Circo Movie previews some work some load slow / crash in MaLa PICS *Updated*

[mrclean]

Ok so some videos in MaLa work perfectly , load fast and no problem with scrolling on the game list, some of my sets load very very slowly 10 seconds until appearing and then cause my game list to be sluggish

From my N64 set ive attached: Golden Eye 007, which works perfectly.
Also attached is 3 Ninja's Kick back! from sega genesis..which loads up really slow in MaLa


 infact my entire N64 / SNES sets no problems.. ive attached it because i want to know what the differences are between the files both to me appear to be Xvid's Ive tried converting the videos doing a batch encode with virtual dub, tried various settings both xvid and divx with various compression settings.. my question is what is the difference between these two files.. and how can i convert my sega / sms non working slow loading in MaLa previews to a more compatible file. 

Files: http://www.sendspace.com/file/etqf7s

[TheShanMan]

According to Circo, "mala and divx HATE each other". Some of the torrents are divx, but the ftp versions are all xvid, so if you're having trouble with divx either convert yourself or pony up and get ftp access.

[mrclean]

According to Circo, "mala and divx HATE each other". Some of the torrents are divx, but the ftp versions are all xvid, so if you're having trouble with divx either convert yourself or pony up and get ftp access.

that's just it.. ive tried to convert it to xvid and for whatever reason no matter what compression settings they don't seem to help

[loadman]

Thanks for posting the files video though.    I put it the Goldeneye then Ninja video as my start-up video and the Ninja one took forever to load in MaLa.  No problems on either using Media Player. No real surprises there .

I thought for testing effecientcy I would make a stand-alone Video Player.

I found the same result, More disturbingly the Ninja video crashed the player when it went to 'loop' play it a second time. The GoldenEye one was fine

Does anyone else have the crash problem with the Ninja video using it in a lyout a waiting for it to play all the way through?

[mrclean]

Does anyone else have the crash problem with the Ninja video using it in a lyout a waiting for it to play all the way through?

It's not just the Ninja Video.. It's my entire SMS set, Sega Genesis / Mega Drive set ..Nes comes up slow, but not as slow as the others  various MAME stuff has it crash i just took out all the videos for that set and went with screen shots instead really mad about that.. any thing with the word Mahjong games make mala crash as well don't know why.

My working sets with no problems are:
SNES
N64
Game Boy (Black and white)

[loadman]

Yeah, I realise it would not be the Ninja video. 

I was wanting to know if others found that with that 'example' not only did it play late but did it crash after it played one cycle.

I just whipped up a stand alone video player that uses the same 'video engine' as MaLa currently does. Using the two examples of test videos you put in your first post (ninja and goldeneye)
Ninja: Audio starts straight away, video starts a few secs later. When the video finishes and goes to play again (using loop mode) the prog crashes.
Goldeneye: Perfect

I found this bahaves the same way in MaLa.

I might post this test player here if it is any use to anyone. I found it easier than futsing about in Mala to test videos

[loadman]

I posted a stand-alone player for testing:

HERE

[mrclean]

thanks! 

[mrclean]

I know that you just provided a tool to "test" the videos with but that can be time consuming especially with sets of larger numbers... so after finding two very helpful pieces of software that i'm now testing it seems to be a solution should it work...
First off I downloaded

ABC AVI Tag editor.. which told me the files info, i loaded that same video and sure enough it came up as a divx which doesnt agree with MaLa..

then i downloaded
"AVI Recursive Four CC Changer" - which converts DivX to Xvid
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/downloads.php?do=file&id=189&act=down
 
which can batch convert the folder which saves alot of time

reloaded the file back into ABC AVI Tag editor to check the file and sure enough it now said that the file was an xvid... now i shall test all of these files in MaLa, and should this fix my video problems which i think it will this is a quick and easy way to get those videos working nicely!

[mrclean]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr after converting a set Turbo 16... i now get a roughly 15 second delay until the video preview comes up i don't get it!!!! Also it is 100% MaLa related because... if i load a video in windows it plays flawlessly in MaLa pixelated and distorted

here is fantasy zone for turbo 16: http://www.sendspace.com/file/b6llxv

when testing in the mala video tester it gives me problems, i want to know why because it's an xvid, and plays perfectly within windows media player


So while i think it's great for a way to *test* the files there's gotta be a way to have them compliant / more compatible for MaLa

in ABC TAG:

Screen shot while in the new MaLa video tester :


Then tried to place it into this program to change it from divx to xvid...



then back into ABC Avi Tag.. you can see that its now xvid...


back to MaLa video tester... same result!


as you can see many of circo's sets are divx and MaLa doesnt seem to be compatible with them so loadman can you have divx compatible with MaLa in the next release or have a conversion program tool that you can create, because ive even tried several batch encoders and still the same result in MaLa video issues with the previews

my entire sets WITH PROBLEMS are like this for :
NEC
SEGA SMS
SEGA GENESIS

working perfectly with no load issues / does not crash mala:
SNES
N64

[TheShanMan]

MaLa's video engine is definitely picky.

[mrclean]

anyway for it to be less picky 

[loadman]

So while i think it's great for a way to *test* the files there's gotta be a way to have them compliant / more compatible for MaLa

as you can see many of circo's sets are divx and MaLa doesnt seem to be compatible with them so loadman can you have divx compatible with MaLa in the next release or have a conversion program tool that you can create, because ive even tried several batch encoders and still the same result in MaLa video issues with the previews

Mate, If I had a solution I would implement it. I thought the player might be of use. If not I'm sorry. 

In any case I have submitted the 'quick and dirty' source code to the other thread. You need videolab to make it work. But be aware I don't think you can install 3rd party components to the free version of turbo delphi

If you can suggest a better video engine for mala (that can be used in Delphi) then feel free to suggest it. 

It needs to be able to process video with effects like stretch, rotate and fullscreen.

This is the oneMaLa currently uses is: http://www.mitov.com/html/videolab.html

[Circo]

The question I need to ask is are the videos that are having issues from the torrent or ftp.  The torrent and older dvd sets were mainly encoded in Divx which just sucks nowadays, I upgraded everything to xvid over a year ago just because of Mala.  So you may want to run your non working sets through a converter (ie virtual dub) and convert them to xvid and see if that solves your problem.  I am going to download this nifty tool and report back with my findings.

EDIT, i need to read closer, it is Divx.

So for the time being it is really quite simple to convert these vids from the massive torrent to Xvid (just use the job control fuction in Virtual Dub to do a batch convert)
and for anyone that has an ftp account over at emumovies, if you are having trouble with a set just redownload and that should fix your problem.  I am not going to update that massive torrent until the set audits are complete and that is still months out. 

And as far as fixing Mala to work with divx, I wouldn't bother because since Divx 6 (Not 100% sure of version) the decoder has an issue with stealing focus which just plays havok with FE's anyway.  Just re-encode your sets and Virtual Dub and the Xvid codec are 100% free.

[loadman]

Thanks for those words of wisdom Circo :-)

[mrclean]

I know how to batch files with virtual dub but for whatever reason when i do it they dont seem to be compressing the files they get very large 150mb each  i went to video, compression clicked on xvid then F4 for job control, how come they are so large ?

edit.. i figured out how to batch convert them with virtual dub and converted to xvid, still the same problems exist 

[mrclean]

hey loadman just curious, are you able to host a new torrent / provide some seeds and possibly have circo give you the "new" xvid MaLa compliant sets this way alot less people would be having problems just a thought.

[loadman]

hey loadman just curious, are you able to host a new torrent / provide some seeds and possibly have circo give you the "new" xvid MaLa compliant sets this way alot less people would be having problems just a thought.

Not a bad idea but...

Ahh, I am already over my Budget of $0 for MaLa hosting     I have not asked for donations for such things... yet.

Why don't you consider ordering a CD set from Circo like I did?  So much less pain 

[mrclean]

Has this issue been resolved yet ? or do i need to continue to look at boring pictures instead of video! 

[loadman]

Has this issue been resolved yet ? or do i need to continue to look at boring pictures instead of video! 

You need to find the right video set and be using the correct codec (usually xvid) and don't have divx installed

[loadman]

FYI

In the background I am looking at other video engines for MaLa. None seem ideal yet. I am in e-mail discussions.

Current contenders are:

http://www.visioforge.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=44


http://www.viscomsoft.com/products/videocappro/

The one I am using now is:

http://www.mitov.com/html/videolab.html