myHTPC + SageTV + ZoomPlayer Setup

[TheContact]

Like just about everyone else, I'm working on putting together a little HTPC for myself, and I've gotten almost all the components together. Now comes the slightly tricky part: tying them all together so they work seemlessly.

I've installed myHTPC, SageTV, and ZoomPlayer. Since I wanted to use my ATI remote with SageTV, I grabbed Girder. In order to make this relatively painless, I also grabbed salsbst's GML file from here:

http://www.freytechnologies.com/foru...&threadid=1182

And then modified it to work with the ATI remote (copying the existing remote commands, and just relearning them for the ATI remote with the X10 plugin).

However, now I'm trying to figure out how to put it all together. The Girdir GML file starts up myHTPC when Girdir starts up, so that's good. However, it's unclear what I need to do next.

I know I need to add a SageTV entry in myHTPC, but I'm not sure exactly what a good setup would be. Having it run sagetv.exe -awake is only useful when SageTV is already running. If it isn't, for some reason, sagetv won't launch. If I change it to just sagetv.exe, then it works, unless sagetv is asleep (which is what I want when I switch out...), and so the button will act inconsitantly.

So... I'm hoping that salsbst can provide a little insight into this setup, because his setup relatively closely matches mine.

Just in case it's useful, here's my hardware:

• M10000 Nehemiah
• Hauppauge PVR250
• ATI Remote Wonder
• IR Blaster (Actisys IR-200L)

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated

[salsbst]

I know I need to add a SageTV entry in myHTPC, but I'm not sure exactly what a good setup would be. Having it run sagetv.exe -awake is only useful when SageTV is already running. If it isn't, for some reason, sagetv won't launch. If I change it to just sagetv.exe, then it works, unless sagetv is asleep (which is what I want when I switch out...), and so the button will act inconsitantly.

I don't communicate directly between myHTPC and SageTV. Girder is always in the middle. Girder can conditionally do different things based on whether or not a particular window exists, which is the key to reigning in these applications.

I have SageTV set to launch at startup in the taskbar (this is an option in the "Advanced" tab of the SageTV "Detailed Setup" window).

In myHTPC, I have a button which executes the command:

C:\Program Files\Girder32\event.exe to-SageTV 18 -silent

This fires the "to-SageTV" Girder event in Girder. This event is attached to the multi-group "Automation / Task-Switching / to-SageTV / to-SageTV" in the GML file that is linked above.

This multi-group uses the Girder "Goto" command to:

a) exit Zoomplayer if it is running
b) minimize J. River Media Center if it isn't already minimized
c) show SageTV if it isn't already shown

The actual command that shows SageTV if it isn't already shown is a multi-group at "Application Control / SageTV / Show". It tests if the SageTV window exists. If not, it executes the "Power" command. It then waits up to 4 seconds for the window to appear, and then executes the "Set Focus" command on the window.

My Girder techniques aren't the most advanced, but they also aren't the most simple. Post back with any other questions -- the more specific the better.

Regards,
Stuart

[TheContact]

That was what I needed to know (I'm a total Girdir newbie, so I'm sorta learning this as I go).

Also, it looks like you haven't setup the power button for application switching. How did you manage that? More specifically, I'm assuming that myHTPC is the central hub from which applications are launched.

I have Girdir basically call to-myHTPC when the power button is hit in SageTV (which causes SageTV to go to sleep, and ZoomPlayer to hide).

[salsbst]

Short answer: I don't hit the Power button in SageTV.

Longer answer: I don't even know where that button is. But there is one button on my remote (Phillips MCE) that looks like the Windows icon (as in the one to the left of the word Start on the start menu in Windows). This is the "no matter what you're doing, stop and go back to myHTPC" button. It raises the event "rrWindows", which is handled by the multi-group, "Automation / Remote Control Responses / Global / Windows / Windows".

Note that the Global in that path separates remote control responses that should ALWAYS be active from those that should only be active in particular situations (i.e. when a certain task like SageTV is in the foreground).

The Windows multigroup just executes Goto to-myHTPC.

OK, I just reread your post. Are you talking about a Power button on your remote? If so, then it looks like we're essentially doing the same thing.

[Narflex]

In the 1.4 beta, SageTV.exe -awake should also launch SageTV if it isn't running. Let me know if that's not the case.

[salsbst]

Jeff, is your comment directed to me or to TheContact? If to me, what problem (note I don't actually have a problem in this case) would this solve?

Thanks,
Stuart

[TheContact]

salsbst: Looks like we solved the problem the same way. My ATI remote does indeed have a power button, and it seemed the most logical choice for "turning off whatever I'm doing"

Narflex: I'll give 1.4 a shot and let you know.

The reason this was an issue was that usually when pass an argument to an application, and the application wasn't running, it should be launched. In this case, the launch was ignored. When I first setup the myHTPC, I was launching SageTV this way, and it wouldn't launch if I had -awake (which I wanted because if I was in myHTPC and Sage was asleep, that was the only way I could revive it).

[TheContact]

Yup! The new beta seems to work with -awake.

[lovingHDTV]

salsbst
Not to discourage you from posting your great work, but I also have some questions

Maybe this is really a myHTPC question, but I created the sageTV command as you describe in this post within myHTPC, but it does not wake up SageTV. I can however, open a command window and execute the girder event and have it work. I guess my question is more along the line of how do you debug your Girder stuff?

As girder keys of the active window anytime I try to run an app in a window so that I can see the girder information, girder keys on that los of focus and disables it. Just looking for some ideas.

I do have it mostly working, just trying to get sage to work correctly now. Also did you have to configure something within sage to support you sendmessage commands?

thanks for your time,

[salsbst]

daveP,

Please share your setup (what command do you issue from myHTPC).... what event do you have setup in Girder and what Girder commands are associated with it?

As for debugging Girder, I'm not an expert. There are plenty of hints floating around the girder forum though.. My GML file uses a lot of foreground window detection to enable and disable different command groups.... The one trick I have is to use a separate test for the presence of myHTPC application in memory: if it's not there, then all of the other foreground detection is disabled. This doesn't so much help with debugging girder GML but it does make it easier to get into a state where I can author the GML without having all of the foreground event detection stuff get in the way.


I didn't do anything to SageTV to make it work correctly, but beware that the GML I have posted is for beta 1.4.5 and later of SageTV, as some of the window class names changed.

P.S. It just occurred to me that the way I debug GML is to insert OSD commands in my multigroups to figure out what the trace of the GML is.... this is rather hackish though.... I presume that there is a plugin specifically for writing trace to a log file, but I haven't looked.

Regards,
Stuart

[lovingHDTV]

Stuart,

I loaded your setup.gml file posted earlier in this thread. It seemed to be a good fit as you use the same programs I am trying to use. I don't need the ir blaster support, but that is easily fixed. I then reprogramed the remote control->recieve functions to work with my remote and winlirc plugin. This works as I can use myHTPC now.

I create a new program group in myHTPC and called it my sageTV.

I selected execute file with the command:
C:\Program Files\Girder32\event.exe to-SageTV 18 -silent
no parameters
did not fill out current working directory
and selected hidden (also tried normal) for the window type.

When I select "my SageTV" in myHTPC nothing happens. When I run this command in a command window it brought sageTV from the system tray to full screen. So sageTV seems to be responding to the girder event correctly. After that, I could not do anything, because I believe the sageTV module was disabled via girder as I did not enter sage by myHTPC.

The OSD commands are a good idea, I'm not a big programmer and print commands work well for me

thanks,

[salsbst]

Perhaps it is the window type? Quotes around the path to event.exe and/or "to_SageTV"?

I'll look at my config in myHTPC when I get home.

[TheContact]

This was how I set it up:
EXE:C:\Program Files\Girder32\event.exe Parameters:to-SageTV 18 -silent
CWD:C:\Program Files\Girder32\
Window:Normal

And this works just fine. When I'm testing, I remove -silent, so I can make sure that it's being called. If I know it's being called, then the rest is a problem with the girder script that I have to resolve.

The other thing to do is to make sure that the management stuff is working in the script. Try disabling management, enable to-myHTPC and to-SageTV and then see if it works.

[salsbst]

That sounds right, TheContact.... it probably was the parameters bit.

[lovingHDTV]

TheContact,
Good idea with the management disable bit. That will help a lot.

Will make the changes tonight.

thanks,

[lovingHDTV]

OK that worked!

Just one more problem. I have been disabling the task management group and playing around and it works for myHTPC, sageTV and zoomplayer. Very nice. I like how it resets to myHTPC by hitting the power button. My wife will like that if anything goes wrong.

Now the problem. How do you detect the current app? I found that I can bring up myHTPC, sageTV, zoom and girder all in their own windows. I can then click on each window and watch the different groups get enabled within Girder based on the current window. Unfortionately, sageTV never gets enabled. I can't figure out how you detect the window so that I can see if the target window is wrong or something. Is it with taskCreate or TaskSwitch? how do you change them?

thanks a bunch,

[lovingHDTV]

OK, I feel dumb. I figured it out. It looks like on taskCreate and on taskSwitch are variables with a sensitivity to such actions.

For some reason, I had to change the enableSage target to just sageTV.exe and not the other two additional items. Now it works.



Now I just need to buy SageTV before it expires

Awesome thanks,

[salsbst]

If you're not using 1.4.5 or 1.4.7 of Sage then that makes sense b/c I've specified some parts of the target window that were changed in the recent betas (which I'm using). No reason to feel dumb. Girder's UI isn't conducive to seeing the whole picture, so when you're looking at somebody else's GML it is a bit difficult to see the whole thing at once.

[nicktripp]

After reading this post, I've been inspired to add myHTPC to my forthcoming HTPC. SageTV was a given, but myHTPC looks like it will add some extra features that I may enjoy.

Ready to support another newbie folks?

[appeline-whaler]

Narflex,

The answer to my question is probably in this thread, but I am too novice to discern.

I am using Sage launched from MyHTPC, and would like both to share the same IRman on Com 2. I have the IRman working perfectly in both apps, as long as the other isn't running. When both are running (the normal user state), the IRman works for neither app. I am not presently using Girder since the drivers within Sage and MyHTPC work fine.

Would appreciate any direction.

PS: The -awake perameter does not launch SageTV when Sage is closed rather than sleeping? To remedy, I keep a separate executable in a hidden page in MyHTPC that only the administrator has access to.