External player

[Xenotox]

Hello...

Thanks for all your last responses to my questions...you helped me a lot.

I opened this new topic because.. quite frankly... the external player topic is a mess... i´ve tried to understand it but just can´t.

I´m using the moby version of XBMC for windows. I want to use media player to open my movies... how do i do it in a simple way??

Thanks in advance

[Bill48105]

Hi,
Dunno, can't get much simpler than as described in the 1st post:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40136

Here's my summary:
1. Install your desired player & codecs. Test playing videos directly with it.
2. Install external player capable version of XBMC.
3. Folllow directions in that above post to create the advancedsettings.xml changing <filename> value to full path of the player you want. (Might as well use Start->Run to test your path to make sure you have it right..)
4. Change <args> to whatever command line arguments your player needs or you desire, such as for full screen. You will need to research your player to find those as they are all different. (Again, wouldn't hurt to test with Start->Run so you don't blame XBMC when it doesn't work)
5. Run XBMC & try playing a video (or audio if you set that up too). If setup correctly your video player will be run & XBMC will wait in the background for it to close. Of course your remote or such will need to be able to control your player when it pops up. Close your player & XBMC will come back where you were when you played it.
6. You might need to play with the 3 settings that default to false depending on your player along with different command line switches to make it work how you want. Media Player Classic worked fine for me but I prefer the integrated player especially since it remembers where you left off which your external player would then need to handle.
Hope that helps.
Bill

[rpleasan]

Bill,

I did the exact steps you mentioned and VLC doesn't launch. I know VLC launches from the Run prompt as coded. Something just isn't right and yes, the External Player (blah) thread is a mess. I've tried several builds with the -ext.exe extention but no joy. Even removed/reinstalled xbmc from scratch. My advancedsettings.xml file is under \userdata and \xbmc and \PF\xbmc (LOL) hoping that it'll get used but no luck. I know I am not as stupid as this is making me feel. thx

Brighter note: I am really happy with XBMC. It looks sweet on my HTPC/42" plasma. I even modded my xbox in the bedroom to stream video :-). I am using VLC to play .iso and if I can get this external player thing to work, I'll be set.

[nymart]

I am using VLC to play .iso and if I can get this external player thing to work, I'll be set.

Any particular reason why you are using VLC to play .iso? XBMC does that natively. Almost all of my rips are .iso because I wanted to preserve the menus and navigation included on the dvd.

[rpleasan]

Honestly, I like VLC better than the default player. I just looks better to me. Besides, I can control 5.1 surround better in VLC.