Borderless stream viewing software?


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I'm trying to view security camera streams on a second monitor; they are all mjpegs, but VLC just isn't cutting it.  There are borders and a title bar everywhere, and in Windows 8, they are light gray, and I can't figure out how to change that.  It's really bright when the video itself is dark.  I tried unchecking "enable window decorations" in vlc, but that did nothing.  There's also the "don't embed video in interface" feature, but then you have to manually enter the size and position of the window, you can't just drag and resize with the mouse, which is difficult when I want to have 3 different streams at different resolutions on one monitor.

 

MPC-HC has exactly what I want, a minimalist window feature that shows nothing but the video, but still allows you to move and resize with the mouse.  But MPC-HC is terrible at playing internet streams, and it can't play any of mine, it just says "opening...".  I also tried SMPlayer, but it said "Stream not seekable!"  I don't even know if SMPlayer has the borderless feature anyway.

 

So does anyone know of any software that can play an MJPEG stream without window borders, and still be resized and moved with the mouse?  I've been searching google for over an hour, haven't found anything yet.

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I dunno if they support MJPEG streams, but both KMPlayer and PotPlayer support seamless windows.

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I dunno if they support MJPEG streams, but both KMPlayer and PotPlayer support seamless windows.

 

I've used KMPlayer before, although I haven't tried the MJPEG stream on it.  I thought KMPlayer was just a korean frontend for MPlayer, but I might be wrong.  I'll give them both a try, though, thanks for the tip!

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Nope, no dice.  Both KMPlayer and PotPlayer have the same problem as MPC-HC - they just get stuck at "Opening...".  Hell, even Windows Media Player can't play it.  It looks like my only options are VLC and Internet Explorer.

 

Google searching "mjpeg viewer" leads to dozens of different programs... for Android and iPhone.  And they prove that there is nothing wrong with my stream that is preventing the windows programs from loading it; MJPEG Viewer, MX Player, Webcam Viewer, they are all able to view my mjpeg stream just fine.  But they are all on Android.  There are absolutely no dedicated mjpeg stream viewing programs for Windows, except for VLC, and it can't do borderless properly.

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Try iSpy:  http://www.ispyconnect.com/

 

Not sure if it will do what you need, but might be worth a try.

 

Well, I tried it out, and I got my mjpeg streams connected to it, but I don't see how to view the streams, and nothing else, without borders.  Right now, they are in a feature-bloated mess of a window.  I can make one of them full screen, I can add them to a bordered grid layout, but I can't seem to figure out how to view them borderless.

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Alright, according to their own forum, iSpy itself does not have a borderless webcam viewing feature.  But they do offer a Windows Gadget that does.  So I installed 8GadgetPack to get Gadgets back on Windows 8, then I installed their gadget, then I find out that their gadget can only connect to remote iSpy servers, not the actual mjpeg streams themselves.  And to do so would require creating an iSpy account, then streaming the mjpg to their server, then streaming it back to the gadget.

 

Why is it so hard to find a good webcam viewer?!

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So you want video like this from your streams?

 

Yeeeees!  MPC-HC, KMPlayer, and PotPlayer can all do that.  And none of them will play this MJPEG stream (or probably any MJPEG stream, for that matter).  And I don't think there is an issue with my stream, because it is able to play fine using VLC, WMP, MX Player (android), and MJPEG Viewer (android).

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Ok here you go - found your solution.. Since VLC plays your streams right.. And you can hide the windows stuff by uncheck integrate in interface section of pref and uncheck window decorations in video section.

But it shows up in top left top of screen and you can not move it around or resize it because no border..

Here you go

http://www.deskex.com/altmove/

So you can then move it round by holding left alt and left mouse button. You can resize window via left cntrl button and left mouse button.

These key assignments can be altered.. Check it out.

edit: People always looking for something that can do exactly what they want, when quite often you just need something to take care of the part the software you like does not allow you to do.. So VLC lets you windows border, but then without calling out exact position and size in the command line you can not move it..

Well the above now gives you the ability to move, resize, etc without your window borders - problem solved ;)

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Ok here you go - found your solution.. Since VLC plays your streams right.. And you can hide the windows stuff by uncheck integrate in interface section of pref and uncheck window decorations in video section.

But it shows up in top left top of screen and you can not move it around or resize it because no border..

Here you go

http://www.deskex.com/altmove/

So you can then move it round by holding left alt and left mouse button. You can resize window via left cntrl button and left mouse button.

These key assignments can be altered.. Check it out.

edit: People always looking for something that can do exactly when they want, when quite often you just need something to take care of the part the software you like does not allow you to do.. So VLC lets you windows border, but then without calling out exact position and size in the command line you can not move it..

Well the above now gives you the ability to move, resize, etc without your window borders - problem solved ;)

 

Wow!  Thank you for all your help!  Sounds like a pretty ghetto solution, but I guess its the best I can hope for at the moment.

 

I'll give it a try, thanks!

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AAAAH!  OH MY GOD IT WORKS!!  Its so farking easy now!  I just uncheck 'integrate video in main interface' in VLC, and then run AltMove, and then if I hold down left-alt, I can move the video with the mouse!  and if I hold down left-ctrl, I can resize it!  And VLC seems to integrate with it perfectly!  IE VLC will automatically maintain aspect ratio and create black borders while I resize the video with AltMove!

 

YAY! 

 

EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!

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Why is it ghetto solution? You like vlc right, you just need way to control the window size without borders -- which is not really vlc problem.. More of a OS issue - this tool just expands what you can do with your OS and its controls keyboard and mouse.

And its FREE too ;) And portable no install, clearly going into my toolbox.. And can be used for other windows as well.. Check out the transparent control.

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Well this is interesting.  It appears that AltMove has a bug/feature (depending on how you look at it) in Windows 8, in that it shrinks the size of the Apps List/Start Menu/Metro UI Screen by default, and allows to to move/resize it the same way as the VLC window.  I never would have even thought to try AltMove on the Apps List if it wasn't for the fact that it shrunk it by default.  So now we can actually turn the broken/useless full screen Apps List, into something similarly sized to the Windows 7 start menu!!!

 

3bll.jpg

 

 

 

WE MUST SPREAD THE WORD!  TELL THE PEOPLE!  THE WINDOWS 8 START MENU IS NOW FIXABLE, THANKS TO ALTMOVE!!!

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