Notice: The only version that is being updated is the Visual Studio 2012 version. For all who thought they were downloading a video player and got a MP3 player instead, OOPs, SORRY. The rspPlayer is not what you thought. please download the middle link for the video player. Once again....Sorry!
2012 AVI Player
Intro to the 2012 version
The 2012 version looks similar to the VLC Media Player. You can scroll forward and back from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. It has fullscreen and a message to return to normal view while in fullscreen. It works really nice.
Stuff Needed to work!
You will need the Latest version DirectX SDK for .Net 3.5. Visual Studio 2012, VB.NET. The player use .NET Framework 3.5 to be compatible with the Microsoft.DirectX.AudioVideoPlayBack.dll library. The 2012 version now plays *.avi, *.flv, *.wmv, *.divX, *.xvid, *.mpeg, *.mpg as long as you have the codecs installed.
Introduction and Background
I started dabbling in DirectX a few months ago to play AVI files and in my searching, I came across Mike Gold's C# version which can be found here. This serves as an excellent starting point that you can build on. I converted his code to VB which took me a while to do. I could have used some conversion program or used the website that does this, but I decided to do this on my own. It's good practice.
After a few builds and a couple of updates I came up with the 2012 version. I used a panel to display the video in fullscreen. When you are in fullscreen mode, it is not really fullscreen mode. I set the panels height and width to the Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Height and the Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width and set the toolbars( top and bottom ) visible property to "False". This imitates the fullscreen mode. I added a label to show to the user the hot keys to exit the fullscreen mode. The hot-key label is displayed by use of a timer at 2, 12, and 25 minute intervals. By right-clicking the fast_forward and rewind buttons, a context menu appears so you can skip forwards or backwards from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. I removed the volume and balance trackbars. I replaced the labels with a few new ones to display just the full length and the current time before and after the progress bar ( in pic above ). I kept the progressbar to handle the current video position. This just pertains to the VS 2012 version.
Added Save and OpenSavedFrom Subs via the Menustrip
The mnuFSave and mnuFOpenSavedFile Menu Click events were added in case you needed to leave in a hurry. All you have to do is press Pause, Press Save, Press Stop and close the app. When you return to the app, you can play from where you left off by pressing the mnuFOpenSavedFile menu item. Here is the code I used to do this...
Private Sub mnuFSaveFrom_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles mnuFSaveFrom.Click
My.Settings.m_StartFrom = _myVideo.CurrentPosition
My.Settings.m_StartFromFilename = _strSavedFile
_toBeContinued = True
My.Settings.m_ToBeContinued = _toBeContinued
My.Settings.Save()
End Sub
Private Sub OpenSavedFile(ByVal fName As String)
If fName = "" Or fName = String.Empty Or fName = vbNullString Then Exit Sub
Dim hite As Integer = pnlVideo.Height
Dim wide As Integer = pnlVideo.Width
_myVideo = New Video(fName)
_myVideo.Owner = pnlVideo
pnlVideo.Height = hite
pnlVideo.Width = wide
_myVideo.CurrentPosition = _
_myVideo.SeekCurrentPosition(My.Settings.m_StartFrom, SeekPositionFlags.AbsolutePositioning)
gtbPosition.MaxValue = _myVideo.Duration
gtbPosition.Value = _myVideo.CurrentPosition()
_myVideo.Play()
_myVideo.ShowCursor()
videoTimer.Enabled = True
lblFormText.Text = "RSVP 2 - " & fName
lblStatus.Text = StateFlags.Running.ToString()
btnPlay.Enabled = False
mnuOPlay.Enabled = False
cmsPlay.Enabled = False
btnPause.Enabled = True
mnuOPause.Enabled = True
cmsPause.Enabled = True
btnStop.Enabled = False
mnuOStop.Enabled = False
cmsStop.Enabled = False
mnuONormalView.Checked = True
mnuOFullScreen.Checked = False
mnuFOpen.Enabled = False
mnuFSaveFrom.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub mnuFOpenSavedFile_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles mnuFOpenSavedFile.Click
If My.Settings.m_ToBeContinued = True Then
OpenSavedFile(My.Settings.m_StartFromFilename)
_toBeContinued = False
My.Settings.m_ToBeContinued = _toBeContinued
My.Settings.m_StartFrom = Nothing
_strSavedFile = ""
My.Settings.m_StartFromFilename = _strSavedFile
My.Settings.Save()
End If
End Sub
Obstacles
I came across a few problems like getting the cursor to display while the video is playing, formatting the length in time to a label, formatting the current play time in a label, displaying the context menu in full-screen mode, and playing the video in the panel.
Let's start with getting the video to play in the panel. As I said earlier, I removed a lot of Mike's code and it just so happens that this was part of it. So here is my version of this:
Private Sub OpenAviFile()
Dim vTime As String = Nothing
lblTime.Text = "00:00:00"
With ofd
.InitialDirectory = "F:\movz\"
.RestoreDirectory = True
End With
If ofd.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
Dim height As Integer = pnlVideo.Height
Dim width As Integer = pnlVideo.Width
video = New Video(ofd.FileName)
vTime = GetVideoTime(vTime)
txtPlaying.Visible = True
txtPlaying.Text = ""
txtPlaying.Text = "<<<--- Now Playing " & ofd.FileName & " --->>>"
lblTime.Text = vTime
fName = ofd.FileName
GetFileLength()
video.Owner = pnlVideo
pnlVideo.Height = height
pnlVideo.Width = width
videoProgress.Value = 0
video.Play()
lblTimer.Enabled = True
videoPlaying = True
End If
End Sub
Next, I had to update the progressbar and the lblDuration label to correspond with the video that is currently playing.
Private Sub lblTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles lblTimer.Tick
Dim vPosition As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(video.CurrentPosition * 1000)
Dim vDuration As Integer = Convert.ToInt32(video.Duration * 1000)
If vDuration > 0 Then
videoProgress.Value = Convert.ToInt32((vPosition * 100) / vDuration)
End If
lblDuration.Text = Format(Int(video.Duration \ 3600), "00") & ":" & _
Format(Int(video.Duration - video.CurrentPosition) \ 60, "00") & ":" & _
Format(Int((video.Duration - video.CurrentPosition) Mod 60), "00").ToString
End Sub
The length of the file in MB size was quite simple to implement. I created a variable myFile and set it to FileInfo. I then initialized it to FileInfo(fName) which is declared in the top variables. I then created another variable named length and set it to myFile.Length. All that was left was to format it to MBs. Here's the code:
Private Sub GetFileLength()
Dim myFile As FileInfo
myFile = New FileInfo(fName)
Dim length As Long = myFile.Length()
lblLength.Text = Format(Int(length / 1048000), "000") & " MB"
End Sub
This program is not loaded with a lot of useless stuff. All it does is play AVI files, displays a few labels with some data, adjusts the volume, and balances or uses the Fullscreen and back to Normal views. That's it.
Screensaver control
I added Kurt Shultz' screensaver control, which can be viewed here on CodeProject. I changed the forms' look to accommodate my program. I also converted his C# code to VB. This took me quite a while. About 5 hours.
Updates
- Added newly designed video player 09/24/2012
- Added a save routine if you need to leave in a hurry. 04/06/2013
- Added a
OpenSaveFile() Sub when you want to resume playing. 04/06/2013
Here is a list of all updates that I performed on the player. Added menu checking, FastForward/Rewind, Kurts Shultz' screensaver control which takes care of the full-screen reverting back to Normal view. I also added an input box when you exit to check if the screensaver function was reactivated. Hope you enjoy this program.
