Multimedia framework

[George Staikos]

On October 23, 2002 14:03, Neil Stevens wrote:
> On Wednesday October 23, 2002 10:55, Neil Stevens wrote:
> > On Wednesday October 23, 2002 08:44, George Staikos wrote:
> > >    Exactly what is the arts/kde multimedia framework with respect to
> > > graphics right now?
> >
> > aRts knows nothing of graphics, really.
> >
> > KDE has a video widget interface in libartskde.  It depends up on the
> > VideoPlayObject, which is implemented by xine_artsplugin, and the video
> > widget is used by Kaboodle and Noatun.
>
> Just another note: Other PlayObjects would be written to implement
> VideoPlayObject, and other interfaces (like, say, DVD) could be written
> that inherit VideoPlayObject.
>
> I don't see DVD playback going into Kaboodle or Noatun, as the amount of UI
> required by a DVD exceeds the amount of UI already in those apps.  I think
> it'd make much more sense to have specialized apps for specialized
> hardware, the way we already have a separate CD player.  This way the UI
> can be optimized for every case.

   I agree with this.  Actually I'm not sure that I even like the way video 
works in noatun.   It just doesn't "feel" as good as QT or MS Media Player 
via crossover.  It doesn't have a nice enough GUI yet.  

> There won't be a problem of code duplication as we already have a player
> KPart and interface which can be extended to give access to advanced
> interfaces as they become needed.

   BTW, KWinTV rewrite (qtvision) is much the same - a kpart which implements 
our underlying video input and output methods, along with channel management, 
closed captioning, videotext, OSD, etc.    This has a lot of power, as we 
have already demonstrated by making the kpart work in a mainwindow client, 
kicker extension, kicker applet, screensaver, kpart for konqi, etc.  Do you 
think that embedding xine, gstreamer or mplayer will work so well?

   I'm not trying to say that our system is better.  Quite the contrary.  
They're both very different, and both quite good.  For instance, I am quite 
impressed with where Xine is right now (and I have contributed to Xine too).  
I'm just wondering if maybe our video code should go into a generic lib for 
kde apps to use for video.  I already have some ideas and I think our code is 
more suited to implementing them than perhaps the current code.  And I don't 
like jumping through hoops.


-- 

George Staikos