Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Ask all tech support and help questions for playing our videos here. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE YOUR QUESTION WILL BE SOLVED!
Forum rules
First, check to make sure your file is complete by running it through RapidCRC or checking it with a torrent. If it's incomplete, the torrent will fill in the broken parts.

Don't use Quicktime, Realmedia, or WMP to play our files. Basically, they suck, and you're going to have a bad time.

Use VLC, Gom Player, or Media Player Classic with some codec packs installed.
Post Reply
User avatar
XIII
The Conspiracy
Posts: 5511
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:10 pm
Favorite series: Garo
2nd Favorite Series: KR Faiz - Kab
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
My boom: Devil Z
Location: UK

Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by XIII »

Now that you have managed to download some of our files you are gonna need to play them back somehow,

Well fear not, this is a short guide for perfect video playback

Windows Guide just below
Mac Guide Here

For the average user

We know not all of you are completely tech savvy, so to make playback as simple as possible, there is only one piece of software you are going to need.

That piece of software is VLC, VLC is a light weight player that can play virtually any file you throw at it, now depending on your system, you may be able to achieve playback of the HD’s in VLC with no extra tweaking, but some of you may need to read down to the HD playback section

For Vista users it is recommended that you install VLC under administrator rights to ensure a complete and successful install

Linux users can get an rpm of VLC

So a quick rundown of how to use VLC,

When you install VLC it will turn your media icons into a traffic cone, don’t worry its just setting VLC as the default player for those files.

To load a file into VLC you can do this in a variety of ways, you can double click the file, you can do the normal file open, or you can drag and drop the file onto the open program window

VLC has a verity of Hot Keys that you can use to control play back (and they do come in very handy)

Hot keys of VLC

Space = Pause
S = Stop
N = Next
P = Previous
F = full screen/normal screen
Shift + Left arrow = short jump back
Shift + Right arrow = short jump forward
C = Crop Video
A = Change Aspect Ratio
M = Mute

HD Playback

Now if your suffering with playback problems in VLC its time to try something else,

For the easiest set up possibly with the least amount of hassle we shall recommend the use of CCCP

Now CCCP isnt a media player but rather a set of Codecs to allow playback of files in a 3rd party player

Now as luck would have it, CCCP comes with the latest version of MPC-HC (Media Player Classic - Home Cinema)

This is a smart little player that uses the codecs installed by CCCP, its really good at playing back HD files with no extra configurations, the player is accessible via Start > All Programs > CCCP > Players > Media Player Classic Home Cinema

To open the file, you can either drag the file into the open window, use the file > open option or set MPC as your default media player, the choice is yours when it comes to which way you open the file

Also, you will need a screen ratio of at least 1280x800 running, you will need a graphics card with at least 32mb of RAM, Graphics acceleration turned upto its highest setting, running XP with at least 1 gig of ram with a 1.6 GHz processor, Vista with at least 2 gig of Ram and a 1.8 GHz processor

Now this set up will also work for the SD files, so the choice is your's really as to the setup you use
Live for the Moment, for the Moment is Eternal!
neonblue2
Gabu
Posts: 307
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:09 am
Favorite series: A lot
My boom: Kitties!
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated with HD Playback Info)

Post by neonblue2 »

Is it okay if I wrote a guide for Mac users? Most of the stuff here can be applied but there a better alternatives, like the Xvid codec available is a little outdated and should be replaced by Perian.
User avatar
XIII
The Conspiracy
Posts: 5511
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:10 pm
Favorite series: Garo
2nd Favorite Series: KR Faiz - Kab
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
My boom: Devil Z
Location: UK

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated with HD Playback Info)

Post by XIII »

post away, I dont now squat about macs
Live for the Moment, for the Moment is Eternal!
neonblue2
Gabu
Posts: 307
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:09 am
Favorite series: A lot
My boom: Kitties!
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated with HD Playback Info)

Post by neonblue2 »

Mac Guide

Mac users need some love too.

Short and simple.
  • - For TVN's SD releases, use QuickTime with Perian.
    - For TVN's HD releases, use QuickTime or MPlayer OSX Extended (on slower computers - see below).
Need more help? Read on...

Codec

The latest official Xvid codec is ancient and PowerPC only. What you're going to need is Perian. It's like the CCCP except for QuickTime and thus every single program that utilises the QuickTime framework (iMovie, Safari, iTunes, RealPlayer, etc.).

If you don't like QuickTime, then try NicePlayer (with Perian), VLC, MPlayer OSX Extended, Movist or RealPlayer (with Perian).

HD Codec

Unfortunately TV-Nihon's early HD releases are not supported by QuickTime, with or without Perian. Only MPlayer or FFmpeg-based players will work.

Due to a change in the encoding process, releases from May 2009 onwards (barring some) will all work in QuickTime without Perian.

They are VLC, MPlayer OSX Extended and Movist.

For super smooth playback with any of the three apps above you're going to want a dual G5 (i.e. a Power Mac G5) or better (Intel Core, Xeon).

If you don't have a Mac that fulfils the processor requirement then hope is not lost. A 2.0GHz G5 with sufficient RAM (about 1GB) should be able to playback 720p video with little slowdown or frame loss. If you do have a single core G5 or lesser then try MPlayer OSX Extended with any number of the following options turned on.
  • - (Under General) Increase the playback cache
    - (Under Video) Optimize for decoding performance by degrading quality
    - (Under Video) Drop frames
    - (Under MPlayer) Official MPlayer SVN with FFmpeg-MT
You can also try changing the processor performance under Energy Saver in System Preferences if you have a PowerPC Mac.

Video Player

Pretty much covered this above. Any player that uses the QuickTime frameworks (plus Perian) or is based on FFmpeg or MPlayer will work, so that's just about all of them.
User avatar
maryadavies
Go Go!
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:26 am
Alignment: Lawful Good
Location: Somewhere east of Atlanta GA
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by maryadavies »

I think it pretty much hasn't changed much these days, but thought I'd add my own update. You got more choices in players now (I do keep up to date) if you don't want to install the rather out of date CCCP.

Mind, this is for Windows, but it's set and forget mostly. If people want to, since I am a curious kitty anyway I can test these with a few TV-N releases but I haven't had a problem with these playing any group's releases I throw at 'em:

Here's the list, pick your poison and you SHOULD be fine(Note, not mentioning VLC since it's earlier in the thread, but that's a fine option too.):
MPC-BE
Pot Player
SMPlayer (Note with this one; Ugly interface, go dig in the config to tame it! Works good tho)

Also I'm not sure if TV-N needs this, but you may want to install xy-VSFilter on general principles.
Image
My Backloggery
Never forget where you've been...
User avatar
takenoko
Team Baron
Team Baron
Posts: 36658
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:33 pm
Gender: Toast
Favorite series: All of them
Alignment: Neutral
My boom: stick
Quote: <Lunagel> That's Toei's dumb fault
Type: ISFJ Protector
Location: Yami ni umare, yami ni kisu
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by takenoko »

MPC BE? How's this different from the other MPC?
User avatar
maryadavies
Go Go!
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:26 am
Alignment: Lawful Good
Location: Somewhere east of Atlanta GA
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by maryadavies »

Take: it's a UPDATE to it. MPC is way out of date now, and BE is a fork that has more features and is more up to date.

It also has a darker interface (I don't post up anything I haven't tried at one point btw) and is very stable. There was another fork just so you know of MPC, but it was buggy as crapola and you wouldn't want to see that one, not to mention it's gone now.
Image
My Backloggery
Never forget where you've been...
User avatar
takenoko
Team Baron
Team Baron
Posts: 36658
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:33 pm
Gender: Toast
Favorite series: All of them
Alignment: Neutral
My boom: stick
Quote: <Lunagel> That's Toei's dumb fault
Type: ISFJ Protector
Location: Yami ni umare, yami ni kisu
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by takenoko »

Ah good to know. I'll update ASAP then. Thank you!
User avatar
maryadavies
Go Go!
Posts: 66
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:26 am
Alignment: Lawful Good
Location: Somewhere east of Atlanta GA
Contact:

Re: Video Playback guide (Updated 18th May 09)

Post by maryadavies »

No problem :)
Image
My Backloggery
Never forget where you've been...
Post Reply

Return to “Playback Help”