Overview

These settings apply to Using MediaPortal > Videos. Some of these options can also be set from within the MediaPortal interface, in the Videos Settings section. 

Introduction

The Videos Section in Configuraton is where you set up how you want to manage and play your videos in MediaPortal:

• where to find your video playlists
• playback options
• specific video options like watched status
• Subtitle and OSD settings

The section contains several sub pages to configure almost every aspect of Videos in MediaPortal:

• Video
  • Video Folders
  • Video Database
  • Video Player
  • Video Zoom
  • Video Extension
  • Video Views
  • Video Postprocessing

General Tab

  Playlist Folder Here you specify the folder you use to store your video playlists. Use the Browse button to select a location.

Repeat/loop video playlists Default: on. When you want MediaPortal to play your playlist again when finished, check this option.

Mark every already watched file (deactivate for performance with many files) Default: on. When you have watched a video it will be marked as watched so that you can sort videos by watched and unwatched. You might not have to watch the whole video for it to be marked as watched. See Played time percentage below.

Keep DVD and BluRay folders together In Videos' Shares view, folders which contains DVD or BluRay ripped discs will be grouped and sorted separately below normal folders.

Played time percentage Default 95%. If a video is stopped after this percentage of the total video duration, it is assumed to be watched. Play all videos inside folder Default: Always ask. In Videos' Shares view, you can play all videos inside a folder and its sub-folders via the context menu (F9) without creating a playlist. If  you select Always ask, you will be prompted to choose file sorting by name, date or random (shuffle) before playback starts. In case you don't want to be asked about playback order you can choose one of three sort options to be used. Note: if the selected folder is PIN protected, MediaPortal will ask for your secret PIN before performing any action.
  Automatically skip commercials for videos with ComSkip data available Default: Unchecked. ComSkip data can be generated by the ComSkip Launcher TV-Server plugin. By default you need to use the next chapter remote button to skip commercials and jump to the next movie or TV show segment. By enabling this option, MediaPortal will automatically skip the commercial segment. Caution: You might miss parts of the movie or TV show if ComSkip's parameters isn't configured correctly.

Video/Audio Delay

Set delay interval to fix lipsync issues. Note: only when ffdshow (non-DXVA version) is in use (as decoder or postprocess filter). Then, in the Audio OSD menu (), you can adjust delay and fix lipsync (the slider can move only when ffdshow is loaded).

Subtitles tab

MediaPortal's subtitles engine supports embedded (such as in a .mkv container) and external (normally .srt files) subtitles. For a .srt file to be loaded it must have the same name as the video file with an optional language at the end of the file name.

Example (.srt filename)

If you have the following files in a folder:

Movie 2011 1080p Bluray x264.mkv
Movie 2011 1080p Bluray x264.armenian.srt
Movie 2011 1080p Bluray x264.fin.srt
Movie.2011.1080p.Bluray.x264.klingon.srt

when playing the movie there will be the following options:

Note that only subtitle files with a matching file name will be loaded by MediaPortal. The last file in the example above will be ignored since it uses dots instead of spaces. In this case #4 English is a subtitle embedded in the .mkv file.

Select subtitles engine

• MPC-HC (Default)
• DirectVobSub
• FFDshow
• Disabled

The MPC-HC subtitle engine is built in and comes with MediaPortal so no additional software is needed.

To use DirectVobSub it must be installed manually.

FFDShow manages subtitle and Post-Processing (see Post-Processing) when using FFDShow Video Decoder as a codec or Raw Filter. Minimum version is required : rev 3640

Advanced button

See Advanced Options below.

Subtitles mode selection

• Subtitles won't be auto loaded (Default) - Subtitles will not be displayed unless you manually enable them.
• Subtitles will be auto loaded by language preference - Subtitles will be displayed if a subtitle with the language selected on the Language tab is available.
• Subtitles will only display forced subtitles * - Subtitles marked as forced will be displayed if available. This option is only available when using the MPC-HC subtitle engine.

  Tip Forced subtitles in MediaPortal Normally, subtitles are provided for both native and foreign languages. Forced subtitles only provide subtitles when the characters speak a foreign or alien language. There are several different formats of forced subtitles:

• Burned-in: The subtitles are encoded as part of the video stream. Subtitles will always be displayed regardless of MediaPortal's settings.
• DVD: Forced subtitles are not available.
• Blu-ray: Subtitle items can have a forced attribute set however it must manually be selected to be visible in MediaPortal.
• Embedded: Subtitle tracks embedded in Matroska files (.mkv) can have a forced flag set. MediaPortal can be configured to display the normal or forced subtitles.
• External file: SubRip (.srt) files doesn't support forced flags. It is possible to create a subtitle file which only contains translation for alien dialog however MediaPortal will not be able to automatically detect and select the "forced" subtitle file.
• *External file:* idx + sub (rar) files supports forced flags on individual subtitle lines meaning MediaPortal can be configured to display the normal or forced subtitles.

Position relative to the video frame *

Auto adjusts the vertical position of subtitles based on the size of your video. This option is only available for MPC-HC subtitles. For DirectVobSub engine you can set the location in its settings.

Subtitle paths *

Specify the location where you prefer to store your subtitle files. The default setting .\,.\Subtitles* looks for them in the current video folder and a sub folder called *Subtitles.

Delay interval

Number of milliseconds that is used to adjust subtitles to display later or earlier. To make the adjustment, configure keys for ACTION_SUBTITLE_DELAY_PLUS and ACTION_SUBTITLE_DELAY_MIN under Configuration > General > Keys and Sounds.

Autosave modified subtitles

• Never (Default)
• Ask
• Always

If you adjust the Delay interval to synchronize a subtitle to the audio, the changes can be saved to the subtitle file.

Advanced Options

Click the Advanced button for additional settings. These settings vary depending on the subtitle engine you choose.

MPC-HC

  Tip MediaPortal can play subtitle files of the format idx + rar. You do not have to extract the sub file from the rar archive.

*Adjust subtitle height position (pixels down) - *allows you to adjust the vertical position of the subtitle on your screen.

DirectVOBSub

If you select DirectVOBSub as the subtitle engine, and press the Advanced button, MediaPortal will display the DirectVOBSub settings screens for your convenience, so you can configure all settings within MediaPotal Configuration.

FFDShow

If you select FFDShow as the subtitle engine, and press the Advanced button, MediaPortal will display the FFDShow settings screens for your convenience. Be sure to validate all subtitle options.

To get full HQ subtitle, use the Resize option:

Subtitles (cont)

On the continuation window for Subtitles you can customize the display of subtitles:  font, shadow depth and borders

• Display font: - Default: Arial 18, Bold
  If you choose to display subtitles, you can choose a font and size from this list. Only fonts installed in windows can be selected, or you may install new Windows fonts to have a wider choice.
• Shadow Depth: - Default: 3
  You can make the subtitles stand out from the background or video by adjusting the shadow depth for the subtitle. Increase the shadow by the appropriate number of pixels.
• Border Width - Default 2
  If you like borders around your subtitles, you can customize the border display - increase the number for wider borders, or set it to 0 for no borders
  • Outline - uses an outline for your Border
  • Opaque box - uses ....
• Override ASS subtitles style -
  This option only applies to MPC-HC subtitles.

 Language

• Subtitles language: - Default: English
  Select the subtitles language that will be automatically chosen when multiple languages are available.
• Audio Language - Default: English
  If your video supports multiple audio tracks in different languages, you can select the language you wish to use.