Hi all! Here is another option and a write up of what it does!
Colin Softcon DVD Player SoftconDVDPlayer Version 1.3. This program is a derivative of the Apple January 2006 ADC CocoaDVDPlayer. This is the version I created to make DVD playing more accessible to Voice Over users. Voice over is a technology included in Tiger OSX 10.4 and higher that allows a visually impaired user to operate the computer without sighted assistance. The apple provided dvd player has a lot of holes in it as far as accessibility goes, and this program is my attempt to plug them. Features Video window: • Resizable with real-time scaling • Small/Normal/Maximum sizes • Two aspect ratios, standard (4:3) and wide screen (16:9) Control window: • Audio volume slider • Bookmarks • Elapsed or remaining playback time • Next Angle button (for titles with multiple viewing angles) • Open Media Folder menu item • Play/Pause/Stop/Eject buttons • Previous Scene and Next Scene buttons • Scan Forward and Scan Reverse (4x) buttons • Title and scene information • Go to Menu/title button • Language selection support Using the Application To run SoftconDVDPlayer, you need a system with Mac OS X v10.3 or later, an Apple-supplied internal DVD drive, and display hardware that supports DVD playback. The DVDPlayback framework can only be used by a single Program at a time. If SoftconDVDPlayer is already active and the user inserts a DVD, the user will be presented with an alert when Apple's DVD Player application launches and finds that the framework is already in use. The best approach is to insert the DVD, quit Apple's DVD Player when it launches, and then runSoftconDVDPlayer. If the DVD drive has never been used and you insert a DVD, the region code for the drive must be initialised. SoftconDVDPlayer cannot set region codes, but Apple's DVD Player can. However, Apple's DVD Player cannot set the drive region code, if the framework is already in use. To use SoftconDVDPlayer, follow these steps: • Before launching the SoftconDVDPlayer application, Insert a DVD-Video disc in the DVD drive. Apple's DVD Player application automatically launches and opens the DVD. • If prompted to do so, use Apple's DVD Player program to set the drive region code. • Quit Apple's DVD Player. • Launch SoftconDVDPlayer. SoftconDVDPlayer writes status and error messages to the console as it runs. This means that you can monitor any messages with the console application, found in the utilities menu. • Display the File menu and verify that media is open. The menu item should read "Close Media Folder". Now you're ready to play the DVD media on the disc. You can also use SoftconDVDPlayer to play dvd disks that have been copied to your hard disk. Simply use the open media folder option to select the folder in which your dvd files are located. For those users using voice over, be advised that SoftconDVDPlayer opens two windows at startup. One is the viewing window, and has nothing for vo to look at. The other is where the controls are. If you get a screen that appears to be blank, and you can't do anything with it, simply hit command-~ (tilde) and you'll be able to see the other window containing controls such as play (command-P), pause (space bar), stop (command-.), and eject (E). After these four buttons, there's a volume slide bar you can interact with, or use command-- to lower the volume, or command-+ to raise the volume and change volume to whatever level you desire. After the volume control, there's a list of other buttons that can be used, These are: Menu/Title (M), which toggles between the menu and the title you were watching. Next Camera Angle (A), allows you to change the angle of viewing (for those dvds that have multiple camera angles. Previous scene (Left arrow), allows you to go back to the previous scene if there is one. Next scene (Right arrow), allows you to go to the next scene if there is one. Reverse scan (B), moves the movie Backward at 4x normal speed until you click play or stop. Forward scan (F), moves the movie forward at 4x normal speed until you click play or stop. Create bookmark (S), allows you to place a marker in the current location of the currently playing title. Next bookmark (G), allows you to toggle through your bookmarks in order, of sequence. There is no start or end, it simply wraps around to the beginning once it's at the end. There's also a line of display that shows what title you're on. This is actually showing which file is playing on the dvd. Under the time display is the scene number. This one shows you which track you're currently on in the current title. Next to that is a time display. By default it shows how long the dvd has been playing. If you click on this number, it will switch to a time remaining display, so you'll know how much time remains on the current selection. Voice Over users must use the simulated mouse click (control-option-shift-space bar) to click on this number, a vo mouse click won't work. Command-S, hides the controller, in case you don't want it to be visible. Command-S again will bring it back. Due to a request on the Mac Visionaries list, there are now keystrokes to perform all of the above actions. All keystrokes are uppercase letters, and are listed where they apply, but are also listed below for completeness.. While the disc is playing, the commands you can use with the keyboard are as follows: Command-1 switches to a small window for viewing the dvd playback. command-2 switches to the normal viewing mode for dvd playback. command-3 switches to full-screen mode for viewing the dvd playback. Command-K, Mutes the sound for the currently playing title. Pressing it again turns sound back on. A: changes viewing angle. B: scan backwards at 4x normal speed. F: scan forward at 4x normal speed. N/Right arrow: goes to next scene on the disc. P/Left arrow: goes to the previous scene on the disc. M: goes to either the Title menu, or the Main menu, depending on where you are on the disc. Pressing it again will take you back to where you were in the playback session. E: eject the disc from the drive. S: set a bookmark at the current location in the currently playing selection. G: go to next bookmark in the current playing selection. L: Go to next available language in the current selection. This will allow you to select such things as foreign languages, Video description, Director comments, and close captioning. You can now use the number pad (keys 1 through 5) to go directly to any of the first five audio streams. This is a quick way to jump to the audio stream you're looking for, so you don't have to hit the L key multiple times. However, since there can be more than 5 audio streams, after number 5, you'll still need to use the L key to get to the rest of the audio tracks. T: Go to the next title on the disc. Using this option, you can work your way through all the video clips on the disc. This includes extras, deleted scenes, and anything else that is crammed on the dvd. The only thing you need to look out for is that often, the introductions are part of this selection process, and if you remain on them too long, the disc will return to the menu, which sets your Title selections back to 0. However, when used properly, this option will allow you to see everything on the disc. A new feature is that you can now use the up/down arrow keys to move between titles on the dvd. If a title is playing, then the up arrow moves to the next title, and the down arrow moves to the previous title. If you're already at the first or last title on the disc, the arrow key will do nothing. Using the up/down arrows is a good way to avoid the problems you may encounter when using the T option to work your way through the titles. However, the T key will still move you through the titles on the disc as well, for compatibility with previous versions. If you like this program, then donations are gratefully accepted. If you have paypal, simply send payments ($5 or better is recommended, but any amount is fine) to [email protected]. Any folks making a donation will be first to receive any new versions if requested. If the player ever makes it into the 2.0 release phase, then donating users will get extra features, such as the audio extraction, and anything else we can think up to include. That about wraps it up. If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions or just plain want to chat, please let me know at [email protected], and I'll see what I can do about getting back to you with an answer. Hope this helps those of us who need more control over our dvd experience than the existing dvd player application can offer voice over users. Todo: *Extracting audio tracks, so they can be saved as mp3 files. Some visually impaired folks would like to extract all their show episodes on to their ipod or mp3 player. Since video isn't strictly necessary for blind users, this is the perfect solution. *Setting the region code on the dvd player isn't implemented here, if you need to set region code, use Apple's dvd player for this task before loading softcon dvd player. This may be added in a future release, if there is enough call for it. *Probably will change keystrokes to command-keystrokes, just so your cat can't walk across your keyboard and change your viewing options. *Add the title of the disc to the viewing window, so you know what dvd you're watching. *Add an extras menu that has options for all the additional keystrokes not handled by buttons on the controller. *Add support for sub pictures. These are usually used for closed captioning for children, or foreign languages, but they're not included in this version of the dvd player. If there's requests for this, let me know, and I'll see about adding them. Feature Requests: Equaliser: Sound equaliser has been requested, and is placed here to remind me it's wanted. If anyone else has any suggestions, please send them along. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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