Ok, ok - seems I've opened a can of worms here. Sorry for doing so.

The project is very complex and involes:

i) A media player which can perform shot detection and update a SQL database with shots and start and end frame numbers. (At this point it is likely that the AVI will have to be broken out into an image sequence, but I want to avoid this if at all possible)

ii) within a shot, on a selected frame, perform marked watershed detection to identify a shape, then put the selected shape into a septerate area, then break out a luminance table from the pixels used. (image will be in greyscale). (Here's an article on watershed detection using MATLAB and I have access to a copy of this if required: http://www.mathworks.com/products/im...watershed.html)

ii) the greyscale map shown to the user as a 2-column table where the user can assign an RGB colour value to each grey. (see Walker effects colorize plugin for After Effects for an idea as to what this should look like).

And if any of you think I'm completely crazy (though you may be right), here's a paper I wrote some years ago detailing the process, but using existing third-party software:

http://colourisation.pbwiki.com/f/Co...MJB_ver1_2.htm

I'll leave this with you. Please let me know that your thoughts are - is this doable and if it does need to be broken down, could I break it down in to further stages?

Best regards,

Matthew

>>And if any of you think I'm completely crazy
Yup. Remember, I didn't say that, you did

>> Please let me know that your thoughts are
I think we already have done. that.

Lol! Ok - I like your thinking and also get the point.

Ok - so I need to break it down into tiny chunks.

There's too much here and I'm too close to the project.

So - where do I start? Please help me to do this.

I must just also say to CoolGamer48 that its not a job but is a passion. You may even say 'religion' as this project has hounded me for the past 14 years.

Its taken this long for me to get this far.

Take a look at http://www.colourisation.net/ and see for yourself.

We have already done that too, and I'm not going to repeat what everyone has told you. Go back and read those posts yourself, then take what they said and run with it.

Ok - so I've rerun "Hello world!" in each progam language, then got to grips with the DirectX SDK and also Intel's open source CV library, but still no further forward.

If thats all your forum has for me then I'll leave, disappointed.

Bye. We aren't here to write your programs for you. Only you can do that.

Then why the hell do you need help making a simple AVI player? After 30 years of computer and coding experience, shouldn't you now how?

Do you need us to lay out the steps of what you need to do? I thought you had already planned that? You want to know how to make a Windows looking GUI? Windows API or MFC, if you've bought it. Here's a quick tut on the API, don't know much about MFC. Do you want to know how to how to load an AVI file? A site I was referred to on this forum. Want to know how to interface with SQL databses? Google is your friend.

This isn't a substitute for a search engine. You've given us a complex program, and are asking us what you should do. You've laid out the basics of what you want - decide to work on one of the components of your program and go look some stuff up. If you have more specific questions then, ask them. But unless someone has recently worked on an AVI loader that does the things you want and doesn't mind sharing, no one is going to go out and make one just to give you an idea of where to start.

Ok - hang on, I'll try to answer some of these if I may.

First, to Ancient Dragon, I came to this forum to seek advice for what is clearly a complex project. I'm not asking for people to write it for me and have found lots of code snippets already, but its all over the place, in different languages and not really doing what I want them to do. Advice from friends over here has been supportive but not really helped direct me to one language or approach over another. I must say that from a moderator, I expected less sniping or insulting behaviour and am sorry to have taken up your valuable time.

To Wiki Tiki, yes you'd think so, but I don't teach programming and these languages are alien to me, or at least as far as the project is concerned I can see which one would be the best to start with. Also, fine - making an AVI player isn't difficult, but I'm not talking about a simple windows form with a control here - I need to rasterise each frame and perform image analysis on the frame. This goes beyond what you'd be able to do from a normal simple AVI player. But no - I don't agree that after 30 years I'd know anything at all about programming because I've not had to. I teach different aspects of ICT - sorry.

And to coolgamer48, yes- - I do need someone to be able to look at the project and help me to realise what the steps are. These steps will be different depending on the approach, and language. I just realise that I don't want to pick the wrong language and then find myself having to start again from scratch because that particular language can't do what I want it to.

Ok - lets start with the media player then. I have a code snipper of how to make one in VB, but its not really helping. Videolan's VLC media player is open source and I can download the code and build it, but you know these things don't come with instruction manuals!

So please - less of the carping. I realise this is a weak area for me. Not everyone in the world is a programmer, but I am trying to learn. I'm asking for help. If your forum are not willing to then ok we'll leave it there, but please don't slate me for trying.