gvplay 0.0.3 (Silurian)
Jason Tang (tang@jtang.org)
http://www.jtang.org/gvplay
26 June 2000

Welcome to gvplay, a Gnome/GTK video player for Linux.


What is gvplay?
---------------

gvplay is my attempt at writing a lightweight video/movie player for
Gnome/GTK.  gvplay is not intended to be a full-fledge player such as
xanim nor does it compete with non-linear video editors like Broadcast
2000. Instead, gvplay is a quick and dirty (clean?) player.


What does it do?
----------------

gvplay currently "plays" two types of media:

  - First gvplay does what I originally intended -- play movie files.
    The only that works (i.e., that I've been able to reverse-engineer)
    is Microsoft uncompressed AVIs.  Although it has a mute button and
    volume slider, gvplay currently does not support sound yet.

  - Second, gvplay interfaces with video capture boards through the
    Video4Linux API.  If my research is correct, that makes gvplay to be
    the first Gnome program to interface with video cameras.

Since gvplay treats both input sources identically, it will (in a future
release <grin>) accept plugins to modify the input.  For example, one
could write a plugin to track objects, merge two streams into one, or
any other linear-editing needs.


What does it not do?
--------------------

A whole heck of a lot.  Obviously, there is no sound.  Only one codec
(if you can call it that) works.  I'll get around to fixing it.


Installation Instructions
-------------------------

The following commands should do it for most people:
  $ ./configure
  $ make
  $ ./gvplay

Here are the libraries that work for me:
  - Gnome 1.2.0
  - GTK+ 1.2.8
  - Linux x86 kernel 2.2.15 (might work for other processors as well...)


License
-------

gvplay is protected under the GNU General Public License.  For a copy of
the GPL, see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.


Feedback
--------

Yeah, fan mail!  Comments, suggestions, praises, and flames should be
addressed to tang@jtang.org.  Yes, I do read my e-mail.
