[gnollo]

I have been banging my head at this for quite a few days, so maybe someone can give me some ideas, and rescue me...


I have reached remote control Nirvana with my IRA receiver, Girder and Pronto, so I am all backed up on floppy on that side.


On the other end, my VDF display is hooked up with the parallel port and displaying perfectly anything LCDSmartie throws at it.


I display

- text of my choice (like GNOLLO HTPC etc... One ring to rule them all etc..)

- Operative system details (free space on HD, cpu speed, time, day etc)

- Winamp title and time etc


What I am really missing now is ZoomPlayer display for my recorded media files on the hard disk or dvds played using dvd (and Dscaler program title if you like, but that is not really essential)


I have created a thread on JMH's website. He created a plugin for LCDsmartie, and I hope we can convince him that a ZoomPlayer plugin would be ideal (so voice your opinion and support, if you do support my request, on this thread

Basically I requested a plugin that could allow LCDsmartie to display

- Chapter number

- Title (name of file or DVD title)

- time remaining and time elapsed

- audio: (DD, DTS etc)

- Play, pause, ffwd, etc if possible to appear for 5 seconds when I select those functions in Zoom Player


I also looked in what Blight lists on his website as programs that support the Zoom Player Interface:


1)LCDMax @ www.lcdmax.de

All I could get was error messages, I tried all the combinations of LTP port, with no luck

2)LCDC @ lcdc.planetdps.com

Only works with LDC connected via Com ports

3)jaLCDs @ www.jalcds.de

Works on the DIGN VFD display but I get incredible stutter when I play music with WinAmp

(talking about 101 things that can go wrong on a HTPC0


There is a further solution I hear: Girder+ DVDSpy & LCD 1.51 plugins.

a) how do you configure it? I downloaded the plugins but I am none the wiser. Anyone have links where a walkthrough is offered on how to configure DVDspy?

b) will the Girder-DVDspy-LCD plugin allow me to display:

- text of my choice (like GNOLLO HTPC etc... One ring to rule them all etc..)

- Operative system details (free space on HD, cpu speed, time, day etc)

c) if the answer is no, can they work together with LCDSmartie?


The quest to the perfect, standalone DVD player like liquid display functionality has begun...

 

[kbmyers]

Keep us posted on your quest - I'm in the same situation as you. From what I've read, it sounds like the DVDSpy & LCD plugins for Girder are the way to go, but I haven't had time to play with them yet.

 

[ScottK]

I have been wrestling with this one for awhile with a modicum of success.


First, let me say that even though I had felt I mastered Girder about a year an a half ago, my RE-learning curve was pretty steep. The program has a lot of unique and fantastic features, but usability IS NOT one of them. There is no "configuration utility." You have to edit the .GML files within Girder and work from there. They actually have a scripting language and variables now, which from a programming standpoint offers much cleaner ways to do things (cleaner than they WERE -- Python, this isn't!)


So. It depends on what you want to do and how deep you're willing to go. There are several .GML files (look under "exported groups") that are pre-built to interface with both DVDSpy and an LCD (or VFD) panel.


DVDSpy is truly a great plugin. Once you get the hang of how things are laid out, there is a LOT of info to be had across almost every sofware DVD player.


I also used the VFD with the WinAmp3 plugin. I tweaked a couple of things (mostly to accomodate our tiny VFDs) and it seems to be working well.


What I AM missing now is a reliable source for ATI MMC data. My dream is to have the VFD display whether or not the PVR software is recording and WHAT it is recording. When not in PVR mode, I'd like to get a peek at what channel / program the tuner is currently running (the data is there -- comes up in the OSD for the TV application)


If anyone has any insight as to how THAT might be accomplished, I'd be in your debt...



Scott.


P.S. LCD is now at version 2. Substantially superior, I am told. It worked for me!

 

[Alec]

2nd that RE: ATI MMC integration need

 

[gnollo]

Scott K, using DVDSpy and Girder, did you manage to display on the VFD

- text of your choice (to be repeated cyclically)

- Operative system details (free space on HD, cpu speed and temp, time, day etc)

I can do all this via LCDSmartie, but I don't believe this is possible with DVD Spy. Can you confirm this?

What did you read to learn how to make DVDSpy to work with your Girder? I need links man!

Also, being practical, if I want to display the title of a song played using Winamp on the VDF , does it mean I have to use the remote to start it? Or would it work also if I use keyboard and mouse?

 

[ScottK]

I got the text of my choice to marquee across the top line and moved the State icon to the next line along with a shortened version of state. I also moved the elapsed/duration to line 2 (actually, line 1, given the LCD plugin is zero-based)


The LCD2 plugin is the key. Once properly configured, you can set Girder to display whatever you'd like--I did straight text when I was trying to figure it out initially. Using the LCD2 plugin you can have text "Marquee" (scrolling left when too long for our little dinky VFDs.) Make sure you get and use the latest version of Girder -- they went through a major overhaul (not the interface, unfortunately) and changed how it works internally. Some plugins won't work with the newer software and some won't work with the old -- most have been updated.


If you're looking for System data through Girder, there is a Motherboard Monitor plugin for Girder. Since you're using LCDSmartie, I assume you've interfaced it with MBM already. I messed with LCDSmartie initially but I wanted to keep everything within one program (Girder), if possible. As far as getting the system data, I haven't really gotten to that yet because the system status isn't high on my priority list. I'm still trying to get info from the ATI MMC--top priority.


As for your question about using a remote or keyboard, Girder doesn't care -- it reads the data while Winamp is playing directly from the program itself, regardless of how it is being controlled.


Motherboard Monitor: http://www.majorgeeks.com/getfile.php?file=311&site=2

LCD2 Plugin: http://www.girder.nl/files32/LCD.zip

MBM Plugin: http://www.girder.nl/files32/MBM.zip

 

[ScottK]

P.S. Here's the helpful reply from ATI regarding my questions about the MMC...


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I asked:

-----Original Message-----

From: Scott [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: December 9, 2002 6:19 PM

To: [email protected]

Subject: MMC Plug-in?


Hi.


I'm a programmer who is interested in building a plug-in for the GIRDER

program ( www.girder.nl ) that would extract various data items from your

Multimedia Center for display and/or parsing.


Given the apparent structure of the MMC, I expect that there is an API

available, but I can't find it on the developer site. Perhaps just a

DLL that I could include in the directory.


Any input would be welcome!




Scott Kallen

KCL


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and they answered:


Hello Scott,


There are no hooks or interfaces which is available for the ATI MMC since.


Sorry that we cannot be of further assistance regarding this request.


Thanks.


Best regards,


Vernon Chiang

ATI developer relations
[email protected]

 

[mjcumming]

Gnollo,


I use Girder, MMcM LCD plugin and and a LUA script I wrote for managing multiple screens for display. Search at the gider forum.


Mike

 

[gnollo]

Okay, I finally got it working.

It wasn't that intuitive at all, so I thought that after 2 days spent on this, I might try to help someone else who wishes to start using the DIGN VDF display with DVD SPY+Girder (I also have loads of questions)

Plugins needed (as highlighed above by Scott K, thanks for the tips):

- LCD2

- MBM if you want to display system infos

- DVDSpy

- Logger (actually quite useful because when you choose a DVDspy stringevent you can actually see if that event is being received at all by the dvdspy plugin, avoiding timewaste)


I already have Girder installed, so I installed the DVDSpy first, following every step of the readme file for the installation part. What confused me was the explanation that only focuses on the OSD popup, which does not really need to be activated for the purpose of displaying text on your VDF.

Then I installed the Logger and MBM monitor plugins.

Then I imported DVD2LCD2.gml in my Girder GML, and thought everything would be working... not quite...


MY DUMB GUIDE.

1) Once imported, choose an application to work on: let's take Winamp.

If you click on the "Winamp Display" folder that now appears in your Girder interface, you will see a selection of predefined commands.

a) Let's take "Title" as an example: if you click on the + it will show you the "winamp.title" learned event. You can recreate that by clicking on the top right corner on the Learn button, making sure that "DVDSpy" is selected in the drop down box. I think this means that any time a title is sent by winamp DVDSpy picks it up (and you can see that via the logger plugin: when you play a song, the title will be sent over and over again).

BTW, if you did click on learn, make sure you now click on unlearn to go back to the standard status.

b) Now to get the message to the LCD display you need to click on TITLE, not on the learned command and concentrate on the bottom right side of the Girder interface. In the plugins tab, click on LCD, and then on the Settings button.

Make sure that

- Type is set to String

- Value is set to [pld1]

None of the original files are set this way (don't ask me why) so none of the command work unless you set it that way... took me long enough to work that out.

- ROW: 0 or 1 for our tiny VDF. It controls where the message is going, row 0 (above) or row 1 (below)

- Marquee: if you select it it should scroll... It works on Title, but it won't work on others (I tried for example to get the ZoomPlayer.DVD.Elapsed learned Event to scroll, but it won't for some reason unless I have pressed pause..... why?)

- Column: the VDF has 12 columns, you can specify where on the row your command will appear. It has been the only way so far I managed to make more than one command to interact on one line. I really would like several lines to flash on the same row all the way through for example the playback of the DVD, but if I select Marque on all three, only one is displayed... why?

- Rest of the line: the command will fill the rest of the line available

- Width: useful again to put several commands on the same row. You can specify for example to use only 3letter of what is displayed. That I know if you select 3 you are only using the first three, there is no way to use, for example, the last three... I use this so I can display 6ch for 6channel audio... I really would like to be able to display DD or DTS, but I don't see a way if I use Zoomplayer. DD and DTS are contained in the ZoomPlayer.LCD.DVD.Audio learned event... but there is no way to display it unless it have exclusive on one string..

Also I noticed that if you get a title to flash and want to keep it there, you must avoid having other commands being written on the same row, as the title will be written only once.

Basically DVDSpy picks up events and associates an action, which can be writing text, or other actions (clearing the screen) etc... and it will repeat it as many times as the event is performed. Logger is quite good because you can see how many times certain events happen... the title happens only on disc insertion.

IMHO the title looks pretty bad anyway, I want it only to flash once... as I have all my dvds on profiler, I will have a look at the serial list... to see if it is possible to display the title in a decent manner.


TIPS:

- if the commands you are trying to edit don't work, just wipe the whole directory for that application (I did it with ZoomPlayer Display) and start from scratch... a lot easier to find out what is going wrong.

- I setup my ZP with the following commands

a) Row 1

- I assigned to ZoomPlayer.DVD.State the following custom carachter

0b10000 0b11000 0b11100 0b11110 0b11110 0b11100 0b11000 0b10000

It will display the Play icon... kinda nice, and set it to column 1 and width 1

- after that I assigned ZoomPlayer.DVD.Domain, so I get DVD or Media Displayed on screen width and position

- following I have assigned the Chapter Numbers width and position

b) Row 2

- 6ch with specific width and position

- time elapsed with specific width and position

Another tip is to set Close application to wipe your screen clean, so it doesn't linger.

I do wonder though how do I assign MBM commands without encroching in DVD playback, as I can see from the logger, that those are continually sent even when the DVD is being played.

LCD smartie has a very good function, which allows you to disable any message if a specific applications is being played (Winamp for example).

What I want to achieve is some system messages and text of choice being displayed when I am not

- using Zoomplayer

- using Winamp

Among those system messages I would like to see

- cpu speed and temp

- motherboard temp

- hard disk temp

- memory size and used memory

- time and date

The quest continues.. any feedback and suggestion are welcome.

 

[ScottK]

Quote:

- Marquee: if you select it it should scroll... It works on Title, but it won't work on others (I tried for example to get the ZoomPlayer.DVD.Elapsed learned Event to scroll, but it won't for some reason unless I have pressed pause..... why?)

The Elapsed Time is being refreshed very rapidly and you can watch "elapsed" being executed before the text can marquee. When you pause, elapsed is no longer being executed.

 

[MMcM]

The DVD2LCDn.GML samples have an Idle mode that is entered when the player exits. In Idle mode, the display shows the current time, the current temp, humidity and wind speed (from the net), CPU percentage, case and CPU temps and fan speed. It works by having the state changed events write their payload to variables; a periodic timer displays them if the idle flag is on. Another approach is to disable groups containing event handlers.


There are two schools of thought on managing real estate on a small display. One is to cycle through several screens of information. This is supported by Girder, even better with mjcumming's script mentioned earlier. The other is to assign fixed fields for the major mode of the system. This has less information, but also less flickering. Perhaps it's just a matter of taste, or perhaps it has to do with peripheral vision. Anyway, I prefer the fixed approach myself. The provided samples are derived (using XSLT) from the setup I use.


Some mixing of styles is also possible. The same samples display the title for a few seconds in place of the time when the DVD title or chapter changes. This is also gotten from the net. You may want to look into it for the present, since it's hard to leverage your DVD Profiler data. There is no sign of the promised plugin API and the new XML export format does not include disc serial numbers.

 

[gnollo]

MMcM, the dvd2lcd2.gml did not work at all when loaded on my system.

I had to recreate all ZP and Winamp keys.

As newbie, I really I would appreciate any "how to" explanation on how to create the Idle mode on a brand new gml.. as on my system is not working.

I loaded the DVD2LCD2.gml (my display is a 2x12 only) and nothing was displaying on the LCD when launching ZP or Winamp. I now created displays for ZoomPlayer and Winamp, but when I close them, nothing happens (I set them up so when I close the application DVDspy clears the display).

BTW, DVDData, MBM and Weather have a red circle around them, and a red bar that crosses each folder.. does that mean I am having problems with it?

How do I activate the idle flag?

I quite like the timer setting, quite like LCD Smartie... nice when you are doing something else, or chatting with your friend and the display is busy in a rolling screen saver type of activity.

 

[gnollo]

mjcumming,

I seem to understand that your script does precisely what I am after. When in idle mode, it cycles through a series of screens, with text of your choice or system info and wheather and such.

I would really like to put my hands on it, and also to understand how to configure it so it would work on my HTPC... can you help?

Thanks

 

[gnollo]

bump

^^^^^

 

[mjcumming]

Sure, email me and I'll send you a copy.

[email protected]


Mike

 

[gnollo]

Michael, you should have hotmail....

Thanks for your help

I managed to get MBM to work, I had to create new commands from scratch and use the MBM-Learn button to assign payload1 ([pld1]) to each new command. Now they display CPU utilization throughout the movie though...

I need to understand how to set them to cycle when idle, and switch off when ZP or Winamp starts...

 

[gnollo]

bump... need more help here... pleaze!

 

[MMcM]

I apologize for not getting back to this thread sooner. (No, "bump"ing does not help.)


ATI MMC PVR support requires testing by those with the necessary hardware. Check the Girder forum for more details.


gnollo:

You said that DVD2LCD2.GML did not display anything. Did you see any events with the Logger plugin?


The red circle with slash means that the item is disabled. Tick the enable box to turn it back on. The sample is initially set not to depend on too many plugins (like MBM) and not to use the internet (for those with privacy concerns).


Do you see Xxx.Close events with Logger when the applications quit? Does clearing the display normally work? For instance, does running F5 manually on the command associated with close clear?


Maintaining an idle flag entails some light programming with LUA scripts. Even if you cannot get DVD2LCD to work, you may want to copy and paste portions of it. Here is an outline of the approach.

• When Girder starts up, set Idle to true (1 -- anything non-nil will do).
• When a program exits, clear the display and set Idle to true.
• When a player event occurs, set Idle to false (nil). If it was true beforehand, additionally clear the display. Do this before displaying the event data.
• When an MBM event occurs, store the result in a corresponding variable.
• When Girder starts up, use AlarmTimer to set a command to run every minute.
• When the timer occurs, check Idle. If true, display the saved variables. Display the current time as well, if you like.

 

[gnollo]

Thanks MMCM.


I have started from scratch again. and loaded ONLY the DVD2LCD2.GML in Girder.

I enabled every item that was disabled

I started Winamp, and played a song and the logger reported


Dev: 215 Winamp.Status 12:57:39 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: STOP

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:38 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:12

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:37 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:11

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:36 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:10

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:35 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:09

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:34 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:08

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:33 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:07

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:32 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:06

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:31 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:05

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:30 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:04

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:29 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:03

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:28 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:02

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:27 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:01

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:26 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:01

Dev: 215 Winamp.Title 12:57:25 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: Aaliyah - I Care For You

Dev: 215 Winamp.File 12:57:25 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: G:\\My Music\\limewire\\06-Aaliyah -I Care 4 U.mp3

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:25 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:00

Dev: 215 Winamp.Duration 12:57:25 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 4:35

Dev: 215 Winamp.Status 12:57:25 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: PLAY

Dev: 215 Winamp.Title 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: DJ Mike Llama - Llama Whippin' Intro

Dev: 215 Winamp.File 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: f:\\program files\\winamp\\\\demo.mp3

Dev: 215 Winamp.Elapsed 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 0:00

Dev: 215 Winamp.Duration 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1:

Dev: 215 Winamp.Position 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 1

Dev: 215 Winamp.Length 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: 1

Dev: 215 Winamp.Status 12:57:14 Saturday, December 21, 2002 Pld1: STOP


Nothing was displaying on the LCD, so I went to the settings of

- Title

- Elapsed

and checked for each command what the plugin setting was

I noticed that they were both set to

- variable

- treg1

instead of

- string

- [pld1]

Why?

As soon as I changed the setting, the display started doing its job...

What is treg1, and why was not working on my system?

I assume that it was set like that for a purpose... all I did was loading the file...

 

[MMcM]

There is no use of treg1 in DVD2LCD2.GML. In fact, I don't recall there ever being. There is code for handling older files that might produce that combination from a partially corrupt file.


What versions of Girder and of the plugin do you have?