The following are the options on the Tools menu.
Logging
By default any errors, inconsistencies or problems when playing media content
are written to the system console. The logging menu allows any messages to be
directed to a file instead of to the console. These files, like the .ini file which
stores settings and preferences, are written to .ibmmpeg4
folder in the user's home directory; so for example that would be
"\Documents And Settings\{username}\.ibmmpeg4" under Windows NT/XP or
"/home/{username}/.ibmmpeg4" under Linux etc.
- Output sets where the messages sent to system output are written
- Console writes system out messages to the console
- New File writes system out messages to M4PlayOut.txt. The contents of any
existing file of this name is deleted.
- Append writes system out messages to M4PlayOut.txt. The contents of any
existing file of this name are appended to by any new messages.
- Errors sets where the messages sent to system error are written
- Console writes error messages to the console
- New File writes error messages to M4PlayErr.txt. The contents of any
existing file of this name is deleted.
- Append writes error messages to M4PlayErr.txt. The contents of any
existing file of this name are appended to by any new error messages.
Screen Capture
Allows the rendered screen image to be captured and saved to a file. The image can
be saved the chosen format. The BMP format is always available, while JPG and PNG
are dependent on the Java VM in which the player is run and the menus are enabled
accordingly.
- As BMP... Saves the file in a Windows BMP (Bitmap) format.
- As JPG... Saves the file in a JPG format. Java 1.2 and above.
- As PNG... Saves the file in a PNG format. Java 1.4 and above.
Dump Scene
When the media content includes MPEG-4 systems the MPEG-4 scene of what is being displayed can
be dumped and inspected. Multiple dump windows can be created.
- As VRML The current scene is dumped in a VRML like format. Some MPEG-4 authoring
tools use this style.
- As XMT-A The current scene is dumped in an XMT-A format. This is the low-level
authoring format that our XmtBatch authoring utility uses, from which it can create MPEG-4
binary format. The dump of the scene includes enough header information that it can
itself be compiled, however any media data, such as images, video or audio is not included
into the scene, only the references as OD IDs (Object Descriptor IDs).
- As XML The current scene is dumped in a format that was described by MPEG-4
conformance specification. This is an XML format that pre-dated XMT. The format is more
verbose but has been kept here since sometimes it is useful with long indexed multi-valued fields
to count the number of entries - in this format each indexed value has a separate line with
the index number, so its easy to see how many entries there are in a field.
OD Browse (Scene Info)
When the content contains MPEG-4 Systems the media streams are referred to from the scene
by Object Descriptors with Identification ID numbers. With this option the Object Descriptors
referred to by the scene can be browsed. Audio streams are described in text such as
"MP3 (128k): Stereo @ 44100Hz". Images are shown along with their dimensions, while for video
the current frame is shown along with its dimensions.
The list of OD IDs is the list that was valid at the point the option was selected. In MPEG-4
Object Descriptors can be added or deleted. As ODs in the list are selected to view the content
it may be that the descriptor is no longer valid as it has since been deleted. In this case a
text message to that effect is shown. To see the new valid list just create a new OD Browse window.
The OD Browse window also lists whether the content is in meter or pixel metrics and whether a
preferred size was given in the content
When the content does not contain MPEG-4 Systems the option is listed as "Stream Info"
and the media streams can be browsed in a similar manner to that described above.
Thread State
This menu option appears only in special player builds with added debug options
and hence does not appear on most builds.
Options
This menu provides access to change certain player options.
- RTSP/RTP Mode sets the operating mode when accessing content with rtsp://
from a streaming server.
- Automatic (Recommended) This is an automatic mode using a combination
of the modes below that should work in most cases.
- UDP In this mode the media content is streamed from the server using UDP.
A firewall or a NAT device between you and the streaming server may result in
no content being received.
- HTTP Tunneling Here the media content is interleaved in with the RTSP control
and the whole lot tunneled over HTTP. This mode can be used to stream through
firewalls.
- TCP Interleave Here the media content is just interleaved in with the RTSP control.
Since the RTSP uses a TCP connection this may also be used to stream through certain
types of firewall.
- TCP Interleave and UDP In this mode certain streams, that would otherwise
be adversely affected by the loss which may occur with UDP are instead interleaved
with the RTSP control over its reliable TCP connection. Of course one could
choose TCP Interleave and have all the media over a reliable connection. But for
continuous streams like video and audio, from which loss recovery is possible, this
mode is an alternative.