Utility: SageMCEDisplay

[Jere_Jones]

If you bought a nice, spiffy computer with an LCD that displays all sorts of cool stuff when Windows Media Center is running, but nothing when SageTV is running, this utility is for you.

Currently it is only a proof of concept, but if you run it then minimize it, it does work.

Instructions:
Download and unzip the file from here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=147
Put the file where ever you like. It doesn't matter. When you run the file, you should see this:



Follow along step by step. Click the "Find Sinks" button in Step 1. With any luck you will see something like this:



If no sinks are found then this utility won't do anything for you. Sorry. If any sinks were found continue on to step 2. Fill in the IP address and the port. You can use the IP address or the computer name or "localhost". Your choice.

Make sure that nielm's External Status Monitor is properly installed and SageTV is running before continuing to step 3. Click on "Test External Status Monitor" in step 3. You should see something like this:



Scroll up and make sure that the information shown looks right.

If all has gone well up to this point, you are ready to start the display. Click "Start SageMCEDisplay" in step 4. Now you can go about your business and you should see the display reacting to what you are watching.

Enjoy,
Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Version History

0.1 - 17 December 2006
- Initial public release

0.2 - 21 December 2006
- Changed method used to search for sinks. It is now done "properly" via component categories instead of a brute force search.
- Improved regex's used to find information in various fields. This was at least causing the display to flash in video and was probably causing a wide variety of other problems.
- Finished video section.
- Added and finished DVD section.
- Music section still inop.
- Will turn on the recording light if any shows are recording.

[that_kid]

No sinks for me I guess it's because I'm using Vista on my z555's.

[gwgunter]

I greatly appreciate the work.. Nice to see an interest in this feature...

Connected Successfully using utility. Unfortunately, It didn't change my display. The z540 keeps showing "Welcome to HP Digital Media Center". Doing a little looking in the sink, I'm curious if the ehmsas or Aggregator service of MC 2005 are keeping the resource.

[that_kid]

Hmm you're right it does look like he's running vista. I'll try disabling some services and see what happens.

[Jere_Jones]

That's Windows XP with the Vista Transformation Pack installed. It's not even MCE, I just have the FileWriter Sink installed so I can continue development on my laptop and verify the proper messages are being sent.

If you are running Vista or WindowsMCE, look for drivers for the LCD in question. Installing those drivers may make it work.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

My comments were to those with no sinks. My z545 does have MCE on it.

Regarding the drivers: I also went to the HP site to update my driver. The first time I updated, I got the same results you did. I had to reboot, reupdate the driver, then reboot again to get the time back. But then my program wouldn't work even though MCE would still update the display. I rolled back to the old driver and it worked again.

jds23,
Your's is working fine and after I do some tweaking to the code, it should be great.

Jere

[that_kid]

I'm using the xp drivers in Vista, the display works fine for MCE but I get no sync when I run the display program. Unfortunately all my z555's have vista installed on them so I can't even see if it's a vista issue. I have the latest display drive dated 2/2006 installed.

[BruenerXII]

Jere_Jones,
Thank you for this great plugin! Like jds23 my VFD screen has done nothing much more then showing the time/date since I bought it. I have searched everywhere and no LCD/VFD programs support the model i have.

I have your program working for imported videos and music, but i can't get it to work for tv or dvd's.

This is the VFD i am trying to get it working on: L.I.S MCE

http://www.vlsys.co.kr/English/product_lis_mce.php

and a link to the USB driver i am using:

http://www.vlsys.co.kr/pds/driver/LIS_USB_Setup.zip

I am running WinXP pro not MCE (maybe i am missing some MCE files that are needed?) latest sage 6.0.18, status monitor 1.3.
It finds 1 sink, and all the info from the external status monitor is coming in fine. Also I notice it does switch the VFD to either tv or dvd mode (fs_tv or _dvd) just does not display any info.. This would be a kick ASS X-Mas gift if i could get it working with viewing TV and DVD's.

Thanks Again!

[gwgunter]

I'd prefer not to roll back the driver but if that is what's required to get the information - oh well.

Jere -- Your's is working fine and after I do some tweaking to the code, it should be great.

I'm assuming that this tweaking will allow the new driver to work. I'll hold off rolling back drivers for now. I'm in no hurry.

My 2 bits
Sounds like a new thread for Z5## owners is in order. -- My SATA drive went to hard drive heaven 2 weeks ago. Other than that, I've been fairly happy with the system.

[nox71]

DO i need to have MCE2005 installed as my OS ? I give the utility a try and it found one sink but when i start it i only got HOME on my vfd and nothing else appear. Which version of Nielm status monitor do i have to instal by the way ?


P.S.: My case is a ANTEC Fusion.

[Jere_Jones]

I"ve uploaded v0.2. This version works well enough that I leave it running in the background and have a beautifully working display!

I'm going to keep the version notes in the second post of this thread.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

For those of you wondering if this will work for you, there are two simple tests:

First, does the program find any sinks? If so, the odds are excellent carry on to test 2. If not, you're out of luck. There may be a driver that will help you, I don't know. Sorry.

Second, does ANYTHING happen with the display after you have clicked the "Start SageMCEDisplay" and are playing with Sage? If the results aren't perfect, but some lights come on, go off, the lcd time goes away, the play light comes on or WHATEVER, then we have made a successful connection and the rest should be just working out the bugs.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Ok, it should work not. Thanks for the heads up!

Jere

[elaw]

(This is partially in response to jds23's question in the HP media center thread in the hardware forum)
Got the configuration on my Z555 straightened out last night and had promising but mixed results with MCEDisplay.

Last night, it would display correct info on the VFD when playing an imported video, and when playing MP3's. Watching recorded TV or live TV, the display would be blank. Although it's hard to tell from a distance, it looked like it was updating the indicators on the front panel (the ones that say "TV", "Videos", etc) correctly.

Oddly, at certain times (I wasn't able to associate it with anything specific), MCEDisplay.exe would use a lot of CPU - around 50% (this wasn't momentary, I watched it and it was steady for maybe 30 seconds).

This morning when I went to use the machine, the VFD would only show the time, like it does when MCEDisplay is not running. The indicator lights on the front panel still change depending on what you're playing, but nothing ever shows up in the VFD. I tried closing and restarting MCEDisplay, this had no effect.

It's really puzzling, I can't imagine what would have changed overnight? Power management on the machine is disabled and Sage runs all the time.

[Jere_Jones]

elaw,

Before you edited your message, you asked if I would share where I'm getting my information to do this. It is a valid and easy question. The answer is MSDN. All the information is in there. Look for a thing called Media State Aggregation Service (or something similar).

Basically, Microsoft realized that FPDs, VFDs, LCDs (whatever you want to call them) are valuable for any set top box, especially one so versitile as a media center(MCE, Sage, etc). They didn't want anyone (even OEMs) poking around inside of MCE so the created the MSAS that basically "broadcasts" what MCE is doing. Now OEMs had an API they could use to interface FPDs with MCE.

On the HP Z500 series, the hard part is written. That is driving the FPD and translating information to light. All I had to do is write a fake MSAS. The API that the OEMs use is public so I knew what the driver is looking for. I simply follow the rules and feed the "Sinks" (OEM drivers) all the information they can use and let them figure out how to turn all the pretty lights on. That's it.

And I can't even say this is my idea. I read a post on the MediaPortal forum about it. The MediaPortal plugin is in C# and mine is in C++ but they both basically do the same thing. (Thanks MediaPortal!)

Heck, if you want to help, I'm happy to share the source. I'll incorporate all suggestions/patches that work/make sense. I'm kinda interested in a critique of my programming since I'm learning this all on my own.

Jere

[that_kid]

Seeing as HP only has one driver listed with no access to previous version would it be possible for me to get the previous driver?

[Jere_Jones]

It might be on your recovery disks.

Jere

[that_kid]

Ahh I have no recovery discs, my z555's didn't come with any for the most part i didn't need them as I knew vista was going on them and I was able to get all the drivers from the HP site. I guess I'll have to track down that driver or maybe see if I can get a recovery disc.

[elaw]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

elaw,

Before you edited your message, you asked if I would share where I'm getting my information to do this. It is a valid and easy question. The answer is MSDN.
<snip>
Heck, if you want to help, I'm happy to share the source. I'll incorporate all suggestions/patches that work/make sense. I'm kinda interested in a critique of my programming since I'm learning this all on my own.

Jere

Jere,

You're too quick for me! I posted the message then found the MSDN info about 10 minutes later, so thought I'd save you the trouble. Oh well.

I'd love to compare code although I'm not sure how useful it would be. I'm not very fluent in C++, I'm a VB guy. But we can still compare notes. I've actually made quite good progress with a two-program working approach: one program gets and parses info from the status plugins, the other currently writes random stuff to the front-panel display. Once I get them both working reasonably well, I'll merge them.

I definitely think I'm gonna stick with running two copies of the status monitor plugin (one for the service and the other for the local "client"). Probably the most important function of this setup for me is to have a convenient way of knowing whether the service is recording anything so I know if I can safely reboot when the Sage UI is having "issues"