Possible, alternative "container" for our releases

[spoRv]

Free to use for any projects, grab it!

[spoRv]

Wanted to give a last chance to MultiAVCHD; well, in this computer with W10 it works - more or less... sometimes some unexpected error comes up, but, apart that, it *seems* to work... not so much interested in menus anymore, as it seems nobody has noted it's not included anymore... still, a pop-up menu could be nice.

Tried it, but it doesn't work as I wish... I wanted just few options: chapters, audio options, subtitles options.
But it brings: Title Menu (useless, as there is no one), Chapters Menu (one I need), Title List (useless, as there is only one title), PreviousTitle (without space) and Next Title (again, useless, there are the proper buttons on any remote), and X to exit (needed).

The fact is, I tested with Leavo BD player (the only one that works with BD menus AFAIK), and it shows the pop-up menu, but it doesn't work... for every choice, it gets back to the beginning... I tested also various BDs, and they all works, so it's not a player fault.

Someone tested MultiAVCHD with working, custom pop-up menus? Albeit simple, I'd like to add one of this, instead nothing.

[dwalkerdon]

Until now, I released my projects mainly on BD with menus. I like menus, and you? I bet so...

The only free software that allow authoring BDs with menus is MultiAVCHD. It works - I mean, it makes a BD structure, ready to burn on actual BD-R disc, but some users found the burned BD not compatible with their players. Moreso, the most known software media players (MPC and VLC) have often strange behaviour with BD menus (much worse than DVD). So, at the end, final users play directly the 00000.m2ts file, and all my work results useless... still, I love to have menus, and intro, and so no...

Lately I find that many, many users (me included) don't burn projects on discs anymore, but play the file directly on their PC; a plain single file is the best option - one could play it "as is", or remux it in a BD (or AVCHD) structure, and have a phisical media to play. Still, menus are lacking, and intro, if any, must be added at the beginning (and/or end) of the file, meaning much work, and "ethical" issues.

MKV "seems" ready to support menus, but when?

Then, I thought to a possible alternative. A simple HTML5 player!

Crazy idea? Maybe, that's why I'm posting it here, to have your opinions. HTML5 players are used by everyone, on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and so on. Yet, they are very limited in comparison to any software player. But this could work in our favour, somehow... frankly, when I want to watch a video clip on my PC, all I want to do (eventually) is to choose my language and/or subtitle tracks, and you?

We could release a project in a single folder, with one HTML file that will start the player, and one MVK (or other) video file containing the main feature. Well, almost useless, someone could point out, what is the difference instead of playing the file directly? Well, if there is more than one file - for example, bonus material, or an entire bonus project, having an HTML file with simple menu pointing to those files could be handy (and with a nice looking).

I've seen some free HTML5 video players that allow to add custom made buttons; why don't add one for the trailer? One for chapters, one for audio and subs selection? A bit like DVD/BD menus, but made in HTML/CSS; great appearance, and small footprint, can be read by any OS, also mobile - even if I don't think someone would normally watch an entire 1080p movies on a cellphone...

Another great option could be to add soft matte to an open matte release, avoiding two releases (and double work/time to upload/time to download/HDD space etc.)

Seamless branching "could" work, too... maybe it's possible to have HTML buttons in the menu for the theatrical and extended version, where for example TC calls file1+file2+file3, while EE calls file1+file4+file2+file5+file3... got the point? More investigation is needed, to understand if this is possible and the join are indeed seamless.

Now, codec support: video AVC for sure, also WebM and Theora; audio AAC, vorbis, opus, FLAC, mp3, WAV; containers WebM, Ogg, MP4; I'm pretty sure there is a way to support MKV container, and audio AC3 as well. What's about DTS? Of course, it's still possible to convert audio to a supported format.

What is the output quality of a video clip played in an HTML5 player (possibly without using Flash)? I mean, visually I have the same quality of a software player? And audio wise?

It will be great to have a standardized player, where each of us could put his logo, and other custom... "things", but still having a look'n'feel familiar with other releases...

Still another crazy, and useless, idea, or can have some potential?

encoding Audio in the Opus codec at 160-220 kbps for 5.1, and 64kbps for stereo/Surround sounds transparent to my ears, I compared it to DTS HD Master Audio, and Dolby TrueHD and it sounds pretty damn good, if not Identical!!! the only downside is player compatability ( but this will change in the future, when more 4k devices get webm/AV1  with Opus audio updates)

[AsciugaMan]

I agree that many don't care about menus, and so it could be a waste of time; but still, I love them, and having a sort of "standard" menu for all our projects, with just some settings to change, is a cool idea.

Maybe some used with advanced BD menu authoring experience could chime in, and propose himself as "BD guru"... make some sort of standard, simple menu, where we would send him just the background menu, and eventually static images, and he will do the rest... another utopia, I know, but dreaming is (still, for the moment) free!

I Know I'm late, but I still love the idea of having something material out of these works.

I might have something: I am quite good at authoring BDs and DVDs with various professional software (an example: Scenarist BD) and for a personal taste I've started working on "The Foundamental Collection: Alien" - Complete Compendium (hope not to make spoRv angry).

As soon as I'll work out some personal issues I'll post in a dedicated thread

[spoRv]

I might have something: I am quite good at authoring BDs and DVDs with various professional software (an example: Scenarist BD) and for a personal taste I've started working on "The Foundamental Collection: Alien" - Complete Compendium (hope not to make spoRv angry.

At the contrary; let us know more about this!

[Hydra Spectre]

My idea is that each film would basically have a customised EXE with mpv handling video/audio playback, menus containing the film and bonuses, as well as audio/subtitle options.

[deleted user]

exe seems problematic bc of the inherent security risk imo

[spoRv]

exe seems problematic bc of the inherent security risk imo

Not only; even if someone could trust to open an .exe file - actually I'll never trust some .exe to play a movie - problem is, it will be compatible with one OS and not the other; while Windows is still probably the most used, there are a lot of Mac, Linux, Android users out there... what to do with them?

A possible option could be - like I wrote before - an .html file with the video embedded; there you can write the project in details - why you made it, what you changed etc. leaving the user the choice to eventually open the .html file, read it, watch the movie inside the player - whatever OS they use, or simply play the video file "as is" - a win/win solution, I think!

[deleted user]

Html has the downside of running in a browser and being slow though. A browser player also has mediocre/lacking features at best. Good luck with playing back a video with color calibration and stuff like that.

[spoRv]

Well, an embedded video in an offline html page should not be that slow; about features, I agree, far from proper media players, still if you have a single audio track and you want to just play the video, I don't see problems!