Updates: GSpot v2.60 b01 vs. GSpot v2.60 b00
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Bug Fix Related Updates |
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Fixes a limitation which caused problems with very
hi-res (e.g.1920 x 1088) MPEG files. |
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Fixed several problems which could have caused a VGS
related field to continuously display "scanning at
0.0 MB/s" (not to mention conceivably "hanging" by
actually "doing" that!). |
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Better recognition of AC3
files (either raw or as internally demuxed from a
container), including a possible fix of inaccurate
information displayed regarding same.
Also sports a new more
informative (and "officially sanctioned") display
format describing the AC3 audio channel arrangement.
The screenshot to the left indicates an AC3
soundtrack with six channels total: five "full
range" channels and one "LFE" channel - an
arrangement often (and in previous versions of
GSpot) referred to as "5.1". The new format further
indicates that the five full range channels are
arranged as 3 front (L, C and R) and two rear (L and
R) channels. |
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Fixed a problem with "codec is installed" vs.
"codec not
installed" status for files where "codec not
installed" was incorrectly displayed for files which
actually could play when ffMPEG (and certain other "multi-format" codecs).
This was simply a matter of increasing
GSpot's internal "maximum supported 'fourcc' codes
per codec" which was previously 16. That value that
seemed reasonable a few years ago, but is now much
too low for codecs ffMPEG, which currently lists
support for 42 formats). This GSpot version uses a
new max value of 128 formats per codec (which should
keep them busy for a while ;) |
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Fixed bug that cause the "frame type preview"
display to display "S" frames when there were none. |
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Fixed bug which caused crash on MP4 files with
"64-bit" durations or timestamps in MP4
containers. Furthermore, GSpot
now displays the embedded "created" and "modified"
date for MP4. The code was corrected so, like most of the rest of
the code, it will no longer cause a "divide by zero"
crash even if it actually finds some real "garbage"
values here. |
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Addresses many (but not all) problems with AVI files
using NVOP's (the "real" ones, not the "zero time" ones
that are not part of a so-called
"Packed
Bitstream"). The basic info for these files should
now be correct although the VGS feature has not been
updated to completely deal with them properly. The
same goes for AVI "[D]" ("drop' or "dup") frames.
Further updates to these issues are forthcoming. |
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Pixel frame size (as "stored in stream" vs.
"recommended display") mix-up for MP4 containers now
fixed. The former is shown in the PIC field, as it
should. The latter is displayed specifically as a
note in container, and as a ratio in the DAR field.
When both are available, GSpot now “reverse
calculates" the "PAR" (Pixel Aspect Ratio) even in
the absence of a direct value (i.e. as might be
obtained from a demuxed video stream).
When all
of the above is available and the and the two DAR
values significantly contradict one another, an
appropriate warning is displayed
in the stream info field. I have some "official" MP4
test files that exhibit this error, though I'm not
sure who or what app/version was used to create them. |
File Type Related Updates |
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Better handling of raw DV, DV type 1 AVI and DV type
2 AVI files. The audio portion of DV Type 1 AVI is
still mishandled but that should be fixed on the
next release. |
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Now identifies five subtypes of FLV files
and displays the Flash version (or equiv)
required to view them. |
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1) Sorenson (similar to H263) v1.0 & v1.1
2) Flash "Screen Video"
3) On2 VP6 (fourcc for this now displays
"FLV4/VP6" as the fourcc, not "FLV1")
4) On2 VP6 w/alpha video (fourcc as above)
5) Flash "Screen Video v2" (apparently never
actually implemented by Macromedia) |
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Identifies (but does not yet process) twelve new
file formats including videogame related VMD & SMK,
animation types FLI & FLC, Creative ".VOC" audio
files and lossless audio types SHN, PAC, LA, APE,
OFR, RKA. It also now identifies (by parsing and
internally demuxing) MPEG-2 Transport Streams. Further information about
these formats - other than what they are - is not
available yet, however.
This is useful, however, in identifying unknown or
incorrectly named files, since, as always, GSpot
never uses a filename's existing extension for
any purpose whatsoever. GSpot now identifies
approximately 70 "formats" in total - usually
"containers" or "raw streams", though the number
above also includes some non-multimedia formats such
as Gzip to aid in identifying unknown files (e.g. a
gzipped AVI named "file.avi").
Of course, any given "format" may have many
(hundreds in the case of AVI, see below) subtypes
associated with it. |
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6
new audio
codecs and 19 new
video "fourcc" codes (FLV4, G2M2, G2M3, GXVE, HDX4,
IMG, LSVC, LSVX, ML20, QDRW, SANM, SEG4, SEGA, SMP4,
TM10, VP70, VP71, VP72 and WVC1) have been added to
the database. This is in addition
to the many dozens added in the b00 release.
» There are now a total of 806
(188 audio and 618 video codecs) in the GSpot's
database. |
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The database also contains 15
new DivX version and 6 new XviD version stream ID's.
When possible, it uses this information to display
the exact version of either those encoders used to
create a given file. |
Miscellaneous Updates |
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Displays video duration to the nearest millisecond
for durations less than one hour. Previously, GSpot
rounded duration off to the nearest second. |
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In
"System > List Codecs and Other Filters" an
orange
warning color and special note is displayed for codecs "disabled
by MMCompView" (a utility included in the KLite
Codec Pack). Later GSpot versions will include support
for disabling or re-enabling them using a compatible
mechanism. Previously, GSpot would show such
disabled codecs in red
"misconfigured codec" error. |
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Now internally demuxes MPEG4 video from MP4
containers and displays all additional info obtained
(but doesn't do a full filescan or display this on
the VGS subsystem yet). This includes whether the
file uses BVOP, QPEL, and/or GMC and other info.
Displays a warning error if the PAR specified in the
internal stream contradicts the value calculated
from the container. I've found this to be common bug
even in "official" MP4 test files.
So far, this feature is only available for "regular"
MPEG4 streams in MP4 containers, not AVC/H.264, MPEG
1/2, or other video stream types. This is coming
soon. |
Other Notes |
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For the impatient: The next version of GSpot will
include a configuration option to "not perform a
full scan" of very long files - the way older
versions of GSpot always worked. This will including
an <esc> key option to accomplish such an abort "on
the fly" on an individual file basis. GSpot will
then immediately display its best approximation of
all "final" information via some combination of
extrapolation and/or using the "tricks" employed by
previous versions (e.g. getting info from container
or stream header(s) only, skipping to the end of the
file and doing certain "subtraction" type
computations. etc.).
The current version did add an <esc> key and menu
options for aborting a "batch" process of many
files, but there is currently no provision for
aborting or skipping a scan of a given file once
GSpot decides to do that - something it now does on
certain supported formats to ascertain the most
accurate information possible. |
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Regarding GSpot’s "Required Codec(s) are
[not] installed" status: I realize this is an
important function, especially for many "casual"
GSpot users (and indeed, it was one of the app's
original goals). Unfortunately, there is still
a lot of work to be done to make this determination
as accurately as one might like. Due to the
proliferation of new file types, third party
"splitters" and non-DirectShow codec media players
such as VLC and MPlayer, this determination has
become very complex problem (and it wasn't simple to
begin with). It is, however, currently being worked
on, and updates should be expected soon. |
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Known issues (well there's dozens of them, all being
worked on, but here are two caveats that come to
mind):
1) DVD "VOB" files are not fully supported and
information displayed for them should be taken for
what it's worth (GSpot will display that the file is
"VOB format" so you'll know when this is the case).
VOB files have complex structure that potentially
contains many streams and substreams of MPEG audio,
video and other information, including a possible
mixture of different MPEG formats in the same file.
GSpot currently just displays any MPEG information
it happens to run across in any section of the VOB,
which may only represent a subset of what's actually
contained there.
2) GSpot will require a bit of work to properly
handle files larger than 8GB (usually DV files), as
this requires 64-bit internal variables vs. the
32-bit ones currently used extensively throughout
the program. As above, information for such files
should be "taken for what it's worth". In
particular, frame counts and durations for such
files are likely to be incorrect. |
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Crash proof. Well, certainly "crash resistant",
anyway;) This version of GSpot was auto-tested by
script against a battery of more than 3000 mixed
files, mostly media files of hundreds of different
types, with a mixture of some non-media files, known
corrupt media files, and other random junk thrown in
to the mix as well. I'm certainly not saying the
information for all those files is guaranteed
correct (that's gonna take a long time
to check), but it did survive the endurance test
with no crashes or other abnormal behavior. |
