
How to use my Mpeg 1 Editor              (c)1995 Alexis Ashley

LEGAL STUFF
===========

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.


REQUIREMENTS
============

You will need a C++ compiler for these programmes, and the "make" utility.
Some test mpeg files would also be useful!


INSTALLATION
============

The file INSTALL gives full details of how to install this programme.

Running the Program
===================

Just type mpeg_edit !

The full command line options are :

mpeg_edit [-display name] [-private cols] [-geometry geom] [-foreground colour]
[-background colour] [-cursor colour] [-title title] [filename]

As you can see, all command line options are optional.

-display  sets the X display to use

-private cols  use a private colourmap (necessary if your running another X
                                        application that uses lots of colours)

-geometry  (or -g)    sets the size and position of the window

-foreground (or -fg)  sets the default foreground colour

-background (or -bg)  sets the default background colour

-cursor (or -cr)      sets the cursor colour

-title  (or -t)       sets the window's title

filename              loads the file specified


The programme also understands X resources, the class name is "Mpeg Edit",
and it understands the resources foreground, background, cursor, title and
geomentry.  There is also button.foreground, button.background,
button.highlight, button.lowlight, button.font, menu.foreground,
menu.background, menu.disabled, menu.font, textwindow.highlight,
textwindow.lowlight, textwindow.font, TypeInBox.foreground,
TypeInBox.background, TypeInBox.highlight, TypeInBox.lowlight, and
TypeInBox.font.  Apart from the .font ones, these are all colour names, and
the .fonts are font names.


A Walk-through Example
======================

Type "mpeg_edit" followed by return

Select the FILE menu

Select LOAD

A window will appear with the current directory listed.  Select the name
of the mpeg file you want to load, and select the OKAY button.  If the
file isn't in the current directory, select the directory (or .. if its
in a lower directory) and press OKAY, to move to this directory.

Press the PLAY button

after a couple of seconds, click anywhere in the mpeg_edit window, apart
from one of the three windows in the middle of the screen.

Press the |<- button

The middle window, which is where you saw the mpeg playing in, is the
current frame.  The leftmost window is the start window, and the rightmost
window is the end window.  The start window indicates where an effect, or
cut, will start from, and the end window indicates where it will end.

Click on the leftmost window

This has selected the current frame as the start position.

Press the >> button

This has moved forward nine frames

Click on the rightmost window

This has selected the end frame.

Select the EFFECTS menu

Select "Fade from Black"

This will go from the start frame, to the end frame, smoothly fading from
black.

Press the |<- button

Press play.  Wow, a sexy fade in!

Select the FILE menu

Select "Save As"

Type in a filename for the new mpeg (DO NOT USE THE SAME NAME AS THE LOADED
FILE!!!).

The programme will now write this new mpeg.

Select the EXIT button

That's it!    Have fun.


Known Problems
==============
If an X font cannot be loaded, the programme stops on an assert(xfs!=NULL).
This should be fixable, I'm looking into it.

Copying to the clipboard, closing the file, and opening another file,
which uses a different size frame, stops on an assert.

As above, but even if frame sizes are the same, sometimes causes memory
errors.

If you select the wrong type of file from the import picture command, the
program stops.  This is because the pbmplus library does an exit in its
code.  I'm working on a way to stop this.

