intro vids in MALA layouts . . .

[Hubble]

Thanks to the FFDShow codec pack and some earlier posts, I've got intro videos working in MALA.  Just one minor glitch:

My layouts are JCrouse's MAMEWAH layouts which have been converted using the included MALA app.  I've then opened each layout and added a new object for "VIDEO" and placed it on top of the "TITLE/SNAP" object.

At the moment, if both a snapshot AND a video is present, then MALA will display both (I noticed this when I had 1941 selected, since the video is very narrow and the screenshot undeerneath was showing through).

Is there a way to instruct MALA to display snaps ONLY if a video is not present?

Many thanks in advance!

[loadman]

Nope ... Sorry 

Not sure why you would want snapshots anyway if you have videos? 

[Hubble]

 . .  it's in case the video set I've got is incomplete, and to avoid having to cross-check with hundreds of games to see if it IS complete.  It's a very nitpicky thing, I'll admit, but I was just curious.  I've only been using MALA for a short time and didn't know if there was something I'd missed about how layouts handle snaps and videos.  And it might be nice to have a new kind of object in the Layout creator - one that would display any graphic OR video, with a preference to the video, and maybe even an option to find a file that "most closely matches" the ROM name . . .

At the moment I've just put a video object UNDER the title/snap object.  It seems to show through when a video is present, and snaps show normally when that's all I have.  Seems to be working so far without bogging the machine down . . .

[loadman]

And it might be nice to have a new kind of object in the Layout creator - one that would display any graphic OR video, with a preference to the video, and maybe even an option to find a file that "most closely matches" the ROM name

OK, You could ask SWINDUS I Guess

i

t's in case the video set I've got is incomplete, and to avoid having to cross-check with hundreds of games to see if it IS complete.

I found the emumovies sets very good (complete)

http://www.emumovies.com/

[Hubble]

Thanks!  That's actually what I'm using, and you're right - there are so few holes in those sets that I really don't have to worry about it anyway.

There is one other question i had, though.  I found the other threads about the vids causing sluggishness in MALA, or displaying with artifacts (green smudginess, etc).  Like the original poster, my intro vids (from EmuMovies) work fine in MAME, but badly or not at all in other emus.

I've cleaned ALL DivX codecs off my machine.

I have four items I've downloaded: the latest DivX bundle, the latest Xvid bundle, the FFDShow bundle, and the DivX Toolbar toggle tool.

Which combination of the above tools have worked for other people who want to use EmuMovies sets for MAME as well as other emulators?

Again, many thanks...

[loadman]

Like the original poster, my intro vids (from EmuMovies) work fine in MAME, but badly or not at all in other emus.

Sorry I only really use the mame ones 

[Circo]

I have not been able to get them to work in Mala up to this point.  The mame ones are in xvid everything else is in Divx.  Mala seems to have some problems with Divx which I just can't understand.

I get the green blocks using older 5.X versions of the Divx codec, using the new version 6.X I am still having problems.  I think Swindus is going to look into this but not too sure.  There are no issues in Mamewah, which I have used up to now, but I am currently in the process of switching 3 cabs over to Mala and this video problem has got my head spinning.  Hopefully someone figures this out soon, or Mala gets fixed.  Converting all the previews to xvid is a lot of work and not sure I would be up to the task.

[Silver]

Hi. as a quick test you could try changing the decoder used for the divx files.

Avi files have something called a FourCC code which identifies the codec used - and thus controls what decoder is used.

e.g. Xvid avi files have the code 'XVID', Divx avi files have DIVX, DIV3, DIV4 or DX50 depending on which version used.

If you have Xvid installed you can go to the Xvid Decoder properties and tell it to decode DIVX and DX50 FourCC avi files. (note you may have to disable/uninstall Divx to test this). If Xvid works and Divx does not - it could be worth trying this.

(Both are Mpeg4 codecs, so in theory should be able to decode each other. Not always true in practice).

If it works you could either leave it at that, or there are lots of free FourCC changer utilities around which will change the code on an avi (very easy and very fast - no re-encoding required) to force a particular codec decoder.

[Circo]

Ok removed Divx, set up xvid, it plays fine in media player.  In mala the toolbar no longer tries to pop up but I am having the same problem, i can hear sound but no video for 10 seconds, after ten seconds the video starts playing.  Very strange 

Changed the four cc code to xvid and no change.   

[Circo]

I am trying a program called Batch Video Converter and am converting the snes set to xvid and am going to see how that works.  So far I can't see any quality loss.  Should fix the Mala problem, but I think this pretty much makes all of my console previews incompatible with Mala unless I re release as Xvid files, and that is alot of data to upload.

Update: yeah it works, but have to rename every file after encoding 

[Silver]

Mala maybe can be updated to get round the issue... might be easier than redoing your entire video sets...

[loadman]

Update: yeah it works, but have to rename every file after encoding 

You could try using a baltch file name converter like:
http://cerebralsynergy.com/download.php?view.55 (have a google search for more)

Mala maybe can be updated to get round the issue... might be easier than redoing your entire video sets...

Yes that would be ideal. Hopefully Swindus can work it out when he has time 

[Circo]

found a program called better file rename.  Not too bad.

[swindus]

Mala maybe can be updated to get round the issue... might be easier than redoing your entire video sets...

I will check this in the next days when I find the time.

[loadman]

Update: yeah it works, but have to rename every file after encoding  .
found a program called better file rename.  Not too bad.

In the short-term.. for a temp solution

Maybee you could offer a procedure as to what you did for others to follow rather than considering a Mega Upload of your sets? 

[Hubble]

In the short-term.. for a temp solution

Maybee you could offer a procedure as to what you did for others to follow rather than considering a Mega Upload of your sets? 

I'd second that!

After all, your movie packs still work with MAMEWAH, and would be fine for people using that as their frontend.  I'm sure everybody's different, but I usually only keep a few dozen "best-of" games for any given console on my cab (MAME and NeoGeo being the only exceptions).  I'd rather re-encode a few dozen movies myself than have you go through all that trouble re-encoding/uploading hundreds . . .

Also, it might be better to go with a temporary solution until Swindus can let us know whether it's possible to fix this issue in MALA and how difficult it might be . . .

Meanwhile, thanks to all of you for your hard work!

[Circo]

Ok here is what I did:

#1
I used Batch Video Converter http://www.anytodvd.com/ There may be a free program that works as well but I couldn't find it.  I selected "ctrl-a" an entire preview directory, and converted all of them to Xvid. 

Couple of things to remember here:
a) Make sure to set a seperate target folder.
b) Also make sure an actual Divx codec is installed with "divx logo turned off".  Otherwise for some reason Xvid will show the logo and it will be burned into all of your previews.

#2
To rename the files I used Better File Rename http://www.publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/version.html Once again I tried some free ones and they didn't do the job.  Once you convert the videos they have a name like this: sample_game_(U)(new).avi

To rename, where it says Replace these Characters type "_" and under With type " " (don't type the "" but you will hit the spacebar once).  The free program I found would not replace a charater with a space.  Under that put "(new)" and replace with blank.  That should rename all of your files with the correct names. 

The whole process is relatively quick probably because the difference between formats is not that great.

After all this, the previews work in mala fine.