Discussion:
Media player with crossfading effect.
Raseel Bhagat
2009-05-14 12:07:44 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

I am looking for a media player with a crossfading effect, so that the
transition between two files is smooth.

What I have observed is, when the media player switches from one video to
another, it pauses, switches and then runs.

Since this transition is not as noticeable with Audio files, I am looking
for it only in the video files.

Basically, I want to keep on playing videos without EVER having to see the
desktop.

I have tried googling and reading about it for VLC and Mplayer but did not
come across any such option.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Raseel.
http://raseel.in
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David Fox
2009-05-15 04:12:39 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raseel Bhagat
I have tried googling and reading about it for VLC and Mplayer but did not
come across any such option.
Audio crossfading is available in amarok, but I don't know of anything
on Linux that would support video crossfading. Seems that it would be
difficult to implement, but the best candidate is mplayer if they are
open to wishlist bugs upstream.
--
thanks for letting me change the magnetic patterns on your hard disk.
Raseel Bhagat
2009-05-15 04:21:32 UTC
Permalink
Post by David Fox
Post by Raseel Bhagat
I have tried googling and reading about it for VLC and Mplayer but did
not
Post by Raseel Bhagat
come across any such option.
Audio crossfading is available in amarok, but I don't know of anything
on Linux that would support video crossfading. Seems that it would be
difficult to implement, but the best candidate is mplayer if they are
open to wishlist bugs upstream.
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to prevent the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?

By glitch I mean is the complete stopping of the screen displaying the video
to reveal the Desktop and the VLC control panel for a complete second or so,
and THEN the new video file starting . And all this, even when in
Full-screen mode.

I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.

Thanks,
Raseel
http://raseel.in
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Carl Friis-Hansen
2009-05-15 06:04:20 UTC
Permalink
Raseel Bhagat wrote:
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to prevent the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>

I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
--
---------=oOOo=---------
Carl Friis-Hansen
http://carl-fh.com/
Phone: +46 372 15033
---------=oOOo=---------
Raseel Bhagat
2009-05-15 06:16:26 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Carl Friis-Hansen
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to prevent the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>
I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
Huh ? I'm sorry, I didn't get that.
What do you mean by "supply a video feed from your individual video files" ?
Could you please elaborate.

Thanks,
Raseel
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Carl Friis-Hansen
2009-05-15 06:27:52 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raseel Bhagat
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Carl Friis-Hansen
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to
prevent
Post by Raseel Bhagat
the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning
from
Post by Raseel Bhagat
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>
I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
Huh ? I'm sorry, I didn't get that.
What do you mean by "supply a video feed from your individual video files" ?
Could you please elaborate.
Something like:
--------------------
loop until user stop
fileX | stream
vlc stream
--------------------

The fileX could be supplied from a file containing all the video file
names in the sequence you prefer.

I am not really the one to explain this, I do not know if it is possible
and it is more like an idea to someone on the list being more capable of
evaluating this. Have patience Raseel, someone might just figure it out.
--
+---------------------------------+-------------------+
| Carl Friis-Hansen | Fiskeryd Nybygget |
| http://computingconfidence.com/ | 341 91 Ljungby |
| Phone: +46 (0)372 15033 | Sweden |
+---------------------------------+-------------------+
anthony baldwin
2009-05-15 13:22:24 UTC
Permalink
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to prevent the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>
I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
That wouldn't be too hard.

cd /dir/full/of/video/files

find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -loop 0

I use a similar script to loop audio files.

cd /dir/fulla/tunes
find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -shuffle -loop 0

just added shuffle in there for that one.

/tony
--
http://www.photodharma.com
art & photos | tony baldwin

http://www.uuchaliceart.com
Unitarian Universalist art.
Carl Friis-Hansen
2009-05-15 14:04:27 UTC
Permalink
Post by anthony baldwin
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to
prevent
the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>
I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
That wouldn't be too hard.
cd /dir/full/of/video/files
find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -loop 0
I use a similar script to loop audio files.
cd /dir/fulla/tunes
find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -shuffle -loop 0
just added shuffle in there for that one.
Nice, but what you do here is supplying mplayer with a sequence of files
and according to the OP this will cause interruption and visibility of the
desktop. What I mean is that mplayer should be fed from a "live" stream
and this live stream in turn from a play list of files. This way mplayer
might refrain from close-down / open-up procedure and in turn not show the
desktop.
--
---------=oOOo=---------
Carl Friis-Hansen
http://carl-fh.com/
Phone: +46 372 15033
---------=oOOo=---------
anthony baldwin
2009-05-15 15:10:04 UTC
Permalink
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
Post by anthony baldwin
Post by Carl Friis-Hansen
<snip>
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hmm.. Ok, even if crossfading is not possibl, is there a way to
prevent
the
glitches one sees when players like vlc or mplayer are transitioning from
one media file (video) to another ?
I just want to prevent this. I don't care if I am staring at a blank screen
for a second, as long as the screen does not STOP.
</snip>
I had a stupid thought: What if you continuously supply a video feed from
your individual video files. Then *any* video player would do. How to
pipe this video feed is beyond me, I think, but I am sure you or somebody
else on list can do it.
That wouldn't be too hard.
cd /dir/full/of/video/files
find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -loop 0
I use a similar script to loop audio files.
cd /dir/fulla/tunes
find . -type f | mplayer -playlist - -shuffle -loop 0
just added shuffle in there for that one.
Nice, but what you do here is supplying mplayer with a sequence of files
and according to the OP this will cause interruption and visibility of the
desktop. What I mean is that mplayer should be fed from a "live" stream
and this live stream in turn from a play list of files. This way mplayer
might refrain from close-down / open-up procedure and in turn not show the
desktop.
I'm a little confused by that...
But, hey, speaking of desktop and video...
once I found this cool script that allowed me to use a video for my
background...
that was co0l.
I think I used it in fluxbox...yeah...

or..wait...no, I had some perl (or was it python?) script that allowed
me to alternate wallpapers in fluxbox in a determined interval, from a
dir fullo images...it wasn't a video.
I bet I could make that work in openbox or dwm, too.
but I think I had found another script or something that allowed me to
use a dir fullo videos for my screensaver...yeah...
Anyway, I'm rambling now, and not helping solve this issue at hand here.

/tony
--
http://www.photodharma.com
art & photos | tony baldwin

http://www.uuchaliceart.com
Unitarian Universalist art.
NoOp
2009-05-15 16:12:49 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hi,
I am looking for a media player with a crossfading effect, so that the
transition between two files is smooth.
What I have observed is, when the media player switches from one video to
another, it pauses, switches and then runs.
Since this transition is not as noticeable with Audio files, I am looking
for it only in the video files.
Basically, I want to keep on playing videos without EVER having to see the
desktop.
I have tried googling and reading about it for VLC and Mplayer but did not
come across any such option.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Raseel.
http://raseel.in
Try smplayer (front-end for mplayer):
http://smplayer.berlios.de/

$ apt-cache policy smplayer
smplayer:
Installed: 0.6.6-0ubuntu1
Candidate: 0.6.6-0ubuntu1
Version table:
*** 0.6.6-0ubuntu1 0
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Perhaps the enqueue feature will meet your needs.

For VLC, try:
http://www.videolan.org/support/
Raseel Bhagat
2009-05-15 19:10:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by NoOp
http://smplayer.berlios.de/
Thanks a LOT NoOp.

Smplayer seems to be EXACTLY what I've been looking for.

Thanks,
Raseel.
http://raseel.in
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NoOp
2009-05-15 21:28:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Post by NoOp
http://smplayer.berlios.de/
Thanks a LOT NoOp.
Smplayer seems to be EXACTLY what I've been looking for.
Thanks,
Raseel.
http://raseel.in
Cool, glad it works. Now you might want to use updated mplayer and
smplayer packages by using the RVM PPA (Personal Package Archive):

http://smplayer.berlios.de/forums/index.php?tr_lang=en
http://smplayer.berlios.de/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1139

https://launchpad.net/~rvm/+archive/smplayer
https://launchpad.net/~rvm/+archive/mplayer

Make sure to install the keys as provided in the descriptions for both.
Onkar Shinde
2009-05-15 05:33:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Raseel Bhagat
Hi,
I am looking for a media player with a crossfading effect, so that the
transition between two files is smooth.
What I have observed is, when the media player switches from one video to
another, it pauses, switches and then runs.
Since this transition is not as noticeable with Audio files, I am looking
for it only in the video files.
Basically, I want to keep on playing videos without EVER having to see the
desktop.
I have tried googling and reading about it for VLC and Mplayer but did not
come across any such option.
Any help would be appreciated.
If VLC has it then it must be in advanced options.

For audio I use rhythmbox and it's crossfading feature works well.


Onkar

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