Germsage and Nero ShowTime Player

[mike1961]

Different problem now.....the GermSage is working but when I try and play an MP4 file from the Sage Media Center, the Nero Player comes up but it just sits there (as if no mp4 file was loaded even though I selected it). It works fine when I select it from Windows Explorer. Any ideas on that?

Thanks,
Mike

[dvd_maniac]

It works fine when I select it from Windows Explorer. Any ideas on that?

Do you mean it works fine when using WMP as the external player in the cmd file? or just when opening up the mp4 in WMP?
Post you .cmd file parameters...

[mike1961]

I mean if I double click on the mp4 file in Windows Explorer then it launches just fine in Nero Showtime Player. But, if I try and launch it from GermSage then the Nero Showtime Player launches but the movie does not.

Mike

[Rogue9]

Go into your SageTV directory, and look for the MediaPlayer.cmd file. Right-click on that file and select Edit, then see what it says in there. Post that information here so we can see what its supposed to be doing. I believe you are probably missing a command parameter in that file, but we won't know until you post that info for us.

[mike1961]

I think you mean VideoPlayer.cmd and not MediaPlayer.cmd. On the client that I'm trying to run mp4 files, it says:

"C:\Program Files\Nero\Nero 7\Nero ShowTime\showtime.exe" %1 /fullscreen /prefetch:1

Nero Showtime launches, it just doesn't load the movie I select from GermSage.

Thanks,
Mike

[greggerm]

Try it first with just the %1 switch - that represents the filename of the movie. I believe Nero Showtime uses an in-options checkbox to start fullscreen (Check in the options or preferences section of Showtime), so the /fullscreen switch may be causing an issue, and I am pretty sure the prefetch option is only useful in WMP, which could also be causing a problem.

-Greg

[GbrNole]

you usually hit Z to make showtime go fullscreen so maybe the switch should be /Z ?

[dvd_maniac]

I myself just checked the option of full screen in the preferences inside the program and like Greggerm said, I only used the %1

[mike1961]

Okay...I think I know what the problem is but I'm not quite sure how to resolve it so I'm all ears....Here's the situation: I wrote a quick and simple program so that I could see what the %1 (path & filename) is being passed to the nero player. As it turns out it's the path from the media directory on the server in the setup (which makes sense). However, my server has two drives...I have mapped them as C and Z. Now, I want the C drive to contain all my archive movies while the Z will contain current recordings (to be erased, recorded, fragmented, etc). In this way, C will not get fragmented since it will just contain archives and the OS.

But, Sage is passing the client C:\SharedC\VideoArchives\MyMovie.mp4

that's the problem. The client then looks for the video on it's own C drive rather than on the server. Now, the question becomes how I can set up an intelligent mapping so that the client finds the movie on the server's C drive.

It seems like perhaps I could map SharedC to another drive letter on the server and use the exact same mapping for the client. Would that be the best solution?

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

It seems that is not going to work because the Sage client only seems to see physical drives on the server and not mapped drives. How can I get it to see the C drive on the server for my media center files without having to create a separate partition with a distinct drive letter?

(edited)....never mind...I think if I use a UNC everything works perfect.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

yes - that seems to have fixed it. Now, is it possible to assign a password to a folder and/or a file such that the user would have to enter it in to watch specific movies (ie: R rated, etc.).

Thanks again....the support here is just great.

Mike

[dvd_maniac]

Now, is it possible to assign a password to a folder and/or a file such that the user would have to enter it in to watch specific movies (ie: R rated, etc.).

I'm redoing my system with Win 2003 Server for just that purpose this weekend.I have asked if anybody else has any experience with permissions and Sage but haven't gotten an answer yet.

[mike1961]

Isn't there a way to somehow do it with an XP Pro Server?

Thanks,
Mike