Max Media Player 1.2 Released!

[TheDoomer]

Well, cutting it pretty damn close to that August timeframe by releasing on the last possible day, but it's here. With built-in movie playback!

http://us.codejunkies.com/mpds/index.htm

I'm going to install it right now, and post on the upgrades and compatibility with MMO and such. Enjoy.

edit:
Well, just tested it out. Everything works pretty much the same, except for the built in video. Except, this may just be my DS, but it seems harder to open thing now, like I have to tap a lot more, and right before you load it, the MMP menu gets discolored, nothing big, and its while loading and it goes back to normal. Video playback is great, possibly even better than MoonShell, at least in my opinion, I only tested one video though. It seems to have problems with black, as where there should just black, there will be little spots of white or gray. Audio is decent, the highest it can get is about the 100% of moonshell, not up to the 400% level im used to having the option for, so thats a tad disappointing. The audio playback of MMP has gone from non-existant, to pretty good, to very disappointing. As the sound is as good as it used to be, but it now only comes out of the right speaker. Let me clarify this though, that only happens when listening to Audio through the MMP, everything else works fine.

Well, decent upgrade I suppose, I'm still going to keep Moonshell on my MMD though, for the little music i do listen to, and to test some more videos to compare. Maybe we can hope for some more upgrades soon, maybe some that support commercial roms. Well, thats it. Again, enjoy.

[Laquox]

Movie quality is comparible to Moonshell, if not better, and the mp3 playback still sucks but hey at least they are trying!!!! What I did notice however was their convertor is FAST like really fast. Took no time at all. So YAY for them. I have an 80x card though so others with slow cards or (god forbid) the hard drive let us know how fast the movies play. (Any slow down, skipping, etc)

[Zeus]

Hi Guys,

Jassen is away I think and unable to test this release for us, any chance one of you could, a video of the interface/playback would be nice too, nothing super special just a quick one minute thing.

Thanks for the tip!

[brumi]

Just tested it. Seems to work alright. But I also noticed a little more delay when launching an app and it really seems more difficult to open a folder/file.

[Laquox]

yeah there is a delay on opening all folders I noticed regardless of the video. The Video playback is on par with good settings of moonshell (if not better) however there is no seek option even though the little bar moves when you watch the video. Also it did some odd things to Max overload (Grayed out as it tried to load then color came back.) Overall nice to see but it is almost a little too late because I can't see any real reason to have this over proper settings with moonshell...

[TheDoomer]

I'll gladly take a little video, if you don't mind waiting until tonight. I have to go to work soon, and get back at 7, but I think I have plans after words that last til about midnight. So, if one isn't taken by then, I'll do one.

Also, with video converting, I recommend having the file on the computer and not doing anything else. I just converted a movie off of my external hard drive, took about 20 minutes, but since its off the external drive, and was writing to that at the same time, the video is kinda choppy. So you just have to start converting, and leave the pc alone. I got some choppyness from trying to start firefox while converting in another video, which was on the internal hd.

[Laquox]

I had no probelms comverting the videos and the convert fast for me. Seems this is a buggy release?

[TheDoomer]

I suppose, Laquox, have you had any problems with black colors?

So far I've tested 2 things, the Super Smash Bros Brawl Trailer, and Final Fantasy VI: Advent Childnren. I'm watching Advent Children now, and I haven't noticed any problems with the black. Hmmm... Then again the SSBB trailer was WMV, Advent Children is AVI, maybe that has something to do with it?

and like you, Laquox, I also have a 80x card.

[MisterSentient]

Working well here. The built-in video player could do with some extra features but at least the software now almost performs as advertised (homebrew excluded).

I think the strange colour change when launching a program is Max Media Player resetting the system palette. This was probably the issue that was causing homebrew software to show two white screens.

[Laquox]

I suppose, Laquox, have you had any problems with black colors?.


Nope I watched a few movies ?(matrix etc) and they all seemed to show the black normally or as normal as it gets.

As far as resetting the pallete, that could be case, however I am confused what is causing the lag on opening folders.


UPdated:
Tested two videos using the latest batch dpg and the new mmd encoder

MMD Encoder was faster took roughly 18 minutes to encode full length. File size is 275megs

BatchDPG Took a lot longer taking a total time of about an hour encoded at
FPS: 15
Width: 256
Height: 192
Max and Min Bitrate 256
Audio 128 @ 32000
Final Size:


Video and Sound D3V (MMD Version)
Sound: Lack of Increasing volume makes having Noise cancelling headphones a must with an amp, with regular headphones it is ok but not loud enough.
Video: Great. Did notice a wee bit of lag with very fast moving scenes, lack of seek bar makes watching almost unbearable though. Slight pixelation.

Video And Sound DPG (Moonshell)
Sound seemed a bit different (not sure how to explain) but the increased volume made it watchable with regular headphones.
Video seemed more pixelated with the DPG version but it was neglible about the same as the d3v although I would say the difference would be like listening to an mp3 at 128 and 160 respectively. The D3V version being the 160 mp3.

Overall it is a faster method to encode the movie using the D3v convertor but the lack of being able to fast forward (if you figure it out let me know because I could not) severely dappens the usage of it.

[Bkid]

Nope I watched a few movies ?(matrix etc) and they all seemed to show the black normally or as normal as it gets.

As far as resetting the pallete, that could be case, however I am confused what is causing the lag on opening folders.


UPdated:
Tested two videos using the latest batch dpg and the new mmd encoder

MMD Encoder was faster took roughly 18 minutes to encode full length. File size is 275megs

BatchDPG Took a lot longer taking a total time of about an hour encoded at
FPS: 15
Width: 256
Height: 192
Max and Min Bitrate 256
Audio 128 @ 32000
Final Size:


Video and Sound D3V (MMD Version)
Sound: Lack of Increasing volume makes having Noise cancelling headphones a must with an amp, with regular headphones it is ok but not loud enough.
Video: Great. Did notice a wee bit of lag with very fast moving scenes, lack of seek bar makes watching almost unbearable though. Slight pixelation.

Video And Sound DPG (Moonshell)
Sound seemed a bit different (not sure how to explain) but the increased volume made it watchable with regular headphones.
Video seemed more pixelated with the DPG version but it was neglible about the same as the d3v although I would say the difference would be like listening to an mp3 at 128 and 160 respectively. The D3V version being the 160 mp3.

Overall it is a faster method to encode the movie using the D3v convertor but the lack of being able to fast forward (if you figure it out let me know because I could not) severely dappens the usage of it.



As far as the using the MMP with 4GB HDD, I could never get a video to play correctly on Moonshell, without ALOT of video lag and choppy audio. I'm sure updates will obviously bring more buttons to the video player. This release just looked a little rushed.

[Solitude]

Sorry my opinions are not good as rest of you guys;
1. No firmware update. Datel claims its player's firmware can be updated. Yet this version cannot be updated into firmware. You MUST keep the bootme.nds or you will return to use whatever is encoded in yours. No suprise here....
2. Interface is definitly slower than previous version. I guess that's because it is not loaded from firmware.
3. It bugs the mp3 player feature. Right speaker is louder than the left one. If you revert to old firmware, there is no such a problem. Congratz to Datel for breaking a working feature
4. Video support. No next video, previous video button. There is a seek bar but it does NOT work. Oh my god, why do you not put a seek option?? (Of course, unless you just tried to buy some time with an update to stop the flames)
5. Video encoder: It does nothing new. Yes, I agree it IS fast but it doesn't encode better quality videos. It uses a high bitrate which causes better image quality yet lags in action videos. Use BatchDPG, set profile to high, 15 FPS, Max bitrate 1024, bitrate 256 and even audio bitrate to 256. In Moonshell setting turn of dithering. You will have nearly the same image quality with no lag at all.
6. Video encoder: It doesn't have any option about bitrate, size, etc. So you end up with laggy movies (unless they are not filled with many action) that have been stretched to fit the screen. (Any one remember those old cinemascope western movies? :P )
7. The player resets itself before loading NDS files but it doesn't help since it does NOT fix homebrew with bootme-fix problem.

It is a pity that Datel still doesn't really try much. If they had made a good update, many customers "could" have forgiven them. But it seems they just want to stop the flaming posts and articles around. We will see what comes next. In the mean time, I will keep using my old firmware and play my files with MoonShell.

[Laquox]

In the mean time, I will keep using my old firmware and play my files with MoonShell.

Indeed. Although your max bitrate I am wondering how that works for you. You say set dithering off and it doesn't lag out? hmmm Off to test!

[Rrilltrae]

Okay, I'm having a massive issue with this new update... I run moonshell, and the ds goes into sleep mode? Screens don't power down, it just kinda stops and goes into powersave mode (flashing green light and all).

This may have been there before the update honestly, but this is the first I've noticed this problem since my first day testing and playing video and audio. Anyone know whats up?

[Solitude]

Indeed. Although your max bitrate I am wondering how that works for you. You say set dithering off and it doesn't lag out? hmmm Off to test!

Make sure Bitrate is 256 and MAX bitrate is 1024 not vica verse :D Personally, I don't like the look of dither so as soon as I setup MoonShell, I turn that off. All other options are default.


Okay, I'm having a massive issue with this new update... I run moonshell, and the ds goes into sleep mode? Screens don't power down, it just kinda stops and goes into powersave mode (flashing green light and all).

This may have been there before the update honestly, but this is the first I've noticed this problem since my first day testing and playing video and audio. Anyone know whats up?

Rrilltrae, delete bootme.nds and boot your NDS. Check if it still does that. If it does, probably something is very wrong! :( Try to format your CF completely and install moonshell again. Let's see what happens.

[Rrilltrae]

Well, I removed moonshell and tossed a fresh copy on, and now its working again. strange... oh well, alls well that ends well. Is the sound quality from batchDPG encodes better than those for the dpgtools that come with moonshell?

My biggest surprise working with this new encoder for the mmd video player was *much* better sound quality than those created with the software included with moonshell. I can deal with low video quality, but sound... just.. ungh.

I like the actually workability for the first update, and I don't wanna lose the sound in my left headphone when listening to mp3s, but if the sound doesn't get any better with video playback than the ones I was making with dpgtools, I may have to stick with this update.

[Bkid]

OH MY GOD. NO DATEL, NO! YOU F@%KED UP MY AUDIO! That was mainly the only thing I used the 4GB HDD for besides playing games, and now it's completely ruined! They better have an update to fix this SOON, because I like video and audio together, and I don't feel like making a bootme(audio version).nds and bootme(video version).nds. =P (yes, I know you can't name the files that! -_-)

PS - Anime on my DS = WIN. Since the stuff I watch doesn't have SUPER FAST OMFG ACTION SCENES, I shouldn't really have a problem watching.

[Solitude]

Chill out guys. To get the working mp3 player in 1.01 and video playback of the 1.2, just rename the bootme.nds to MaxVideo.nds And download 1.01 update and rename it to MaxAudio. Just double click the one you'll use, 1.2 for Video and 1.01 for audio. This way you can have your cake and eat it, too :D
Need anything else? :P

By the way, the thing I love with MMD community, we manage to fix problems which Datel cannot :P

[Spugo]

Is it just me, or has the update now completely disappeared from the download page?! (//pressing refresh fixed this :o )

I had the same experiences as you.. the MP3 playback is scr*wed up.. :(

[Rrilltrae]

I dunno, its all still there for me. Maybe they had some downtime or were updating their server.

Anyways, thanks for the info Solitude, I didn't know that the dock software was hot-switchable, do you know if the memory leak eventually catches up with it?

[demonicdrphil]

I think the 1.2 release screws up some homebrew. I cannot get nesDS to work anymore. The one before the WIP version worked under 1.01 and does not work under 1.2. I guess I can use what was suggested earlier with having both bootme's but how the hell does datel add features while messing up what worked earlier. where is the quality control and testing.

[Rrilltrae]

nesDS is still working for me... don't know what to tell you. I can't have a lot of roms in each folder, but thats not too big a deal.

[widdleypud]

Indeed. Although your max bitrate I am wondering how that works for you. You say set dithering off and it doesn't lag out? hmmm Off to test!


I've been trying to figure out how, if at all possible, to increase the video quality with the 4g HD. If setting the dithering off helps, call me ignorant on this subject, but can someone please tell me how to go about doing this. Thanks a lot.

[Solitude]

Well let me sum it up for you:
Dithering: It's a setting in moonshell's global.ini. This basically a video method to smooth out the pixaleting from compressing video. But I think it doesn't work quite good. Although smoothes out some pixels, it gives a bad quality. This is totaly a personal choice. Convert a video and try different dither settings, find the one suitable for you. ALTHOUGH, remember that dithering slows downs the video playback and may cause freezes. So I decide to turn it off.

FPS: Frame per second. Human eye can detect 24 frames per second though you can't barely see much difference in such a small screen. Most web based flash animations use 15 fps. The higher the number, the smoother actions will seem in video. Personal choice for me is 15 because you can barely notice the difference and 20 fps put too much stress on DS.

Bitrate: To put it simply, it is quality of each frame. Higher, the better picture quality you will receive. You really want to max this for nice pictures. Low bitrates may make you feel like you are playing Mario on cinema display :D Now there are 2 bitrates; one is the usual bitrate, the other one is the max bitrate. Let me explain this simple, usual bitrate is for usual screens with action and hard calculations (combat action, explosions, etc). Max bitrate is for converting simple and calm screens (a calm sea, looking at the sky, etc.) You can keep max bitrate as high as 1024. But problems start to occur if you increase bitrate over 256.

Now considering you have 4gb mini disk, which a piece of poopy :D, let me offer some suggestions;
Keep dither off or 1 at most.
Keep FPS at 15, anything less the video will feel not smooth.
Bitrate 192. You may try 256 but I doubt it will work.
Max Bitrate 512. You may try 1024 as well..

I hope this helps.

[knarlockk]

They fixed the audio. Go download 1.22. Kudos to them for fixing that problem so fast.