Light Alloy 4.7.0

Version 4.7.0 (build 1367)19.02.2013

Frontend:
Light Alloy Guide in Russian by Gilorn (can be seen in About Light Alloy window, F1 hotkey).
Polish translation of Light Alloy Guide by Adam Malich.
Japanese translation by Tilt.
German translation by Axel05.
Chinese translation by lizw9382.
Romanian translation by marcelush.
Ability to watch online videos from Youtube directly in Light Alloy (Ctrl+U to show Open URL dialog).
Ability to watch online videos from Vimeo directly in Light Alloy. Preferred quality can be set in Preferences->Video->Misc.
Alternate mode for playlist has been added - its called Playlist Folders Mode, and can be activated with F11 hotkey, or press right mouse click on "Playlist" button on control panel.
Internet Radio Browser. Can be seen in Context Menu->Open->.., or via hotkey Ctrl+H.
Recent list manager. Available via right mouse click on "Play / Pause" button or Shift+H hotkey.
Support for tracker music (XM, IT, S3M, MOD, ...)
Popup menu: Open URL
Popup menu: Open DVD folder without DVD menu
Ability to make screenshots in WebP/WebP-LL formats.
Preferences->Mouse->Areas of Video: added new features for angular regions (left top/right top) - subtitles, sound on/off, next/prev in playlist.
Preferences->Playlist: *Check for broken/missing files* group box.
Preferences->Sound: ability to set output speakers configuration.
Preferences->Sound: "Radio" tab.
Preferences->Video: "Screenshots" tab.
Preferences->Keyboard: new commands has been added (like: Playlist size, Playlist's folders panel size, Rename file or bookmark)
Preferences->Keyboard->Alternative: ability to use alternative hotkeys mode on laptops without numeric keypad.
New options to autoseek/skipping feature.
"Speed change" button: added 16x option
To Playlist's *remove from playlist* button popup menu have been added *Clear playlist from broken/missing files*
Sound options: ability to save/load equalizer settings into files specified by user.
Ability to rename title/bookmarks in playlist.
When you open network/internet stream, bufferization progress will be shown.
Preferences->Mouse->Areas of Video: in *bottom* section, if you use normal seeking scheme, by holding "Shift" you can temporary activate by-frame seeking and vice-versa.
Preferences->Mouse->Areas of Video: in *bottom* section, if *By Frame* seeking scheme is used, double mouse clicks in left side of Area - will do frame seek backward, in right side - frame seek forward.
Support for networked M3U/PLS-playlists (shoutcast internet radio, for example).
Enhancements in M3U playlist support.
Pixel-to-Pixel aspect ratio (useful for lowres video, for example).
LA.xml (hidden options): a) Ability to set pair skin in "SkinDouble" variable and switch between them by right mouse clicking on Light Alloy's caption. b) Scheduler.Alarma.EveryHour="1" - *Big Ben* mode (every hour alarma) c) Nastr.LA_DoubleCopy - ability to run second copy of Light Alloy from another folder (in one instance LA_DoubleCopy should ="0", in second - ="1"). This could be useful for second instance of Light Alloy which will be used, for example, only for audio, thus can have some unique interface settings.
Playlist: function *remove file(s) from disk* have been fully revamped, and now support multiple files removing.
Preferences->Playlist: enhancements to *the accuracy of files search* function when used in *3 first symbols* mode.
Files extensions that used for autoseek/skipping feature have been changed from *.oe to *skip
Context menu: *Playlist* section was fully revamped.
Context menu: optimizations in *Play Disc* feature.
Optimizations to drag-n-drop on Light Alloy window when a lot of files(~1000 and up) is selected.
A few fixes to unicode support (hints module, file info window, popup menu, ...)
Playlist: Sometimes bookmarks icon wasn't drawn.
Autosearch-and-loading of multiple subtitles wasn't working correctly on VMR 7/9 WL and EVR renderers.
Seeking by bookmarks wasn't working well.
*Add files to playlist* button wasn't working after playlist clean.
Fixed loading issue with online links that contains .m3u extension.
Fixed issues with .m3u8 extension.
Fixed OSD shift on skins with wide captions.
Scheduler: alarma have been worked incorrectly with external files.
Display wasn't able to go sleep mode on playlist end.
Preferences->Keyboard->Alternative: changes in modes wasn't saved.
Other fixes and changes.

Video Engine:
Added decoding support for: Opus, Jpeg 2000, Speex
Added support for 4K-video in DXVA mode for VP5-supported videocards (GeForce >= 6xx, some 4xx/5xx, newest Quadro/Tesla series)
Added support for internet radio (MP3/AAC/OGG/OGG-FLAC/OGG-OPUS/WMA is supported, with ability to record)
Experimental support for IPTV.
Added support for AVC Level 5.1 on Intel HD Graphics 2500
Added support for subtitles in VOB files.
Added partial H.264 Interlaced support with two fields in one frame.
Added support for VC-1 field interlaced decoding in DXVA mode.
Added support for XSub subtitles (DivX Subtitles) (works only with internal codecs at the moment)
MPEG2 DXVA decoder: support for videos with 2:3 Pulldown frames.
AVI: improved support for MP4-style H.264 in AVI
MP4/MOV: support for AMR Wide-band audio streams.
MP4/MOV: detection of Rotate meta-tag with following picture rotate.
MP4/MOV: added support for chapters that was made in HandBrake application.
MP4/MOV: support for Speex audio.
MP4/MOV: support for "3IVD" mediatype.
MP4/MOV: enhanced support for stream video.
MP4/MOV: support for Apple's MPEG2 specific videos (HDV 1-8 & XDV 1-9).
MKV: Enhancements in broken files support, some speed increases on bad files (with low key frames count, for example)
OGG: support for Speex audio.
OGG: support chained streams.
MPEG: added "fast seek" option. This option can be in use in 99% cases, but its disabled by default because with this option enabled a seek can be wrong for some files.
FLV: streaming video (youtube or any other http source) - opening speed-up, determining file duration during playback.
MPA/OGG: support for stream audio.
Subtitles: support DVB subtitles for Windows-TV (WTV/DVR-MS)
Subtitles: enhancements in PGS/HDMV/DVB-subtitles support. Also, fixed issue when multiple subtitles wasn't able to be displayed.
Subtitles: added support for float values in fscx and fscy tags
Optimisations in audio decoder.
OGG: allow connection to files with "OggS" header only (header check).
WavPack: made a few checks to ensure that its a proper wavpack stream, so we won't try to decode all stream kinds that we got.
MPEG: enhancements to seeking feature with improper PTS table.
DTSAC3: enhancements in detection of AC3-streams.
MKV: increased packets count in queue - it necessary for, at least, proper display some HDMV/PGS subtitles.
More strict checks to videocard decoding capabilities for play H-264 in DXVA mode.
Subtitles: enhancements in subtitles queue.
Subtitles: enhancements in parsing/rendering mechanism of PGS/DVB subtitles.
Minor optimisations to LivePreview feature.
Updates in stereo-to-4.0/5.1/7.1 upmix coefficients.
Codecs were updated (ffmpeg git-c0a4871c, libopus 1.0.1 git-90bac9d1), MediaInfo module has been updated (MediaInfo svn-5351), and some other system components.
Some MPEG-TS files were cannot be opened.
OGG: unable to play files encoded by Sam Encoder (mostly internet radio sources).
Fixed a few hangs with online-sources (mostly internet radio).
Wasapi Audio Renderer: WASAPI Shared mode is not used now if sampling rates of the input and output streams differ
Fixed issues with WavPack 24/96 and 32/96 playback.
Fixed issues with data parsing about chapters from IFO-file when more than one Program Chains is available.
Fixes in DVD-subtitles parser/renderer (picture was black some times).
Audio switcher: fixed buffer overflow which produces stuttering and crackling on some audio files.
Subtitles: fixed some scaling and rotating issues.
Subtitles: subtitles wasn't displayed correctly if output was in YUY2 colorspace.
Subtitles: fix high RAM usage with some complex subtitles.
Subtitles: some times subtitles were displayed with doodle symbols, now it correctly handle ANSI vs UTF8 subtitles (without BOM).
Subtitles: player crash when PGS/DVB subtitles resolution was higher than video-stream resolution.
Subtitles: no subtitles were on anamorphic videos (like 1440x1080 with 16:9 ratio).
Subtitles: fixed player crash with improper RLE-data in HDMV/PGS subtitles.
DVD working incorrectly with VMR 7/9 WL or EVR.
Fixed freeze with madVR when switching to fullscreen with exclusive mode enabled.
FLAC: player crash on broken files, also some files was not played well.
RealVideo: fixed a/v out-of-sync with enabled multithreading.
AVI: player crash on files with broken data.
Other fixes.


Light Alloy v4.6.7 (build 726)

UI:
[ + ] Polish language by Adam Malich.
[ + ] Limited, experimental support for ISO (required installed LAV Filters).
[ + ] Preferences->Events: *Enable skipping opening/endings*. With it you can mark on timeline opening/endings that player should just skip. To use it, just enable this option, open some media file, hold right mouse button when mouse cursor is over timeline, and move it to desired position so you can highlight a spots on timeline which player will not play. In Preferences->Keyboard, *Seek* section, also added hotkey commands according to this feature.
[ + ] Preferences->Keyboard: Seek section: new commands - Subtitle Forward / Backward. Works well only for external subtitles. If built-in within container (mkv, mp4, ...) - works only to forward direction.
[ + ] Preferences->Keyboard: Playlist section: new command - *Show / Hide search field". With arrow keys (left/right) you can navigate within search results. With Esc key - you can get rid of focus from search field.
[ + ] Preferences->Keyboard: *subtitles* section: new commands - Subtitle font increase / Subtitle font decrease
[ + ] Preferences->Sound: added WASAPI Audio Renderer support to output devices list.
[ + ] Preferences->Mouse: added new option - *Swap left and right mouse buttons for the video/audio/subtitle options buttons*; plus - ability to seek by mouse for default left button mouse action (Pause + Move Window + Seek) just like on iPad/iPhone - hold left mouse button in fullscreen, and move it to right or left.
[ + ] Preferences->Mouse: Added ability to seek for default left button mouse action by dragging mouse cursor from right -> left (seek forward) and left -> right (seek backward). Works in fullscreen mode only.
[ + ] Preferences->System: option *Show CPU Usage*.
[ + ] Preferences->Global keys:
a) Ability to assign media keys to desired command.
b) 4 new commands added.
c) 'Clear' button.
d) Changes applied immediatelly, without Light Alloy restart.
[ + ] Preferences->Codecs: option *Disable internal subtitles*.
[ + ] Scheduler: 'Switch to sleep mode' option.
[ + ] Subtitle options:
a) added ability to set more charsets.
b) support for ass/ssa
c) *Default* button now corrently reset subtitles styles to defaults for loaded movie. Previously, only layout settings in subtitle options window were resetted to defaults, but subtitle styles in current movie still were changed.
[ + ] Subtitle explorer enhancements:
a) unicode support.
b) form resize support.
c) support for multiline subtitles to grid.
d) support for subtitles timing change.
e) some other enhancements.
[ + ] Popup menu on timeline: options for seeking by key frame.
[ + ] Updates to Filter Tree dialog.
[ + ] Updates to external playlist.
[ + ] Significant improvements to operations (like moving, scrolling, clicking, and so on) responsibility of internal and external playlists with >= 20.000 files within.
[ = ] Next/Prev chapter: automatically switch you to next/prev file when you call this command on first/last chapter.
[ = ] Automatically switch to external subtitles, in case of VMR 7/9 WL and EVR renderers, if 'subtitle language by default' option didn't found any matches.
[ = ] Video/subtitle option dialogs can now be displayed without loading video.
[ = ] Cosmetics in preferences menu.
[ = ] Changed some default keyboard keys.
[ - ] Fixed a few issues with multimedia keys on keyboard.
[ - ] Fixed player hang when trying to load some VC-1 videos with multiple audio streams in M2TS/TS container.
[ - ] When some options were used, didn't worked MKV/BD/DVD chapter parser.
[ - ] Fixes to unicode support in some parts of Light Alloy.
[ - ] Some fixes to *Playlist->Save Report* function.
[ - ] Player control from external programs was broken (for ex., IRLink3 or WinLIRC).
[ - ] Fixed a few issues with media history, also added unicode support for it.
[ - ] *Seek to last playing position* didn't worked for some DVDs.
[ - ] When you delete file from playlist end --- Light Alloy did scrolling to playlist beginning.
[ - ] Not all subtitles with unicode filename was loaded fine.
[ - ] Hints were flicker sometimes.
[ - ] Popup menu->Video: 'Seek to last position' hotkey didn't worked for DVD.
[ - ] Live Preview: crash with audio files.
[ - ] Live Preview: when two monitors connected, preview window always appear on first monitor.
[ - ] Crash, if Light Alloy was minimized to tray, and user decided to reload/turnoff the computer.
[ - ] LA didn't restored properly maximized when it was minimized to tray, if you press Global Keys Ctrl+Alt+Home (maximize).

Video Engine:
[ + ] Decoding support for DVCPRO 50, Apple DVCPRO HD 1080i60, RealAudio Lossless, MSS2, WMA Voice, Canopus CLLC.
[ + ] Support for RealAudio 14.4.
[ + ] DXVA decoder now respect CROP value from splitter.
[ + ] Audio Decoder: ability to set speaker configuration.
[ + ] Better compatibility with external DirectVobSub filter (eg. xy-vsfilter)
[ + ] Handle external filter friendly name better.
[ + ] AVI Splitter: properties dialog.
[ = ] Do not drop subtitle from parser queue if syntax error has been found, just ignore a bad line.
[ = ] Updated: codecs, mediainfo module.
[ = ] Ignore subtitle renderer for Live Preview.
[ = ] Corrections to DXVA detection mechanism.
[ - ] MadVR: OSD didn't disappear when it have to be.
[ - ] MadVR: Sometimes subtitles were displayed in wrong position.
[ - ] Subtitles charset was ignored.
[ - ] Battery indicator didn't disappear when it have to be.
[ - ] When you change subtitles in external application, Light Alloy didn't reload them properly.
[ - ] Fixed memory leak when displaying OSD.
[ - ] Fixed a few issues caused DVD playback hang.
[ - ] Live Preview: fixed timestamp being transparent if black font color is selected.
[ - ] If you try to save screenshot when movie on pause - movie skipped one frame forward.
[ - ] If subtitle file was contain syntax error, Light Alloy was unable to continue video file playback.
[ - ] Fixed crash when player was unable to detect that subtitles didn't loaded


v4.6.6 (23 May 2012 -> 30 July 2012)

UI:
[ + ] New skin: LA Dub (author - Ruslan Somov; technical adaptation - Gilorn)
[ + ] Dutch language for player UI and installer (author - TheDutchJewel, http://thedutchjewel.defcon5.biz).
[ + ] Popup Menu: new item *Play CD*.
[ + ] Popup Menu: new items to *File* section.
[ + ] Revamped filters tree dialog.
[ + ] Subtitles options: new checkboxes *position subtitles relative to the video frame* and *apply for all subtitles automatically*.
[ + ] Preferences->Interface->Appearance: new checkbox *For audio use title from playlist bookmarks, if available*. So, if you started playback of CUE-playlist, in player caption you will see title of current playing element from this CUE-playlist.
[ + ] Preferences->Interface->Interface window: new sub-option *But display only for current playing file* to option *Add chapters from files on timeline*.
[ + ] Preferences->Interface: new tab *Tray*.
[ + ] Preferences->Mouse: new tab *Preview*. When mouse over on timeline, allows you to see the preview of things to come, like on YouTube. Also, if you hold right mouse button + roll mouse wheel -- you can change preview window size.
[ + ] Preferences->Playlist->Misc: New option "Do not start playback when you drag'n'drop a media-file to Light Alloy's panels".
[ + ] Preferences->Keyboard: added commands for Pan'n'Scan
[ + ] Preferences->DVD: added ability to specify CD/DVD/Blu-ray devices by default. (this is for PopUp Menu->*Play CD/DVD disc*)
[ + ] Preferences->OSD->Subtitles: option *subtitles language by default*.
[ + ] Preferences->OSD->Subtitles: option *automatically switch to external subtitle*.
[ + ] Preferences->Codecs: option *ignore system codecs*.
[ + ] DVD: added support to navigate in dvd menu with keyboard arrow keys / WinLIRC. So, by default - spacebar -> enter menu item, left/right/up/down - navigation, backspace -> out from submenu (last one - works not for all DVD).
[ + ] DVD: support for malformed dvd-menu.
[ + ] DVD: output current title/chapter to player's caption, instead of "VIDEO_TS.IFO".
[ + ] Feature *rewind to last position* now supports DVD.
[ + ] Popup Menu->Video: new categories - *VSync*, *GPU*, *Misc*.
[ + ] Enhanced support to unicode.
[ + ] Autoload of external sound file to next episode of movie, if you manually loaded a same-named external audio file for a previous episode of the movie.
[ + ] File information dialog: added new fields - *About album...* (album, performer, genre, recorded date, copyrights, comments); for audio streams added - compression method, software used, software settings.
[ + ] Visual enhancements to hints.
[ + ] New player control icons to Windows 7 taskbar.
[ = ] Preferences->Mouse: changes default actions to 'Left button, one click', 'Left button, double click'.
[ = ] Preferences->OSD->Subtitles: default texture resolution for subtitles is now 1280x720. Compromise between quality and speed.
[ = ] If LA cannot play file, he will no more try to playback next file.
[ = ] DVD: Block attempt to seek in dvd-menu.
[ - ] Crash when you trying to open 'About Light Alloy' dialog, if when player is running - you plug-in second monitor.
[ - ] Preferences->OSD->Subtitles: *Folders with subtitles* wasn't function properly.
[ - ] Feature *save full-screen screenshots from movie* was broken.
[ - ] DVD: Autoplay didn't function well.
[ - ] DVD: Sometimes LA hangs.
[ - ] If video file was contain unicode symbols in its filename, screenshot function didn't worked properly.
[ - ] Save full-screen screenshots:
a) filename was empty in some cases.
b) added timestamps to filename.
c) Now it will open folder with results, after work is done.
[ - ] Fixed player crash when you use 'save full-screen screenshots' or 'save thumbnails', if video file was playing with active _external_ sound stream.
[ - ] Sometimes error occuried when you try to scroll in external playlist window.
[ - ] Fixed disappearing of Blu-ray chapters.
[ - ] Links in *About Light Alloy* wasn't work.
[ - ] A lot of cosmetical and other fixes which were made behind the scenes.

Video Engine:
[ + ] Added decoding support to internal video/audio decoders of following:
Video: Flash Screen Video 1, Fraps, Bink Video, PNG, TechSmith Codec 2, MSS 1/3/4
Audio: DVD Audio, DTS Audio CD, MLP, Bink Audio, Indeo Audio
[ + ] Added support for AMR.
[ + ] Added support for Mixed AudioCD.
[ + ] Added support for DVB subtitles in MKV.
[ + ] Added support for external SUP subtitles (only for VMR-7/9 RL, EVR CA/Sync)
[ + ] Detection of compatible hardware and drivers of ATI-videocards for H.264 playback + DXVA (only for Windows Vista/7 for now)
[ + ] FLV Splitter: support for AAC-audio streams without extradata in header.
[ + ] Technical OSD: detection of CPU/GPU load (in case of GPU, only nVidia videocard are support at the moment).
[ = ] Enhanced detection of MPEG-4 with broken metadata atom.
[ = ] When you try to playback MPEG-1/2 or DVD with activated madVR - Light Alloy will automatically and silently fallback to VMR9-WL, because madVR cannot work properly with these media types.
[ = ] MPEG-TS/PS - enhanced seeking on H.264/VC-1
[ = ] Enhanced H.264 support for DXVA decoder on Interlaced movies - fixed freezes on seeking and when playback start with some movies.
[ = ] Updated internal codecs; media info module.
[ - ] Fixed appearing of green lines on DXVA-movies which occasionally happens to users with ATI-videocards.
[ - ] MPEGSplitter: subtitles were not working with chinese Windows.
[ - ] Fixed WMA decoding with internal audio decoder.
[ - ] Fixed "VC-1 I" decoding in DXVA-mode, which occasionally freeze picture and solution was a seeking in file. (apply in most cases for ATI-videocards).
[ - ] Fixed crash on some OGGs files.
[ - ] "OSD with video" didn't worked for madVR.
[ - ] Subtitles: HDMV/DVB subtitles were disappear after window bounds change.
[ - ] Subtitles: when you switch to HDMV/DVB subtitles from any others(text, like srt/ssa) - subtitles were not displaying, also when you switch to any text subtitles from HDMV/DVB - subtitles were not displayer correctly (wrong position and size)
[ - ] Subtitles: wrong position, size and aspect ratio when displaying raster subtitles (VOBSub, PGS, DVB).
[ - ] Fixed no sound issue with PCM output in 32-bit.

The main feature - it is very easy in use but at the same time has lots of configuration settings. Like fast video rewind, load subtitles, make bookmarks in the list or on the timeline, preview window on timeline, select audio tracks and subtitles in multilingual films, minimize to tray, infrared remote control (WinLIRC), make screenshots. The brightness/contrast/saturation of the image van be adjust, it supports multimedia keyboards and has full support for DVD/Blu-ray and MKV/OGM/MP4 features.

Features
* Built-in video/audio codecs (but still can be configured to use system codecs), as well as custom codecs for the selected video formats, has full support for subtitles (with the ability to specify the time shift if the subtitles are behind or ahead); has minimal start time;
* Full support for DVD/Blu-ray and MKV/OGM/MP4 features.
* Support for WinLIRC to control the player remotely..
* Configurable playback speed from 0.1x slow to 32x fast, frame by frame playback, adjustable rewind.
* Volume control, timeline display on the control panel.
* Additional audio features: sound amplification, normalization, audio shift.
* Unrestricted display size with or w/o aspect ratio alignment.
* Audio and video filters configuration.
* Supports playlists with the possibility of placing bookmarks in the playlist or on timeline; can be configured to display or hide the duration, can generate a table from the playlist (for movie collectors), save/load a playlist, get screenshots from the video (including the DVD).
* Drag-n-drop support; saving playing position on player close (to resume later).
* Show detailed info about playing file, copy to clipboard any fields of data or all the info at once.
* Rich reconfigurable mouse keys and keyboard, functional pop-up menu.
* Easy to use media-oriented "add files" dialogue.
* Video settings can be saved per file (brightness, contrast, saturation, sound volume level, the currently loaded subtitle, the currently selected audio track) that are reapplied next time the file is opened.
* Ability to specify a folder to save screenshots, for creating thumbnails and full-size screenshots from the movie.
* Timeline preview function, like on YouTube, with posibility to change preview window size.
* Possibility to show battery charge when AC-mode is off.