it works now. I still wonder why it behaves this way though.

Brian