CBR/CBZ Comic Book Parser and Reader [Archive]

JoGa

2003-10-01, 16:27

first, sorry for my poor english, i'm french

1/ can you include a comics reader feature in xbmc ? (comics are usually in jpeg format or .zip).
many peoples download comics and other document like this on the net but currently there's no apps for this on xbox.
the "my pictures" functionnality already does a part of my request (with the slideshow feature), but here we need to display the jpeg in fullscreen (full width) and we need ability to scroll with the pad to view the rest of the jpeg (from top to bottom).
afetr we can press the a button to go to next page (it's an example)

2/ can you include a new feature to display some rss newsfeeds ?
ability to sort newsfeeds by subjects, languages, interests ...
in other way, a feature to display rss feeds of our choice, to do this sort of things (http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/mce2004_13.jpg).

thanks in advance for your answer(s)
i'm already a huge fan of xbmp since the first day and i wish you success for this new baby.

( please send me an email if you didn't understand anything with my questions :d )

nimbles

2004-02-20, 20:39

ok if i explain what i tried maybe it'd be easier.

in my music i wanted to put a "my radio stations sub category" which contained a link to shoutcast .pls files i'd saved on my xbox, and a samba share link to the streams i had shared on my pc (which tends to get updated more regularly). however when i tried to do this- it wouldn't work this is what i tried:

<music>
.
.
<bookmark>
<name>internet radio</name>
<bookmark>
<name>xbmc stored radio stations</name>
<path>$home\radio</path>
</bookmark>

<bookmark>
<name>my radio stations (on pc)</name>
<path>smb://my-computer/radio</path>
</bookmark>

</bookmark>
.
</music>

secondly, i dunno if many people would actually require this but i get quite a lot of comics (amazing spiderman and fantastic four) which are archived as .cbz and .cbr files (essentially they a rar'ed files with the extensions renamed so they can be associated with the awesome cdisplay program).

it would be nice if i could use xbmc to read them in there compressed format, although this may be a bit too much to expect even from you guys :d

Frodo

2004-02-21, 11:54

again xbmc is a media centre, not an os with all programs you personnaly like/want
main purpose for xbmc is playing audio/video files and viewing your (vacation) photo's

reading text/comics or whatever is not going 2 b part of xbmc
neither are the following items which get requested over and over again:

- web-browser ala mozilla/firebird
- email reader ala outlook (express)
- msn or any other messenger program
- personal agenda/pim
-

we just got 64 megs so we gotta be picky what we want and dont want. at the moment there's not much left, xbmc is already getting bloated with 2 many options or features

frodo

nimbles

2004-02-21, 22:27

yeah i thought it was a bit of a long shot, although the premise of being able to view jpegs that are conatined in a rar file, may have some use other than for comic books?

^MAX^

2004-05-03, 02:25

please add comics support to xbmc, current comic format uses rar or zip as container and jpeg as pages. most are : .cbr (.rar renamed) and .cbz (.zip renamed), there is a good example of comic reader here:
http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/cdisplay

i could code a unrar and unzip warper for xbmc if someone does some gui.

thanks
max

tslayer

2004-05-03, 04:10

please check the development forum. somebody was porting unrar to the xbox but never completed it seems. would be great if you could do so.

ts

^MAX^

2004-05-03, 04:28

i already coded a xbox version of unrar (complex tools), it's only matter of integrate it into xbmc.
i'll look into.
since i don't know the xbmc architecture yet. pointing fingers welcomed.
support for zip should by trivial also.
problem is: *rar could be solid, which mean, for subtitles and small stuff, is allright since they're small.
but for big rar files, some kind of temporary space should be used.

jmarshall

2004-05-03, 06:10

z: is the xbox temporary drive for caching stuff.

^MAX^

2004-05-03, 18:00

z:\ maybe to small, i think is only 768mb. my first tought was implement it like a directory, but if xbmc want to stream from the rar some other method should be implemented. some kind of special cases should be made. examples like, if you want to stream an avi, seek should be disabled. maybe some preferences like, filesystem_seekable=false;.

Amything

2004-05-04, 17:47

here is a python comic reader, might be helpful (it's not ported on xbox) http://kai.vm.bytemark.co.uk/~piman/superchick/

Xybernauts

2004-07-19, 15:39

i love the latest version of your xbmc, it's easy to use, useful, and it looks good to.

i was wondering if you could add a comic book reader to the x-box media center. there is program that allows you to read back-up comic books. you take the comic book scans and you put them into a rar/zip file and you change the extension to cbz. once zipped you don't have to worry about organizing a whole bunch of comic book pages, the zip acts as on complete comic. esentially it is a picture viewer that reads pics directly from the zip file.

it would be a great addition to the xmc. perhaps you could work with cdisplay comic reader http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/cdisplay or maybe you can make your own. i try to reread my comics on my computer, but it is very tedious. with the controller and a series of video settings adjustment options it could really make reading copies of your comic books off your hard drive great. goto cdisplay forum to find out more about the cdisplay comic reader.

Cus

2004-07-19, 23:15

the 'image adjustment' features used in cdisplay would probably be useful in non-comic contexts as well.

automatic colour balance/yellow-adjustment etc would be useful for photos/scans. could be added as part of the 'my pictures' configuration?

dazrite

2004-08-13, 07:43

i saw one older post on the matter that didn't get a lot of discusion.

i would love to see cbz and cbr comic archive reading capability added into the image viewer. basically a way to open a zip archive and vierw the images sequentially.

i had a look around and didn't see this one any official comming soon feature lists, so i thought i would mention it :)

scorpious

2004-09-03, 07:26

nimbles

2004-09-03, 09:16

its cbr/cbz- i askes this a long time ago and the answer was no then- but seeing as this is inherently linked to rar support which may be in the works- then maybe it isn't a massive leap to this

maybe if the author was contacted and asked if he wouldn't mind sharing the source code ???

Gamester17

2004-09-03, 14:35

i'm not even sure if this should be it's own thread because as i understand cbr is simply a renamed rar and cbz is simply a renamed zip(?)

nimbles

2004-09-03, 17:33

yup thats exactly right

there are two pc based apps that will run it
cdisplay (http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/cdisplay) & bdzexplorer (http://english.fbsoft.org/)

to my knowledge these to apps look the renamed zip/rar, and display the picture files in sequential order- (sequential determined by the creator- can be numerical or alphabetical)

but i think this is inherently linked to rar/zip support at the end of the day

Gamester17

2004-09-03, 18:07

then?;
cbr request = "parse rar files to read media files in them, also add parsing/reading rared vobsub's (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=1963)" suggestion.
cbz request = "parsing zip files to read media files in them (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=1810)" * * *:hmm:

srusli

2004-10-24, 18:31

first of all, congratulations on the team for creating the best front-end ever! more and more i am in love with xbmc and my xbox.

a suggestion to support .cbr or .cbz for viewing compressed picture files and rar or zip format -> for viewing comics especially.

would appreciate if you can consider for the next release, thank you again.

the_real_paladin

2004-11-30, 18:29

heya,

just a request for a minor mod to the my pictures part...
(a my comics would be cool, but that is asking too much)

if xbmc can read .cbr (rar files) and .cbz (zip) files and display the files in there sequentially, you could read the gazillions of comics that are on the net.

my proposal for controls would be (either controller or remote):
up/down -> scroll up down page
left/right -> previous/next page
white button/display button -> resize to fit screen: width, then height, then whole page, then original size.

greetz,
paladin

thedarkbackward

2004-11-30, 23:48

i'd like to add my own "yea" to this as well - since xmbc is a conglomeration of various entertainment media sources, i don't see how this is any more out of place than rss feeds or weather. i'd donate to see this happen - got over 50 gigs of comics just itching to get read on my widescreen tv.

the_real_paladin

2004-12-01, 00:16

heya,

i'd pledge some cash here to see this happen. and since when are comics not considered media?

greetz,
paladin

martijn

2004-12-01, 10:30

is it possible to add support for the cdz, and cdr formats? as far as i know it looks like a renamed zip and rar files with jpgs inside them? xbmc can read jpgs already, doesn't sound too xomplicated, but then again i am no pro :rolleyes:
indeed cbz is a .zip file and .cbr is a rar file. it still would be very cool to have a comicbook reader on xbox! shouldn't be too hard to implement?

regards,
martijn

pHo

2005-01-11, 01:51

hey guys, just started using xbmc to display comic books in hd on my tv, can't believe how crisp and sharp they look. only thing is, most issues come in the standard cbr/cbz support... very simple.. basically a rar/zip (depending on r/z) with the pages inside in a logical order. i'm not sure how easy (if at all possible even) it is to implement rar/zip reading into xbmc, but it'd be a pretty neat addon if it ever made it.

also, if there's no way to zoom to width (i need to read the manual yet, so for all i know there is) that'd also be pretty rad.

pHo

2005-01-11, 18:47

hm got a warning for duping, so apologies. i did search, but didn't realise the forum defaults to this month (rather than all time, which practically every forum i use goes to), so no entries came up. my fault, sorry.

spiff

2005-05-22, 23:39

hi,

i've implemented a zip filesystem handler, and thus .cbz will be available.

when you click a .cbz, would you prefer that

1) it's just listed in the file browser and you can choose designated picture/page.

2) it automatically launch slideshow

3) automatically view first picture

spiff

Asteron

2005-05-23, 20:56

i vote for 3... i dont think people want to dive into a cbz and see individual files but maybe.

a slideshow would involve panning and zooming right? that's not desirable

Bernd

2005-05-24, 03:11

phunck's ooba script can display daily comics from some website (can't remember its name).
but it doesn't support cb[r|z] files

Delirium

2005-05-30, 15:11

i vote for no 3.
it would be an awesome feature. :kickass:
when could it be implemented?

spiff

2005-05-30, 17:53

the code is there. basically i just need to get off my lazy ass and integrate it into my pictures :)

i won't give any eta, i'm very busy with finishing my master thesis,
that's due 10th of june...

perhaps before, most likely after

Delirium

2005-05-30, 18:20

i'm not the one to be picky. whenever you have the time is fine. keep up the good work!

CrashCat

2005-05-31, 07:34

is it possible to keep a zoom setting and advance/go back in the file list, maybe with a script or something? that's more of an obstacle to viewing comics than the cbr/cbz thing. i can always unzip or unrar a file on my own computer but it's a pain to hit zoom three times to see a page, then unzoom three times, advance to next image, then zoom in again. it's probably not behavior you want with all images but it would be a useful mode. granted i don't really know how difficult it would be.

this is just icing on the cake stuff, but it sounds simple enough that it's sorely tempting me.

jmarshall

2005-05-31, 11:55

not sure but i think this requires a small change in the way movement is picked up in my pictures.

iirc, in zoom mode, the dpad overrides for movement. this is probably mainly for the remote, though i'm not 100% sure why as there should be sufficient buttons to not have this.

cheers,
jonathan

CrashCat

2005-05-31, 16:41

not sure but i think this requires a small change in the way movement is picked up in my pictures.

iirc, in zoom mode, the dpad overrides for movement. *this is probably mainly for the remote, though i'm not 100% sure why as there should be sufficient buttons to not have this.

cheers,
jonathan
yeah, the d-pad changes to move the view, but the triggers go from advancing through the file list to no action. they don't do anything when i'm zoomed in.

Asteron

2005-05-31, 18:03

they don't do anything when i'm zoomed in.
i find having to zoom out out to advance images a little annoying as well.

spiff

2005-06-03, 02:38

just commit the initial support.

CrashCat

2005-06-06, 18:46

just commit the initial support.
cbz and zip opening works decently now. a lot of my cbzs won't open but some do so i can probably figure out what is breaking them if i take a little time.

still can't advance when zoomed in though, so it's not much use unless i chop up my images ahead of time so i can see them at default zoom.

suppose i could get a remote and type the number of the zoom scale i want while looking at each page but i don't know if that slowpoke zoom animation still applies there. i'm hoping it's a relatively easy thing to code and was just overlooked, because the rest of the interface works the same when zoomed into a picture, but the triggers stop responding.

thanks for getting the zip support though :)

spiff

2005-06-06, 18:58

keep an eye at the compression method used.

if it's anything but storing (no compression) or deflation, it isn't supported. this is due to the fact that the underlieing library (zlib) only supports deflation...

if they are deflated there's a bug somewhere and i'll have a look (preferably with access to a non-working file..)

CrashCat

2005-06-06, 19:19

spiff

2005-06-14, 02:57

just commited .cbr support

Arkane

2005-07-20, 13:59

can xbmc play .cbr files? (comic books) if so, how?

spiff

2005-08-04, 20:17

hi,

i finally figured out (i think) why you guys are having problems.

the code was only done to handle archives with files in the root dir.

it seems most .cbr/.cbz out there has a dir within the archives.

please report your findings.

GhostDog__

2005-08-05, 01:01

in testing with the august 4th cvs, i'm finding that it won't open .cbr files. if you rename it .cbz, it opens, but no pictures are viewable. if you rename the file to .rar, it opens, and there are no problems.

spiff

2005-08-05, 01:42

make sure that

04-08-05 fixed: cbr/cbz support. if pictures was in a folder, playback would fail.

is in changelog.txt.

if it is, please pm me (again...) the file you provided me with earlier works fine here...

spiff

2005-08-05, 05:26

(hopefully) found the issue.

a workaround until the fix hits anon is to enable 'hide parent folder items' for the my pictures settings..

GhostDog__

2005-08-05, 06:48

(hopefully) found the issue.

a workaround until the fix hits anon is to enable 'hide parent folder items' for the my pictures settings..
to let everybody know, i can confirm that this fixes the problem. :thumbsup:

A600

2006-04-16, 19:39

when i use the zoom and view the next comic page, the picture isn't displayed from the top and i have to scroll up to the top.

it would be great an option to always show the picture starting from the top if the zoom is used.

spiff

2006-05-06, 19:28

05-05-06 changed: when viewing a .cbr/.cbz, move to top left corner on image change.

A600

2006-05-06, 21:03

05-05-06 changed: when viewing a .cbr/.cbz, move to top left corner on image change.
thanks a lot!

jarod71

2006-05-07, 11:46

this is so awsome, i cant wait to try it tomorrow! any tips on reading comics with this? i have a ton on my harddrive, gonna try it tomorrow. what else needs to be done? do i need to zoom them or does it do it automaticlly? thanks guys and gals, i love xbmc.

jarod71

2006-05-12, 01:47

05-05-06 changed: when viewing a .cbr/.cbz, move to top left corner on image change.
thanks a lot!
i upgraded to this build and this is still not working, image still starts in center when i go view a page.

spiff

2006-05-13, 22:02

13-05-06 changed: don't show zoom overlay in slideshow when viewing comics.

this was requested hope nobody protests :)

jarod71

2006-05-14, 06:48

thanks spiff!

however, is it possible to have a toggle for on and off of zoom overlay? not sure how many people are using xbmc for comics but a toggle would be best, however for myself, i can live with out the zoom overlay as long as the page starts at the top left corner. thanks again, and i hope others will consider using xbmc with their high def displays to view and read comics!

spiff

2006-05-14, 12:49

sorry, there's simply no buttons left.

jarod71

2006-05-14, 18:01

thats fine, i tried it and it works great! only one issue, non related i think. in the latest build, my thumbnails will not display correctly in my pictures. i had .tbn jpg files for each comic cover and they no longer display. my thumbs for movies and music still are working? do i need to put the thumbs somewhere else now?

spiff

2006-05-14, 18:13

shouldn't have to. i'll investigate later.

jarod71

2006-05-14, 18:47

thanks spiff, if you have time, please look into it. the 4-27 t3ch biuld works fine. the 5-5 and 5-13 builds do not. in 5-5 and 5-13 builds .cbr files do not display thumbs correctly. i used the filename.tbn convention and this worked fine in 4-27 build. if i change .cbr to .rar. it auto generates the thumbs but treats it as a directory, not one file to be lauched and viewed as a comic. so something is broke lol. thanks for everything!

jarod71

ashlar

2006-06-27, 14:15

is there a way for xbmc to support .cbr or .cbz files as per cdisplay format (http://www.sketchyorigins.com/comics/showthread.php?t=1261)?
on a nice hdtv it could be an interesting feature to have. :)

if this exists already, sorry. i searched and couldn't find anything.

spiff

2006-06-27, 14:17

yes it already exists. just launch the cbr/cbz from my pictures.

how come ppl ask first, test later?

ashlar

2006-06-27, 16:05

yes it already exists. just launch the cbr/cbz from my pictures.

how come ppl ask first, test later?
i'm sorry, i was at the office and this thought came to my mind. i searched on the whole forum without finding anything. i searched for comics, comic book, cdisplay, cbz and cbr... nothing. i looked at the wiki, nothing... and now i tried again and remembered about the default date for searches to be one month... there it is. sorry again.

i probably ought to register to the wiki and add it myself. i couldn't see cbr and cbz support there.

spiff

2006-06-27, 16:09

uhm, no.

it was basically just something i added since it could be done when i added the zip/rar support. nothing much to it except some minor tweaks with zooming. if you search a wee bit better you'll find the thread on it in this very forum.

tbh, i don't know what that option is, as i have never used cdisplay myself. i take it its some kind of concating of pictures, that is not supported you'll have to switch (memory considerations would probably make this hard to accomplish properly on the xbox).

ashlar

2006-06-27, 16:12

if you search a wee bit better you'll find the thread on it in this very forum.
yes, i edited my post. i forgot about posts age in the search page...

regarding the features, i think the only one really needed would be the one were you allow two pictures to be shown side by side, as in a double page spread. on a 16:9 screen it makes a lot of sense, as opposed as a single page sitting in the centre of the screen.

i'll add this to the relevant thread. mods, if you wish you can lock this one.

ashlar

2006-06-27, 16:28

regarding the features, i think one needed would be the one were you allow two pictures to be shown side by side, as in a double page spread. on a 16:9 screen it makes a lot of sense, as opposed as a single page sitting in the centre of the screen.

xbmc_fanatic

2006-07-19, 04:31

Hi Spiff,

I just tried using XBMC to view a CBR file and it works great! So thanks for adding that feature. I am sure that I'll spend a lot of time using this feature in the next few days! :laugh:

However I think that there are still a few more features that would make the cbr/cbz support really good. Some of them seem to me even more interesting than adding support for viewing two images side by side.

Could you please have a look at the following thread?

http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21064

There amadawn makes some excellent suggestions for improving the comic book support. Some of them are actually also valid for viewing regular pictures, so that might not be related to the CBR support that you added.

Basically I'd be awesome if there were a way to zoom to the full width of the images, instead (or in addition to) zooming to the full height, which is what you can do now by pressing the (Y) button. Zooming to the height makes the images small and wastes a lot of space on the sides of the screen.

I know that you can zoom the image by clicking on the up and down digital pad buttons, but you cannot zoom exactly to the image width (one zoom level is too high and the other one is a bit too low).

Also, adding catching (for at least the next image) would improve the user experience (IMHO) a lot, as currently it takes quite a while to fetch the next image when you click the right trigger (specially over the netwok).

I hope you guys can consider adding these features.

BTW, I noticed that if the screen saver is started while you have a comic book open, when you stop the screen saver (by clicking one of the buttons) the screen remains faded (according to the XBMC setting) and only when you go to the next page the full brightness of the screen is restored.

spiff

2006-07-19, 18:43

we are out of memory. that's the problem, not caching (i.e. we can't cache)

as for the rest, i doubt i'll work more on this. i never use it myself.

amadawn

2006-07-19, 19:37

This is a long reply, so I apologize in advance! :-)

as for the rest, i doubt i'll work more on this. i never use it myself.

I am sorry to hear that :blush:

I asked for these features in the context of comic viewing but I think that they also apply to regular image viewing. The zoom to width in particular doesn't seem a big deal, but for those of us who have a 16x9 TV would be quite useful.

I hope someone picks at least that one up! :rolleyes:

Still, thanks a lot for what you have already done! :)

BTW, spiff, are you the one that wrote the XBMC file viewer? I think I saw that mentioned in another thread. It amazes me how easy to use and practical it is, specially considering the limited input that the user can give to the xbox with the gamepad!

we are out of memory. that's the problem, not caching (i.e. we can't cache)

Sorry for my complete ignorance, but what is the difference between catching, let's say, a video that is being whatched through the network, and catching the next picture in a Slideshow?

Conceptually they seem simular (in my totally uninformed opinion, of course! ??? ) So couldn't there be an extra entry on the Cache settings where you could adjust the amount of cache to reserve for My Pictures? In that case users could distribute memory for this if they needed it... Also, it does not seem that you would need so much memory for just one single picture. I rarelly see pictures bigger than 1 MB... (which is not negligible considering the XBOX' 64 MB but still not huge, right?)

And even if catching is not possible, it would be nice if at least XBMC informed the user that it is reading the next picture when (and only if) the user clicks the "next picture" button (the right trigger). Right now you don't know if it is reading the picture or if it did not get your button press...

Another reason why I woul like to see the catching is that if you interrupt a slideshow (or a comic book viewing), when you re-start it it starts from the beginning and then it takes a long time to get to where you were because it has to show you every picture. This "catching" issue would be much less important if you could "nagivate" forward as you can on a video or a song by advancing through the slideshow (you know, where you see the little navigation popup window that shows you how much you have seen and a cursor with the position where you are movig to with the right thumbstick), without loading the picture, until the user stops clicking the "forward" button.

Somehow it seems to me that the "My Pictures" part of XBMC is a bit less polished and feature complete than the rest of features. It is quite good, don't get me wrong! but it is missing the easy forward/backward navigation that is present in My Videos and My Music.

Thanks for reading this far, if you did! :-)

Amadawn

spiff

2006-07-19, 19:50

i agree on the polish.

the caching issues however, you have completely wrong.

okay, granted, the jpeg takes 1mb. this should already tell you that it isn't transfering over the network that is taking the time.

silly little example. a 2mbit picture 2mpixel = 2*10^6 pixels. each pixels needs 4byte. so

4*2*10^6 = 8mb.

this is 2mbit. ppl like to view, say, 8mbit pictures.

8*10^6*4 = 32mb.

that's half the memory of the xbox. and this is only the in-memory copy. on top of this comes two buffers (back/front), the texture, anything else running, +++.

and you want us to fit two of those. no way. so we (as in jmarshall) had to come up with a solution; this solution is resampling the picture while loading it.

this is what's taking time, loading the picture. in particular resampling it (only loading it at the res needed for the screen instead of loading all pixels).

amadawn

2006-07-19, 20:56

First of all, thanks for reading my previous long post! :laugh:

i agree on the polish.

:grin: Actually picture support is already very good, but as I said there are some things (some of them apparently simple to do) that could make the My Pictures section better, up to par with the other sections.

In particular, if most of the delay is related to the decompression/processing of the pictures, and thus cannot be easilly reduced, I seems that adding some sort of indication while XBMC is working on displaying the next picture would at least reduce the impression that nothing is happening and that you might have not clicked the right button.

the caching issues however, you have completely wrong.

OK, I get your point. I suspected that I was wrong, as otherwise this would have already been taken care of in the past! :laugh:

However, I have a question:

If the max resolution which the XBOX can display is 1080i, doesn't it mean that the maximum FINAL memory that a picture could need (_after_ all the intermediate, probably very memory consuming, processing) would be 1920*1080 pixels * 4 bytes -> 7.92 MBytes? This would be regardless of the original picture size.

When using 720p or 480p the maximum FINAL memory need would be even smaller (3.53 MB and 1.57MB respectivelly), right? Thus, couldn't it be possible to fetch the next image, decompress it (if there is enough memory left) and keep the final decompressed image in memory?

I understand that this could be quite tricky, much harder than what I imagined when I initially requested some sort of "catching" feature", but, especially for 480p, it seems feasible (you would only have 1.6 MB less left to perform the memory intensive decoding of the second image than the first).

Another work around could be that, even if most of the time is spent on decompressing the images, at least some significant percentage of the time must be spent retrieving them from the network, right? In that case perhaps having the next image data (compressed, in its original format) ready could save a few seconds and reduce the lag. After all the lag is big but not so big that reducing a pair of seconds due to network transfer would not be noticeable.

So it still seems that some tricks might be done to partially reduce the time needed to show the next picture. Of course I am no XBMC developper and it is easy for me to throw ideas around! :rolleyes: So thanks again for considering them!

Amadawn

spiff

2006-07-19, 21:03

this is precisely what is done (or rather, it's what starts when u hit next picture , in a slideshow it is done automatically) but when 1080i has eaten 16 mb,
you need to consider the front/backbuffer, textures +++.

two pictures is pushing it as it is.

it used to cache pictures (say, 6-10 months ago). no significant gains in loading time were observed (remember, 1 mb on a proper network connection takes 1/10 of a second to transfer (approx)). granted, there's probably some latency issues due to the image loader loading small blocks, but still i'd say this still adds only a most half a sec to the loading time.

i'll see if i find the inspiration to add some polish before 2.0 (in particular a loading indicator).

amadawn

2006-07-19, 23:30

I love it when you guys give us, non XBMC developpers, such detailed explanations. :) Thanks for taking the time to answer me!

I am very happy that you will consider adding a loading indicator, and I hope that you will also "find the inspiration" to add some of the other smaller suggestions (such as "zoom to width" and specially a means to advance in the slideshow without going forward one image at a time).

It is a pity that there is no other way to speed things up when loading images, though... But I have one last suggestion (and please forgive me for my insistence. I believe this is an important issue that merits the discussion).

In your opinion, is it the limiting factor only the memory requirements for the 1080i mode? Could it be feasible to decode a second image when using the 480p resolution? If that were the case, what about having a similar setting to the My Videos resolution setting, where you can fix the resolution at which videos are be played? You could have a setting in which you limit the resolution for image display(to 480p for instance) regardless of the general XBMC resolution. In that mode perhaps caching would become feasible...

That is the last thing I can think of, now that you've so clearly explained the memory issues in 1080i.

If you think this is still not realistic, I would be happy if at least there was a way to skip several pictures quickly, without loading each one by one. I wouldn't matter if was by means of a filmstrip mode or a list of pictures or just a slider like for my music or my videos or any other equivalent method.

Thanks again!

Amadawn

xbmc_fanatic

2006-07-19, 23:50

What an awesome discussion! I might not understand half of it (what are the front/back buffers?) but I can appreciate how difficult must have been to create something like XBMC!

spiff

2006-07-20, 00:38

amadawn, i'll answer your post later a bit short on time.

xbmc_fanatic; the back / front buffer is a two cyclic buffers. while the front buffer is displayed on the screen, we draw to the backbuffer. when we are done, we switch the roles. we now display what was the backbuffer before (which now is the front buffer), while we draw to the other one. this is to avoid drawing half-rendered frames (commonly known as tearing). hope that makes sense.

xbmc_fanatic

2006-07-20, 00:46

I understand now. Thank you spiff!

So both the front and back buffers are part of the 64 MB that the xbox has?

xbmc_fanatic

2006-07-20, 18:56

OK, I thought about this front/back buffer thing a little bit more yesterday when I was using XBMC to look at some pictures, and I have one last question:

When you click on the next button, XBMC keeps showing the current picture until it is ready to show the next picture. The transition from the current to the next is pretty smooth and quick. If I understood spiff, this is because the next picture is read and put into the back buffer and then, when it is ready, it is copied to the front buffer, right?

OK, then, could this process be "paused" just before copying the next image from the back buffer to the front buffer? If that was possible, then the next image could be read automatically when the current has been shown, but it would be kept in the back buffer. When the user clicks the next button XBMC can simply copy the contents of the back buffer, that already has the next image in it, into the front buffer. This would give the impression to the user that going to the next image is almost "instantaneous". Then, after showing the next image that was in the back buffer it can load the following picture into the back buffer to prepare for the next time that the user would click the next button.

Of course this would only work when the user goes one image at a time and takes some time to whatch each picture, but in my experience this is how I use the pictures feature the most. If you combine this with an appropriate progress indication when the back buffer is not ready the image navigation would seem much snappier than it is today!

And if I understood spiff correctly, this should not take more memory than what is already happening when you click next, right? I apologize if this is a stupid idea but it seems as if this should work!... ???

jmarshall

2006-07-20, 23:13

The "state engine" of the slideshow viewer needs an overhaul. It's not something many of the current developers really care about that much, thus it hasn't been done. You need to find a developer that cares about reading comics or whatever on their xbox and encourage them to rewrite it.

There's a few things that need to be done to make it more efficient:

1. Implement a cancel loading to the loaders (JPEG loader in particular) in CxImage. This will allow much quicker response on user actions (where often a background loading task needs to be waited on before we can cancel it)

2. Implement better handling of the timing of slideshows and static picture viewing.

amadawn

2006-07-26, 11:33

The "state engine" of the slideshow viewer needs an overhaul. It's not something many of the current developers really care about that much, thus it hasn't been done. You need to find a developer that cares about reading comics or whatever on their xbox and encourage them to rewrite it.

Well, I was somehow hoping to get one of you guys excited about this. At least spiff seems to be slightly interested in fixing some of the simplest problems. Maybe he'll go all the way and fix everything else? :nod:

I know that each developer works on what they are interested in, but isn't the Pictures feature one of the major features of XBMC?

xbmc_fanatic, you say you don't understand the discussion, but your last suggestion is quite interesting!

Amadawn

immun

2006-10-13, 08:44

In case you don't already know these formats are actually rar (cbr) or zip (cbz) files which simply have been renamed. They each contain a bunch of properly numbered jpegs (and sometimes an nfo) and are most common used for the distribution of scanned comics.

Now add a tool like Cdisplay (http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay) which offers lots of convenient options to view this file on a PC monitor (resize oversized pictures, turn pages at the press of a button and so on) and you can enjoy your digitized comics.

Now imagine reading those comics on a large Flat-TV hooked to your XBOX. I love to get away from my PC now and then. Is there even a way to port this application to the XBOX or do you have to have the programmer involved?

spiff

2006-10-13, 10:30

hey smrtass. read the thread ;)

DonnyX

2006-10-16, 14:21

Not sure if it's been worked on anymore, but I thought I'd share my problems regarding the picture viewer.

For some reason XBMC sometimes reads the .jpg inside .cbr files out of order. Haven't really found a good explanation for it yet. Some .cbr files mix certain pictures totally. Kind of hard to read a comic when the 1st page shown is 07, then 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 00, 08 etc. Sometimes it can be even more messed up. If the file is renamed to .rar the contents are shown and sorted properly by name.

Also, it seems that XBMC opts for the 1st .rar or single .jpg files inside the folder, even if a .cbr file is chosen. For example, there's a folder with 1.rar and 2.cbr, when I choose to read the 2.cbr, XBMC shows the contents of 1.rar. Weird.

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on?

This happens on samba share and internal HD.

The build is from Sept 29, 2006.

Thanks for your interest :)

spiff

2006-10-16, 19:00

samples please

DonnyX

2006-10-17, 11:49

Thanks for caring, Spiff.

Here's an example of the .rar override:

11:39:38 M: 37040128 DEBUG: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+04%2ecbr/)
11:39:38 M: 37040128 DEBUG: ParentPath = [F:\Pictures]
11:39:38 M: 37040128 DEBUG: Activating window ID: 12007
11:39:38 M: 37040128 DEBUG: Checking if window ID 12007 is locked.
11:39:38 M: 39026688 INFO: Loading skin file: Slideshow.xml
11:39:38 M: 38502400 DEBUG: Loading the current image rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+04%2erar/Runaways04p00.jpg
11:39:39 M: 37654528 DEBUG: Finished background loading rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+04%2erar/Runaways04p00.jpg
11:39:39 M: 37654528 DEBUG: Duration: 566 (transistion out length 123)
11:39:39 M: 37654528 DEBUG: Incrementing counter (0) while not in slideshow (startlength=123,endstart=566,endlength=123)
...
11:39:51 M: 37023744 DEBUG: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/)
11:39:51 M: 37023744 DEBUG: ParentPath = [F:\Pictures]
11:39:51 M: 37023744 DEBUG: Activating window ID: 12007
11:39:51 M: 37023744 DEBUG: Checking if window ID 12007 is locked.
11:39:51 M: 39022592 INFO: Loading skin file: Slideshow.xml
11:39:51 M: 38498304 DEBUG: Loading the current image rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+04%2erar/Runaways04p00.jpg
11:39:52 M: 37650432 DEBUG: Finished background loading rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+04%2erar/Runaways04p00.jpg
11:39:52 M: 37650432 DEBUG: Duration: 571 (transistion out length 124)
11:39:52 M: 37650432 DEBUG: Incrementing counter (0) while not in slideshow (startlength=124,endstart=571,endlength=124)
...

That should give you an idea.

Then an example of out of order reading (no .rar in the folder this time):

12:03:38 M: 37191680 DEBUG: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/)
12:03:38 M: 37191680 DEBUG: ParentPath = [F:\Pictures]
12:03:38 M: 37191680 DEBUG: Activating window ID: 12007
12:03:38 M: 37191680 DEBUG: Checking if window ID 12007 is locked.
12:03:38 M: 39059456 INFO: Loading skin file: Slideshow.xml
12:03:38 M: 38539264 DEBUG: Loading the current image rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/Runaways 06/Runaways06.jpg
12:03:39 M: 37728256 DEBUG: Finished background loading rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/Runaways 06/Runaways06.jpg
12:03:39 M: 37728256 DEBUG: Duration: 561 (transistion out length 122)
12:03:39 M: 37728256 DEBUG: Incrementing counter (0) while not in slideshow (startlength=122,endstart=561,endlength=122)
...
12:03:42 M: 37724160 DEBUG: Loading the next image rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/Runaways 06/Runaways06p01.jpg
12:03:42 M: 37670912 DEBUG: Starting immediate transistion due to user wanting slide rar://F%3a%5cPictures%5cRunaways+06%2ecbr/Runaways 06/Runaways06p01.jpg
12:03:42 M: 33345536 DEBUG: Incrementing counter (122) while not in slideshow (startlength=122,endstart=122,endlength=20)
...

And so on.

I tried it with simple filenames (comic1.rar, comic2.cbr, included files comic1-01.jpg etc.) too so I don't think that's a problem.

Let me know if you want more info. I can submit you the whole debug logs if needed.

*DX

spiff

2006-10-17, 12:08

best would be if you posted sample files that clearly exhibits the problems. that way i dont have to hunt them down myself..

DonnyX

2006-10-17, 13:05

Spiff,

I sent you PM regarding the example files.

*DX

spiff

2006-10-17, 18:33

sorting is fixed.

the other i cannot reproduce

DonnyX

2006-10-17, 23:22

Thanks for taking a look.

The sorting is a biggie and I applaud you for fixing that.

As for the other thing, I got a hunch it has something to do with cache?

BTW, if you'd like, I can submit you full debug logs for that, in case it'd be of any help.

*DX

immun

2006-10-20, 08:41

hey smrtass. read the thread ;)

Actually my search before posting my request did NOT turn up any results with cbr so thanks for notifying me of this thread. Secondly, I stand by my request cause the current cbr support sucks when compared to the features of CDisplay. So I'm asking again: what would it take to get the program run on XBOX? The programmer's permission? Or is there a chance you guys would add features to make reading those files more comfortable?

immun

2006-10-20, 08:44

BTW, is there any particular reason why ppl cannot edit their posts?

I just meant to add that being the smartass that I supposedly am I also did NOT see cbr listed under supported file formats (http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Supported_File_Formats) either.

spiff

2006-10-20, 08:47

correct, i have now remedied the problem.

and thanks, it's always great to hear that once work sucks. i'm sure you will step up and fix it.

wayland

2006-10-20, 16:36

13-05-06 changed: don't show zoom overlay in slideshow when viewing comics.

this was requested hope nobody protests :)

is it possible to disable to zoom overlay on demand when not in slideshow mode? when zoomed in it often gets in the way of the image or more importantly text which is quite annoying.

spiff

2006-10-20, 19:14

uhm, it is already hidden for cbr/cbz files when you click them.

as for a general hide unhide thing, we're out of buttons :/

wayland

2006-10-20, 21:06

oh sorry the cbr i tried is one i repacked myself as rars were not in store mode, should the sub rars also be remaned cbr?

jarod71

2006-10-21, 09:37

Actually my search before posting my request did NOT turn up any results with cbr so thanks for notifying me of this thread. Secondly, I stand by my request cause the current cbr support sucks when compared to the features of CDisplay. So I'm asking again: what would it take to get the program run on XBOX? The programmer's permission? Or is there a chance you guys would add features to make reading those files more comfortable?

ur a real ass immun. the fact that we can read cbr/cbz is more than we ever dreamed off. be glad u have that. no one promised u a comic book viewer. i am glad we r able to do it within the limited way we can through the photo viewer. it is not bad, just different. yes cdisplay for xbox would be amazing, some one started a program for xbox but never developed it and the photo viewer is light years ahead of it. dont bite the hand that feeds u, be glad spiff even considered ur requests.

if u dont like it, i am sure u can start coding a cdisplay for xbox...

spiff

2006-10-21, 11:34

sub rars?

as for being stored thats not a requirement

wayland

2006-10-22, 18:01

sorry for not making myself clear i dont really bother with scanlations as i have not found a decent way to read them yet (CDisplay is nice but involve to much mouse/keyboard interaction imo). the structure i had used for the one i tried was as follows

City Hunter - V01.cbr containing the following
City_Hunter-v01-c001[MD].rar
City_Hunter-v01-c002a[MD].rar
City_Hunter-v01-c002b[MD].rar
City_Hunter-v01-c003[MD].rar
City_Hunter-v01-c004[MD].rar
City_Hunter-v01-c005[MD].rar

with the chapter containers using a rar extension the overlay is still active when zoomed, if the chapters are renamed to .cbr then it just displays a black screen.

Is it possible to bookmark your position in a cbr/cbz or atleast browse through to find the place you want to start from? if its not possible to brose a cbr/cbz like you would a folder of images why not add the option to the white context (http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/157/xbmccontextsw2.png) menu?

you said there were no free buttons but two (start & white) either seem to have no function or only have a function if music is playing, why not give the image viewer a osd like my music and my video that would get around the lack of free buttons.

immun

2006-10-23, 08:08

ur a real ass immun. the fact that we can read cbr/cbz is more than we ever dreamed off.

Right, I guess I just underestimated how much work it must have been to tell the "rar view function" to treat any file with the extension .cbr as an archive.

and thanks, it's always great to hear that once work sucks.

No biggy, I guess it feels quite similar to being called a smartass for no particular good reason.

spiff

2006-10-26, 16:49

who do you think implemented the rar and zip support? it took me a good part of a summer to get that going. hint; no documentation, horrible code, threaded io.

as you say, after that it was cheap to do this function. i did not add it so freaking whiners like yourself can sit on your fat ass talking smack about it.
i haven't got a single cbr sitting on my hdd, as i don't read comic books. but since i could add some limited support easily i did so for those of our users that wanted it.

in conclusion, fuck off, we don't need smartasses like you in these forums (meaning whining assholes that can't even search a freaking forum)