Kaffeine or *******?

[RAV TUX]

simple question: which do you use to watch DVD Movies,

Kaffeine or *******?

[maniacmusician]

*******?

[RAV TUX]

*******?
http://www.methylblue.com/*******/

A simple video-player for KDE with a focus on ergonomics and usability.
If you like polish and attention to detail, this Video-player is for you. It lacks features, but makes up for it in spades.
http://www.methylblue.com/*******/20060511.png The backend is xine, so it plays almost all video formats that exist, and DVDs too.
The current version is 1.0.1.

Downloads

******* 1.0.1 Source Distribution (http://kde-apps.org/content/download.php?content=17161)
FAQ

How can I keep up to date with releases?Subscribe to the ******* development feed, by copying the URL for this page to your RSS reader.How do I install it?You have to compile from source, so:
~$ tar xjf *******-1.0.1.tar.bz2
~$ cd *******-1.0.1
*******-1.0.1$ ./configure && make && su -c "make install"http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=17161


Description:
******* is a video player with a different development philosophy.

When I started to develop ******* I asked a friend to try to use it to "play a video file". The first thing she did was click the "Play" button. But nothing happened because the play button was disabled; I said "You have to load the video first, then you can play it". She replied, "oh, but I wanted to play something, so I clicked the big play button."

Since then if nothing is loaded the Play button opens a generic "What do you want to play?" dialog. This is how I develop *******, it should work exactly like you expect, if it doesn't I need to fix it, so tell me what confuses you!

Features:
() Plays DVDs, VCDs, all video formats *
() Bundled with a simple web-page KPart
() Starts quickly
() Simple, uncluttered interface
() "Session based" **
() Intelligent behaviour ***

* Yes, even WMV! But this depends on your distro coming with a properly configured xine-lib. Eg. SuSE unfortunately won't even play DVDs or MP3s out of the box anymore. You may want to compile your own xine-lib. At a future time I'll make a script to make this easy.

** ******* remembers settings specific to each video, not specific to the application. Eg. the playback position, the preferred window size, the video settings (eg contrast, brightness), the subtitle, audio channel and aspect ratio choices, etc, etc.

*** For example, the screensaver is deactivated when playing videos, but not when paused or when you change desktop. Seeking when paused remains paused.

I promise that ******* will remain a simple video player. My development priorities are: usability, interface-responsiveness, interface-feedback, error handling and aesthetics. Not features. This is why the ChangeLog looks a little empty; I don't tend to document "polish".

Requires:
{} xine-lib 1.0.0
{} KDElibs 3.3
{} X11R6, a computer, some video files to play.

Other Features:
{} You can record http streams with the hidden record action
{} You can use drag and drop to play files. Try dragging shoutcast stream playlists, they will play too.

The wallpaper featured in the screenshots is available from http://www.methylblue.com/images/Marine.jpg


Changelog:
Thanks to all the patches I received since 1.0. Hopefully I'll release 1.0.2 within a month.

1.0.1
Mute button for KPart
Play DVD entry for KDE 3.5 + media:/ when DVD inserted
DVD-Menu-Toggle is no longer a KToggleAction because I can't detect when DVD menus change, but it still acts as a toggle button
Made record work for systems other than mine! (hard-coded path)
Made record shortcut CTRL-R so it doesn't conflict with the DVD-Root-Menu toggle
videoWindow doesn't judder when toolbar appears in fullscreen anymore
dvd-toolbar is gone, instead root menu button appears when dvd is playing
toolbar in fullscreen mode shows on mouse move
toolbar in fullscreen mode respects user-positioning
media kioslave support
double-clicking the video toggles fullscreen
don't show part in K-Menu
a volume toolbar button, - available from the configure-toolbar dialog, it's not very good yet


Licence: GPL (http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html)

[FyreBrand]

I use Kaffeine. It's been working pretty good. What would ******* do that Kaffeiene doesn't or why would it be good to install it?

[RAV TUX]

******* screenshots

[maniacmusician]

Sweet! I will try this out tonight (got a show to watch) and post back then. It looks pretty damn cool.

[RAV TUX]

Kaffeine screenshot

[RAV TUX]

I use Kaffeine. It's been working pretty good. What would ******* do that Kaffeiene doesn't or why would it be good to install it?I use both Kaffeine and *******.....but I have to admit that the ******* interface is much more user friendly.

I would difinitely say it would be good to install it...I find myself using it more and more then Kaffeine....there are many times that Kaffeine just isn't good enough and you will find ******* much more useful.

[FyreBrand]

Version 1.0.1-3 is in the universe I'll try it out.

Is that a beryl theme you're using?

[RAV TUX]

Version 1.0.1-3 is in the universe I'll try it out.

Is that a beryl theme you're using?
actually I just realized I had my Beryl off....

[RAV TUX]

Here is a screenshot of ******* with Beryl theme "Frames" on...which I usually use.

[RAV TUX]

Sweet! I will try this out tonight (got a show to watch) and post back then. It looks pretty damn cool.


Version 1.0.1-3 is in the universe I'll try it out.

Is that a beryl theme you're using?

please post how it goes, I would be interested to hear what you think?

[maniacmusician]

still up at this late hour, RAV? I'm pretty sure we're in the same time zone :)

I did try it. It was pretty cool, except it doesn't support playlists...and I use those extensively. So I guess I'm sticking with Kaffeine

[RAV TUX]

still up at this late hour, RAV? I'm pretty sure we're in the same time zone :)

I did try it. It was pretty cool, except it doesn't support playlists...and I use those extensively. So I guess I'm sticking with Kaffeine3:58 am here...

it is not as feature rich as Kaffeine,....but some movies like Scanner Darkly has the playlist selection built in...so I guess I didn't miss this?

[kuja]

Depends on my mood. I almost always use Kaffeine. Other times though, I might use Mplayer(any frontend), Okle, or perhaps VLC.

On the other hand ... Thanks to mass amounts of hard drive space, I've been ripping to Matroska(xvid4/aac/chapters/subs) and using that lately too, and playing with VLC (seems to have the best matroska support).

[mips]

I have a mounted dvd iso image file on my HD.

With Kaffeine I just point it to the /mnt/iso/ and it happily plays it it with everything working.

I cannot do this with *******, it wants more than a folder, it wants you to specify a file and if i do my menus don't work and it only plays the one file.
How do I get this to work in ******* ???

I use both players but find Kaffeine to have more features and features are never a bad thing in my book.

[maniacmusician]

3:58 am here...

it is not as feature rich as Kaffeine,....but some movies like Scanner Darkly has the playlist selection built in...so I guess I didn't miss this?
I usually watch downloaded stuff, not DVDs, so I need the playlist.

edit: the downside to not having a playlist, in my case, is essentially that I can't select more than 1 file to play at once. It can get bothersome to select a new video after each one I watch.

Also, where the hell is the volume bar on this thing? I have my speakers turned on loud while I adjust the volume of applications individually depending on the setting and my mood. When I turned this thing on, it WAS SO LOUD.

[shining]

I use mplayer movie -sub subfile

[Bloodfen Razormaw]

Kaffeine is by miles the best video player that exists, on any platform. The best feature is that Kaffeine has done away with the archaic Open File dialog system and integrates the browsing into the program. Far more user friendly and productive than the way just about every other program on Earth works, by forcing you to constantly handle new dialogs that popup. Not to mention that it has features far beyond just playing DVDs, such as DVB support. ******* is just too basic. It's like a version of Totem that isn't horribly slow.

[%hMa@?b<C]

kaffeine, never even heard of ******* until this thread

[RAV TUX]

what version Kaffeine &/or ******* do you use?

I use Kaffeine 0.8.3

and I just emerged(installed): net-www/kaffeine-mozilla-plugin

I use ******* 1.0.1.3

[seijuro]

Kaffeine, was installed by default does everything I need it to no need for me to try anything else.

[FyreBrand]

I tested out ******* and it's a pretty nice little player. I can't think of a reason why I would choose it over kaffeine at the moment but I did find it stable and easy to use. I might try having this the default media player on the work systems since they mostly just play single files. It's something to experiment with at least.

I'm still pretty entrenched in kaffeine and I love the mozilla plugin even better than vlc's.