My Device Forums

I have written a Windows Media Center plugin and RTI Driver combo that allows control of Medai Center via IP.

So far the following is available:
Full IR remote functionality
QWERTY keypad
Connection variable
Currently playing feedback (artist, album, track, length, current position, year, genre, etc)

We are in the process of doing some real world testing.  Stay tuned.

Hi All,

Our Windows 7 based Media Center driver is nearing completion and i'm looking for a few testers.

The driver is made up of 2 parts, a Media Center plugin and the RTI driver.

The driver supports full IR remote replacement via IP and feedback such as:

Artist
Album
Track name
Track index
Track/Movie length

And I even added Cover art as I know you guys love your cover art :)
And of course you can jump directly to any screen within Media Center.

I'm looking for a small group of both 32 and 64 bit testers.  Find me a bug and i'll give you a free personal license.

If you're interested, please PM me with a contact name and email address indicating you'd like to take part.

Thanks,
Matt.

Hey Matt,

 After installing Media Center plugin I can' run it , its crashing. I getting a message saying that "Unlock stopped working''.

Ok, Media Center needs to be running in order to work. lol

Paul

64 bit?

Does the plugin crash, or just the Unlock.exe?

Unlock only
 and yes 64 bit

Figured out the problem.  Was a compiler setting for the Unlock project.  New version will be emailed shortly.

one down, hopefully not many to go  :)

Details PMed

Using 64 bit 7 and XP8 with Ipad.

Haven't found a direct command with a problem yet.

Needs a 'now playing' -jump to.

So far, no cover art with or without scaling, but is available on screen in WMC.
Does the driver require certain sized .jpgs in the album folder?

The 'my music' jump is the same as the 'albums' jump.

When initally starting WMC, the default location is Music. It takes, maybe 10 seconds, for this home screen to respond to any command from the Ipad. Then when loading into the music choice, WMC defaults to albums category, but it automatically mutes audio output, this is indicated by the icon in the top right toggling mute solves it. My audio comes out of the Nvidia geforce gt580 HDMI. Only stereo.
Will expand.

The graph data source for now playing percentage is an empty bar, but graph data source for volume , tracks. - Caused by 3rd party flac plug-in
Button text for 'Now playing duration' stays 0:00. -Caused by 3rd party flac plug-in
Same for duration counter.

I don't believe one exists.  I'll double check, but didn't see one available in the programming API.

No, nothing special about the JPGs. The way it works is the plugin acts as a web server and makes the coverart available to the RTI remotes/iPad.
If you have traceviewer you should be able to see the coverart URL being generated.  Failing that, with your XP disconnected from the network do the following:

1) telnet to your Media Center on port 13000
2) start playing a song that has coverart.
3) pause it
4) back in telnet type: update <and hit enter>
5) you should see a bunch of data about the current song.  In particular look for @COVERART=

Here's an example on mine:
@COVERART=http://DELLT7400:5050/coverart.jpg

So if I go to my browser and paste in http://DELLT7400:5050/coverart.jpg, i see the coverart.

Can you let me know if:
a) you get a URL
b) if it's viewable in your browser on your PC
c) if it's viewable in Safari on your iPad

Ok, guess I can remove one of those then.

I'll look into the volume and duration feedback.

Thanks,
Matt.

I had no chance to play with beta 5, but I will say that Visible variables are needed based on selection. While playing movie I can still see text box with my last song played, goall is to show only correct feedback for current selection.

After hour of fight this is what I got:

a. yes
b. yes
c. message "cannot open page" -Safari cannot open page because server cannot be found.[/quote]

[/quote]

Can you post the URL here?
Is your iPad on the same subnet as your media center?

Telnet shows "@COVERART=http://Rakieta-PC:5050/coverart.jpg" so my URL is "http://Rakieta-PC:5050/coverart.jpg"

My iPad is Wi-Fi only and its on the same subnet as my PC running MC.

Hi Matt, there's no telnet server or client services available on this PC, do they need to be turned on for coverart to work?

The flac files that have no file duration feedback, actually have no file duration in WMC. Alll songs are listed as 0:00. So don't chase your tail on this one. I've found non-flac files with duration and they feedback fine.

Speed

In Vista and Win7 you need to install it. Go to  Programs and Features, then in Turn Windows features on/off select Telnet and it will get installed .

Thanks.

I'm not sure that telnet services are required for feedback to work, just used to check if feedback's working.

No you do not need telnet enabled for the driver/plugin to work.  It's simply a way of manually testing the commands.

I'll try out a FLAC file later today.

Correct.  Not required.

Ok, so I set up simple template in VP and still cant display a cover art. Telnet show correct URL . Forgot to add Jump to Start was needed and works well.

I suspect the problem is the URL is using the machine name rather than an IP address.

If you paste the URL into Safari i'm guessing it doesn't work.  Can you try replacing the machine name with the IP address of the Media Center?

I did and this is pic from iPad .... hmmm how I upload pic here?

When posting, hit the "+ Additional Options..." link at the bottom left of the page.  You can attach files there.

did that but there is no option for it, anyway send you an e-mail with that pic

Here's an example of the demo project running on my iPad showing coverart.

I did a bit of reading up on FLAC and Media Center.  FLAC isn't natively supported and requires a 3rd party plugin.  I found one called madFLAC, but a lot of people are posting saying it doesn't give track duration or allow you to FF/REW.

So not much i can do about that sorry folks.

yeah, I got nothing on both iPad and VP. could that have something to so with 64bit version of Windows?

It's possible, but i doubt it.  I'll fire up my 64 bit laptop and see.

So did the coverart display in Safari when you used the IP address?

ie. http://1.2.3.4:5050/coverart.jpg ?

no, i did email you picture that made on my ipad

Ok, managed to reproduce the issue.  It looks like the webserver is telling the browser the coverart.jpg is a text file.  Will look into it.

Cool, let us know if you get it fixed . Have you look into adding more variables based on selection? A displaying ratings  would be nice too

Fixed it.  Turns out it was a directory issue.

I've also fixed the muting problem upon startup.

Will add variables for media type now and see what I can do about ratings.

That was fast Matt.  Waiting now for updated version  :)

Well as far as I can tell, Microsoft don't expose the user set ratings via the API.  Don't think i can get access to them sorry.

Thats ok Matt, more important is adding more variables and browse list for at least music.

Installed Beta 6, cover art still is not being populated on VP and iPad. Tried Media Audio variable to pop up hidden text boxes with Artist,Album and Song variables info and nothing happened. Matt, is possible to add "now playing" command to list ? And my 1st crash happened today, here's info :Description:
  Stopped working

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   CLR20r3
  Problem Signature 01:   ehexthost.exe
  Problem Signature 02:   6.1.7601.17514
  Problem Signature 03:   4ce77974
  Problem Signature 04:   mscorlib
  Problem Signature 05:   2.0.0.0
  Problem Signature 06:   4e1539fa
  Problem Signature 07:   420f
  Problem Signature 08:   51
  Problem Signature 09:   C3ZBVNPURP4U1JQN4MVVH4VR2RHODDMP
  OS Version:   6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
  Locale ID:   1033

Read our privacy statement online:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
  C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Yeah that's not good.  Are you able to reproduce it and provide steps?

Ok coverart, can you display it in Safari?

There's no such thing as navigate to the "now playing" page.  I guess I could fake it by tracking the current media type and jumping to the appropriate page.  Will try it out.

I will try to reproduce. I know that I had music playing and been jumping back and forward using following commands: my music ,artist, song . I did maybe like 10 jumps between.

Is there a keyboard shortcut that jumps to "now playing"?

URL does not work in Safari, using IP adress webserver is telling the browser the coverart.jpg is a text file and using machine name getting Cannot open page. I did not find on my Microsoft keyboard any shortcut to now playing.  I was unable so far to reproduce that earlier crash. Now while jumping and pausing/playing one song a cover art appear on my VP but when I change to play another album is not generating cover art again.

Isnt that Now Playing dynamicly populated? Maybe will show up on dynamic list?

Are you sure you installed the new version?  MyDevice.dll should be 1.0.0.6.
It's correctly rendering as image/jpg for me.

Matt,

Everytime you send new beta I do install your plug-in and update a driver to newer version. Just checked and it is 1.0.0.6

Matt,

While playing/changing songs and browsing randomly menu got two crashes, my WMC  showing me message "Program not responding: The Remote Control program stopped responding and you will be returned to WMC." I finally got cover art in VP (iPad still no no) but when I change album is stuck on same cover art.

Matt ,

I think I figured out missing cover art problem. Been playing albums and checking if cover cover art corresponding to that album is in the folder. I found that in my PC WMC check for cover art in the folder and if its not there I think it aquire it from internet however your driver checks only in folders. So thru driver gets displays only cover art in folders regardles what WMC on my PC shows. Is there any work around it or not? I have no problem displaing cover art using other drivers from same library. On the other hand my iPad still have issues with displaying any cover art. Also after playing for 20-30 minutes your plug-in crashes and displays only message in WMC that it stopped working. After I click "ok"  I need to restart WMC in order for driver to work again.

There shouldn't be a problem with that, as I have gone into WMP and manually found album info for ones with missing coverart. This then puts metadata/.jpgs in the folder. However, the .jpgs are greyed out. I have my folder settings set to show hidden files and folders, so maybe it's permissions issue. The driver isn't allowed to see these .jpgs....

Ahh.Ok just dawned on me, I'm streaming across the LAN from a WHS 2011, setup with restricted folders.
I'll try tomorrow with local files that everyone can read and execute.

I think we need some insight from Matt how this driver aquiring cover art.

Media Center works by creating an AlbumArt_<GUID>_Large.jpg file in the same folder as the album.

For example, I added my iTunes library to Media center, so in:
C:\Users\matt\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Ice Cube\War & Peace, Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)

I see a (hidden) file called:
AlbumArt_{9ED18808-EB86-4200-9EFC-E60112A0174B}_Large.jpg

The plugin asks Media Center for the GUID of the song/album and builds the path, then serves it up via the web server.

The plugin does not in any way go out on the Internet looking for artwork.  If Media Center can't find it, neither will the plugin.

Goy ya, have you looked into variables you added in last beta? I tried to use Music to pop hidden text boxes while playing album nd they didnt pop it .

Yes there were working fine here.  Can you display them on your iPad as a text value (say the Audio and Video ones) and see if the value changes from false to true when the media type changes?

Matt,

Variables are all good. Cover art for some of my albums are not displayed, will dig deeper to find out why. Every time you send new beta previous beta needs to be uninstalled before installed new one right?

That is correct.

I'm gonna need some direction to rectify this one.

I've got an Ipad, XP8, and T3V+. I can get the T3V+ to 'pull' the coverart, but it never gets pushed to it. e.g. If I change pages (i change to a page that has the wifi signal meter, so i can see the T3V+ is on the network) ...change pages from the cover art page to another page, then back again and the cover art  appears, as if it is being pulled from where it's being used. This is a problem, I've noticed if I stop the T3V+ from going idle by constantly pressing a button, rather changing pages - then at the same time, change the album/coverart being played with WMC, the coverart never gets updated.

The Ipad never gets coverart, but i'm assuming this is linked to the Ipads inabiity to deal with all of ID's objects.

My previous thought of file permissions being an issue turned out to have no bearing. So streaming / playing local files, playing .wmv with built in codec or .flac with 3rd party plug-in all give coverart.

UPDATE:
I am ignoring the Ipad, as i've had no progress at all.

With the T3V+:

Got limited coverart.

I didn't make new pages, i took the existing radar dynamic objects and added the correct variable from beta 6. Then i linked a hardbutton to the page. So I have to first go to the weather page then a button links to the WMC coverart, none/keep aspect/stretch.
Turns out just changing pages gets the coverart to update - it has nothing to do with a remote connecting to an external ip(weather underground) as i suspected. I've got 2 routers, one behind the other. Thought there may be double nat/DNS issues.

Actually it might have more to do with driver and correct coverart.jpg in album folder. I just spend 2 days with Matt to narrow down cover art issue. He have new updated beta 9, just PM him. I hope this will solve issue on your T3V.

And yes, my iPad does not display anything too ....

No need, i'll be sending out a new beta for all to test with.

cool cool Matt, now the addons  ;)

Great, cause after various PC restarts, and remotecontrol.exe re-installs I can't get coverart back.

WMC also responds to coverart named Folder.jpg, thought it was worth a mention as various media managers i've seen output it.

Not sure bout that Speed, I had multiple cover art .jpg in folder and WMC seem to looking for only for file ending with Large.jpg

If you're using 64 bit, it won't work until you get beta 9 (or higher).  We're doing some in house testing today and it'll go out later tonight.

Yes, testing with WMC on win 7 64 bit ultimate.

Thanks guys.

hey everyone.

System:
XP-8
iPad
Version 6 Software installed
Windows 7 64 bit

No cover art :)

Is there a method to see music list instead of a Jump List?  Am I missing something?

Love this driver!

Cover art is fixed in Beta 9 (due out later today).

No, music list/browsing has not been implemented yet.  This driver was written for a job that involves using the TV as the interface, so remote viewing isn't high on the list of priorities yet.  I will add it in the new year.

Matt,

You should dig in into MyMovies API, I added this plugin to my WMC and did change my perspective on using WMC. I think adding it to your driver could turn it into one kickass solution as Movie server.

Sure... once the basics are done :)

Sounds like plan... :)

Beta 10 is out.  Make sure you update BOTH the plugin and the RTI driver.

Got album cover art working on my iPad  :), tried movies but no cover art on those and I think Speed was right mentioning file "Folder.jpg" which corresponds to movie art cover. Matt and Luke can you guys dig deeper into it?

Makes sense as I only worked on the audio coverart.

I'm about to get on a plane, but will try to work on this during the break.

Cool, let us know if you have new beta to test..  :)

Hey guys

Any chance on finding out where I can download the beta as I have ended up coming back to media center over xbmc as i really need something that works with RTI with 2way and movie control an recorded TV would be great as I am currently opening up Remote Potatos web interface from within RTi to have guide and recorded TV control works alright but can't do movies ?

Hi David,

Check your email.  But please note the driver is still in beta and has some missing features... it is not ready for customer installation :)

Hi Matt
Could you send it again as I had forgot to update my current email address but has been updated now ? Also no worries in relation to customers as I want to completely test it also before I even open my mouth !!

Done and done.

Any progress Matt? Happy New Year for My Device team

Nope, still on holiday :)

Lucky you   ;), but thats ok rest well we need your mind to be fresh and sharp

Cyberlink's Powerdvd puts itself into media centre, now if only there was some way to call a ripped bd-iso. It has to be mounted in a virtual bd drive, once mounted it can be controlled with the MC driver.

Sorry, i'm not even going to attempt to add 3rd party stuff until the main plugin is rock solid.

My Movies also have plug-ins for ripping movies and music.

I second the mymovies plugin or media browser also but I do agree I want a rock solid control setup before I want to start testing with my movies ! But I think you will find if you use the my movies collection management software for windows home server that rips movies and music and don't use the media centre version the info goes straight into the standard movies for media centre section ?

A few screenshots showing what i've been working on...

Still a lot to do, but it's getting there.

Love your work Matt!!

I noticed on the first screen it had Movies and TV is there a chance this could work with recorded TV etc and have you got anything working regarding the movies ?

Autonomic seem to have it working with recorded TV and movies etc but is it as easy to perform the same tasks without using their software as it is quite pricey !

Yes the plan is to support Movies and recorded TV.  I have no idea if it's possible, but i'm assuming it must be :)

At the moment the driver queries all artists/albums/tracks at startup and caches everything so there's very little delay while browseing.  I only have 200 songs in my test library so how it'll work with tens of thousands is anyones guess!

I have a few old tv tuner cards that i need to see if i can get working so i can test the live tv stuff.  I have this bad feeling there won't be drivers for them though under Win7.

M.

Great to hear !!

Let me know if I can help test as I am running 2 media centers running Win7 and mymovies with about 100GB of music and 900 movies and XP8, 2 iPads and a T2C at my home ??

The main server media center has 2 dual tuner cards in it totalling 4 tuners so should be a great test when you get to that stage ?
 I am more interested in when you get to the movies and recorded TV as I use squeezebox Duet for music because of access to Rhapsody etc.

Well i have managed to get a list of the recorded tv shows on my media center... movies are proving to be somewhat more difficult.

It's almost as if Microsoft thought, you plan to watch a movie, what possible need could you have to view that list away from the tv...

For the movies I would be looking into mymovies as it is a lot more open to control as you would be getting the movie info from there server and clients rather than media center ? Also it is the most widely used software for movies on media center as it is a all in one solution and if you wanted to be adventurous you may be even able to include the DVD copy feature they have that runs within media center also but now I am asking the impossible (I can dream cant I !!)

Looking good Matt. Maybe movies will be easier though MyMovie or Media Browser ?

Heh, I was waiting for someone to suggest that :)
I'll look into it.

My vote goes for Media Browser, much better GUI and cheaper themes. Regular commands works, some are missing. Getting metadata and extra commands would be fenomenal.... :)

And this is where the problems start... you want Media Browser, another guy wants My Movies and next thing you know i have to support both.

Honestly, I'd prefer to support neither!

I will use either one, however Media Browser looks better for me.Just chose one Matt ,see how it will go. whatever in your eyes its better

        I don't want to turn this post into a debate over the 2 but I believe the market where RTI is pointed towards is not at DIY it is towards integrators that are after a whole solution and MyMovies is a server client based media solution that handles burning and integrates movies and TV Shows perfectly into Media center interface and lets not forget the driver is for media center and if it can not be integrated into the current movie setup in Media center then I think MyMovies is much more likely and currently is being used on more integrated systems as a very client based easy to use system which is what MediaBrowser is not ?

The feedback from customers as this is how I am trying to see all this is that they want a solution that will burn DVD and bluray and auto lookup metadata etc and appear in media center and MyMovies will do all this and act as a standalone burner etc that will import into the standard media center movies section which if Matt can get the standard movies going will still be able to be used but if he cannot then it can be explored further with MyMovies integration.

I just believe the market for these drivers are to integrators and I would not install MediaBrowser on a customers computer as it requires to much user interaction and offers no burning features.

Sorry for the long winded post but Matt I know your time is valuable so it is just my feedback as an integrator to advise as to what I believe is a solution that you will be able to sell a lot.

If it helps as I am sure you have probably seen is www.vidabox.com (http://www.vidabox.com) their system is only sold to integrators and uses the MyMovies platform as the base for all movie, TV Shows and Music management and I think they were also at Cedia last year in Australia ?

How close you are to send out new beta for testing Matt?

Not very.  The music library browsing is a big task and I just haven't had the time to devote to it these past few weeks.  Sorry.

Added shortcut support for My Movies today.

So far you can jump directly to:
My Movies
TV
Trailers

I'll add jump links to the search functions at some point.

Cool, cool. Is another beta ready for testing?

So I'm running version 10 windows 7 64bit XP-8 & iPad.

Still no cover art  :(

I can view the art via Firefox though. Song data (except images) comes through just fine. Am I doing something wrong?

Probably not.  I'll see if i can push the latest version out in the next day or so.

Hey Matt,

Any news on new beta?

Hey Matt

Any progress on this as there has been no action here for a while ?

No, XBMC and Sonos are taking up all my time at the moment.

Hi Matt,

I am interested in this driver, any idea when it will make its way up the priority list?

Hello Mat  Any word on beta or can we get test copy I'm also instrested in this driver