[PLUGIN] UIMOD:Bluray/DVD External Playback

[rnadeau]

One thing I noticed is as soon as I install this plugin, anytime I stop a tv show or movie it goes directly to the main sage menu. For instance, I have tv shows setup as seasons and episodes. Without the plugin installed when the episode I am watching has finished, I end up at the episode screen and I can select the next episode to play. With the plugin installed, when the episode is done playing and I stop it I end up at the sage main screen, then I have to go to the tv series, pisck the series I want to watch, pick the episode and play it. I don't know if this is something that would be easy to fix but would be greatly appreciated.

[rnadeau]

Related to my last post, I just realized it is probably a Gemstone issue. Fuzzy, if you have gemstone installed, can you verify this behavior? If so I will file a bug for gemstone although it probably wouldn't be high on priority, but I have to do a half dozen clicks for each episode of Sons of Anarchy for instance, because italways goes to the main gemstone menu after the show is done. Thanks

[speck55]

Originally Posted by rnadeau

One thing I noticed is as soon as I install this plugin, anytime I stop a tv show or movie it goes directly to the main sage menu. For instance, I have tv shows setup as seasons and episodes. Without the plugin installed when the episode I am watching has finished, I end up at the episode screen and I can select the next episode to play. With the plugin installed, when the episode is done playing and I stop it I end up at the sage main screen, then I have to go to the tv series, pisck the series I want to watch, pick the episode and play it. I don't know if this is something that would be easy to fix but would be greatly appreciated.

I had this problem way back --- waaaaayyyy back like before the buyout - and I figured it was just me. I basically set up an ALT+something shortcut on my harmony remote that triggered a "Start WMC" and "Give WMC Focus", and went at the My Movies plugin there to fire the ISO mount and fire off PDVD.

If anyone else gets to the bottom of this, let me know. My server install is virtualized and older than dirt itself but updated and working with the impossible multi-Colossi+HDPVR+6 OTA/ClearQAM combo, so I dare not touch it. But I will happily mutilate client installs to help test.

[toony]

Does this work with TMT6 or only TMT3?

[Fuzzy]

didn't even realize there WAS a 6. I use it with 5, just takes modifying the batch file to point to the right .exe. That may be all that's required to make it work with 6 also. Would depend on how it needs to be called to pass the folder location.

[toony]

Ok, I can downgrade to 5, I'm only using a trial v6. Had to uninstall v3 as it was crashing constantly.
I'm building my first client on an NUC and still have to figure out a UNC issue first

[toony]

Solved the UNC issue quickly, I can watch DVD folders in Sage now.

I installed the plugin, I cant navigate the DVD/Bluray External Application option, it just shows C:

I opened up the properties file and found the
sagetv_core_plugins/fuzzywatchexternally/author=Fuzzy section

I'm not sure what to change to point it to TMT

[Fuzzy]

There's a bug in the plugin when configuring on a client (I navigates on the server). You have to manually set the properties. There are in sageclient.properties. fuzzy/WatchExternally_path=

[toony]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

There's a bug in the plugin when configuring on a client (I navigates on the server). You have to manually set the properties. There are in sageclient.properties. fuzzy/WatchExternally_path=

Cool, found it and done.

It works! For dvds it plays but for bluray it just goes to the player. Not sure if it an issue with it being a free trial or a BD rip.. going to look into it more now. Thanks!

EDIT

I Downgraded to TMT5, same issue, DVD's will play fine in the TM player, but BD won't, it just opens the TMT player. Any idea why this is happening.
I am trying this with a newly ripped BR, it will play in the TotalMedia Theater if I open it and point to the disc folder.
I also did try to set the .bat file to open the TotalMedia Theater instead of the player, it opens and plays DVD's just like the player will but won't play the Bluray folder unless I manually tell it to open the disc folder

EDIT #2

I posted a question in the arcsoft forum, maybe someone has an idea of what is going on.
But in the mean time I downloaded PowerDVD 13 and adjusted the .bat file to start blurays with that, and it works for both DVD's and Blurays. It also seems to load Blurays faster than TMT does. Though PowerDVD seems rather bloated unlike the TMPlayer. So I would need to figure out if PowerDVD has a lighter player like TMT does.

Still interested in figuring out why TMT is doing this.

[Fuzzy]

If I remember right, there was an issue of how it was passed to the player (the root folder, or the BDMV folder). However it was, it was a different level required to make it work. I've got a much smarter batch file somewhere in this thread that will call it appropriately (as well as support mounting an .ISO file).

EDIT: Here it is

@echo off

set VCDLetter=W:

if X%~x1==X.iso goto iso
if x%~n1==xBDMV goto bluray
goto dvd

:bluray
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %~sdp1
goto end

:dvd
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %~s1
goto end

:iso
start /wait "Mounting ISO" C:\PROGRA~1\ELABOR~1\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe /l=%VCDLetter% %~s1
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %VCDLetter%
start /wait "UnMounting ISO" C:\PROGRA~1\ELABOR~1\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe /l=%VCDLetter% /u
goto end
 
:end

[toony]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

If I remember right, there was an issue of how it was passed to the player (the root folder, or the BDMV folder). However it was, it was a different level required to make it work. I've got a much smarter batch file somewhere in this thread that will call it appropriately (as well as support mounting an .ISO file).

EDIT: Here it is

@echo off

set VCDLetter=W:

if X%~x1==X.iso goto iso
if x%~n1==xBDMV goto bluray
goto dvd

:bluray
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %~sdp1
goto end

:dvd
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %~s1
goto end

:iso
start /wait "Mounting ISO" C:\PROGRA~1\ELABOR~1\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe /l=%VCDLetter% %~s1
start /wait "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uMCEPlayer5.exe" %VCDLetter%
start /wait "UnMounting ISO" C:\PROGRA~1\ELABOR~1\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe /l=%VCDLetter% /u
goto end
 
:end

I gave it a shot, nothing changed with the Bluray, still just opens the TM player. With the change in the DVD line %1 in the original batch file to %~s1 gives me the same result as Bluray, just opens the TM player.

[toony]

I have been playing with the string at the end of the bluray line. I know nothing about coding, but I assume it has something to do with which folder level the application grabs the bdmv folder, as you mentioned earlier. Is there somewhere I could see a list of these variables so I could plug in different ones and see if one works?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by toony

I have been playing with the string at the end of the bluray line. I know nothing about coding, but I assume it has something to do with which folder level the application grabs the bdmv folder, as you mentioned earlier. Is there somewhere I could see a list of these variables so I could plug in different ones and see if one works?

That line ends with "%~sdp1"

For any batch file, "%1" is a reference to the first command line argument passed to the batch file. So if your batch file is called "test.bat" and you execute it by typing "test apple orange banana" at a command prompt, %1 will be "apple", %2 will be orange, and %3 will be banana.

If a command line argument contains a reference to a file, you can use the tilde (~) character to extract information.

So consider calling test.bat as follows:
test "C:\sagetv\somefile.txt"

"%~f1" will give the full path with the drive letter.
["C:\sagetv\somefile.txt"]
"%~d1" will give you the drive letter of the first argument.
["C:"]
"%~p1" gives the path with the drive letter removed, and with a trailing backslash "\"
["\sagetv\"]
"%~n1" gives the file name only with no extension (or the folder name if the argument is a folder and not a file)
["somefile"]
"%~x1" gives the extension with period
[".txt"]

you can combine multiple tilde commands:
"%~nx1" gives filename and extension for 1st argument
["somefile.txt"]

"s" can be used with f, n , and x to use the "short" version of a file name.


By the way you can also open a command prompt and type "call /?" to get help (it explains these arguments and more).

[toony]

Originally Posted by Tiki

That line ends with "%~sdp1"

For any batch file, "%1" is a reference to the first command line argument passed to the batch file. So if your batch file is called "test.bat" and you execute it by typing "test apple orange banana" at a command prompt, %1 will be "apple", %2 will be orange, and %3 will be banana.

If a command line argument contains a reference to a file, you can use the tilde (~) character to extract information.

So consider calling test.bat as follows:
test "C:\sagetv\somefile.txt"

"%~f1" will give the full path with the drive letter.
["C:\sagetv\somefile.txt"]
"%~d1" will give you the drive letter of the first argument.
["C:"]
"%~p1" gives the path with the drive letter removed, and with a trailing backslash "\"
["\sagetv\"]
"%~n1" gives the file name only with no extension (or the folder name if the argument is a folder and not a file)
["somefile"]
"%~x1" gives the extension with period
[".txt"]

you can combine multiple tilde commands:
"%~nx1" gives filename and extension for 1st argument
["somefile.txt"]

"s" can be used with f, n , and x to use the "short" version of a file name.


By the way you can also open a command prompt and type "call /?" to get help (it explains these arguments and more).

I'm sorry I asked

I'll see what I can come up with. Cheers!

[Fuzzy]

The reason I use %~sdp1 for that, is I believe Sage passes the full path to the BDMV file.
L:\Movies\My Favorite Movie (1982)\BDMV

but TMT liked to see the root, so since %1 is pointing to the BDMV folder
%~d1 == L:
%~p1 == \Movies\My Favorite Movie (1982)\
%~sdp1 == L:\Movies\MyFavo~1\

[toony]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The reason I use %~sdp1 for that, is I believe Sage passes the full path to the BDMV file.
L:\Movies\My Favorite Movie (1982)\BDMV

but TMT liked to see the root, so since %1 is pointing to the BDMV folder
%~d1 == L:
%~p1 == \Movies\My Favorite Movie (1982)\
%~sdp1 == L:\Movies\MyFavo~1\

I still can't figure out how to make this work. Works fine with PowerDVD.

Does the fact that I have different levels of folders. In your example above you have 3 levels L:\Movies\My Favorite Movie (1982)\BDMV

If I had 4 L:\Movies\Scifi\My Favorite Movie (1982)\BDMV
or 5 L:\Movies\Scifi\fantasy\My Favorite Movie (1982)\BDMV

Would that make a difference?

[Fuzzy]

No, it shouldn't - the path isn't coded at all in the batch file, so it takes whatever sage passes in. You'll likely have to throw some debugging commands into the batch file... If you post up your current batch file, i can see if I can add them in, and we'll be able to see exactly what is going on.

[rnadeau]

i used to use Zoom Player with sage 6 and zoom player 4 and it worked great. Better than sagetv player. I use a sound enhancer and sage won't use it when playing dvd movies. Zoom player does use it.

So I installed this plugin and configured the Watchexternally batch file. This is the command line..."C:\Program Files\Zoom Player\zplayer.exe" "%1". When I click Watch on any dvd it does nothing. When I press watch a second time on the same movie, it will call zoomplayer, pass it the filename and play it perfectly.
I also have the setting in dvd section set to use zoomplayer for dvd and blueray and set zoomplayer executable as the target player program. I tried using this plugin with vlc media player and it works fine every time. I tried getting help from zoomplayer tech support but they are referring me to "Sagetv forums" .
I turned debug logging on and I get this error: Tue 11/4 17:39:34.534 [AWT-EventQueue-0@ea7549] Parsing Error: Syntax error
Expression: IsDVD(Airing) & !WatchExternally
If anyone out there has zoomplayer working with sagetv, I would appreciate any assistance. TIA