Light Alloy - audio/video player

[appsuser]

Really awesome player. It played badly re-encoded video files that show with "blocky colors" in MPlayer and VLC with normal picture quality.

[Midas]

After some rapid testing, I'm really impressed with Light Aloy lightweightness, usability and range of features. Too bad most of its documentation (including help and the user forum) is mainly in Russian -- that's what prevents wider adoption of LA, IMHO...

For the record, after extirpation of unneeded files (among others, the Skin Editor and Help folders -- the later was only helpful for Russian and Polish speakers -- without any complains) and applying the UPX treatment to its largest files, my portable folder went down to 11,1MB, which is quite good for a multimedia player as powerful as this is.

[Vortex]

>I'm having trouble upgrading the portable version. No matter the method used, I lose some of the settings I've previously set...
>..But no more! I finally found out why I was loosing my settings!
Since version 4.6.7 you don't have to do anymore this trick, because settings upgrader has been implemented (but it do not work for <= 4.6.7).

>Same as the beta versions, this 4.7.0 stable one saves some stuff in the registry. Not vital settings, though.
Did you tryed in Preferences->System check the 'save settings in application folder'? If you didn't, try it.
But even with this option checked, just a few settings still be in registry (only settings related to video/audio decoders, but they will created in registry only if you open their settings via Popup->Video->Filters->... menu and save it). I didn't yet managed to add full portable support for video engine (UI-part is fully portable, if option that I mention above is checked so none of LA.xml settings will be stored in registry), it still rely on registry in some cases, hope to do it in v4.7.1.
Plus, I hope you understand that if you check any checkboxes in Preferences->Filetypes - entries in registry will be made., and it cannot be fully 'portable'.

>Too bad most of its documentation
Well, I trying my best making LA as much international as I can. Website is multilingual, forum is too - just look carefully at top - you will see 'Choice your language' dropbox, plus English section of forums especially comes before Russian. And if I will have enough time, I will translate Russian LA guide to English for v4.7.1
My hope is also to find Italian/France/Czech translators someday

>my portable folder went down to 11,1MB, which is quite good for a multimedia player as powerful as this is.
If you will delete skins folder, icons folder, and 'bass' folder - you can make it much more better in size.
Plus D3DCompiler_43.dll/d3dx9_43.dll also can be deleted if you sure that user have installed latest DX June 2010 redist (otherwise need to use plain EVR or VMR-7/9 WL renderers in Preferences->Video). LAAgent.exe also can be deleted if you don't use WinLIRC.

Regards, Dmitry Koteroff.

[joby_toss]

Thank you, sir, for taking the time to write here and welcome to TPFC forums!

Since version 4.6.7 you don't have to do anymore this trick, because settings upgrader has been implemented (but it do not work for <= 4.6.7).

Thank you!

Did you tryed in Preferences->System check the 'save settings in application folder'?

Yes, I did, of course.

I didn't yet managed to add full portable support for video engine (UI-part is fully portable, if option that I mention above is checked so none of LA.xml settings will be stored in registry), it still rely on registry in some cases, hope to do it in v4.7.1.

Thank you!

Plus, I hope you understand that if you check any checkboxes in Preferences->Filetypes - entries in registry will be made., and it cannot be fully 'portable'.

This is obvious, of course.

[Userfriendly]

Source code for an older version can be found here http://code.google.com/p/light-alloy/

Light alloy is based on MPC-HC but recent versions sources aren't available anymore. Is it a russian/chinese thing to not share source codes for open source software they fork? At least that's what i've noticed. Maybe there's a connection with China and Russia having lots of leet sauce hackers? It's a conspiracy!

[Midas]

>Too bad most of its documentation

Well, I trying my best making LA as much international as I can. Website is multilingual, forum is too - just look carefully at top - you will see 'Choice your language' dropbox, plus English section of forums especially comes before Russian. And if I will have enough time, I will translate Russian LA guide to English for v4.7.1. My hope is also to find Italian/France/Czech translators someday.

Thanks for checking in, it's always great to see developers joining this mainly users pow-wow. I'm willing to pledge my collaboration in the translation work, given that tasks are easy to manage, regarding both complexity and/or scope...

>my portable folder went down to 11,1MB, which is quite good for a multimedia player as powerful as this is.

If you will delete skins folder, icons folder, and 'bass' folder - you can make it much more better in size. Plus D3DCompiler_43.dll/d3dx9_43.dll also can be deleted if you sure that user have installed latest DX June 2010 redist (otherwise need to use plain EVR or VMR-7/9 WL renderers in Preferences->Video). LAAgent.exe also can be deleted if you don't use WinLIRC.

And thanks for the valuable info, too.

[Vortex]

>Light alloy is based on MPC-HC but recent versions sources aren't available anymore.
Light Alloy v4.4 (Classical version) and lower - written in clean Delphi (video engine part too), no internal codecs (so, to function - codecs must be present in user system)
Light Alloy v4.5 (semi-Modern) - uses in-house developed video engine written in C++ with MPC-HC codecs as external .ax's files.
Light Alloy v4.6/v4.7 (Modern) - uses MPC-HC/BE as video engine, with own architecture (to make it work as independent dll) plus many custom changes(like ability to change colors via DXVA) & some in-house made filters(like software video processor, to allow users change colors without dxva if their videocard do not support dxva).
But UI part (LA.exe) and some significant things (LADsp.dll, LABassSrc.ax, LAAgent.exe, wheeltray.dll) - still written in Delphi.

Source code for newer versions isn't available because no one get interested in LA v4.1 source code (despite the fact it's actually a working media player, not to mention that fact v4.1 was released in 2006 year).

>Is it a russian/chinese thing to not share source codes for open source software they fork?
Don't know But I suppose you wanted to say not 'chinese', but 'korean' (KMPlayer, PotPlayer)?

>it's always great to see developers joining this mainly users pow-wow
Well, I really care about user experience with my media player.

>I'm willing to pledge my collaboration in the translation work
a) With player? Or with guide/help?
b) What's your native language?

[joby_toss]

Light Alloy 4.8.8.1 (build 2017) 23.01.2014

Frontend:

Added hint with currently playing file when mouseover on player caption.
Updated Italian language.
Updated OpenSSL Shared Libraries v1.0.1L
Removed support for creating screenshots in WebP format.
IRSL: optimization of opening if IceCast is already loaded.
Fixed crash when loading malformed ASX playlists.
Fixed unicode issue with hint on volume slider.
Subtitles options: parameter *border width* was ignored.
Preferences->Keyboard: fixed possible crash when selecting a command.
IRSL: fixed crash when IceCast too big and contains more than ~22000 entries.
IRSL: fixed issue when bitrate in IceCast sometimes contains wrong data.
IRSL: fixed unicode issue with Genre field.

Video Engine:

AVI: extended support for Matrox MPEG2 codecs.
MKV: enhanced compatibility with some external video decoders.
MPEG: optimizations in data parsing.
Dirac: optimizations in data parsing.
Субтитры: some optimizations in data parsing.
Updated Nvidia and Intel videocards list with hardware 4K-decoding support.
Updated codecs.
Video Decoder: fixed playback of some files with incorrect FPS.
Video Decoder: fixed 4:2:0 8bit -> YV12 video output (colors distortion were seen).
Video Decoder: fixed playback of some MPEG2/H.264 in DXVA mode.
Video Decoder: some HEVC-videos (mostly studio demos of 4K) skip frames during playback.
MP4: some files were unable to play.
MPEG: fixed player hang trying to open files which were very small size.
MKV: incorrect FPS calculation for H.264 interlaced.
MKV: some files were unable to play.
FLV: fixed player hang on some corrupted files.
Real Media: some fixes in progressive/interlaced video support.
Subtitles: some PGS-subtitles were displayed with "incorrect" black border.
Fixed player crash due to installed AcerSubtitle filter in user system.
And other minor fixes and enhancements.

http://www.fosshub.com/Light-Alloy.html

[smaragdus]

The latest version of Light Alloy is 4.8.8.2 Build 2038, released on 04.02.2015, changes:

Frontend:

While getting buffering progress try to draw this progress on timeline.
Allow seeking during buffering process.
Some optimizations in skin loading and timeline drawing.
Preferences->Interface: choice LADub in skins list lead main player window to popup.
Fixed some memory leaks.
Fixed player crash on malformed skins.
Fixed two player crash on multi-monitor configurations, when one of monitors were unplugged while player was running.

Video Engine:

Subtitles: fix regression which crash some mts/m2ts files with PGS-subtitles.
Fixed crash with Elecard MPEG Demultiplexer when trying to open URL.

Light Alloy is becoming my favourite player, I hope it won't be abandoned like SPlayer was.

[freakazoid]

Too lazy to fully submit Light Alloy into TPFC, but here's the rundown:

Uncompressed filesize: 59314176 bytes.
(If you drop the "Help" folder and unneeded languages/skins, filesize is around 27MB, which is pretty good!)

Portable, but not completely stealth.

Writes the following registry items:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\LA-Codecs
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\LA-Renderer

I've been having some stuttering and subtitle issues with MKVs and MPlayer WW, but Light Alloy works flawlessly!

[guinness]

Too lazy to fully submit Light Alloy into TPFC

I am glad you are, because this isn't Portable and doesn't add any value to those players which are portable.

[freakazoid]

It's actually a pretty decent media player alternative.

It's just not fully stealth.

[Midas]

The found registry traces appear to be codec related and are extremely easy to clean -- merely merging the 'CLEAN.REG' file below will do it...

Thus, I agree with freakzoid's appraisal that Light Alloy should be considered portable for the time being.

• Code: Select all

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\LA-Codecs]
  
  [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\LA-Renderer]

[smaragdus]

Good news, Light Alloy is not dead, a new Beta (Light Alloy 4.9.0 Build 2165 Beta) is out, changes:

Frontend:
[ + ] Completely new, fast XML parser. Should fix occasional issues when user settings are lost for no reason.
[ + ] Completely new YouTube parser.
[ + ] Video Properties: added ability to rotate picture the way you want by 90 degree, instead of limited "Flip Vertically" option.
[ + ] Radio stations list: support for decoding html entities in station name / current song.
[ + ] New language files: Hongkongese, Belarussian
[ = ] Preferences: removed WinLIRC section. Hope to replace it with ability to control player via smartphone, in some future.
[ = ] Preferences->Video: added hints for Renderer and Monitor.
[ = ] Preferences->System: removed "High priority" option due to being rudiment nowadays.
[ = ] Popup menu->Open Removable disk: section simplified, should eliminate problems with long popup menu opening while quering removable disc.
[ = ] About box: removed donation page, removed captcha, removed subject field.
[ = ] Some file loading optimizations.
[ = ] Some player startup optimizations.
[ = ] Upgrade from Delphi 2007 to Delphi XE 10.1, which leaded to major internal refactoring. Can cause some regressions as result, so report bugs please if any.
[ = ] Media cache increased from 128 to 256 files.
[ = ] Removed support for Windows XP and Windows Vista.
[ = ] Changed OpenSSL dlls to v1.0.2j
[ = ] Languages updated: Dutch, Polish, Turkish, German, Korean, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Ukrainian.
[ = ] Some skins were updated.
[ - ] Jump To File menu was broken, also adjusted layout to use playlist colors.
[ - ] Fixed some crashes when player is running under guest account.
[ - ] Fixed issue with subtitles when player did not switched to last selected external subtitle.
[ - ] Fixed visual glitch on timeline when using autoseek.
[ - ] Fixed screenshot filename were broken, if movie filename contained something like "01. My Movie.avi", and "use title from tags" was enabled for screenshots, as result screenshot file name were incomplete (i.e. "01_[timestamp].jpg") so "My Movie" part was lost.
[ - ] Fixed thumbnails & full-size screenshots could not be created if filename and/or title tag contains an invalid character, such as a slash.
[ - ] Playlist: fixed that files (with relative path) not added from M3U playlist if they were not available at the moment of adding.
[ - ] Playlist: fixed playlist repaint issue for unavailable files that happened on player start and opened playlist.
[ - ] Playlist: fixed Shift+LeftClick selection issue in playlist.
[ - ] Skins: fixed blue color blinking on time and pos/dur elements
[ - ] Skins: fixed crash on malformed skins file
[ - ] Skins: fixed deadlock in font subsystem
[ - ] Preferences->FileTypes: fixed file association issues under Windows 10.
[ - ] Preferences->FileTypes: fixed extensions list drawing issue under Windows 10.
[ - ] Preferences->FileTypes: fixed strange player behaviour when no icons in Icons folder

Video Engine:
[ - ] Fixed rare crash with subtitles & external network HDD.

P.S [English]. This version is compiled with error catching module & debug mode, so it can work a bit slower than release version.

[smaragdus]

Light Alloy at version 4.9.0 build 2205 Beta 2, changes:

Changes mostly internal and not much noticeable by end-user, but some of them can be noted here:
[ + ] Automatically load jpg/png/bmp cover for audio files if both names are same.
[ + ] Skins systems additions:
a) added 7 new params for PListPanel control - durbold="1" font="Tahoma" fontsz="11" lineheight="5" lineheightcalc="auto", textoutadd="0", bmkmarkerpos="4"
allows to control some specifics layout values of playlist - default font, whether to bold the duration, font size, line height, line height calculation method*, text out position and to control bookmark marker icon position in playlist.
b) added new option "sliderovertext" (bool - 0 or 1), "tickfont" and "tickfontsz" for control type Seeker. Allows to control slider paint behaviour - that its gonna be painter either over everything (booksmarks on timeline included) or not, and last two - allows to customize Tick's font name & size.
[ + ] History window (Ctrl+H): double click on path open Windows Explorer with selected file (if file exists) or just folder (if folder exists & file not exists)
[ = ] Playlist: changed position of bookmark marker - now its on left side, looks better I suppose.
[ = ] Updated Dutch, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian languages. Traditional Chinese is removed as requested by its author.
[ = ] About box: rewritten feedback sending routines, should eliminate some problems.
[ = ] Simplified conditions to mouse hide - do not hide mouse if any of panels is visible (at least it wasn't working correctly in audio mode); correctly unhide mouse on cursor move on video panel (at least it wasn't working correctly in audio mode).
[ - ] Fixed player crash when you click sound device or "Navigate->jump to" in popup menu. (Delphi 10.1 update regression)
[ - ] Default audio lang & default subs lang function were broken (New XML parser regression)
[ - ] Fixed issue with hotkey seek-to-last-position.
[ - ] Fixed issue with video panel corruption when show/hide caption/control panels. (Delphi 10.1 update regression)
[ - ] Fixed bug with image scale in fullscreen mode, when displaying album cover.

P.S [English]. This version is compiled with error catching module & debug mode, so it can work a bit slower than release version.

I am tempted to quote the developer's response to a post of mine:

smaragdus
>Great news- I was afraid Light Alloy was abandoned! I feel relief it is still in development!

No, it's not. How some guy noted correctly - Light Alloy comes in spurts, randomly. Its development goes into hibernation and suddenly comes back to life and gives us a version. Smiley
And to be honest, I'm in creative crisis in context of Light Alloy. Light Alloy has mostly all needed features for typical user, so the only way is go by PotPlayer path - more and more functions. Do you need it? Me, to be honest, no. Light Alloy has its own place on "market" - somewhere between MPC-BE & PotPlayer/VLC, and I think its better to keep it, than go to function-cut and simplifying (MPC-BE way), or muscle build-up (PotPlayer/KMPlayer/VLC way).