Video plugin
 

When I recently imported a few movies/videos to RealmWorks, I was surprised to find there was no immediate link to a media player that would be native to the operating system (the much maligned Windoze Media Player), or at least to the default player for those files.

K-Lite codec came up as the option - the only option - and I am now in a quandry: Last time I tried to mess around with K-Lite I had untold issues with it (a long time ago, mind). So I'm hesitant to install it.

But it got me thinking... can there be support for something else? When I click a video, can it fire up a quick fullscreen VLC on the player monitor with the controls on my screen? Or, (heaven forbid) Windoze Media player, so I don't have to install any additional third party software?

As far as I am aware, if you store a file in Realmworks, then when you attempt to view that file in an external program it is the Operating System that will decide which application to launch (based on the file extension).

You can test this by finding the file in a windows Explorer window and double-clicking on the file.

Internally, Realm Works uses DirectShow (a Microsoft standard) for playing video and audio internally. So as long as you have a DirectShow filter that can play the media, it should play in Realm Works. K-Lite Codec pack includes a bunch of DirectShow filters. But if you can find an appropriate DirectShow filter, you should be able to use that, instead.

That's what View Externally from the dropdown menu attached to the View (Play) button does.

Thanks heaps for the help guys, really appreciate it.

I'll give it a shake and see what falls out!

Can't install K-Lite; gives me a "list index is out of bounds (-1)" error

Launching VLC via the "View Externally" seems to work - but as this is indeed set as my default player that's not surprising. No codecs required.

As a thought, having a plugin (similar to how Flash and VLC and other programs can be built as a plugin for browsers and other programs) would be really handy. Obviously so far down the list of priorities it would count as living in the basement, but there you go.

This is what DirectShow offers. It is a plugin architecture provided and specified by Microsoft. We utilize this in Realm Works. There are other options for getting appropriate DirectShow "filters" (the software needed to decode specific video formats) available for playing audio and video formats you have other than K-Lite Codec pack. For example, ffdshow is one option that could be looked at. There are also commercial vendors providing DirectShow software to play various formats. ArcSoft is one vendor. And sometimes the commercial software is bundled with specific hardware, such as the Hauppauge HD-PVR which bundled ArcSoft software.

The codecs are the plugin, allowing programs that aren't specialized for video to show video.

Anyway, I don't know what to tell you about your install problem. I downloaded and installed 1105 Standard and the 1106 update from Codec Guide (using MajorGeek mirrors; these were current as of this post) and everything worked fine. You could try popping in on their forum and asking for help.

The CCCP is another codec pack you could try.

Edit: Heh, I got distracted testing different encoding formats in Windows Media Player (a program I don't use that often) and David posted before I finished this. :)