VLC 0.31 use on BeOS: (V0.6) (Handy command line options... And a (updated twice.. sorry) subtitle tweak after all ;-) VLC V0.31 has come a long way since the last time I had a thorough look at it. It supports enough to be very useable by now: The main missing things now are the DVD-disc menu system and a complete GUI. Read on for the nifty details! - Note that VLC 0.31 cannot display subtitles yet in overlay output on Nvidia cards. If you need subtitles, start vlc from the command line with the option --nooverlay specified. Or: use the (updated) tweak mentioned below... - Note that VLC 0.31 gets the subtitles pallette from the DVD discs themselves now so it works perfectly for all discs. No tweaking needed here anymore :-) Note that the team is still busy implementing the finer details though. - Note that in order to disable aspect ratio scaling, VLC 0.31 also does not need a patch: If you want to playback NTSC discs without aspect scaling, start vlc from the command line, and specify --width=720 --height=480. For PAL discs use --width=720 --height=576. You only want to use this option if you are watching on TV using the corresponding DVD modes BeTVOut has, and only if you are watching on a 16:9 TV or on a 4:3 TV that has a widescreen mode. On old 4:3 TV's that don't have a widescreen mode you don't need it, and you should use the VCD modes for optimal playback. Note that you can rescale the output window to any size you want, even to fullscreen, and the aspect ratio scaling will remain fixed to what you (in fact) selected at VLC starttime. - Note that vlc syncs to vertical retrace if the refreshrate is below 61Hz (so on TV). No tweaking needed. If you are using overlay then the retrace sync works fast enough. If you use bitmap output however (--nooverlay specified), retrace sync is too slow and you will probably notice some distortions in the upper half of your TV screen. This cannot be helped properly, unless a special driver is used to do the sync... I'll tweak VLC V0.31 to have a bitmap output optimal version also later on. - In order to get decent sync between audio and video, use the --desync command line option. This will speedup audio with the specified amount of time in milliSeconds. --desync 186 is exactly right on BeOS (the audio buffer delays 186mS so we need to speed it up with this amount). Note that the Be media preferences settings do not change this BTW. Oh, and also the value is the same for MPEG1, VCD and MPEG2, DVD files / discs. (Try watching a VCD sometime! Works nice, just as DVD discs. You'll need BeVCD (filesystem) to mount the VCD disc at the command line though.) - You can manually set the position you want for the subtitles. Use --spumargin 0 to place them as low as possible on the screen for example. If you are watching on TV, you will want them a bit higher though, because otherwise they might be in the 'offscreen area'... If you increase the spumargin by 1, the subtitles will be lifted up by 1 pixel. - There's an important new feature now also implemented in VLC: de-interlace. If you are watching originally electronically recorded TV-movies or clips (as opposed to recorded on celluloid originally: theatre movies and such) you should try these command line options: --filter deinterlace:bob --filter deinterlace:blend bob uses less CPU than blend, but blend is said to offer better picture quality. I tested both with one music video, and bob turned out to work best for me. Picture quality seems about the same, while blend still sometimes mixes up frames.. and uses more CPU, noticably. Both filters improve video output a lot, both on TV and VGA, though image sharpness degrades a bit. But this is only natural, and can't be helped. That is, as long as VLC does not offer syncing to FIELD signals on TV. On VGA this (FIELD sync) option does not exist at all... (unless interlaced VGA would be used.) -------------------- - overlay subtitle fix (#3): I tweaked VLC V0.31 to do subtitles on Nvidia hardware overlay. It's working perfectly, correct colors are implemented now. It's even better in (this) version #3 (sorry, little mistake earlier...) And, it does not compromize VLC, it just adds this extra feature. At least until the VLC guys implement it themselves (mailed the code to them). You can get the single modified sourcefile here, 8kB: (copy it to vlc-0.3.1/plugins/spudec/ and just recompile) http://web.inter.nl.net/users/be-hold/BeOS/Downloads/vlc0.31_nv_subtitling_src.zip You can get the precompiled version here, 2.6Mb: (Sorry, had no time to optimize for file-size..) http://web.inter.nl.net/users/be-hold/BeOS/Downloads/vlc-0.3.1_tweaked.zip Rudolf.