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

[Thraxius]

At this time. The slot number and changer has to be in the DVD Profiler export first. So you will have to inventory all your changers and tag each disk with Changer and Slot number.

So from what I can tell. Extenders might work.

Please understand that I am working as fast as I can to get something out for everyone to use. I still believe someone else would have been able to program it faster and probably a lot cleaner. Me reverse engineering and code slashing to get it to work will give us something useable but it is not clean.

So at this time.. I am trying to get the Mount DVD button to work correctly. I know what SageAPI command to use. Now I just have to get it to work.

Just an FYI..since I don't know how to make a STVi I will zip up the whole UI and place it onto the forums for people to use. Sorry but that is the only way I know how to get it for others to use.

[hemicuda]

A wise man once said.... "Beggars can't be choosers"

I'm just hoping I can convince the wife that having a $300-400, 200 DVD changer/burner is in our best interests for video storage. It really would free up tons of HD space.

Thanks for dropping so much effort on this feature.

[Thraxius]

I have a question did a post disappear. I could have sworn that there was a post that was asking about how I used the dvd profiler info. I might just be going senile or I have lost my mind because of this programming challenge.

[TerryMathews]

No, it was mine. Evidently, the name of the program I suggested for streaming DVDs over your home network is against the forum rules.

Man, I wish Opus had just edited the post instead of deleted it since it had some good information for you on how to use Windows XP's built-in telnet server to make a remote changer control function. I'll PM him and see if he can fix that mistake, if not I'll try to work it out in my head again since I didn't write any of it down.

[solomonsok]

Hi,

Sorry but getting a bit confuse regarding the status of getting a plugin for SageTV?

Is a plugin for SagetV available for the Sony XL1B?

Where are we at?

Cheers
Sol

[Thraxius]

Originally Posted by solomonsok

Sorry but getting a bit confuse regarding the status of getting a plugin for SageTV?

Sorry for the confusion. I will try to explain what is going on.

Originally Posted by solomonsok

Is a plugin for SagetV available for the Sony XL1B?

Since I don't know how to make it into an STVi. I am just modifying my STV so that it will work with the Sony XL1B. Now from what I hear you can make it into an STVi somehow but I am new to programming in SageTV.

Originally Posted by solomonsok

Where are we at?

At this time we are at a stand still because I have not had a chance to work on the STV for about a week. This is where it stands at this time though.

SageTV UI Projects

1. VGP-XL1B changer configuration. (Almost Complete.)
a. Offline Import Screen. (Done.)
b. Meta Data - Install for the offline Media. - (Completed but having issues maintaining data in DB. There is a fix I have not had a chance to put it into place yet. I got the fix from the forum.)
c. Loading of DVD Media in changer. (Working on this now.)
d. Playing of DVD Media in Changer.

That is a list of the things that I still have planned to do. After those are complete I will release the whole STV until I figure out how to cut it out and put it into a STVi. At least you will be able to use the Changer with your Sage system.

I have also written some instructions on using the STV. (IE. Where the buttons are located in the STV.) This is really hard for me to do because I do not program. I have pretty good logic which allows me to reverse engineer other peoples coding. Which has helped me to get this far.

Right now I know what I need to do to load, unload and play DVDs. I have to program it and hope that it works if it doesn't I have to try and figure out why it doesn't work.

I am very happy that you are interested in what I am doing but I don't want you to get your hopes up for something beautiful and slick. That is why I explained in an earlier post, what I am doing so you can get it to work with your SageTV system.

I hope this clarifies it for you.

[hemicuda]

Part 'd' shouldn't be an issue as long as Sage sees the device as a logical drive, but it is one that I believe cannot be discussed here.

My biggest issue now is whether I can convince the wife that we can't do without one of those changer/burners that are going for $300+ on ebay. I'd love to be able to burn ~1.6TB of content into the carousel. Not as inexpensive a method as JBOD via USB, but more tolerant to Murphy's Law of spinning discs.

[Thraxius]

Well how to answer your post.
I hope that the plugin will work up to your satisfaction.
I plan on working on the plugin tonight.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

Part 'd' shouldn't be an issue as long as Sage sees the device as a logical drive, but it is one that I believe cannot be discussed here.

That shouldn't be a problem, since it's a local "drive", any normal DVD decoder (nVidia, Cyberlink, etc) should work fine with it. That would be how VMC plays from it.

[hemicuda]

If you look at the thread about the networked DVD player you'll see what I use. It also works w/ the extenders.

[Thraxius]

I am sorry to give everyone bad news but I suck at programing. I am still working on the add on but had to scrap the last version for a inelegant solution.
This is will give me time to fix the issue and maybe come out with a better product.

As it stands.. I am working on Loading the DVD and Playback. I had to scrap the built in approach. It is on its own screen instead of in the Video Menu like I had it before. Examples will be added for you guys to see. Sorry but this is the best I can do.

[Thraxius]

Just an update for everyone. I have had an issue with the plugin. I have not been able to get Sage to execute Mediachanger.exe for some reason. I am still trying to figure out why.

[hemicuda]

I'd just like to say thanks again for trying to get this changer/burner working with Sage. Sounds to me like a lot of effort is going into it. Maybe I'll be able to justify a hardware purchase by the time you get things ironed out. Finding a place on the desk to put it will be another matter.

So many things to buy.... so little money to go around

[IVB]

I don't think this is a repeat of any data, but Sendero (SageTV & CQC'er) created this thread talking about how he got this all working fine. He's streaming DVDs from the XL1B to the HDExtender.

I just bought one myself, should be here in a few weeks, hopefully I can follow his recipe to success!

[Thraxius]

As I said before not a programmer. I just can't get number 8 to work.

If I can figure out how to get SageTV to execute mediachanger. Most of this stuff will be done. That guy Sendero probably knows exactly what command I need to use but for some reason what I expect to happen doesn't.

I am following the SageTV API but does not seem to be working. I am not a java programmer and don't have much to go off of except by looking at other peoples stuff.

Right now.. I am pretty upset because I feel I am my head against the wall. I will continue to try and figure it out. I know it has to be something dumb but I don't know what it is.

[bcjenkins]

Why not post in the studio forum?

B

[Thraxius]

Yes. I have posted there. I am working on it. I have posted and have been trying to get asssitance in multiple different areas.

[Sendero]

Originally Posted by Thraxius

As I said before not a programmer. I just can't get number 8 to work.

If I can figure out how to get SageTV to execute mediachanger. Most of this stuff will be done. That guy Sendero probably knows exactly what command I need to use but for some reason what I expect to happen doesn't.

I am following the SageTV API but does not seem to be working. I am not a java programmer and don't have much to go off of except by looking at other peoples stuff.

Right now.. I am pretty upset because I feel I am my head against the wall. I will continue to try and figure it out. I know it has to be something dumb but I don't know what it is.

I'm over here too now

I don't know what SageTV api to use to execute an external program. The one part that I had not automated was the control of the changer by either SageTV or CQC. I had just done that part manually using the mediachanger mount and unmount commands. With a quick glace at the docs though I'd guess that ExecuteProcess would be the one to use. My only question would be whether this executes on the client (HD Extender) or on the Sage Server.

Someone else has written a CQC driver though and I'm now working on integrating that into my system. It'd be nice to have the control directly through Sage interface as well though.

[Sendero]

This might be useful info regarding executeprocess not working

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...07&postcount=2

[stanger89]

FYI, I just saw this at AVS, might be a good option:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1020976