Mailing List Archive

QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple.
Howdy,

Gnome-player is about dead.  It got removed from the tree ages ago but
until a recent upgrade, it still worked.  I been using QMPlay2 on videos
that doesn't have the right codec thingy for Gnome-player.  So, I'm
kinda used to QMPlay2, except it doesn't close at the end of the video. 
Anyway, I went into settings and made sure to uncheck the box for only
allowing a single instance.  That should allow multiple instances of
QMPlay2 but it doesn't.  If I click on a video file and QMPlay2 is open
anywhere else, it starts playing where ever it was open, not even where
I am at the moment.  It's bad enough I lose my place in another video
but I have to go look through a dozen or so desktops to find out where
it is playing. 

I looked at the help for QMPlay2 command.  I see a option for opennew
but that seems to be only for opening a URL.  I'm just playing a local
video file by clicking on it.  It doesn't seem to be for this type of
usage. 

Anyone know the secret to making QMPlay2 actually make use of multiple
instances?  I've tried several different settings and nothing seems to
change.  It makes me wonder if that check box is broke but maybe I'm
missing something else. 

Anyone have ideas? 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-) 
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
On Wed, 2023-06-14 at 09:02 -0500, Dale wrote:
>
> Gnome-player is about dead.  It got removed from the tree ages ago
> but
> until a recent upgrade, it still worked.  I been using QMPlay2 on
> videos
> that doesn't have the right codec thingy for Gnome-player.  So, I'm
> kinda used to QMPlay2, except it doesn't close at the end of the
> video. 
> Anyway, I went into settings and made sure to uncheck the box for
> only
> allowing a single instance.  That should allow multiple instances of
> QMPlay2 but it doesn't.  If I click on a video file and QMPlay2 is
> open
> anywhere else, it starts playing where ever it was open, not even
> where
> I am at the moment.  It's bad enough I lose my place in another video
> but I have to go look through a dozen or so desktops to find out
> where
> it is playing. 
>

100% _not_ what you asked, and you're probably tired of *this*
question, but have you tried media-video/mpv? mpv will play anything
imaginable, it closes when the video ends, handles multiple instances
without any touching, etc.
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
Matt Connell wrote:
> On Wed, 2023-06-14 at 09:02 -0500, Dale wrote:
>> Gnome-player is about dead.  It got removed from the tree ages ago
>> but
>> until a recent upgrade, it still worked.  I been using QMPlay2 on
>> videos
>> that doesn't have the right codec thingy for Gnome-player.  So, I'm
>> kinda used to QMPlay2, except it doesn't close at the end of the
>> video. 
>> Anyway, I went into settings and made sure to uncheck the box for
>> only
>> allowing a single instance.  That should allow multiple instances of
>> QMPlay2 but it doesn't.  If I click on a video file and QMPlay2 is
>> open
>> anywhere else, it starts playing where ever it was open, not even
>> where
>> I am at the moment.  It's bad enough I lose my place in another video
>> but I have to go look through a dozen or so desktops to find out
>> where
>> it is playing. 
>>
> 100% _not_ what you asked, and you're probably tired of *this*
> question, but have you tried media-video/mpv? mpv will play anything
> imaginable, it closes when the video ends, handles multiple instances
> without any touching, etc.
>
>


I've tried tons of different ones and QMPlay2 is the one I settled on. 
I didn't realize it had this issue of only one instance, maybe it didn't
have this problem at the time, and the only thing I didn't like, it not
closing at the end.  Otherwise, it worked as I wanted out of the box
really. 

I just tried mpv again.  I can't find the menu bar so I can adjust some
things.  It doesn't seem to have a preferences thing that I can find. 
You know where they hide that thing?  Usually ctrl M I think makes the
menu bar appear but didn't work here.  It does look ok.  It plays the
videos I tried it on at least.  After all, most every player out there
is just a front end to mpv or ffmpeg type software anyway. 

I didn't test multiple instance yet tho.  Sort of ran into the no menu
thing.  lol 

Dale

:-)  :-) 
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
On Fri, 2023-06-16 at 22:16 -0500, Dale wrote:
>  It doesn't seem to have a preferences thing that I can find. 
> You know where they hide that thing?

mpv is wholly configuration file based, fortunately or unfortunately.
Not the easiest bar to reach, but the man page is extremely well
detailed.
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
Matt Connell wrote:
> On Fri, 2023-06-16 at 22:16 -0500, Dale wrote:
>>  It doesn't seem to have a preferences thing that I can find. 
>> You know where they hide that thing?
> mpv is wholly configuration file based, fortunately or unfortunately.
> Not the easiest bar to reach, but the man page is extremely well
> detailed.
>
>


What I wanted to get rid of mostly was the progress bar when I hit left
or right arrow.  It was only there for a second but I just look at the
bottom if I need to know where I am.  In case someone else runs up on
this thread, this is how to get rid of it, or set it to something else. 
In mpv.conf, located in /etc/mpv/ here, add this line.

--osd-on-seek=no

From the man page:
 

--osd-on-seek=<no,bar,msg,msg-bar>
Set what is displayed on the OSD during seeks. The default is bar.


It defaults to bar which annoys me.  Set to no, when you seek, it
displays nothing, just moves the video.  I'm not sure what msg does. 
Maybe it adds flavor or something. LOL

I did test multiple instances, it opens at least three with no
problems.  Now to get rid of the caption thing.  The man page comes to
the rescue again.  Added this to mpv.conf as well. 

--sub-create-cc-track=no

From man page:


--sub-create-cc-track=<yes|no>
For every video stream, create a closed captions track (default: no).
The only purpose is to make the track available for selection at the
start of playback, instead of creating it lazily. This applies only to
ATSC A53 Part 4 Closed Captions (displayed by mpv as subtitle tracks
using the codec eia_608). The CC track is marked "default" and selected
according to the normal subtitle track selection rules. You can then use
--sid to explicitly select the correct track too.

If the video stream contains no closed captions, or if no video is being
decoded, the CC track will remain empty and will not show any text.


It says it defaults to no but it appears something changed somewhere. 
It showed captions by default but setting to no cut them off.  I assume
this doesn't work if they are coded into the video itself tho. 
Sometimes people do it that way instead of having it a separate track
thingy. 

Also, I put both options on ONE line in the config file.  Having it on
two separate lines may work but it certainly works with both on the same
line.  Also, there is a line in there for youtube-dl that is on its own
line.  I assume those are two different things. 

Thanks Matt for pointing me in this direction.  As it is, this might be
a better player for me than QMPlay2 is.  This works as good as QMPlay2
and it closes at the end.  I miss gnome-player tho.  Silly old thing
gave me a lot of years of good use.  :/

Dale

:-)  :-) 
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
Dale wrote:
>
> What I wanted to get rid of mostly was the progress bar when I hit left
> or right arrow.  It was only there for a second but I just look at the
> bottom if I need to know where I am.  In case someone else runs up on
> this thread, this is how to get rid of it, or set it to something else. 
> In mpv.conf, located in /etc/mpv/ here, add this line.
>
> --osd-on-seek=no
>
> >From the man page:
>  
>
> --osd-on-seek=<no,bar,msg,msg-bar>
> Set what is displayed on the OSD during seeks. The default is bar.
>
>
> It defaults to bar which annoys me.  Set to no, when you seek, it
> displays nothing, just moves the video.  I'm not sure what msg does. 
> Maybe it adds flavor or something. LOL
>
> I did test multiple instances, it opens at least three with no
> problems.  Now to get rid of the caption thing.  The man page comes to
> the rescue again.  Added this to mpv.conf as well. 
>
> --sub-create-cc-track=no
>
> >From man page:
>
>
> --sub-create-cc-track=<yes|no>
> For every video stream, create a closed captions track (default: no).
> The only purpose is to make the track available for selection at the
> start of playback, instead of creating it lazily. This applies only to
> ATSC A53 Part 4 Closed Captions (displayed by mpv as subtitle tracks
> using the codec eia_608). The CC track is marked "default" and selected
> according to the normal subtitle track selection rules. You can then use
> --sid to explicitly select the correct track too.
>
> If the video stream contains no closed captions, or if no video is being
> decoded, the CC track will remain empty and will not show any text.
>
>
> It says it defaults to no but it appears something changed somewhere. 
> It showed captions by default but setting to no cut them off.  I assume
> this doesn't work if they are coded into the video itself tho. 
> Sometimes people do it that way instead of having it a separate track
> thingy. 
>
> Also, I put both options on ONE line in the config file.  Having it on
> two separate lines may work but it certainly works with both on the same
> line.  Also, there is a line in there for youtube-dl that is on its own
> line.  I assume those are two different things. 
>
> Thanks Matt for pointing me in this direction.  As it is, this might be
> a better player for me than QMPlay2 is.  This works as good as QMPlay2
> and it closes at the end.  I miss gnome-player tho.  Silly old thing
> gave me a lot of years of good use.  :/
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-) 
>


I added another option, to set default language, and the options were
ignored.  I edited the mpv.conf file and put each option on a separate
line.  Everything worked again.  So, it may be best to put each option
on a single line after all.  It may have a limit for each line or
something.  I dunno. 

To be honest tho, I wish mpv just had a preferences screen to set this
stuff.  The good thing, once you set everything up like you want it, it
should be done. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
On Sat, 2023-06-17 at 00:02 -0500, Dale wrote:
> Thanks Matt for pointing me in this direction.  As it is, this might
> be a better player for me than QMPlay2 is.  This works as good as
> QMPlay2 and it closes at the end.  I miss gnome-player tho.  Silly
> old thing
> gave me a lot of years of good use.  :/

Glad I could help, at least as far as naming the package and telling
you to Read The Friendly Manual.

If it gives you any salve, mpv is based on mplayer/mplayer2 just
like... well almost everything else, including gnome-player / Totem
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
On 2023-06-18, Matt Connell <matt@connell.tech> wrote:
> On Sat, 2023-06-17 at 00:02 -0500, Dale wrote:
>> Thanks Matt for pointing me in this direction.  As it is, this might
>> be a better player for me than QMPlay2 is.  This works as good as
>> QMPlay2 and it closes at the end.  I miss gnome-player tho.  Silly
>> old thing
>> gave me a lot of years of good use.  :/
>
> Glad I could help, at least as far as naming the package and telling
> you to Read The Friendly Manual.
>
> If it gives you any salve, mpv is based on mplayer/mplayer2 just
> like... well almost everything else, including gnome-player / Totem

I'm still using plain old mplayer and see no reason to look for
anything else.
Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
On 17/06/2023 08:02, Dale wrote:
> [...]
> --osd-on-seek=no

Omit the "--" when putting these in mpv.conf. So just write:

osd-on-seek=no
Re: Re: QMPlay2 single instance, want multiple. [ In reply to ]
Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 17/06/2023 08:02, Dale wrote:
>> [...]
>> --osd-on-seek=no
>
> Omit the "--" when putting these in mpv.conf. So just write:
>
> osd-on-seek=no
>
>
>


Well, I got it working now.  That does make sense tho.  The "--" part is
usually for the command line stuff.  I didn't think of that.  :/ 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-)