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  #1  
Old 04-10-2006, 07:15 PM
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Zeus Zeus is offline
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How To: Moonshell User Guide v2 - DS Media Player Homebrew

Moonshell v2 User Guide - by DeVS


Download Moonshell DS V1.1: Here
Download Moonshell 1.0 DPG Tools: Here

Introduction

For this guide I used Moonshell v1.1, Supercard SD, a regular DS (not a DS Lite) flashed with Flashme v5 and a Windows XP PC.

Before we begin I will explain first off what Moonshell is for any users who may not have heard of Moonshell. Moonshell is a multimedia player for the Nintendo DS. It is capable of playing music files (wav, mp3, ogg), displaying text files, displaying pictures (jpg, bmp) and playing video (to play video in moonshell you must first encode the video files using Moonshell dpg tools). Moonshell will transform your Nintendo DS into a universal multimedia player. With that out of the way lets begin.

Part1

The first step is to download the two files you will need. The first file is Moonshell itself and the second file is Moonshell 1.0 dpgtools. Dpgtools is the video encoder you will need to encode your videos for playback in Moonshell. Once you have downloaded the files first extract the moonshell zip. Once extracted you will have a folder that looks like this:



Make sure you have your SD or CF card connected to your pc and click on the Setup.exe file.



This will give you a pop up box that will first ask you where you want to extract the Moonshell files. Use the drop down box to point to the location of your SD or CF card where you want to save Moonshell to.



After this you will have a window with a few options to choose from before transferring the files to your SD or CF card. The top section of the window has four check boxes, make sure all four are checked. The middle section has a drop down menu for you to choose your font and language. The bottom section is for you to choose what type of rom image you want to create. If your using a Super card make sure the there is a check box next to Supercard, if your using an M3 card make sure there is a check in the box next to M3SD. After you have checked the proper boxes click on the Setup button to extract the files to your SD or CF card.



After the files have been transferred you will get a confirmation box that says The Setup Was Completed, just hit ok to close this box. You now have all the files you need to use Moonshell on your SD or CF card. If you view the contents on your SD or CF card you should see a folder called Shell and a file called _BOOT_MP_SC.nds (mine says _Boot_MP_SC.nds because im using a Supercard, if your not using a Supercard it wont have SC at the end of the file name)



Part 2

Now that you have all the files you will need for Moonshell on your SD or CF card you will now need to add some media files to be played. For files such as .mp3, .ogg, .txt, .jpg, and .bmp you can simply transfer the files to the root of your SD or CF card (you know your in the root of the card is when you can see the folder Shell and the
file _Boot_MP_SC.nds).



To playback video files you will need to first convert the video files using Moonshell dpgtools. To do this extract the zip file called Moonshell10_dpgtools that you should have downloaded earlier. Once extracted click on the folder and execute the file called 'dpgenc.exe'.



Once executed you will get a pop up box asking you what video file you want to convert. First thing you will want to do for this box is to choose your language.



Click the select button to the right of the data entry box and point to the video file you want to convert (files have to be either a .mpg, .mpeg, .avi, or .wmv).



Once you have chosen the video you want to convert click on the start button with the green check mark.



After that you will get another pop up box asking where you want to save the file and what you want to name it. Make your decision and then hit save. This will start the video encoding process.



Once the encoding process is complete you will receive a pop up telling you that the encoding is complete, just hit the ok button.



You will now have a video file with the extension .dpg. Drop this file in the root of your SD or CF card and your set.

Part 3:

Now insert you SD or CF card into your Supercard and turn it on. You will have two files listed, shell and _BOOT_MP_SC.nds. Choose _BOOT_MP_SC.nds and hit A. This will launch Moonshell. Once launched the top screen will display the following:

Shell/
_BOOT_MP_SC.nds
All media files you added yourself

The bottom screen will tell you basic control buttons you can use in Moonshell, the date and time, and information about the version of Moonshell that youre using. Use the the D pad on the DS to select the media file you want to launch and then hit the A button to launch that media file. Thats all there is to it.

Closing

This ends the first draft of the Moonshell v1 Guide. I will update this guide periodically when new features are added to Moonshell and to add things I may have over looked. Enjoy.

Last edited by DeVS; 04-11-2006 at 05:57 PM.
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  #2  
Old 04-10-2006, 07:30 PM
madcowb0y
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Nice guide! Not that Moonshell was difficult to figure out or anything ...

How about part 2 - creating backgrounds?
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  #3  
Old 04-10-2006, 07:34 PM
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Zeus Zeus is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madcowb0y
Nice guide! Not that Moonshell was difficult to figure out or anything ...

How about part 2 - creating backgrounds?
It is pretty hard to figure out if you have no idea what it is or new to the DS scene, everyone has to start somewhere not everyone is a techno wizz like yourself . Why don't you help to create content for the guide also! Actions speak louder than word haha .
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  #4  
Old 04-10-2006, 10:56 PM
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DeVS DeVS is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madcowb0y
Nice guide! Not that Moonshell was difficult to figure out or anything ...

How about part 2 - creating backgrounds?
Exactly what I was thinking, part 2 will deal with skins.
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  #5  
Old 04-26-2006, 03:34 AM
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dreary79 dreary79 is offline
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I get an an error saying that mp3 ext is not supported. The older version always worked for me fine. Did they remove mp3 playback on the newer versions?
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  #6  
Old 04-26-2006, 11:59 AM
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Xboxmodder999 Xboxmodder999 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dreary79
I get an an error saying that mp3 ext is not supported. The older version always worked for me fine. Did they remove mp3 playback on the newer versions?
The older versions had all the plugins built-in to the DOL file, now they are all seperate, and placed in the shell folder. The shell folder only appears if you do as the guide says, and use the setup feature.
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  #7  
Old 04-26-2006, 12:07 PM
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dreary79 dreary79 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xboxmodder999
The older versions had all the plugins built-in to the DOL file, now they are all seperate, and placed in the shell folder. The shell folder only appears if you do as the guide says, and use the setup feature.
There is no setup feature with the new versions.
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  #8  
Old 04-26-2006, 10:50 PM
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Xboxmodder999 Xboxmodder999 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dreary79
There is no setup feature with the new versions.
Yes there is...

The 1.2 beta has a setup feature, and the additional beta(b2, b3, etc) you just replace the moonshell file.
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  #9  
Old 04-26-2006, 11:38 PM
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dreary79 dreary79 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xboxmodder999
Yes there is...

The 1.2 beta has a setup feature, and the additional beta(b2, b3, etc) you just replace the moonshell file.
That might be something that should be added to the tutorial. Anyone who downloads the latest beta would have no idea why things aren't working.
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  #10  
Old 05-08-2006, 02:44 PM
Gunout
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the encoder doesn't work for me, all my videos get green blur.
they have DIVX / XVID codec, any suggestions?

EDIT: NVM i downloaded the newest FFDSHOW and now it works.

Last edited by Gunout; 05-08-2006 at 02:53 PM.
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  #11  
Old 05-27-2006, 12:19 AM
Jerriman
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Just, what's the recommended Frame rate for my videos? I use default and they get stuck a lot.
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  #12  
Old 06-15-2006, 09:19 AM
Drack Drack is offline
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This is no user guide, this is Captain Obvious showing you what you already did on your own with no guidance.

If you want something that qualifies as a guide, try making a guide on how to skin it and edit the config file's more advanced options.
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  #13  
Old 07-02-2006, 07:02 AM
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BigGanja BigGanja is offline
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Talking Hope this is of some help !

REMEMBER ME CAPTAIN OBVIOUS !!!! ? Har Har
Here we go ............ part 1.5

I was having a play with Moonshell the other day, heres what I found out

Wallpaper needs to be 256x192 dimensions in size.
Wallpaper needs to be in BMP format.
An easy way to do this with no special software except M$Paint is as follows :

1. I took a 800 x 600 wallpaper that i found on the net and opened it up in M$Paint.

2. Press Ctrl and W together to bring up the Stretch and skew menu.

3. Stretch Vertical and horizontal by 32 x 32, DONT Skew the image.

4. Save it as 24 bit BMP with the filename desktop.BMP

5. put it onto ur SD/CF in the shell folder, and enjoy ur new wallpaper

Heres a few i did yesterday so you get an idea (note filename NEEDS to be desktop)
Click image for larger version

Name:	desktop.bmp
Views:	330
Size:	144.1 KB
ID:	6404

Click image for larger version

Name:	desktop2.bmp
Views:	299
Size:	144.1 KB
ID:	6405

As for the global.ini, you just put your nice wallpaper on the bottom screen right, but the windows are covering it up, open up the global.ini and find (CTRL+F)
Change it to look like this
[Boot]

; Show/Hide windows. (0=Show, 1=Hide)
; ݒ肳ꂽeEBhE\ɂ܂B

hiddenAboutWindow=1
hiddenHelpWindow=1
hiddenDateTimeWindow=1

I also wanted to get it to boot a random music track off my mSD, just underneath the ^above^ you will find this :

; Startup Jingle (0=Off, 1=shell/startup.mp3 2=Auto start)
; NTEhĐ邩ǂ̐ݒłB
; 2StartPathŎw肳ꂽtH_̉yt@C Đ܂B

StartupSound=1

So Logic says that you change this to 2, LoL does anyone know what the Startpath is at all ?

Hope I have helped, Its all straightforward really

Thankyou for such a Brilliant MediaPlayer for my NDS
(Now we need a Full-on NDS Filemanager LoL)

BTW no issues converting videos here :P

the odd time DPGEnc cannot detect the playtime length of the original file, if that happens make sure ur comp has lots of codecs for different files and rename the .EXT to something else (that DPGenc supports) then try again

its worked for me.


Last edited by BigGanja; 07-02-2006 at 07:15 AM.
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  #14  
Old 07-05-2006, 02:21 PM
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gama gama is offline
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Guys, I encoded my video with dpgtools and it runs okay.
The problem is, when I watch it on my DS, the length of the video is not the same as the original video, it's like, only a quarter of the length is run.
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  #15  
Old 07-17-2006, 12:39 AM
hjb
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Similar Problem with Moonshell

I have been able to change my videos into .nds files, but dpgenc only seems to change the first 1-3 minutes of these full-lenght movies. When I go to play them back on the NDS-Lite they look great and I'd like to know how to translate the rest of the ~1 1/2 hours of the movies. What am I doing wrong?
TIA, hjb
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