Intro Video

[wcndave]

I created a little video (mp4) to play at front of MaLa loading.
Mala is set to fade in screen
Mala is set to auto load
i replaced bios and windows loading with my own screens

so it should go from cold to fully loaded without a hint of an OS 

However on startup the Mala intro video does not visualize (we can only hear the audio)
if i start it normally from within windows, it plays.

Also i noticed a flicker between video and actual screen, that shows the desktop for 200ms or so.  had to replace desktop with an image to mitigate, however you still notice it.

video not playing is bigger problem though.

There's not been dev on this for nearly 2 years, so I am not that hopeful, however wanted to put it out there as I just finished a great (IMHO) layout with Mala.

[Wade007]

Mmmmmm.... interesting problem you have there. I'm not sure what to say to correct it other than I know for a fact that Mala will play a video, full screen, with both video and sound before loading up the menu screen(s). I do it everyday with my Mala set up. I too replaced the Windows load up screens with static Jpegs that fit my theme.

I have collected and made several intro videos. All of them play just fine as intro videos. I've never heard of Mala having a problem with this before. The formats I've used successfully are .mp4, .mpg, .mov, and .avi.

A couple suggestions to double check:
Make sure the resolution of your video is not too high. Not higher than the resolution of your set Mala interface for sure. My videos are no bigger than 640x480. My longest/biggest video is only 16 mgs.

Make sure you configure the video to play as an intro in the Mala set-up tab correctly. There is only one section that states exactly that "Intro video" and then you point Mala to the file. Use that function an no other.

Try testing the intro video function with a DIFFERENT video that has been proven to work with other systems.
You can download the ones I made at the end of the post here:
http://www.cheapskategamer.com/pc_game_stories_and_news/building-an-arcade-emulation-cabinetpart-one-software/

You might also want to try the videos in the link below. They too will work in my experience:
http://www.cinemarcade.com/movies.html

Again, if you can get any of these videos to work, then you know there is something wrong with your created file. Wrong format, wrong size, wrong type of compression settings...something. If the proven videos don't work, then the problem is in your Mala configuration.

Also...if you'd like to see how my Mala frontend works with the intro movie see this YouTube video I made highlighting my cabinet:


Best of luck.

[wcndave]

Thanks, I will try your videos, thing is that when i close Mala and then open it, the video plays.  It's only on windows start up that it doesn't play.

Actually i get the sound and no video...

Will try yours now.

Cheers

Dave

[Vigo]

Thanks, I will try your videos, thing is that when i close Mala and then open it, the video plays.  It's only on windows start up that it doesn't play.

Have you tried not using the start on window option, but instead throwing a shortcut to Mala in your windows startup folder? Worth a shot if you haven't tried it already.

[wcndave]

It's a good idea, that's why I tried both ;-)

No joy with that.

It's odd that I get the sound and not the video.

Even when doing it from a booted system (when it works) it still flashes back to the desktop between video and Mala, so looks a bit jerky.

I've spent quite a bit of time setting it up, so it will be a shame to leave it, however it does seem that the developer enthusiasm has waned (which I do totally understand, as you have to keep developing for new OS etc with no gain in functionality and deal with mundane bugs /  queries; the shine soon wears off when there's no cash coming in!)

I may try HS, however it seems complex from the get go, not even sure which one of many files to download, whereas MaLa was nice and simple to understand.

[EssexMame]

I had problems with Mala 1.74 on losing focus and snapshot videos. I upgraded to the BETA version 1.75 and I've not had any problems with Mala at all since.

[wcndave]

Ah, is there some new version I didn't see?

1.75 is not listed on the download page http://www.malafe.net/index.php?page=download

[wcndave]

ok, saw your other post on another thread, you meant 1.745, will give that a try, cheers!

[EssexMame]

Yeah, it was 1.745 - I realised that as I made the comment on the other post. I saw that solution somewhere else on this forum and was pleased with how many of the little niggles I had with Mala it fixed.

[wcndave]

Ok, so your video "arcade 84" does work, and it works from startup.

I then created an mp4 instead of an mpeg from my original movie, and it does not work.  Interestingly it does not play in windows7 just by opening it directly, however it does play on my main w7 machine... in any case given mp4 is just a container, can you tell me what codec you used?  I used the H.264 as yours seems to be AVC encoded, however perhaps I need to try something else.

At least I know it can work now! thanks.

[Wade007]

Glad the test movie worked for you.

I can't remember off hand which codec I used. I edited in Final Cut Pro and exported using Compressor.
You may have to experiment a bit with a small snippet of a movie to see which settings will work or not.

You may want to simply try a Quicktime format or YouTube style settings.

If you still get stuck I'll take a closer look at my video editting set-up.