24 Bugs and Enhancements

[vladax]

Hi

I work as a software developer for one software company. Last few weeks I was trying to find the best media player. I think your Splash player has a great engine with great possibilities but it lacks some usability features and contains few bugs:

1) If you download a "the.big.bang.theory.s04e02.720p.hdtv.x264-ctu.mkv" file, you will find that the Motion2 feature ruins the quality of the movie in some cases. Look at the file bug1.zip to see an example from the 11th second of the movie:


This movie can be downloaded from oneddl.com.

2) Sometimes the Motion2 feature produces wrong deinterlacing. Please look at the file bug2.zip to see what I mean:


The video has been downloaded from this URL:
http://www.aktiv-verlag.com/~webvideos/ ... _P_50i.MTS

3) The feature to jump automatically to a nearest keyframe is mostly useful way to speed up time-jumps. But sometimes it is very uncomfortable. For example I prefer to jump using left and right arrow keys by a very small time interval - around 3 s. In case there is one keyframe every e.g. 10s, when I press the left arrow, the movie jumps always to the same keyframe even if I press the left arrow more times. To jump before the keyframe I have to press the left arrow very quickly. This makes me crazy. The best solution for time-jumps is to decide whether to jump to the nearest keyframe or to the exact frame by a simple rule in any case:
If there are more than e.g. 3 keyframes between my current position and the destination, then jump to the keyframe. Otherwise jump to the exact frame.

4) It would be nice to allow users to specify the exact time (in seconds) for time-jumps using arrow keys, Shift+arrow keys and Ctrl+arrow keys.

5) In case the movie is paused, it should not start playing when I press the left/right arrow or click to the timeline.

6) It would be nice to allow users to control the subtitle time-shift from keyboard (I suggest "," and "." keys from GOM player).

7) Every good media player refreshes the movie while dragging the mouse over the timeline with pressed mouse button. Why the Splash PRO updates the movie only after releasing the mouse button?

8) In case I disable the Loop feature, the movie should be paused at the last frame at the end of the playback.

9) The feature Automatically load subtitles should be enabled by default.

10) Click to the movie screen should work as a pause/play while the double click should still work as enable/disable fullscreen. The best implementation is in MPC: If you double-click to the movie which plays, the first click pauses the movie and the second click starts the movie in a fraction of the second while enabling/disabling the fullscreen mode.

11) It would be nice to allow users to drag the player window while dragging by the movie screen.

12) In case there is a CPU/GPU stressing movie, enabling the Motion2 feature may lead to frame drops which means very choppy playback. Therefore the Motion2 should be temporarily disabled every time there is a risk of frame drops. This bug has been observed at this movie:
http://download.tvfreak.cz/clanky/2010_ ... erier2.mts

13) The key "F" jumps to the next frame. But is there a key to jump to the previous frame?

14) Sometimes it is useful to be able to stretch and/or expand the movie. The best implementation is in MPC:
Numpad 1 = shrink
Numpad 9 = expand
Numpad 2 = shrink vertically
Numpad 8 = expand vertically
Numpad 4 = shrink horizontally
Numpad 6 = expand horizontally
Numpad 5 = reset zoom

15) You should improve handling with corrupted files. Some corrupted WMF files can crash the Splash PRO while loading.

16) If you open a movie in the movie player, its window size should be automatically resized to display the movie in 100% (1:1).

17) It would be nice to have more options to customize the rendering of subtitles. Shadow, outline, exact font size, position, spacing, margins, etc.

18) Subtitles rendered by MPC or GOM has better quality (higher resolution).

19) Pressing the ESC key in window mode should pause the playback and minimize the player (like in GOM).

20) There is no audio features like equalizer, pitch shifter etc.

21) There is no time-speed shifting feature. Sometimes it's useful to watch movies slower or faster than normal while retaining the audio pitch. IMHO there is a great possibility for your Motion2 feature in a slow-speed mode.

22) In GOM player, I often press space and enter keys simultaneously to enable fullscreen and start playback OR to disable fullscreen and pause playback. Both keys works in Splash PRO player but for an unknown reason, pressing both keys at once will only accept the first key.

23) The Splash PRO is unable to play the MPEG2 stream in a MXF file from the Canon XF 305 camcorder:
http://www.aktiv-verlag.com/~webvideos/ ... XF_305.MXF

24) Often, if I drop a new movie into the SplashPRO player, the movie is played smoothly but for the first seconds without audio and the player is unresponsive. After few seconds the players will start responding normally.


I hope you will find the list useful.

Vladax

My configuration:
Splash PRO 1.2.4.0 Pro (trial), Windows 7 x64, Intel Core2 DUO E8650, 2 GB RAM, nVidia GTX 275 with latest drivers, Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum

[Ghost]

Hi vladax, thank you for this great feedback. We have recieved it also on our e-mail address.
Ill be back here and will try to reply for all your posts.

[vladax]

Great. Sorry for the double post. I just wanted to be sure somebody will read it .

[latino]

I like option 6!

6) It would be nice to allow users to control the subtitle time-shift from keyboard (I suggest "," and "." keys from GOM player).

subtitles are often wrongly timed, and if you have to enter the menu each time to change the setting you have to return to the menu too much. Using the . and , key would be a big help!

[Storm]

2) M2 doesn't work for interlace vidoes. You need to disbale M2.

6,9,10,11) I like!

5) I preffer it the way it is now and would be mad if it stays paused.

8) IMHO stupid idea. It would look like something stuttered, stop state is much more natural action!
Strange idea really

16) It may be added only as an option. I hate it, vlc does this and it suxx! I want my windowed Splash to keep its position and size when changing files.

[rbr303]

Nice list Vladax! I like most of this but don't like 5 & 10.
And really don't like 8, this is something I would not expect from a video player.

[vladax]

Hi guys!

2) If the M2 does not work for interlaced videos, then it must be automatically disabled for them.

5) I have tried many video players - Windows, Linux or web versions. No one starts the playback after the click to a timeline when the movie was paused. Currently, it is not possible to pause the movie at the first frame which makes me mad when I want to show the loaded movie from the start to someone.

8) I agree that it is a question of personal preferences if the player should stay at the last frame or jump to the main screen when the movie is over. Therefore it should be possible to change this in preferences. The main point is the (un)ability to start the movie by clicking to a timeline when the movie is over. Sometimes you wish to repeat last few seconds of the movie and now it is uncomfortable when you must start the movie from the beginning first to jump to the last few seconds.

10) If you don't like 10 it's OK - but it should be possible to change this is preferences.

16) The player's-window-automatic-size-adjustment-feature is the question of personal preferences, again. But if the quality is the main concern of this player, it should adjust it's window to the movie size, which gives the best possible result.

[snouletz]

Another suggestion, if I may: an auto shutdown function, after the playlist is done. And the facility to shut down the player from main monitor when it plays on the second (attached) monitor. Thanks.
ok. The shut down from windows taskbar is not working if the player is in full screen on the attached monitor. I have xp sp3 and asus eah 3650 serries video card. Thanks again.

[Ghost]

Thank you vladax for this valuable feedback and thank you all for your comments.


1) We are still developing Motion2 and improving quality and performance, soon we are going to introduce a new version of Motion2.
2) Motion2 does not work with interlaced videos. Please disable Motion2 to watch interlaces video. We plan to add automatic Motion2

disbaling in the future but this is not as easy as it seems.
3) Thanks for feedback. We will try to improve this soon.
4) We try to avoid complicated settings. We consider adding some advanced settings view in the future
but now we try to keep it as simple as possible.
5) Most of commercial players resume playback. We consider an option for this in the future.
6) It will be added. Probably shift + ,/. as ,/. are reserved for rew and ffwd for AVCHD mode.
7) This is planned to be added in the future.
8) All commercial players both hardware and software go to a stop mode after finished playback.
This is a state expected by most users. We will analyze your arguments and will consider adding an option in the future.
10) Planned to be added.
11) Planned to be added.
12) THere is already a mechanism like you describe, it disables Motion2 when there is a risk of frame drops.
The file exterier2.mts is interlaced and should not be played with Motion2 enabled.
13) Not yet, planned to be added in the future.
14) We plan to add some more funtionality soon.
15) Will investigate this.
16) This may be added as an option.
17,18) We plan to keep improving our subtitles renderer.
20) Equalizer is planned for future versions, not PRO 1.x.x.
21) Planned to be added, but probably not in PRO 1.x.x.
22) Will check this.
23) MXF is not supported yet.
24) Does it happen with all video codecs?
25) Snouletz: THis is planned to be added (options after playback finished). At the moment you can close player from main screen using a

windows taskbar.

[proxious]

thanks for the heads up