How can I play 3D Blu-ray in 2D? (2 Viewers)

[luci5r]

I've been struggling with this issue for some time now and I'm hoping someone can chime in and give me some advice.

I'm running Media Portal 1.5, and use MovingPictures as my movie plugin; along with ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6 as the external player for Blu-rays & HDDVDs. I have a 3D Projector (Epson 5010), and a large library of full 3D Blu-ray ISO's.

I'm able to play all my movies, including 3D Blu-rays absolutely fine & in full spectacular 3D. What I'm not able to do is play a 3D Blu-ray in 2D. Sometimes we don't want to strain our eyes and watch the movie in 3D, just want to watch it in plain old 2D format; this is not possible to do natively in TotalMedia.

Some discs have a 2D & 3D version; and the main menu will ask you "Play 2D" or "Play 3D", for example my "Amazing Spider-Man" blu-ray ISO or the "Resident Evil: Afterlife". They will play fine in 2D if you select 2D. However, most of the other 3D Blu-rays, like "Thor" or "Captain America" do not contain such an option - they only play in 3D. ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6, to the best of my knowledge, will not play these discs in 2D.

I was wondering if there's a workaround; perhaps a different software other then ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6, or some plugin or something. I can't be the only one to have this issue.

Just wanting advice.

Thanks!

 

[luci5r]

I'm pretty much a dumbass for having struggled with this issue all this time. Within an hour of posting this, I figured this out.

In ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6, whether you're using the main application or the nifty MCE Plugin as your external player, there's a "3D" button which is interchangeable between "3D" and "2D". If you click it, it switches between the 2, thus playing a 3D Blu-ray in 2D if need be.

Very, very simple.

 

[badboyxx]

How can I map this function with a key on my remote?

 

[luci5r]

How can I map this function with a key on my remote?

Excellent Question!! I would love to know the answer to this myself.

I'm looking this up as we speak but I don't have a solution so far. I use the Remote Control that I got with my Hauppauge Colossus Card, and so far I've been able to map just about everything on it's remote using the "irremote.ini" file. Haven't figured this one out yet though.

 

[luci5r]

How can I map this function with a key on my remote?

I figured it out!!

You do have to understand though that I have the Hauppauge Colossus HD Recorder card installed in my HTPC, which comes with a Remote Control that I use with MediaPortal & ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6. The Remote Control comes with a file called "irremote.ini" which can be edited & different keys can be mapped for any software.

I simply had to add a key to "Ctrl-D" ... this brings up the Pop-Up Sub Control Panel for the TotalMedia Theatre's MCE Plugin (Which is what I use for as my external player). In this Sub Control Panel, you just use the Left/Right/Up/Down arrow keys on your remote control to move to the "3D" tab and you have the option to click on "2D" or "3D" in this tab. That's it!! I just tested it and it worked! Was able to switch my 3D Blu-ray to 2D using the Remote Control.

For anyone using the Hauppauge Colossus Remote Control w/ MediaPortal & TotalMedia Theatre, here's my configuration section in the "irremote.ini":

;TMT6 Custom instructions
[ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre for Windows Media Center]
NAVLEFT={LEFT}
NAVRIGHT={RIGHT}
NAVUP={UP}
NAVDOWN={DOWN}
OK={enter}
BACK={esc}
PLAY={space}
PAUSE={space}
STOP=o
REWIND=r
FASTFWD=f
SKIPREV={pgup}
SKIPFWD={pgdn}
RADIO={ctrl}u
GUIDE={ctrl}t
REC={ctrl}m
VIDEOS={ctrl}d
MUSIC={backspace}
GRNPOWER={alt}{f4}

That's it!

 

[badboyxx]

I'm not using the MCE one as the external player because with that the player starts and doesn't assume the remote buttons. First I have to do a right mouse click.
Pressing Ctrl+d within the other file (standard one) doesn't pop up the 3D menue. If I could solve the right mouse button problem but I tried everything and found no solution.

 

[luci5r]

I'm not using the MCE one as the external player because with that the player starts and doesn't assume the remote buttons. First I have to do a right mouse click.
Pressing Ctrl+d within the other file (standard one) doesn't pop up the 3D menue. If I could solve the right mouse button problem but I tried everything and found no solution.

I can help you to get the MCE to work; it took me a while but I figured what I was doing wrong. It's better. Less resources & better remote control.

Keyboard shortcuts for MCE & Main application are different. I'm a tad tied up right now but when I get a chance I'll write you in detail to try & help you out.

 

[badboyxx]

Yeah that would be great.

 

[luci5r]

I'm not using the MCE one as the external player because with that the player starts and doesn't assume the remote buttons. First I have to do a right mouse click.
Pressing Ctrl+d within the other file (standard one) doesn't pop up the 3D menue. If I could solve the right mouse button problem but I tried everything and found no solution.

In terms of the remote control not responding with the MCE player, I'm not quite sure why that would be - that sounds weird. Here's my setup in MediaPortal Configuration for the remote control:

As I informed you before, I have the remote control that came with the Hauppauge Colossus DVR Card that I have installed in my HTPC. With these above settings, the remote is able to control both main application & MCE plugin of TotalMedia Theatre, and is also able to go back & forth between MediaPortal & TotalMedia Theatre.

If this doesn't work - one other thing I can suggest is mapping a key on your remote to a mouse "right+click", if possible. I know it's possible with my remote.

In terms of Shortcuts & Remote Control options; after a lot of trouble I finally realized that the shortcuts were different for the main Application & MCE Plugin; and also I had to define the 2 differently in my "irremote.ini".

For the main application, I had to define the section as:
[TotalMedia Theatre 6]

However, this did not work for the MCE plugin, for the MCE plugin I had to define the section as:
[ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6 for Windows Media Center]

This is because the "irremote.ini" looks at the TITLE in the WINDOW of the application for control; and the title for main application & MCE plugin were different.

So in my "irremote.ini", the sections are defined as follows:

[TotalMedia Theatre 6]
NAVLEFT={LEFT}
NAVRIGHT={RIGHT}
NAVUP={UP}
NAVDOWN={DOWN}
OK={enter}
BACK={esc}
PLAY={space}
PAUSE={space}
STOP=o
REWIND=r
FASTFWD=f
SKIPREV={pgup}
SKIPFWD={pgdn}
RADIO={ctrl}u
GUIDE={ctrl}t
REC={ctrl}m
VIDEOS={ctrl}d
MUSIC={backspace}
GRNPOWER={alt}{f4}

[ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 6 for Windows Media Center]
NAVLEFT={LEFT}
NAVRIGHT={RIGHT}
NAVUP={UP}
NAVDOWN={DOWN}
OK={enter}
BACK={esc}
PLAY={space}
PAUSE={space}
STOP=o
REWIND=r
FASTFWD=f
SKIPREV={pgup}
SKIPFWD={pgdn}
RADIO={ctrl}u
GUIDE={ctrl}t
REC={ctrl}m
VIDEOS={ctrl}d
MUSIC={backspace}
GRNPOWER={alt}{f4}

As for shortcuts, these are the shortcuts for the MAIN Application; just sit down & launch the MCE plugin and use a keyboard to press each of these --- you will find the differences & you can note them down to use accordingly:

Esc In full screen mode, it will resume playing in normal window mode.
Space Pause/Play
O Stop
Ctrl + Enter Resume
F Play forward
R Play backward
Page Up Previous Chapter
Page Down Next Chapter
Ctrl + "X" Exit
E Eject/Insert disc
Ctrl + "S" Open Settings dialog
Q Mute On/Off
Shift + Up Increase volume
Shift + Down Decrease volume
Ctrl + "F" Show/Hide Sub Control Panel
Z Full screen/Normal window
F1 Help
K Add bookmark
P Capture picture
Ctrl + "R" A-B repeat
Ctrl + "T" Title Menu
Ctrl + "U" Popup Menu
G Change Angle
L Change (Primary) Audio Stream
S Change Subtitle
Ctrl + "M" Disc Menu
0-9 Go to chapter N
F9 Red key
F10 Green key
F11 Yellow key
F12 Blue key
Enter Select
Ctrl+"Z" Enable/Disable Keyboard Shortcuts
Ctrl+"D" Right Click Menu
Up Up
Down Down
Left Left
Right Right

 

[badboyxx]

Sorry I saw that I wrote something wrong. I ment left mouse click and not right. That is the only problem I have. When TotalMedia starts, the window is not active. First I have to activate the screen e. g. by left mouse click. After that I can use the remote. I already mapped the keys with my remote. As I saw that the other exe file had no problem with starting, since that I'm using this one.