Okay. how do we get Cyberlink's Play Movie plugin to work (seemless Blu-ray & HD-DVD)

[mkanet]

It looks like there's seemless blue-ray and HD-DVD playback in Windows MCE now for Blu-ray and HD-DVD with the below plugin.

http://www.floppyhead.com/2007/08/01...vie-15-plugin/

So.. how do we get this to work... im getting tired of old fashioned DVD support in SageTV.

[nielm]

Do you have that plugin?
From the link:

It is OEM only, so you can only get it through an OEM with it preinstalled on a system at this point.

The only references in Cyberlink's site are to a standalone player, and a deleted FAQ page...
(Google search for site:cyberlink.com "Play Movie")

[mikesm]

Sounds like Sage should be calling them about a new optional enhancement to Sage.

The good news is that probably means they have directshow filters now to deal with hd-dvd and BR content, and Sage should be able to use them the same way VMC does. The bad news is that this is likely Vista only, and that they downsample HD-audio.

The arcsoft guys are supposed to have a much better product out there that also plays from hard disk (good for rips) as well as not have the downsampling problem. I haven't heard yet if directshow filters for HD content are used, but if so then that should integrate into VMC and Sage relatively easily.

The Sage folks might want to talk to arcsoft about it. If it's done well, it may be able to be integrated into the extender as well. But I suspect this will be hard to do as an addon.

thx
mike

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mikesm

The good news is that probably means they have directshow filters now to deal with hd-dvd and BR content, and Sage should be able to use them the same way VMC does. The bad news is that this is likely Vista only, and that they downsample HD-audio.

I doubt it, I think (going from this it's just a standalone app that's meant to blend with MCE, mainly UI wise. I suppose it's a step forward over the horrid PowerDVD UI, but not much.

Play Movie 1.5 provides an auto-launching player for enjoying high-definition movies on Blu-ray Discs. The software supports remote controlled home entertainment PCs with easy-to-use key controls and settings.

[mkanet]

What if I can get hold of the installer for that plugin? IT did come with my HP. I didnt think much of it at the time; and uninstalled it thinking I'll just buy and use PowerDVD Ultra. If there's a way to somehow this this to be seemless via SageMC STV... that would be one of the most valuable addons. Currently, the best I can do by myself is lunch it from our menu and for it to start playing full screen.

[mikesm]

The most important thing are directshow filters for HD content. WIthout that, everything is will be just a hack. With that, we can start cooking with gas. The question is, is anyone making that?

[mkanet]

You can start cooking with gas. Unless something majorly changes, all we can hope for is a seemless as possible integration.

Originally Posted by mikesm

The most important thing are directshow filters for HD content. WIthout that, everything is will be just a hack. With that, we can start cooking with gas. The question is, is anyone making that?

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by mkanet

You can start cooking with gas. Unless something majorly changes, all we can hope for is a seemless as possible integration.

From these answers to my questions in the ARCsoft thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=900666&page=9) it looks like they have directshow filters for sure. So once this is released, maybe it can be supported in Sage. I don't know if EVR is required though, but sounds like no.

thx
mike

[basset]

Originally Posted by mkanet

What if I can get hold of the installer for that plugin? IT did come with my HP. I didnt think much of it at the time; and uninstalled it thinking I'll just buy and use PowerDVD Ultra. If there's a way to somehow this this to be seemless via SageMC STV... that would be one of the most valuable addons. Currently, the best I can do by myself is lunch it from our menu and for it to start playing full screen.

How did you get that working ?? I tried it but PowerDVD won't play ... it starts up and access the disk, but then it quits. This only happens when sagetv is in full screen, if sagetv is in windowed mode it works fine from a menu.

Basset

EDIT: Never mind turned off full screen exclusive mode and now it works

[Polypro]

I used a resource editor and changed PDVD's "Red Lady" background to Sage's background. I launch it with neilm's menu and programmed my Harmony to shut it down...works pretty well.

P

Edit: This is with Vista...no FSE needed.

[mkanet]

What resource editor? Can you tell me how to chenge the background? I'm alraedy using an all black skin, but changing the background to sage's background would be cool. Do you mean a hex editor? What do you change?

Originally Posted by Polypro

I used a resource editor and changed PDVD's "Red Lady" background to Sage's background. I launch it with neilm's menu and programmed my Harmony to shut it down...works pretty well.

P

Edit: This is with Vista...no FSE needed.

[Polypro]

From AVS:

I found an application that can be used to edit the skins that come with Powerdvd 7.

I had wanted to change the default background to something of my own and after spending hours googling the subject, only found some old info on the cyberlink website that dated back to Powerdvd 3 when they still used .zip files to store the skins.

Then I realized that what I needed was a resource decompiler and found one called PE Explorer that worked like a charm.
http://www.heaventools.com/overview.htm

There's a trial version that's good for 30 days.

I don't know the low level details of the powerdvd xml tags, but using the PE explorer, you can view the skin xml, the graphics resources and if you have some familiarity with markup languages, should be able to figure out what's what.

So, basically, to change the background image, here's what I did:

1. Download PE Explorer from the above site.

2. Make a duplicate of the Mercury skin (in your Powerdvd skins directory)

3. Start up PE Explorer and open the skin.

4. Go to View/Resources (ctrl-r)

5. Using the tree view on the left, you can expand XML and IMAGE.

6. Under IMAGE, find INITIAL\POWERDVD7_1280x1024.PNG. Right click on it and edit the resource (shift-ctrl-e). Now click the file icon in the lower half of the screen and pick a new 1280x1024 PNG format file to use. Hit "ok".

7. Do something similar, but this time look for INITIAL\POWERDVD7_1280x720.PNG and this time replace it with a 1280x720 PNG format file.

(For testing purposes, I had used photoshop to create two black images).

8. Save out the skin using File\Save As. Write it out as a .dll.

Now you should be able to load up Powerdvd and select your new skin.

Using PE Editor, you can take a look through the resources and customize a lot more. I just did the above as a proof of concept.

The reason the word "Powerdvd" is still there is because there's an animation overlay that's drawn on top of the background. I left this alone for now, but this can be customized too.

Hope someone found that helpful. I spent a lot of time looking for info on how to customize the skin and only found a lot of old info and I figured I couldn't be the only one who wanted to do something like this.

I grabbed an all black skin that had the "PowerDVD 7" removed and opened that with the resource editor. I then replaced the image with Sage's Background.jpg (In PDVD the preview will still show as black, but when you load it, it will be fine...you could always change the preview pic and title if you wanted). I then used an MCE keyboard and programmed Ctrl-X into the Harmony's "Exit" button.

P

[bialio]

Very cool - will have to try this 2nite.

---------------------------

As far as integration with PowerDVD Ultra and Sage, I've got a pretty workable system. It's not as seamless as I would like, but it's working OK.

I use a combination of LM Remote Keymap, the Streamzap PC Remote receiver, and my Harmony remote. I have to run sage in FSE (long story) so I can't leave Sage up while PowerDVD is open.

There are 4 colored buttons on the Streamzap. These I have mapped (with LMRemoteKeymap) to turn Sage ON, turn Sage OFF, turn PowerDVD ON, and turn PowerDVD OFF. Then I have 2 activities set up in the Harmony- one called "SageTV" and the other called "PowerDVD." They are set to use the same components (same TV input, AVR input, etc) - they just launch and exit their respective programs.

The final piece of glue is that LMRemoteKeymap has a profile defined for both powerDVD and Sage - depending on which app is running, it sends the appropriate commands / keypresses in response to remote events.

btl.

[mkanet]

Thanks for the very simple instructions!

PS: What keystrokes does it respond to when programming it with a remote control? I use Girder to control it. I managed to get Fullscreen/window toggle, Pauses/play to work. But never got FF/Rew to work right.

[Polypro]

I use an MCE Receiver and Keyboard, with an MCE profile in the Harmony. Because of that, I can program PowerDVD's keyboard shortcuts directly into the Harmony with the keyboard.

P

[mkanet]

Yeah... and??? What are the keyboard shortcuts... thats how Girder works too.

Originally Posted by Polypro

I use an MCE Receiver and Keyboard, with an MCE profile in the Harmony. Because of that, I can program PowerDVD's keyboard shortcuts directly into the Harmony with the keyboard.

P

[Polypro]

Either download the PDVD Manual (The short cuts are on pages 7-20), or hover your mouse over the buttons. I only know Ctrl-X because it responds to the other MCE Commands natively.

P

[bialio]

Originally Posted by mkanet

PS: What keystrokes does it respond to when programming it with a remote control? I use Girder to control it. I managed to get Fullscreen/window toggle, Pauses/play to work. But never got FF/Rew to work right.

http://www.keyxl.com/aaab43b/275/Pow...-shortcuts.htm

btl.

[mkanet]

Thanks.... will redo my Girder GML file...

Originally Posted by bialio

http://www.keyxl.com/aaab43b/275/Pow...-shortcuts.htm

btl.