One icon per application

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hello,

If, for some reason, AC3Filter decoder has multiple instances loaded, it
puts as many icons in the system tray as it has instances.

Right now, I have two instances of a DirectShow application using two
instances of AC3Filter for each one, so I have four AC3Filter icons visible.

As I suppose this is not really necessary, I would like to know if the
number of tray icons could be limited to only one, whatever is the number
of loaded instances of AC3Filter ?

Best regards,

Gingko

Original issue reported on code.google.com by from_goo...@nospam.homelinux.org on 17 Aug 2009 at 8:03

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Each instance of AC3Filter should be configurable. Therefore there're many 
icons for
each instance.

It's possible (to make one icon per application (i.e. two icons in your case). 
But
one icon for all applications will require a separate process that will manage 
icons
from different processes and live in background all the time (even when 
there're no
live filter instances). I think that this way is not too good.

Original comment by ac3fil...@gmail.com on 11 Sep 2009 at 4:01

• Changed state: Discussion

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hello,

I'm not sure to completely agree with you.

1) Even if each instance of AC3Filter may be configurable, I think that people
needing to have differently configured instance would be very rare, especially
knowing that this would be certainly very short-lived and temporary as I 
strongly
doubt that any support currently exists for separately saving configurations 
for each
instance.

2) I agree about the fact that an easiest way to implement this could be 
creating a
separate process for managing this icon. However, this doesn't need to have it 
to
live permanently in the background: a proper reference count should easily 
allow it
to be loaded with the first AC3Filter instance, and unloaded when the last 
instance
will have been unloaded.

Best regards,

Gingko

Original comment by from_goo...@nospam.homelinux.org on 11 Sep 2009 at 4:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

1) You're right. It may be a good idea to control all instances in an 
application at
once. So when playing a movie with several tracks (original and translated) we 
have
no need to know what track actually works at the moment.

2) Yes, it is the way. And there'is another one with icon master that delegates 
its
duties to another instance on destruction. But I think that benefit from the 
single
icon does not cost the complexity of this solutions.

3) What is the benefit from the single icon? Yes, one application can start 
much of
tracks, flooding the tray. One icon per application is a simple solution for 
this.
But who watches 10 movies at the time?

Original comment by ac3fil...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2009 at 9:49

[GoogleCodeExporter]

About (3) :
This is not necessarily a matter of watching. Several instances of the filter 
can be
loaded while only one is really active, but the icon is displayed whatever the 
filter
is really used or not.

The real case that I have is not about an application for watching recorded 
videos,
but about an application for watching live TV (DVB-T). This application can 
load two
instances of the filter in order to be able to quickly switch between MPEG2 and 
AC3
soundtracks (and possibly a third one in the future if ever you implement EAC3) 
while
switching TV channels (all of these 3 kinds of soundtracks can be found in our 
French
TV broadcasts).

Also, a live TV application can be used, not only for watching, but also for
**recording** live TV. As I have 3 TV tuners on my computer, I can load as many
instances of my application for recording up to 3 TV channels at once, and this
really puts 6 AC3Filter icons in the system tray, even if most of the time I 
leave
most applications windows minimized.

Now I agree that I don't have a very common configuration. But anyway I need to
completely disable the AC3 icon if I don't want my task bar cluttered by these 
many
icons.

I sometimes use another codec, ffdshow, that raises exactly the same problem, 
and
even worse because ffdshow also manages video, and there is also 2 kind of video
streams present in French TV (MPEG2 and H264). As ffdshow now implements EAC3, 
this
would effectively put 5 ffdshow icons by application instance in the system 
tray if I
do not deactivate them.

Gingko

Original comment by from_goo...@nospam.homelinux.org on 16 Sep 2009 at 10:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Icon appears only when the filter is actually used (an application calls
StartStreaming()). But an application can start streaming, but pause the filter 
for
later use. And I do not see a better solution.

So I incline to make one icon per application. Also it solves some other 
problems
(like many icons in some applications).

Original comment by ac3fil...@gmail.com on 18 Sep 2009 at 11:56

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by ac3fil...@gmail.com on 21 Sep 2009 at 12:10

• Changed title: One icon per application
• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I had 6 icons open up when using Lego Digital Designer. 

Original comment by sondun2...@gmail.com on 30 Oct 2010 at 11:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have 40+ icons when playing The Elders Scrolls Oblivion: 
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/7541/ac3u.png, This is quite annoying

Original comment by VictorGr...@gmail.com on 16 Dec 2010 at 12:32

[GoogleCodeExporter]

same as comment 8 by 'Victor'

WAAAAAAY too many icons loaded in the tray.  The ONLY reason I installed AC3 
Filter was to get Windows Media Player to play sound for DVDs.  Why on EARTH 
would you need an icon per application?  There should be only one, and the 
'control panel' that displays when double clicking the icon should have 
individual settings per application INSIDE ... not separate cluttering the task 
tray.

Original comment by Sparxx....@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2011 at 7:03