Fail to launch PowerDVD Ultra as external command

[basset]

Hi,

I have a LG HD/BD drive and would like to launch PowerDVD from a sage menu. Now I've used the extCommand menu option similarly to below:

<actionMenuItem title="HiDef">
<actionList>
<sageCommand command="Power Off"/>
<extCommand arguments="d:" command="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" waitforexit="1" window="normal"/>
<sageCommand command="Power On"/>
</actionList>
</actionMenuItem>

Now this seems to work ok when SageTV is windowed, but if I try it when sage is full screen, it will fail to start PowerDVD. After that, even with sage in windowed mode, PowerDVD will start up .. try to play the movie and shutdown. The only way to get PowerDVD working again, is to completely shutdown SageTV at which point PowerDVD will play movies again.

Is it possible that SageTV grabs some DX9 stuff in full screen which it fails to release when going to windowed mode and which causes PowerDVD to fail when it tries to render the movie ?

Thanks
Basset

[nielm]

it is possible... But a workaround is to disable and restore fullscreen mode as well as sleeping
Here is a pasteable menu item for you (untested, but will probably work...)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE sageMenu PUBLIC "-//NIELM//DTD SAGEMENU XML 1.4//EN" "http://www.sage-community.org/~nielm/nielm_modules/dynamic_menu/sagemenu_1_3.dtd">
<sageMenu version="1.4">
   <actionMenuItem title="HiDef">
      <actionList>
         <sageCommand command="Disable Full Screen"/>
         <sageCommand command="Power Off"/>
         <extCommand arguments="d:" command="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" waitforexit="1" window="normal"/>
         <sageCommand command="Power On"/>
         <sageCommand command="Restore Full Screen"/>
      </actionList>
   </actionMenuItem>
</sageMenu>

[basset]

Originally Posted by nielm

it is possible... But a workaround is to disable and restore fullscreen mode as well as sleeping
Here is a pasteable menu item for you (untested, but will probably work...)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE sageMenu PUBLIC "-//NIELM//DTD SAGEMENU XML 1.4//EN" "http://www.sage-community.org/~nielm/nielm_modules/dynamic_menu/sagemenu_1_3.dtd">
<sageMenu version="1.4">
   <actionMenuItem title="HiDef">
      <actionList>
         <sageCommand command="Disable Full Screen"/>
         <sageCommand command="Power Off"/>
         <extCommand arguments="d:" command="C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" waitforexit="1" window="normal"/>
         <sageCommand command="Power On"/>
         <sageCommand command="Restore Full Screen"/>
      </actionList>
   </actionMenuItem>
</sageMenu>

Hi Nielm

Thanks for the reply (great STVs etc. btw) ... I did try that with the same results. I even tried to execute some "sleeps" between the commands to give everything some time to settle down (2 sec sleep) but that too had no effect.

I can take sage in and out of full screen with the remote (with a mapped button), so I can start it up windowed ... go full screen, then back to windowed (with the remote) and then start PowerDVD without a problem, but when I try to do it with the menu commands directly from full screen, it fails to launching PowerDVD. After that Powerdvd just won't start again even in windowed mode until I restart Sage.

What I haven't tried (and I am at work now ) is to disable full screen exclusive mode (if that is still there) and see if that solves the problem. It definitely looks like a Sage problem / bug at this time.

Thanks
Basset

[basset]

Hi,

Turned off exclusive full screen mode and it is working now



Thanks
Basset

[Eckwell]

Basset - Did you turn off exclusive full screen mode in the code? so it goes back on when PowerDVD opens? or just by setting it off in the setup?