DOS ain't dead - Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

Laaca

Czech republic,
30.08.2008, 11:22

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files (Announce)

Has anybode checked this library?
It is a addon for Allegro and can play MPEG and OGG files. Priority survive uses it for example. It claims that it is tested under Windows and Linux but could work under other platforms too. I tried to compile it in DOS, I succeed to make the .A library but I was unable to build the examples. But most probably it is something very trivial and any C/Allegro coder can easily fix it.
So, check it: http://kcat.strangesoft.net/apeg.html

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DOS-u-akbar!

flox 31.08.2008, 20:28 @ Laaca	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	I am to busy ... Maybe in one month I will have time to look into it... I hope.

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
31.08.2008, 23:24

@ Laaca

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> I tried to compile it in
> DOS, I succeed to make the .A library but I was unable to build the
> examples. But most probably it is something very trivial and any C/Allegro
> coder can easily fix it.

With DJGPP 2.04, GCC 4.23 and Allegro 4.22 the examples are built without any problem (surely, excepting exagl which requires AllegroGL).

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Glory to God for all things

Laaca

Czech republic,
01.09.2008, 08:33

@ Khusraw

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> With DJGPP 2.04, GCC 4.23 and Allegro 4.22 the examples are built without
> any problem (surely, excepting exagl which requires AllegroGL).

Great! Could you upload the binaries to somewhere?

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DOS-u-akbar!

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
01.09.2008, 17:38

@ Laaca

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> Great! Could you upload the binaries to somewhere?

I've uploaded all the binaries (library + tools + examples) to http://www.mediafire.com/?z2z1inmleez . I've built the library with ogg support enabled, so it should work with ogg video files. Use the example player with '-fs' option.

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Glory to God for all things

Laaca

Czech republic,
01.09.2008, 18:41

@ Khusraw

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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Yeah!
It works for me too!
So boys, who will use this library and start some project?

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DOS-u-akbar!

mr 01.09.2008, 23:30 @ Laaca	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	> Yeah! > It works for me too! > So boys, who will use this library and start some project? Is this needed? Doesn't mplayer dos port also play ogg?

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
02.09.2008, 07:22
(edited by Khusraw, 02.09.2008, 11:23)

@ mr

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> Is this needed? Doesn't mplayer dos port also play ogg?

APEG is an add-on to the Allegro game programming library, not a player. It enables the use of mpeg-1 and ogg video streams with Allegro.

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Glory to God for all things

flox 02.09.2008, 07:42 @ Laaca	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	> Yeah! > It works for me too! > So boys, who will use this library and start some project? Someone who wants to use it in Ozone?

DOS386

10.09.2008, 01:35
(edited by DOS386, 10.09.2008, 03:15)

@ Khusraw

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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Khusraw wrote (nice to see you unbanned :-) ):

> I've uploaded all the binaries (library + tools + examples) to
> http://www.mediafire.com/?z2z1inmleez . I've built the library with ogg
> support enabled, so it should work with ogg video files. Use the example
> player with '-fs' option.

Thanks :-) very good

Minimal tests:

- Player doesn't work ... oops no -fs used :crying:
- Encoder seems to work ... DOS GUI app :-) but progress indicator shows garbage :-|
- No docs ... what input formats does the encoder accept ?

mr wrote:

> Is this needed? Doesn't mplayer dos port also play ogg?

YES, it is needed / useful. MPLAYER indeed plays OGG Theora (.OGV) movies also ... but it's very bloated so there is much space left for a tiny DOS video player. :-)

Rugxulo wrote:

> exsimple example.ogg -fs (tested under DOSBox)

only I have DOS here :-|

BTW: Theora codec and LibTheora 1.0b3 are good but the lib (+ many encoders) have "unnecessary" bugs. 1.0 final was expected in 2008 May but as we know coding is hard :-(

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Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
10.09.2008, 07:36

@ DOS386

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> - Encoder seems to work ... DOS GUI app :-) but progress indicator shows
> garbage :-|

No problem with the progress indicator here!

> - No docs ... what input formats does the encoder accept ?

Did you read the "apeg.txt" file from the source code package?
"Acceptable input is RIFF WAV files for audio and YUV4MPEG2 files for video, or programs that can generate such files to stdout (such as dump_stream). Video input can also accept a .tes script, which defines a stream using Allegro-compatible bitmaps for a video source."

> BTW: Theora codec and LibTheora 1.0b3 are good but the lib (+ many
> encoders) have "unnecessary" bugs. 1.0 final was expected in 2008 May but
> as we know coding is hard :-(

What "unnecessary" bugs? And what do you mean by "unnecessary" when talking about bugs?

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Glory to God for all things

DOS386

15.09.2008, 05:59

@ Khusraw

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> Did you read the "apeg.txt" file from the source code package?

Had exe package only.

> What "unnecessary" bugs?

For example failure to update the version string.

EXPLAY more test:

Doesn't work -> add "-fs" (RTFF) -> still doesn't work -> add "-bpp 24" (required at least with some crappy VESA's) -> can play some ("silent" ?) movies only, not including the example -> add "-nosound" -> seems to work :-)

The included fox movie has ugly artifacts at left and bottom margin ... visible also with MPLAYER ... and it is 4 years old (cca Theora Alpha 3).

---
This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

DOS386

25.09.2008, 16:10

@ Khusraw

Library for MPG and OGG theora | more details about "bugs"

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> No problem with the progress indicator here!

(other thread)

> tested ... the OGG encoder on various computer systems
> and I can't reproduce the "bugs".

Slowest CPU ? Tried to increase quality to more than 3 ? I have the bug on 2 PC's and it seems to depend from CPU (slower -> more broken) and quality (more quality -> more broken). Should be reproductable up to cca 2 GHz with quality 10.

---
This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
25.09.2008, 17:37

@ DOS386

Library for MPG and OGG theora | more details about "bugs"

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> Slowest CPU ? Tried to increase quality to more than 3 ? I have the bug on
> 2 PC's and it seems to depend from CPU (slower -> more broken) and quality
> (more quality -> more broken). Should be reproductable up to cca 2 GHz
> with quality 10.

I tested it with quality 10 and now I can confirm that there is indeed the "-1" problem with the progress indicator. From now on please try to be as exhaustive as you can about your testing conditions when reporting bugs. This would be more helpful for both you and the rest of people involved.

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Glory to God for all things

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
25.09.2008, 18:37
(edited by Khusraw, 26.09.2008, 07:09)

@ DOS386

Library for MPG and OGG theora | more details about "bugs"

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The bug seems to be caused by the fact that the ogg encoder ignores the situations when the call to "theora_granule_time" (Edit: from "libtheora") fails for whatever reason (Edit: in case of slow encoding process). I think it wouldn't have been too much effort for you to find yourself the cause, it's... easy.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if the bug really annoys you, you can patch the source code so that the values shown in the dialog aren't updated when the call fails. ;-)

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Glory to God for all things

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
26.09.2008, 12:01

@ DOS386

Library for MPG and OGG theora | more details about "bugs"

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Well, having some available spare time I patched and recompiled it myself. The only thing I did was to prevent the updating of shown values in case the call fails (a single short line of source code). This shouldn't have any impact on the encoding process. You can download the binaries from http://www.mediafire.com/?ymtttwkyk2q. Let me know if there are still problems.

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Glory to God for all things

DOS386

04.10.2008, 04:35

@ Khusraw

Library for MPG and OGG theora | killed "bugs"

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> I patched and recompiled it myself.
> Let me know if there are still problems.

Fixed :-)

Download APEG now ( Arachne-compatible, 7-ZIP , 1.6 MiB , all-in-one )

---
This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

david 09.09.2008, 13:12 @ Laaca	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	Hi, Yes APEG library can be build into DJGPP, but can You explain me HOWTO with example player? I can open only MPEG VIDEO files and it shout on me that needs suitable graphics driver ... so I need something extra to use this player with graphics library Allegro ??

Khusraw

Bucharest, Romania,
09.09.2008, 13:38

@ david

Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files

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> Hi, Yes APEG library can be build into DJGPP, but can You explain me
> HOWTO with example player? I can open only MPEG VIDEO files

For building the library with ogg support you should have installed the needed theora libraries.

> ...and it
> shout on me that needs suitable graphics driver ... so I need something
> extra to use this player with graphics library Allegro ??

I've already told that you should use the example player with "-fs" option!

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Glory to God for all things

david 09.09.2008, 15:30 @ Khusraw	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	Many thanks

Rugxulo Usono, 09.09.2008, 21:53 @ Khusraw	Library for playing MPEG and OGG theora files Post reply
	> I've already told that you should use the example player > with "-fs" option! exsimple example.ogg -fs (tested under DOSBox) Yes, this shows a video w/ narration of a fox moving around in the snow. (This particular .OGG is found in the apeg-src.tar.bz2 file.)