IBM MPEG-4 Multimedia Player IBM MPEG-4 Technologies
IBM MPEG-4 Technologies
Overview
Menu bar
File menu
View menu
Play menu
Tools menu
Help menu
Command line

View Menu Options

The following are the options on the View menu.


Size window to new content

When checked the player will automatically re-size to fit the dimensions of new content that is opened when either it has a preferred size or it has an intrinsic size that can be determined from the content.

Content that includes MPEG-4 Systems optionally indicates a preferred size for playback. However such content without a preferred size will just be shown in the player's window as-is without any size change occurring even when this option is checked.

Playing a single jpeg (.jpg) image or a single video stream will also cause the window to be resized to fit the content when this option is checked, as the intrinsic dimensions of this content can be determined. This is also the case for MPEG-4 video in AVI files.

Scale content to window

When content contains MPEG-4 Systems it can be in meter metrics or in pixel metrics.

Content in meter metrics always scales to fit the window (except for images or video therein which are defined as bitmaps that MPEG-4 standardizes to be rendered in their original pixel sizes).

Content in pixel metrics, simple video or image content and AVI file video content is scaled to fit the window only when this option is checked. The content is then scaled preserving its aspect ratio. This means that it may not entirely fit the window when the window is sized to a different aspect ratio than the content.

Note: ISMA compliant mp4 file content with video, although it contains MPEG-4 Systems that specifies meter metrics the video will be scaled when played locally from the file as a special case.

Scaling; speed (vs. quality)

This is a hint to the player to prefer speed instead of quality when scaling the content composition.

If the content has a preferred size, then when the player is asked to prefer scaling by speed, the content is composed using the preferred dimensions and scaled as it is finally drawn on the display. When done by quality the content is originally composed at the final size to which it will be displayed and in that case graphics can be drawn anti-aliased at the right final size etc. The rendered output has a higher quality in this latter case, e.g fonts look smoother, but it can take longer and use more memory. For simple video content there is no difference between speed and quality modes.

Window size

Use this option to set the player window to predefined sizes.

When the content has a preferred size, or is simple content with an intrinsic size, the window can be scaled to a factor of that preferred/intrinsic size. The factors are 50%, 100% (to return to the original size) and 200%.

  • 50%
  • 100%
  • 200%

The x 1/2 and x 2 options alter the player window size to one half or twice of the current size (and is independent of there being a preferred or intrinsic size).

  • x 1/2
  • x 2

Note: In both cases above the sizing of the window may be restricted by the location and/or control bar(s) if they are visible. The window can, in any case, often be further resized manually by dragging the corner or edge as appropriate to make it smaller if needed.


Location bar

Hides or shows the Location bar at the top of the main player window that contains an edit field to enter a URL along with an Open button. See also Open URL... menu option.

Control bar

Hides or shows the Control bar at the bottom of the main player window that contains the pause/play, stop and mute buttons etc.

Some builds of the player ship with more than one control panel with different control capabilities. In this case the Control bar is turned into a sub-menu that contains the choices, and the given control bar can be hidden, if desired, by deselecting the currently chosen one.


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