ActiveX, IE, and Color Depth.

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 30 Dec 2006 14:35

Hello all.

For my first post, I would first like to say, what a great project. I've been reading the forums for the last few days and think VideoLan will be perfect for what I'm trying to do.

Now the problem. It should have a simple answer, but I can't seem to find it!

I'm using the latest activeX inside a IE7 web page. Code is here, almost directly from what I found here on the board.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
<HTML>
<BODY marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0">
<OBJECT classid="clsid:E23FE9C6-778E-49D4-B537-38FCDE4887D8"
codebase="http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/video ... /axvlc.cab"
width="500" height="400" id="vlc" events="True">
<param name="Src" value="test.avi" />
<param name="ShowDisplay" value="True" />
<param name="AutoLoop" value="False" />
<param name="AutoPlay" value="True" />
<param name="Volume" value="100" />

</OBJECT>
</BODY>
</HTML>

This works, just not so well.

The avi plays, but it is VERY dark. It seems that it is also, at a low color depth. If I stream from VLC on the server to VLC on the client, this file looks fine. Just not in the activeX.

The AVI is actually a Divx file.

Ideas? And thanks again for a great product and friendly community.

divx118 · Postby **divx118** » 30 Dec 2006 14:43

A little of topic but with that code you are using the old activeX 0.8.5.

<OBJECT id="vlc"
codeBase="http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/video ... on=0,8,6,0"
height="480" width="640" classid="clsid:9BE31822-FDAD-461B-AD51-BE1D1C159921" events="True" MCFocusable="true">

<PARAM NAME="Src" value="test.avi" />
<param name="ShowDisplay" value="True" />
<param name="AutoLoop" value="False" />
<param name="AutoPlay" value="False" />
<param name="Volume" value="50" />
<param name="StartTime" value="0" />

</OBJECT>

This is the object for the new activeX 0.8.6
Just wanted to let you know.

Maurice

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 30 Dec 2006 14:48

With that code and autoplay set to true, I'm getting sound but no image.

Thanks....

divx118 · Postby **divx118** » 30 Dec 2006 15:22

With that code and autoplay set to true, I'm getting sound but no image.

Thanks....

Sorry about the autoplay i forgot that to change. I just pulled the code out of my page. You can delete also the MCFocusable="true" you don't need that.
Maybe something is wrong with the test.avi, because by me it works in ie 7.
I am sure if you want to use the new activeX you have to use this code.

Perhaps you go to the testpage here http://people.videolan.org/~damienf/plugin-0.8.6.html and try there your test.avi. You can also take a look at the source of that page and see how the functions are called to play, pause, stop etc.

Maurice

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 30 Dec 2006 21:44

Thanks Divx... That was very helpful, it's still incredibly dark though. I've setup four different test files and they all are to dark to watch.

This is strange, becuase if I go to the VLC program directly on the client, they are perfect. Is there something in the activex that could be causing this?

Tappen · Postby **Tappen** » 31 Dec 2006 06:07

Have you tried adding the parameters "gamma" (values 0-10) and/or "brightness" (values 0-2) to your object? (higher is brighter for both)

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 31 Dec 2006 13:02

Good information...

I just tried

<OBJECT id="vlc"
codeBase="http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/video ... on=0,8,6,0"
height="480" width="640" classid="clsid:9BE31822-FDAD-461B-AD51-BE1D1C159921" events="True" MCFocusable="true">

<PARAM NAME="Src" value="test.avi" />
<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" />
<param name="gamma" value="10" /
<param name="brightness" value="2" />
</OBJECT>

and saw NO differance at all. I'm about to give up on the activex control. I just don't understand how the VLC client can work perfectly, but the activeX control is so dark.

Here is what I'm getting on the activex control

http://www.directdevices.com/vlc-1.png

Thanks for the ideas though! All have been helpfull in my education of VLC!

Tappen · Postby **Tappen** » 01 Jan 2007 01:20

This is a strange result. Everything in IE does sort of live in a sandbox, and I wonder if something is configuring DirectX differently when VLC is running as a dll in the IE process space. Your video drivers might have profiles for certain applications where the gamma and other color adjustments are being set. Maybe you set them for VLC and not for IE or v.v.?

Also you can try changing Video Output methods for the sake of getting more information. In Preferences, Video/Output modules (Advanced options checked) there's a Video output module drop-down list. Change this, Save, close Preferences and VLC, open IE and try your ActiveX test again. Try for all choices except the Dummy one.

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 01 Jan 2007 12:36

Progress!

Thanks Tappen. OpenGL and DirectX output modes have corrected the colors and depth issues. The image looks fine.

I'm wondering if this is a Vista (RTM) or an IE7 issue, or both.

Is there any way to set the output option as a param to the activeX control? I would like to have that as an option on my page, and not have to pull up VLC everytime to switch it.

I do have a new issue, it appears there is a buffering or network problem. THe test avi is pausing about every 20 seconds for a 20 second pause. I'm not sure why there would be a buffering problem as I'm on a gigbit lan.

Tappen · Postby **Tappen** » 01 Jan 2007 18:38

You can add an option "vout" = "vout_directx" to force DirectX I believe.

If both client and server have Gigabit lan cards and you're not going through a bad switch or router that's enough for almost any streaming, except maybe High Def mpeg-2. Problems can also happen if the hard-disk or hard-disk bus on your server doesn't have high enough continuous throughput capability. You receive the stream without pauses if the client is on the same machine?

What network protocol are you using for streaming? HTTP isn't well-designed for streaming, in case that's your choice. MMS, RTP and UDP all seem to work fine depending on the lan, and have caching values you can set to avoid pauses.

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 01 Jan 2007 18:40

Yea this is http... UDP into the VLC client is working ok. Also, it is a hidef movie. I was just trying to stress everything a little.

Tappen · Postby **Tappen** » 01 Jan 2007 18:58

http is almost pathological when it comes to streaming. All the extra sequencing and control bits and packets means the stream depends as much on the latency of the network, instead of just the throughput which real streaming protocols depend on. Latency is much harder to optimize, and can really get messed up if the server gets busy in any number of ways.

There are some (Unix based) servers that can do it well, however. But they're built from the ground up with parallelization in mind, unlike Windows which aims at other goals.

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 01 Jan 2007 19:57

Which servers did you have in mind? I think we may end up with a unix solution anyways.

Thanks.

Quovodis · Postby **Quovodis** » 02 Jan 2007 18:32

The avi plays, but it is VERY dark. It seems that it is also, at a low color depth. If I stream from VLC on the server to VLC on the client, this file looks fine. Just not in the activeX.

this problem is seen on Vista (with ATI drivers apparently) and affects both VLC player and the ActiveX plugin as both shares the same code. Therefore, I don't understand how the ActiveX and player video output differs. Obviously, one possible answer has to do with the Direct3D gamma ramp settings which can be overriden per application; VLC does not set any custom gamma ramp and uses the default system settings.

WeBoat · Postby **WeBoat** » 02 Jan 2007 18:35

I'm running NVIDEIA GeForce 7900 GX Drivers if that helps.

There is definatly an issue between the activeX and the regular player. The player has worked fine every time. I can not use the 3D drivers on the ActiveX.

Tappen · Postby **Tappen** » 02 Jan 2007 19:20

Sorry I'm not the one to ask about Unix servers, WeBoat, I just made the comment based on overheard conversations from people who do.

rockhll · Postby **rockhll** » 02 Jan 2007 21:33

Hi. This topic is like i want. Now. I want to show the movies in my web page. While i open my web page in IE, i can watch my movie. But while i open my web page in Firefox, i can't watch it. Why? Can you help me? Do you know it's HTML codes in Firefox? I'm waiting to your replies... Thanks.

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ActiveX, IE, and Color Depth.

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