bsi files for multiple CD movies (HD and CD) (Long!)

Hi!

Either I don't understand this "Play multiple CD movies with bsi files automatically" thing, or it simply doesn't work.

Originally I wanted to make a 2 CD movie with english and french subtitles. With a bsi files for every part of the film, I can play both seperately (and with selecting the subtitle language), but until now I didn't find a way to play them both consecutively without interaction (and all subtitles!).

At first I tried to play the two parts from hd. According to the ini file documentation and the faq, bsplayer should play the first bsi file it finds with a 'CD=2' line after playing the first part, if the files are located on hd. Well - this obviously doesn't happen in my case. After playing the first part the player simply stops.

I also tried to play the movie from two CDs (at least virtual CDs, as I don't want to waste my CDRs for such tests), but it is the same: when the first part is over, the player stops. No message, no request for the next CD. I followed every step as decribed in the faq, the bsi files have the same name and I have the same subtitles on every CD. No success...


BTW: I don't catch this anyway... When playing from CD the bsi files must have the same name on every CD, but when copying the files to hd, there have to be two different bsi files for every part. If I want to be able to play the movie both from CD *and* from hd (after storing them on hd), I have to save at least two bsi files on every CD (one with the same name for CD playback and one with a different name for hd playback). All assuming, that it works at all.

Beyond this I don't understand, why bsplayer (according to the docs) insists on the same subtitle and chapter files on every CD? Most splitted movies come with independent chapters and subtitles. Do I really have to join them together by hand to get one file I can write on both CDs?! If so, I would have to correct all timecodes in the second parts of the files. I really hope, this doesn't make sense to anyone, does it? :-)

To make a long story short: Last but not least it is not possible to play bsi files from the playlist :-?. This was my latest attempt to solve this problem but at this point I don't have any further ideas. I hope, some of you can help.

Tom

[Smarties]

Originally Posted by jeas

Either I don't understand this "Play multiple CD movies with bsi files automatically" thing, or it simply doesn't work.

Unfortunately it seems that playing multiple CD movies with bsi files automatically indeed does not work

Check out this thread which was still posted in the old forum.

Originally Posted by jeas

I also tried to play the movie from two CDs (at least virtual CDs, as I don't want to waste my CDRs for such tests), but it is the same: when the first part is over, the player stops. No message, no request for the next CD. I followed every step as decribed in the faq, the bsi files have the same name and I have the same subtitles on every CD. No success...

With me the player doesn't just stop; it displays the "please insert CD 2" message but then behaves differently depending on whether the INI file contains "RunHD=0" or "RunHD=2" Check out my post on the topic here. (I posted it about BSPlayer build 484 but it's still valid with build 488).

Originally Posted by jeas

BTW: I don't catch this anyway... When playing from CD the bsi files must have the same name on every CD, but when copying the files to hd, there have to be two different bsi files for every part. If I want to be able to play the movie both from CD *and* from hd (after storing them on hd), I have to save at least two bsi files on every CD (one with the same name for CD playback and one with a different name for hd playback).

Yes. It sucks, but it won't bother me very much once that multi-CD movies work fine FROM CD. I won't need them on HD anymore then! ;)

Originally Posted by jeas

Beyond this I don't understand, why bsplayer (according to the docs) insists on the same subtitle and chapter files on every CD? Most splitted movies come with independent chapters and subtitles. Do I really have to join them together by hand to get one file I can write on both CDs?! If so, I would have to correct all timecodes in the second parts of the files. I really hope, this doesn't make sense to anyone, does it? :-)

Well - you are right, it is unusual. Most other players work differently.
Nevertheless I would say that I prefer BSPLayer's way of handling subtitles because once you DID paste the subtitles together and re-synched them with your movie (which is a pain I know, but it only has to be done once) it's then very easy to split your movie wherever you want (for example if you recompress the movie to fit it on 1 CD instead of 2 using a newer DivX codec) since you can just use the same subtitle file again.

Here's a little tip on how to easily correct timecodes: what I do is that I open the subtitle file with Microsoft Excel (yes!), separate columns, add the correction time with a formula to the 2nd time column and finally make 1 column of the entire thing again using the command "concatenate".
It takes less than a minute to adjust timecodes that way!
Of course this only works if the subtitles are in a suitable format which is why I prefer MicroDVD "SUB" format:
{starttime}{endtime}{subtitle}.

I know this sounds very unclear - if people are interested, I can write a tutorial on how to do this.
Let me know, guys!

Well, to make an extremely long post short, I can only repeat one thing:

To Bst: Multi-CD movies are indeed still a major problem with BSPLayer - IMHO the worst bug left!

If there is any way we can help you Bst to fix this bug, let us know!
For example I could carry out some beta testing with various movies.
How about if you just made a "backbone" BSPlayer version without any of the advanced features just to test different solutions for this?

I can't program anything :( but if I can help with testing, I'll gladly do that.
Thank you so much!

Cheers, Smarties :P

[ShieldWolf]

I do mine with ini files, not bsi files, and it works just fine.

[Smarties]

Originally Posted by ShieldWolf

I do mine with ini files, not bsi files, and it works just fine.

Can you please post your INI files here?

I have tried both INI and BSI files with I don't know how many different
movies, configurations etc... and it won't work.

What version of BSplayer are you using?
What is your OS?

Do you include BSPlayer on your CDs or run it from HD?

Thanks so much for answering these questions!

Cheers, Smarties :P

[LordIntruder]

The mutiple CD movies change works fine with ini file (don't know about BSI files).

But I agree to say I work on it about 6 hours long and got headaches as ever. It's a real pain to make it work properly.

However, the only thing I can't succeed to is with Chapters and Images.

I've try tenths attempts, nothing work. I wonder if this function as ever work at all with Chapter.

Byt the way i'm under Windows XP Pro and the latest 0.85 Build 488

[xlv600]

Originally Posted by LordIntruder

However, the only thing I can't succeed to is with Chapters and Images.

:roll: Once upon a time, was a great app called Chappy. It did it a breeze to convert an avi and an ifo into a cbf and a chf. Really good for lazzy guys. But then came DivX 5, nothing worked anymore and the website died. Snif!
Keep your ifo files on HD, maybe they will be useful... who knows?

If you have a working method for dual CD movies, I'm interested too.

[LordIntruder]

No xlv600, you didn't understand me.

I know how to make work multi-CD change. You insert the first CD, you watch the movie and at the end it asks you for the second movie, you insert the second CD and automatically it starts.

I also know with ONE CD how to make chapters with images. It works fine. I press CTRL-V and I got my images.

Now my problem is that I can't succeed to merge the 2 solutions describe above. In others word when I try to implement chapters and images (even chapters alone doesn't work) WITH multi-CD change, it doesn't work at all. What happens is when the second movie starts, when I press CTRL+V and click an image (or by selecting under chapters section), it loads chapters from the first CD!!!!

The only way I've found until now is:

1) disable the chapter and images and I got a multi-CD change working fine.

2) I keep chapters and images but I disabled the multi-CD change. So people has to close BSPlayer at the end of the first CD, insert the second (there is an autolaunchand) select what they want (Original version, subtitles, etc...)

I'm still working or looking on a way to get both working fine together.

[xlv600]

Now it's clear! :lol:

Do you run BSPlay from your CD or from the HD?

The more I think about , the more I become convinced that the better choice is to run BSPlay from the HD. There are too much compatibility issues from one PC to another.
- Overlay mode choice is not clear.
- Playing from CD changes the settings in the registry, you'd have to export your settings from registry to HD before running and then restore if you don't want some of them to be reset to default.
But the CD should contain a working config if the needed filters are somewhat exotic.

Please, as asked by Smarties, share your working solution, even if it is not fully featured. The time you've spend won't be lost, and more people will be able to enjoy BSplayer advanced features. :)

[Smarties]

Originally Posted by xlv600

Please, as asked by Smartie, share your working solution, even if it is not fully featured. The time you've spend won't be lost, and more people will be able to enjoy BSplayer advanced features. :)

Yes, pretty please with sugar on top, let us know how you did the trick
and also what configuration you are running it with! :?

It's probably true that BSPlayer works better and smoother when run from
HD but it would be so cool if you could just get it to work from CD!!

Bst, did you read this thread? I've seen you checked on the forum - please let us know what you have to say with this issue!

THANKS!

Cheers, Smarties :P

[LordIntruder]

Share my working solution? Yes. But the real question is:

How much do you intend to give me? :twisted:

Well here are the .ini for you and Smarties and all interested people. There are quite simple:

CD1 :
*****

[Main]
NumberCDs=2
CD=1

[Movie]
Directory=..\video
FName=Matrix_CD1.avi

[Options]
PasScan=0
FullScreen=1
Lang=Fran?§ais
RunHD=0

CD2:
****

[Main]
NumberCDs=2
CD=2

[Movie]
Directory=..\video
FName=Matrix_CD2.avi

[Options]
PasScan=0
FullScreen=1
Lang=Fran?§ais
RunHD=0

With that, both on HD or on CD the solution works fine. Name your INI files different if you want to copy them on HD but you can name them same if you play from CD.

Hope it helps. :D

[xlv600]

Thanks!

:shock: In fact it seems nothing's special... apart from the way you spell "PanScan". :D

[LordIntruder]

HAHA! LOL.

A good point to you. I put this option and forgot to put it back as the movie always start in the good mode.

At first it seems you made a similar INI file so my examples doesn't help you at all. Snif

Another point to look at and a common error made by people is that INI files MUST be in the root directory of the second CD. It works well if INI files are located on BSPlayer when you make tests on HDD but whenever you burn your CDs, the INI files on the first CD must be on the BSPlayer for example (they can be located elsewhere, it works too), BUT in the second CD they MUST be in the root of the structure of the CD.

In others words, when creating a multi-CD change, when the first CD reach the end of the movie, BSPlayer will look to the others CD-ROM drive if there is another INI. But how does it look for the INI? It ONLY looks in the root of the CD and if the INI file are deeper in the structure, located in a directory of the CD, BSPlayer won't see it.

I admit to made this error (who didn't?) at first but now I put my INI file in the root directory of the 2nd (and upper) CD, everything works fine.

I'm currently doing a 3 CDs set (3h37 long, 3 subtitles and 3 INI files) and I succeed (At last!) to do a full multi-change CD with chapters and images. When I'm on CD2 and click on a chapter that is located on CD3, BSPlayer ask me to load the CD and it works fine.

If anybody interested, I will tell you where on which newsgroup I'm going to post it (when it'll be finished) so that anyone could download it and examine how my INI files and structure works.

[Smarties]

LordIntruder: thank you for your post!

It showed me that _basically_ multi CD support should be possible so I started taking a closer look at my INI files - they are much more complicated!

I am not quite done with all tests yet but I found out something already:
If you specify the resolution=... parameter, CD changing doesn't work correctly anymore. I always had resolution=1024x768x16 specified and it caused me problems.

It would change CD and start playing the new file - but without video stream! Furthermore it screwed up the BSPlayer skin.

Next, it seems that multi-CD works but ONLY if BSPlayer is installed on the harddisk.
So for multiple CD movies the "RunHD=" parameter is absolutely useless.

Bst: Are there any plans to enable multi-CD with BSPlayer ONLY on CD in further versions of BSPlayer?
(pretty pretty please with sugar icing and a cherry on top? :roll: )

Cheers, Smarties :P

[jeas]

Originally Posted by LordIntruder

The mutiple CD movies change works fine with ini file (don't know about BSI files).

There *should* be no difference between ini and bsi files. The contents of both files is the same. The bsi suffix was introduced to be able to associate this files with bsplayer, as ini-Files are normally associated with a text editor.

Of course i don't know, if both suffixes are implemented properly in the latest beta. (Obviously there are still problems, as this thread shows...)

Tom

[LordIntruder]

Smarties:

You seems to be right. I heavily tested multi-CD change on my HDD and everything goes fine. But now I test my solution on CDs, it no longer work at all.

I'm sorry for that info guys, maybe you were like me it started on your HDD and not on multi-CDs?

What I find strange is why it doesn't work on CDs, I didn't change anything instead now files are on CD and not on HDD. I also try many others solutions, moving INI files, creating exact structure than CD one on the second CD, each time the movie reach the end BSPlayer automatically test my second CD-ROM where the movie is located and it finds nothing and still ask for the CD to be loaded. Same if I put the 2nd CD on the same CD-ROM that the first CD. I even put INI file in root, in BSPlayer directory to be sure the INI file is detected and read: NOTHING!!!

So it must be a bug behind that, we are several to have made some heavy tests and nothing works at all.