Any interest in a plugin to support/control the Sony XL1B firewire DVD changer?

[dagar]

So back to the question: Yes interested in having a plug-in available, not writing one

[Thraxius]

Well I have my changer working with another program. The problem is my wife says it is to complicated. Some how I have to figure out a way to get Sage to connect to the system that has all my dvd's.

The pain of trying to get something to function the way you want it to.

[that_kid]

I brought one just so I could load it up with 200 DVD's and let the backup marathon begin. I'm still searching for the best way to do this.

[Thraxius]

that_kid I hope you got an answer for that backup Marathon. I can say you can look for a gui program from mediadogg that does ripping.

Also just and fyi. Mediadogg has a DVD Profiler plugin that mounts and plays DVDs for changers. I was looking into trying to get that to do the work for me for SageTV but my skills suck in programming and when I opened Studio I felt completely lost and that broke my heart.

[msmith8228]

Bump.

I want to focus on getting this working in SageTV as phase two -- the first phase is getting this working reliably in WinXP (using any application) instead of Windows Media Centre Edition.

Can anyone update us if this can work and how to do this?

MJS

[Trauncher]

After weeks of messing around with all of the known utilities that claim to allow control of the Sony 200 Disc DVD (XL1b that ships with the Sony Digital Living system, A Media Center PC) changer on a Macintosh, I actually have it working perfectly.

Its simple! first, acquire from 1 to 5 XL1b libraries (from $125 to $300 bucks all over the internet including amazon.com)

Set them up by daisy chaining them with firewire 400 cables and connect the main unit to your MAC.
NOTE: the first unit in the chain (the one actually connected to your mac) MUST be he LOWEST serial number... then connect them in ascending order by serial number.

Load your DVDs... You can use the undocumented bulk load feature by pressing and holding the LOAD button on the front of the unit for two seconds and releasing.

Next download MediaFinderX for Mac OSX from:
http://www.portents.com/mediafinderx

This application is no longer supported, and was written for the PowerFile 200 changers (SONY OEM) This page also includes 5 activation codes so that you can bring from 1 to 5 libraries online. The codes that they list as freely usable on the page are:

# 22-023100-WWG8KWPP
# 22-023101-2K24S2GG
# 22-023102-CP2GKS88
# 22-023103-2S28S4GS
# 22-023104-WW22K422

Make sure to download the MFX 2.0 Beta for MacOSX 10.4 which supports both powerPC and Intel Macs on OSX 10.4 and above.

If you are running OSX 1.03, download their version 1.0.6 and use these codes to activate your libraries:

# 21-023100-S268PKG4
# 21-023101-C84CK8PS
# 21-023102-42VGCS82
# 21-023103-PC2K8PG4
# 21-023104-4KQ822PW

Install MediaFinderX and reboot.

then navigate to your Applications>Utilities folder, and run the MFXAdmin application and add the activation codes. NOTE: at this point, you should see your libraries in the MFXAdmin tool. When you have loaded the activation codes, your library(s) will start reading and cataloging your DVDs.

A side note: When DVDS are in transit IE: being loaded in the drives, you will not be able to access any of your local or network mapped disc drives, and anyone mapped to your mac cannot access them either. so be paitent while the discs are cataloged.

When this process is complete, download DiskTracker MFX from the same download page:
http://www.portents.com/mediafinderx. Version 1.0.6 works with MediaFinderX 2.0 and 1.0.6.

This is your Manager for your libraries...

You may also want to download RipMonkey which allows CD ripping in bulk from the libraries. The Rip Monkey activation code that they supply on this page is:
31-023100-W4P22G2K

This software was released to the public domain by the author when they stopped supporting it. I don't know if the source is available, but thus far, I have had absolutely NO problems with it on my macbook pro and on my MacPro 8 Core with 5 libraries installed and fully populated with 1000 DVD movies.

I hope you find this info useful.

Regards,
Trauncher...

[dagar]

Anyone find a utility using the changer to copy non-commercial DVDs?

[Thraxius]

I got my 3 changers to work without a issue in a program called LinuxMCE. The only problem I had with it was my wife did not like it. So I am back to Sage. I am working with a program that mediadogg wrote to control the changer and it works flawlessly. The issue I am having is I am not a programmer and can't seem to get it to work in Sage.

If I use SageMC I might be able to hack something together easier to get it to work but the wife.. does not like the look and feel of SageMC.

So I am stuck trying to program out something. I am trying to reverse engineer the SageMC offline media import of DVD Profiler. Once that is complete and I have offline media imported into normal SageTV. I then have to work on functionality of blank buttons I placed in SageTV.

When offline media is encounted and it has location and slot my buttons will pop up so I can say. Load media, then it should wait Unknown length as of yet. Then go back to the menu you were on and Then when you hit watch it will play the media using the external player stuff. Which I have to reverse engineer.

Oh, I am great at concept and flowcharting.. but when it comes to programming it leave that to experts I always said.

[hemicuda]

If someone could get this working w/ XP and the default STV I've got my finger on the Buy-It button for one of these things.

[Thraxius]

Sorry Hemicuda, I was under the impression that is it. They aren't making any more.

[hemicuda]

they can be found. I was just, more or less, waiting on SageTV support before I dropped the coins on one.

[HTPCjunkie]

Help!! I just got back from working out of town for a few months and came home to finish my project and now cannot find anymore XL1B3 changers anywhere... you mentioned they are still around? Appreciate the help.

[hemicuda]

well... my standard answer to any question is 10.2, but you can poke around ebay and still find them. not sure if that is the answer you wanted. I haven't done much looking around the net.

[Thraxius]

I was wondering if anyone knows if Katesh is working on this.
I am hacking together something right now to be used for my system at the house. Right now I have to minimize Sage start another program to mount and play my dvd's in the changer.

I am doing pretty good so far. I just don't want to step on Katesh's toes. Plus he will probably program it better than I ever could.

[solomonsok]

Hi,

Wondering of the progresses in getting a plugin for Sagetv to support a Sony DVD Changer?

Any updates?


Cheers
Sol

[Thraxius]

Well right now I am having a problem. I can't seem to get the DVD Profiler Import to work correctly. I have all the data I need but getting it into Sage is the problem.

When I get over this hurtle then all I need to do is get the watch button to work correctly. I have created a bit of a list of things I need to do.

SageTV UI Projects

1. VGP-XL1B changer configuration. (Still working on it.)
a. Offline Import Screen. (Done.)
b. Meta Data - Install for the offline Media. - I don't know on this one.
c. Loading of DVD Media in changer.
- Add Load DVD button when Offline Media is selected.
d. Playing of DVD Media in Changer.
- Add conditional statement to play media from the DVD Drive.

At this time I have no other updates.

[Thraxius]

I have good news. I have the DVD Profiler Import working correctly. There are some issues that I think I can work around. So as it stands. The data is in the database.

I am now working on getting the Load, Unload, and Play DVD buttons to work.
Just for an FYI.. the UI for the changer will only work on the system that it is directly attached to the changer.

Now I may work on trying to get it to work on remote systems but that is out of my league in programming. As you can see it has taken me a while to get the changer to work directly attached.

I have an idea about getting remote play. Not sure if I can get it to work but going to try it. If I can get the server to mount it... and get the dvd to stream will be the hard part.

But that is neither here nor there.

Just wanted to make sure that someone was aware of my progress since it looks like people were interested.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Thraxius

Just for an FYI.. the UI for the changer will only work on the system that it is directly attached to the changer.

Now I may work on trying to get it to work on remote systems but that is out of my league in programming.

FWIW, it would (I think) be exceedingly difficult to get DVDs to play from a changer attached to a different system, so I don't really see a point in needing to control a changer in another system.

[hemicuda]

Even if I have to go to the server to set up the disc swap it would at least be nice to be able to see the DVD list on the extenders. If you can eventually get it to change discs from the extender then

[stanger89]

Extenders are slightly different as the STV code gets run on the server, and they can play unencrypted DVDs from the server's DVD drive.