Multiple ActiveX crashing the Internet Explorer

[SyRenity]

Hi.

When I try to load multiple ActiveX's (in <iframe>'s), the Internet Explorer instantly crashes with the following error:

"The instruction at "0x77c477740" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read"."

I found a bug opened at 2006, which was update since and the bug went to "Bugs Paradise" (https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/872).

Any idea about this issue, and how it can be prevented?

Thanks in advance.

[cybercockroach]

Hi SyRenity
What is the version of VLC. I have the same problem before I use nightly builds(vlc-0.9.0-test3-20080721-0004-win32.exe). so maybe you can use newer version to test. good luck

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Does the latest NB fix some part of it ?

[SyRenity]

Hi.

First, thanks for the advice, it helped a lot.

I tried the latest nightly build (5/8/08) and it works fine (tried about 10 iframes). While I didn't test it thoroughly yet, two major points seems to be fixed:

1) Instant or random crashes with or without the said errors (sometimes the browser just closed).
2) First player in the list didn't show the video before.

The only significant issue I found out is that auto-start parameter no longer works, I have the following code, with AutoPlay on "true", but still need to click on Go button:

<OBJECT classid="clsid:9BE31822-FDAD-461B-AD51-BE1D1C159921"
width="306"
height="250"
id="vlc"
events="True">
<param name="MRL" value="rtsp://192.168.253.32/94.sdp" />
<param name="ShowDisplay" value="True" />
<param name="AutoLoop" value="False" />
<param name="AutoPlay" value="True" />
<param name="Volume" value="50" />
<param name="StartTime" value="0" />
<EMBED pluginspage="http://www.videolan.org"
type="application/x-vlc-plugin"
version="VideoLAN.VLCPlugin.2"
width="306"
height="250"
name="vlc">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

[SyRenity]

Also, another questions that I forgot to ask.

Does the new 0.9 ActiveX support windowless mode (for IE effects), or is planned to?

Thanks.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Also, another questions that I forgot to ask.

Does the new 0.9 ActiveX support windowless mode (for IE effects), or is planned to?

Thanks.

I don't understand the question.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Fill a bug on the auto-start iussue.

[SyRenity]

Also, another questions that I forgot to ask.

Does the new 0.9 ActiveX support windowless mode (for IE effects), or is planned to?

Thanks.

I don't understand the question.

The meaning was to ActiveX windowless mode, as described here:
http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/1661/8/

Setting the Windowless property to True creates an ActiveX control that doesn't actually create a window and therefore consumes even fewer resources. A windowless control has a couple of limitations, however. It must be user-drawn or contain only other windowless controls, and it can't work as a container for other controls. You can't place regular constituent controls on a windowless ActiveX control, and you can't set the Windowless property to True if the UserControl already includes nonwindowless constituent controls. Image, Label, Shape, Line, and Timer are the only intrinsic controls that you can place over a windowless UserControl. If you need features that these controls don't provide, have a look at the Windowless control library mentioned in the "Limitations and Workarounds" section earlier in this chapter.

Not all containers support windowless controls. Among the environments that do are Visual Basic 5 and 6, Internet Explorer 4 or later , and all the environments based on Visual Basic for Applications. Interestingly, when a windowless control runs in an environment that doesn't support this feature, the windowless control automatically turns into a regular control that's backed up by a real window.

A windowless control doesn't expose an hWnd property, so you can't call API functions to augment its functionality. (In some cases, you can use the ContainerHwnd property instead.) Moreover, the EditAtDesign and BorderStyle properties are disabled for windowless ActiveX controls. The HasDC property is usually ignored as well because windowless controls never have a permanent device context. But you should set this property to False because if the control runs in an environment that doesn't support windowless ActiveX controls, it won't, at least, use resources for a permanent device context.

What it does, it's basically allows to overlay the ActiveX with visual DHTML elements, with z order and full transparency effect.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No, it doesn't support it, and I don't know if it is compatible with our video rendering. I am afraid you will have to test by yourself.

[SyRenity]

Hi.

Thanks for the explanation.

After some days of testing, while the ActiveX works much more stable then 0.8.x series, I still noticed some issues.

The most serious one is that when you load multiple ActiveX and load video in them all, sometimes several of them don't show any video. It starts with 1 and then can raise to as high as 4-5 objects.

When you double click on the object (and show the video full-screen), and you double-click again to reduce it to window, only then you see the video.


What additional information I can provide for detection and fix of this issue?

Regards.

[SyRenity]

Anything new about this issue?

I have built a debug version of VLC, so I can provide a debug output if needed.

Just let me know what exactly to send.

Regards.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

very difficult to fix this issue, because it involves many different stuffs...

Have you tried with another video output module ?

[SyRenity]

Hi.

What module I should try? And what option should be provided to ActiveX to control it there?

Regards.

[SyRenity]

New issue:

When I compile a release version of VLC (using --enable-release), I get video only in a single window. All rest are black. Any idea if the release optimizations are causing this?