LiveCode Forums.

I finished writing the first draft of an audio & video lesson with examples taken from the forum, thanks Klaus and Jacque. I'd like any comments, errors, omissions for improvement. I'll post a final draft for any interested.

In particular, 1) I tried the K-Lite Basic codec for Windows (includes LAV filters) at https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm. It expands desktop player object support, notably: aac, m4a, mp4, mov, flac, ogg. Choose basic, click small mirror1 or mirror2 download links, slow download. I found the install smooth and easy on Win 7. Any other experiences?

2) Is there a similar Mac codec to expand desktop player object support?

3) Linux has no sound support, use mPlayer at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design4/dload.html. I found the website confusing with difficult choices & setup. I think MaxV and Bogs have mPlayer installed. What are the steps to get mPlayer into Linux? Terry

[Edit 2/10/18. Uploaded final draft of "LiveCode Audio & Video.txt".]

TerryL wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:05 pm

I think MaxV and Bogs have mPlayer installed. What are the steps to get mPlayer into Linux?

I think Max is more the Linux wizard than I, but doing installations of any software on most 'nixes has been made much easier for the general public.

I have actually a number of players installed, mPlayer is Max's recommendation and I certainly don't see a problem with using it, my own testing tells me Lc doesn't rely on mPlayer so much as which sound system your using (alsa or pulse being the two most common, but certainly not all the possible choices) and how it is reported to your system hooks that Lc looks for.

I've used Lc with vlc (my preferred player), or mPlayer based on alsa or pulse only. To answer your primary question, though, installing software x on linux.
1.) If it is a Debian based distro (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc), you most likely have Synaptic installed. Synaptic is hands down the easiest of the installers to use, can be set up to install recommended pkgs. as dependencies, fix broken systems, etc.

2.) RPM based systems, such as Fedora, and I believe currently Suse(used to be yum based) have a similar graphic installer, and although I am not as familiar with it, I know it is close enough to Synaptics ease of use that it should be manageable.

3.) Command line - If you know what you want to install on a Debian or Fedora or Suse based system, the command line can often be the quickest way to do it. Just like any of the GUI installers, you'll need elevated priviledges since you are making system wide changes.
... a command line install will usually be something like so, for example with mPlayer, 'sudo apt-get install mPlayer', after which you will be prompted for your admin password.

Off the top of my head, any of those would be the steps in the order I'd recommend for new or even old users, and let them take the choice they are most comfortable with.

Max may have different or better methods, I haven't gone into the way of converting rpm to deb pkgs or using dpkg or any other number of more advanced topics that could be covered, as I assume this will be targeted to more average users.

Thanks Bogs for Linux details on mPlayer, very helpful. I'm favoring VLC (user preferred) over mPlayer (LiveCode Ltd suggested) as the Linux default multi-media player & codec.

VLC player https://www.videolan.org/vlc/#download
mPlayer http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design4/dload.html.

Long-suffering Linux users have yet another setback. The Linux player object is broken in LC 8x and 9x series. From LiveCode Panos:
"Bug 18757, LC 8.1.2 / Linux Ubuntu, from MaxV. Panos Merakos 2018-01-30 14:08:49 GMT. The fact that the player is broken on Linux is a long-standing issue, which we are aware of. We did make an attempt to fix that in the past, but it was quite tricky. At least we made it NOT crashing when mplayer is not installed or when changing the filename. Now, changing the filename has no result, and it still plays the default LC video."

1st Linux workaround is to downgrade to LC 7.1.4 to test and build with stacks that use audio & video in a player object. Thanks MaxV.

2nd Linux workaround is to use shell() function in LC 8x and 9x. Thanks Panos & Capellan.
on mouseUp --shell() examples from Panos and Capellan
put specialFolderPath("documents") &"/sample.mp4" into tPath
get shell("mplayer -ontop -noborder -geometry 50%:50%" && tPath) --mPlayer
put the windowid of this stack into tID
--get shell("mpv -wid" && tID && "-ontop -geometry 50%:50% -quiet -start 12 -autofit 50%" && tPath) --mPlayer
--get shell("vlc -I dummy --play-and-exit --drawable-xid" && tID && tPath) --VLC
end mouseUp

I've uploaded a final draft of "LiveCode Audio & Video.txt". Terry

TerryL wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:42 pm

I'm favoring VLC (user preferred) over mPlayer (LiveCode Ltd suggested) as the Linux default multi-media player & codec.

Yah, it has been my go to player for a long time since it is available just about everywhere. I didn't even think about mPlayer until I read about it in Max's wiki

My thoughts on Lc though is that it should have its own built in playing mechanism. As nice and versatile as VLC is, relying on other peoples or companies projects to always be what you need is chancy at best (solely my opinion, but shown very well in what happened with Quicktime).

Congrats on the final draft