eMoviX Docs

(possible) Directions for future eMoviX developments

In case you haven't noticed :-) , all *MoviX* projects need more *developers*!!!

I decided to put on this file the features that seems to me the most urgent to develop and the ones that have been frequently requested in the eMoviX Forums to give you a quick idea of possible directions to work on.

The features are ordered in decreasing order of urgence [as decided in a totally arbitrary way by me ;-) ] so usually I'm currently working on the highest ones :-)

Features colors code:
red: no one is working on it (as far as I know)
blue: something is moving in that direction
green: done!

If you have other developments in mind let me know by email or write it in some forum!

Feature Details Skills

Docs If you ever used eMoviX you soon realized that the documentation available is not enough: there are not enough examples and not everything is explained as much as it should. A decent knowledge of the english language ( = better than mine :-) and a good attitude at testing features and reporting them in some nice html file :-)

MPlayer options eMoviX works already fine enough with fast CPUs and/or the right video cards (i.e. Matrox or Ati), but it still needs some fine tuning for slow CPUs and/or "slow" video cards. A decent knowledge of MPlayer (or enough will power to read MPlayer Docs :-) and some old PC to make the tests on.

MPlayer menu Recently MPlayer developers introduced a very nice menu feature that allows performing a few operations directly from the screen while a movie is playing.
Unfortunately this menu does not work while audio-only files are on :-(
It would be *very* nice if somebody would modify this code in order to make it work for every kind of file, namely modify MPlayer to make it show a blank screen [on which the menu can be used] when no video is provided by the file.
BTW this would also allow showing info about the audio played, while now you get only a blank screen :-( A good C knowledge and lot of free time to study some little part of the MPlayer code.

LILO boot image The author of the nice package LinuxConsole pointed out to me that there is a very nice LILO mod that allows pretty cool boot menus, and in particular support 256 colors images instead of the 16 supported by SysLinux, the booter currently used for all MoviX projects.
I believe that eventually this one is going to be the definitive *MoviX* loader, both for floppies and CD. The format of the "LILO mod" scripts is unfortunately extremely complicated.
What is really needed is a lot of patience and of course a good extent of Linux experience to avoid blowing out his own PC :-)

Kernel boot code On those (few) cards on which the vesa FB does not work, by default the Linux kernel prompts the user for some text-only console resolution.
It would be nice to hack this code a little to make the kernel boot in that case with the standard console resolution as if the vesa FB was not compiled in the kernel. Some Assembler knowledge.

Feature	Details	Skills
Docs	If you ever used eMoviX you soon realized that the documentation available is not enough: there are not enough examples and not everything is explained as much as it should.	A decent knowledge of the english language ( = better than mine :-) and a good attitude at testing features and reporting them in some nice html file :-)
MPlayer options	eMoviX works already fine enough with fast CPUs and/or the right video cards (i.e. Matrox or Ati), but it still needs some fine tuning for slow CPUs and/or "slow" video cards.	A decent knowledge of MPlayer (or enough will power to read MPlayer Docs :-) and some old PC to make the tests on.
MPlayer menu	Recently MPlayer developers introduced a very nice menu feature that allows performing a few operations directly from the screen while a movie is playing. Unfortunately this menu does not work while audio-only files are on :-( It would be very nice if somebody would modify this code in order to make it work for every kind of file, namely modify MPlayer to make it show a blank screen [on which the menu can be used] when no video is provided by the file. BTW this would also allow showing info about the audio played, while now you get only a blank screen :-(	A good C knowledge and lot of free time to study some little part of the MPlayer code.
LILO boot image	The author of the nice package LinuxConsole pointed out to me that there is a very nice LILO mod that allows pretty cool boot menus, and in particular support 256 colors images instead of the 16 supported by SysLinux, the booter currently used for all MoviX projects. I believe that eventually this one is going to be the definitive MoviX loader, both for floppies and CD.	The format of the "LILO mod" scripts is unfortunately extremely complicated. What is really needed is a lot of patience and of course a good extent of Linux experience to avoid blowing out his own PC :-)
Kernel boot code	On those (few) cards on which the vesa FB does not work, by default the Linux kernel prompts the user for some text-only console resolution. It would be nice to hack this code a little to make the kernel boot in that case with the standard console resolution as if the vesa FB was not compiled in the kernel.	Some Assembler knowledge.