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Conference turris::digital_unix

Title:	DIGITAL UNIX(FORMERLY KNOWN AS DEC OSF/1)
Notice:	Welcome to the Digital UNIX Conference
Moderator:	SMURF::DENHAM

Created:	Thu Mar 16 1995
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	10068
Total number of notes:	35879

9226.0. "Can alphavcr act as netscape helper?" by APACHE::CHAMBERS () Wed Mar 19 1997 10:01

We're looking for tools that can help a browser (usually netscape) show 
pictures that it downloads.  For gifs and jpeg still images, of course,
there's no problem.  But we have some jpeg, mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 movies,
and we'd like to put them on the screen.  Alphavcr seems able to do it
once a file is sitting on your disk, but this is something that's difficult
to make obvious to the typical user.  It seems to require copying the file
to disk (loooong delay there, to start with), then firing up alphavcr (which
when installed isn't in anyone's search path), bringing up its Open window,
getting it to the directory where netscape put the file (cut-and-paste won't
work here because of course netscape's download window is long gone), and
twiddling alphavcr's controls with the mouse.  All this is pretty much a
"drop dead" list of requirements for the typical user.  In our application,
the user will typically only want to see the first 5 seconds or so, and
something that entails waiting half an hour for a download will simply
not be used.  I've experimented with wrapping alphavcr in a (perl, tcl) 
script, but it seems to accept commands only from the mouse, not from stdin, 
and I don't know how to move the mouse from a script.

What would be ideal would be a way for netscape to fire up alphavcr (or some
other tool, perhaps) and tell it to just slurp up the data from the connection
and show it in a window on the screen until the user says to stop.  Is this
something that has yet been implemented on D_Unix?  Am I just missing some
documentation perhaps?

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
9226.1	Not a problem for the browser so much, but...	QUARRY::petert	rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty	`Wed Mar 19 1997 10:26`	9
	To get Netscape to use alphavcr you can change the helpers for video/x-msvideo, video/mpeg and video/x-avi to /usr/bin/mme/alphavcr -play %s. Somehow I think this got done for me when I installed things, as I don't remember doing it myself. As far as it taking data as it is being downloaded, ie streaming (if I understand that terminology correctly), not sure that alphavcr is capable of that. You might want to check the multimedia conference for that... PeterT
9226.2	try MME notes conference	namix.fno.dec.com::jpt	FIS and Chips	`Wed Mar 19 1997 11:27`	8
	Currently what you ask is not available with Helper Applications, you'd need a plugin for Netscape to do this, _OR_ some kludge to work it around. See BGSDEV::Multimedia_Services and try making your request there...
9226.3	Full path gets me to next bug ...	APACHE::CHAMBERS		`Wed Mar 19 1997 13:57`	29
	Well, the suggestion to use "/usr/bin/mme/alphavcr -play %s" turned out to be useful. When I asked netscape for its list of helpers, sure enough, there were several alphavcr entries. But alphavcr is installed in /usr/opt/MME220/bin/mme/, with a symlink in /usr/bin/mme/, and neither of these is likely to be in anyone's search path. Rather than kill off netscape and restart it with a longer search path, I tried just inserting "/usr/bin/mme/" before each "alphavcr", and it started. Its behavior wasn't anything to write home about, however. It seems to copy the entire mpeg file into /tmp (thus filling the partition) before it shows anything. Then there's a looong delay while alphavcr fires up, and then it sits there. ??? (Oh, sh**; ya gotta punch that button with the little arrowhead on it before it'll do anything. ;-) And then you get a new frame every 5 or 10 seconds, which are big jumps in the file. And then, at the end of the clip, error windows pop up, and when you hit the OK button, they disappear with a bright flash, and there's a 12-MB core file filling up the partition. Oh, yes; the /tmp/ file is also gone, thus making moot the only known justification for the time spent waiting for the download (i.e., "The file's still there, so you can play it again without delay.") Not quite ready for prime time, I'd say. (Thanks for the BGSDEV::Multimedia_Services pointer; I'll go bother them for a while. I wonder how one might find a list of all the notesfiles? I've been poking around in DECNotes' menus and config windows, to no avail.) Perhaps I'm missing something ...
9226.4		TRLIAN::GORDON		`Wed Mar 19 1997 13:59`	4
	also try http://www.unix.digital.com/demos/multimedia/kit/converters/mpeg2
9226.5	http://clpr04.evt.dec.com/digital_unix/freeware/html/mpeg2pla.html	TRLIAN::GORDON		`Wed Mar 19 1997 14:07`	1

9226.6	Re: 3	VIRGIN::SUTTER	Who are you ??? - I'm BATMAN !!!	`Thu Mar 20 1997 02:40`	6
	Get the file HUMANE::DISK$OTHER:[PUBLIC]easynotes.lis and grep into it ... Regards, Arnold
9226.7	oh, sorry being too vague...	namix.fno.dec.com::jpt	FIS and Chips	`Thu Mar 20 1997 09:53`	33
	>Well, the suggestion to use "/usr/bin/mme/alphavcr -play %s" turned out Sorry, I thought that you had tried that already and thought that you were just unhappy with it... There are some other options that might be useful when used as helper: see man alphavcr(1mms)...specially -loop and -nowait options. >Its behavior wasn't anything to write home about, however. It seems to >copy the entire mpeg file into /tmp (thus filling the partition) before >it shows anything. Then there's a looong delay while alphavcr fires up, Well, it IS helper application! That's the way Helpers usually function: Browser copies the file to local disk and launches helper with file name. If you have long delay starting AlphaVCR, you'll probably have memory shortage or very slow machine, I just timed the startup of AlphaVCR and it was always less than 4 secs to launch (wall clock time). If AlphaVCR produces core, you might have incompatible versions (or too old versions) of software, as my V2.2 AlphaVCR has been very robust. I have been happy with alphavcr's most recent versions, but of course it has restrictions as EVERY helper application has. Typically you need a plugin for browser to support direct data feed (like Real Audio and others). -jari
9226.8	Can I count them on my thumbs ?	HELIX::SONTAKKE		`Fri Mar 21 1997 14:46`	3
	How many Netscape plugs-ins are available for Digital UNIX? - Vikas
9226.9	The optimistic view...	QUARRY::reeves	Jon Reeves, UNIX compiler group	`Fri Mar 21 1997 17:41`	7
	...is that Digital UNIX users aren't vulnerable to the Shockwave/mail security hole reported last week. I still have both my thumbs, though I do see a Tcl/Tk plugin listed on Netscape's plugin page (which is the only place I've ever seen it mentioned). Ironically, it's from Sun -- could they be gathering sales leads?