MCE compatible display plugin...

[JoeDalton]

Hi,

I'm working on a plugin to make MediaPortal use any MCE compatible display. If your display works in MCE it should, than it should also work with this plugin.

The plugin is far from finished yet, but the display should at least show some information when playing music or video...

The current version is confirmed to run on a HP z545 Digital Entertainment Center, but I would like to have it tested on other MCE machines also.

If you want to test this plugin, you can download it here.
:arrow: MediaPortal 0.2.0.0 RC2 users should download this one :!:

Instructions:
- Unzip it in your MP folder ( :!: respect the path names :!: ),
- Enable it in the config program
- Run MP

:arrow: Be aware that this is a very first version, so don't expect everything to work. This version has extensive logging enabled, so it might use a lot of CPU and the MP.log file can grow very large if you run it for a very long time.

Looking forward for your feedback...

Joe

[MrMario64]

Hi,
for the record (as you allready know it)

It also runs on the Spectra Barebone from FIC.
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/advanf...a/default.aspx

During TV it does not show anything, but last night I kept TV running as a test and the next morning it said CH1 in the display.

Though it was not set to channel one or anything remotely looking like ch1 (I use DVB-S) I was glad to see something

Great work on this plugin

[Chimen]

Hi.
It works on my VFD in my DIGN HV5 (HD44780 compatible). With usb connection!
Great work.
Becasue my display has a usb connection I haven't been able to use the External Display plugin.
But I only get information when I play music, not from myTV or myMovies.
Would be great If it could display the info as the External Display plugin does.
Thanks alot.

[mfo]

Hello Joe,

Happy to see that you are back and improving your external display plugins!
I've got questions:
- to use this new pluggin do you need a Media Center edition OS installed or only a Media Center approved display & driver ?
- will there be differences in functionalities between this new plugin and the old one ?

thanks

[JoeDalton]

Hi mfo,

I don't think it really needs MCE. If you are able to install your display driver (for MCE) on a regular windows version it should work, because my plugin emulates MCE.

For the interested: it searches in the registry for COM components implementing the IMediaStatusSink interface, and starts communicating with them.

As for the functionalities: there is a huge difference between this plugin and the other one. Because I have to emulate MCE I am limited to the MCE functionality. Another problem I face is that some information MCE sends to the display (like TV channel number) is not availble in MediaPortal. (That is why the channel number on MrMario64's display was fixed at 1)

So I'm afraid this will be a long process to get everything to work...

Joe

[Rebo.71]

Hi Joe,

I can tell you that I now have a (partially) working display on my DiGN HV7SQ.

Thanks, I'll keep following this topic.

btw, During TV shows it does show the net i'm viewing. Only the title of the show i'm watching gets cut off.

[JoeDalton]

Rebo.71 did you test your display with MCE?
What does it display then when you are watching TV?

Joe

[Rebo.71]

When i'm watching TV it shows the show thats currently on, on line 1.
on line 2 it shows "play 1 0:06:16" where the time shows the time the show has been on according to the TVguide. e.g.

When watching Ned2, it shows

BNN University
Play 1 0:27:33

I'm currently using Mediaportal 0.2Beta with Maschine's webcontrol plugin v3.2. I've got Girder installed and the driver software from DiGN
(http://www.origenae.com/downloads/so...VFD_driver.zip )

When the show's name is longer than my display, it just cuts it off.

In my previous post I said it showed the net I was viewing, but that probably was because "Net5: " was part of te shows name.

-edit-
Just recorded a show, and during the recording the display starts to blink...

When playing the recorded show, it display the correct (show)name and time.

[Chimen]

JoeDalton, any progress with this plugin?

[JoeDalton]

Not at this moment, no.
My development PC is down at this moment. The motherboard is broken and is sent back to the manufacturer, so I'm out of business for a few weeks :cry:

Joe