MMP: Minimalist Media Player

NEW

Ctrl-Shift-[R]ename/Clean

• Ctrl-Shift-[R]ename/Clean will clean the current file name by replacing certain “dirty” characters with a space
• You can define your own list of dirty characters from the NEW Clean File Name tab in the Shift-[\] (shift backslash) config dialog
• MMP currently defaults to replacing the following non-alphanumeric characters: ! @ # $ ^ { } + = _ . % ^ ' &
• Currently allowed: ( ) [ ] -
• At a bare minimum your list should include ampersand (&) and apostrophe (') because these will break the FFmpeg command line when you try to Export your edits from the Audio & Video Timeline Editor
• If when trying to open the Audio & Video Timeline Editor you get a warning message that the file path contains invalid characters, you can use Ctrl-Shift-[R] to quickly rename the file and make it compliant
• If there is an existing .mmp file for the current file, that will be renamed too
• Be aware that if the path contains invalid characters, you will have to rename your folders manually; MMP will only rename files
• Ctrl-Shift-[R] can be used from the Main Media Window or from the Audio & Video Timeline Editor
• In the Image & Thumbnail Browser it will simply bring up the normal Enter New Filename edit dialog

autoplay [edited]

• After a successful Export, Shift-[E] will play the corresponding [edited] file in a new instance of MMP (see release notes past)
• A new .conf file setting, playEdited=yes|no can be set to autoplay the [edited] file after a successful Export
• This new setting can be configured from the NEW Editing tab of the Shift-[\] (shift backslash) config dialog, which contains a comprehensive explanation of this feature

Ctrl-[R]

• In the Main Media Window, the [R] key allows you to [R]ename the current file
• In the Audio & Video Timeline Editor, the [R] key will [R]estore an excluded segment so it will be included in the Export
• NEW: Ctrl-[R] from the Audio & Video Timeline Editor will do the same as [R]ename in the Main Media Window

Ctrl-[S]

• In the Audio & Video Timeline Editor you can auto-[S]kip excluded segments during playback using Ctrl-[S]kip.
• Each use of this key will toggle auto-[S]kip on or off
• When set on, this setting will stay in effect until you close MMP, even if you close and reopen the Timeline editor
• If you turn auto-[S]kip on during playback it will take immediate effect, and if MMP is currently playing an excluded segment, playback will immediately jump to the next included segment (or to the end of the media file if there are no more included segments)
• You can click anywhere on the progress bar or drag the cursor to any position and playback will immediately jump to the start of the next included segment
• Note that this gives you an approximation of the Exported media file because FFmpeg will make the actual cuts on keyframes (see the Ctrl-[W] wiki article cut points for a more comprehensive explanation)
• Note also that you'll have to turn auto-[S]kip off if you want to make further edits to currently-excluded segments or the cursor will keep jumping to the next included segment when you try to reposition the cursor, even with playback paused

[C]ut

• In the Audio & Video Timeline Editor, [C]ut allows you to cut the segment under the vertical cursor into two segments
• Normally, you wouldn't want two adjacent segments to be included in the Export because they will overlap slightly and you'll get some repeated frames (because FFmpeg cuts on keyframes. see the Ctrl-[W] wiki article cut points for a comprehensive explanation)
• However, [C]ut allows you to Export your Timeline and then manually edit the .seg file to re-arrange segments into a different order
• If you then hold down a Ctrl key while hovering your mouse over the Export button, it will change to Join which will bypass the re-creation of the segment files and simply join the existing .segnn. files in the order specified in the .seg file
• Whether MMP will ever implement non-linear editing and allow you to drag segments around on the Timeline remains to be seen (although the functionality behind Ctrl-[S] was a deliberate step in that direction). In the meantime, this workaround is available

FIXES

• The meta-data text in some video files contains a non-standard “duration” which has a fractional part to the milliseconds, sometimes up to 6 decimal places. For example, where the overwhelming majority of video encoders, including FFmpeg, [should?] encode the milliseconds duration expressed as an integer such as “3600572”, some might have “3600572.743862”. This caused significant problems for the Audio & Video Timeline Editor when switching to a video which contained such meta-data because Delphi's “text to integer” routine (tryStrToInt) was failing quietly and returning zero, purely because of the decimal point being present. This caused an endless loop while MMP waited for the duration to be reported and required MMP to be killed in Task Manager/Process Explorer. This has now been fixed, and the calls to MediaInfo.dll which retrieve this info now take this anomaly into account

• Fixed an issue where the Segments & Streams Panel went on an animated walkabout around a section of the desktop when the Main Media Window was dragged. Dragging the main window resulted in too many Windows messages being generated telling the S&S Panel to reposition itself alongside the main window. This has been fixed. Now, the S&S Panel will wait until you finish dragging the Main Media Window (and the Audio & Video Timeline Editor) around the desktop and will then “snap” back into position alongside the main window

• There is an occasional anomaly where MPV will report a different duration for a video than MediaInfo.dll, particularly on very short clips of only a few seconds.
  In all tests so far, MediaInfo has been correct and MPV has reported one whole second less. For that reason, MMP now uses MediaInfo's duration throughout.

« release_4_3_5 | release_5_0_0 »

Quick Install
The quickest way to get up and running with MMP is to

• run the mmp-install.bat file which will register all the file extensions that MMP supports*.
• rename the example MinimalistMediaPlayer.conf_ file by removing the _ so that MMP uses it.
• double-click any media file (audio, video, image) in your File Explorer software.

* mmp-uninstall.bat unregisters them.

Any issues, please let me know Issues

Wiki site
The fully-detailed wiki at minimalistmediaplayer.com continues to grow. The Wiki greatly expands on the brevity of the Ctrl [H] help panels by providing comprehensive info to help you get the most out of using all of MMP's many controls and configurable options.

If there is a particular aspect of MMP that you would like more information about, let me know and I will add a topic to the Wiki or enhance an existing topic.

Feedback
All feedback, issues and suggestions should be raised in Issues or Discussions

Asset files
The “…full.zip” release file below contains everything you need to run MMP: Minimalist Media Player:

- MinimalistMediaPlayer.exe
- MediaInfo.dll
- libmpv-2.dll
- ffmpeg.exe
- libeay32.dll
- ssleay32.dll

N.B. Only MinimalistMediaPlayer.exe will be updated automatically. If the zip file contains newer versions of the other files, you should update and test these for yourself to ensure they will run on your Windows system. MMP will not make that assumption and overwrite your working versions. You are advised to make a copy of the older versions in case you need to revert to them.