Welcome to my page!
I hope you enjoy your visit. If you have any question, comment or just want to say something mail me at: 

g-marotte@usa.net


 

Introduction:

aKtion! is a video player based on xanim. It (xanim) supports many different file formats: NOTE: You'll need to have xanim 2.70.7.0 or superior properly installed in your machine to run aKtion!. If you don't have it go to the Xanim Homepage.
You can also visit the David Sweet's XAnim page for pre compiled and full featured XAnim available for download in RPM format.

Using the player:

Here is a little screenshot:

To start aKtion!, go into the "Multimedia" menu, and choose the "aKtion!" entry. You can also call it from the command line like:
aktion [filename] <enter>
If xanim is not in your path, you can choose what file to use as the xanim executable. Go to the configuration dialog and change the option "xanim executable".
You can also drag 'n drop video files from kfm into an aKtion! window.

Available keys:
ESC : leave the player
SPACE : play/pause
ENTER : open file
F1 : help
, (comma) : backward
. (dot) : forward
2 : volume down
3 : volume up

(see also Full Screen Mode)

Capturing frames:

During a video playback, you can press the 'c' key to capture the current frame being played. You don't need to pause the video, just press the 'c' key. The frames will be saved in the "Output directory" (see the configuration dialog in the "Capture" tab), with the specified format. They will have the name of the current file followed by a number which indicates the capture order (e.g. "myVideo1.bmp myVideo2.bmp ...").

Video Clips sites:

Here's a list of pages that contains video files for your viewing pleasure. If you know an address that might be included, don't hesitate and send it to me. Thanks to:
Benjamin Sher
sher07@bellsouth.net
Sher's Russian Web
http://www.websher.net

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does that "Unsupported video codec" error message means?
This means that the player can't recognize the video format, or, most likely, that you don't have a recent xanim version or a "full featured" version of xanim. In some Linux (and probably others O.S.) distributions (as RedHat), xanim doesn't comes with all the video codecs in it due to some legal issues. How to fix this?. Read the next question.

How do I get the "full featured" xanim version?
Go to the xanim homepage and follow the instructions on how to get the "cinepak", "indeo" and "creative" video codecs. Probably you'll need to recompile xanim.
You can also visit the David Sweet's XAnim page for pre compiled and full featured XAnim available for download in RPM format.

Why sometimes (not always) aKtion! doesn't play the video sound?
Sometimes xanim "fights" with KDE in order to get the sound control. This specially happens if you have lots of system sounds activated. If KDE is playing the, let's say, "new window" sound when aKtion! starts, and aKtion! tries to automatically start playing the video, then xanim will see that the sound card is busy, and will refuse to play the video sound.
Solution: deactivate some system sounds. You can also deactivate aktion' "autoplay" feature. Or, when the sound is gone, you can press the stop button and then play again.

Why the time bar doesn't works? Why the time labels always show "0:00:00"?
That's because you don't have the patched version of xanim. Go to the Download section in the aKtion! homepage and read the notice.

Copyright:

aKtion! is distributed under GPL (see the LICENSE file included in the distribution)

   XAnim Copyright (C) 1990-1997 by Mark Podlipec.
   All rights reserved.

   This software may be freely copied, modified and redistributed without
   fee for non-commerical purposes provided that this copyright notice is
   preserved intact on all copies and modified copies.

   There is no warranty or other guarantee of fitness of this software.
   It is provided solely "as is". The author(s) disclaim(s) all
   responsibility and liability with respect to this software's usage
   or its effect upon hardware or computer systems.


KXAnim

Introduction:

The kxanim widget is a xanim wrapper to allow video playing on your apps.

Where is it?

You'll find the two files for the KXAnim widget into the /aktion/src directory in the distribution (no lib yet!). The files are: The docs are in  /aktion/src/doc (or just click the help button in the aKtion! player). Or just click here.

Using the widget:

KXAnim works like any other QT/KDE widget. In order to use it, you need to include two files in your project: You must generate the kxanim.moc file using the MOC compiler (see the Qt documentation for more info).
Now you will need to declare the widget like:

   KXAnim *myVideoWidget;

   myVideoWidget = new KXAnim( this, "the name");
   myVideoWidget->move(x,y);

Then you just need to connect some signals to the widget slots. You can also call those slots manually like:

   myVideoWidget->play();

But before this don't forget to set the file to play:

   myVideoWidget->setFile("videoFileName.avi");

Take a look at the full class documentation.

KXAnim class documentation:

Class documentation.


Guillermo P. Marotte
Santa Fe - Argentina
g-marotte@usa.net