Run movies via shortcuts in MameWAH

[ginno]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to have a movie listed in MameWAH under the PC list where my arcade jukebox is launched from.

I basically want to be able to select the movie, watch it in full screen and then return to MameWAH once it is complete.

I have found a few DOS based fullscreen movie players but have had no success getting them to run on my mame box (works ok on my home PC of course) (Quick View is one of them -> www.multimediaware.com/qv/)
If these worked i could easily make a shortcut to a .bat file to execute the movie :S

Next thought, find a screensaver that plays movies, configure it, and then create a bat file to launch the .src file.
I found a screen saver that does the job -> Quick Mpeg (http://www.geocities.com/kmichael240/quickmpeg.html)
I run the "Quick Mpeg.exe" file via windows it goes into the screensaver configuration
I run the "Quick Mpeg.src" file via windows it runs the screensaver, playing the movie

But if I launch a .src file from dos or a bat file it goes into the screensaver configuration (the .exe file) and does not run the movie

Any ideas on how i can get this .src file to execute properly (maybe by adding a prameter to the command line)

or

another approach to the whole idea

MinWAH in particular how did you get MameWAH to launch a .src file because this is basically what i am trying to do??

Cheers everyone...


Ginno...

[Silver]

I think you are making it much more complicated than you need.

You don't need a DOS program at all. In windows you can just type the name of the video file at a dos prompt (assuming you are in the correct directory) and it will load up in your default player.

Also you can run most windows programs from the start line.  For example, windows media player (9/10) supports command line options:

wmplayer "myfile.avi" /fullscreen

will open the video file and play it fullscreen. However I do not know if you can automatically close the the player.

However, you will probably have an older version of media player on your system. Its usually in the same dir as the recent versions (C:\program files\windows media player) and is called mplayer2.exe

Try this:

mplayer2 /play /close /fullscreen "My video.avi"

this works fine for me. you should be able to set up this is Mamewah (mplayer2.exe as emu, with /play /close /fullscreen and then just send you "romname" and it should work fine.

[ginno]

Thanks for the reply silver,

Everything you said works no worries, the only issue i have is exiting windows mediaplayer 7

The reason i went with the other player (Quick View) or the screen saver (Quick Mpeg) is that the esc button will take you back to mameWAH, esc in mediaplayer 7 just takes you out of fullscreen and i cannot find the shortcut keys to exit mediaplayer 7 while in fullscreen (eg alt + F4 dosen't work while in full screen mode, only while windowed)

This was going to be my solution that i devised @ work today after my first post:
Install Quick Mpeg
Set my movie to be the file that plays in Quick Mpeg
Create an .exe (rather than the .bat file i was talking about) that runs the C:\Windows\Quick Mpeg.scr process (I know C# (.NET))
Create a Shortcut to the .exe i created and place it in the PcGames\Shortcuts folder for mameWAH
Got this working @ work

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick Mpeg is not running properly on my mame box (getting error messages and video not playing well) so i am no further with this solution than Quick View or Windows Media Player. :S

Any more help would be great, there must be other ppl who have movie listings within mameWAH, do you have a solution to media player exit problem?


cheers all

ginno...

[Silver]

Well I always use BSplayer for watching vids.... I like it, nice and simple, not bloatware like recent windows media players...

It supports command line to play/exit, and it also always you to program any function to any key (or combination of) in the preferences.  I suggest you give it a try - just go to preferences, click on Exit, click on Escape - job done.

[ginno]

Sorry to bust your balls silver but...

I have downloaded BSPlayer and it works ok (got the esc button to exit app) but i cannot find how to play a movie via the command line.

[Silver]

Yes no problem.

eg

bsplayer tetris.mpeg -fs -eend

will play tetris.mpeg fullscreen, then exit player at end of movie, and if you have configured escape, hitting that will exit straight away.

[ginno]

Champion,

thanks mate

ginno...