LCD support (2 Viewers)

[lugiber]

What happened to the lcd support?

I searched the forum for any discussion about supporting small lcd/vfd screens. I found a discussion from april 2004 saying that lcd display was on the way and after that there were no news. So i am just asking for a little update on the progress. Is there anyone working on this? Are lcd/vfd displays still planned to be supported.?
Any reply is of great interest to me as i am currently building a htpc and it would be nice to know if i should put a lcd in it or not.

regards

/Peter

 

[Schrauber]

I think there is nothing done @ the moment.
The best way would be, to put the data for LCD in a shared memory segment or send it out as window messages. This is an easy way to build plugins for the various LCD apps to display the data.
I think native LCD support in MediaPortal would not be the way. Only the data must come out of the app.
I can easily write a plugin for LCDHype. I have done some plugins for this LCD app. One for data from ZoomPlayer. One for data from GotTV. And @ the moment I'm working on a second for GotTV whitch shows more data.

But my skills in C# are not good enough to implement the funktionality in MediaPortal. My plugins are written in C++.
So, if one implements a funktion in MP, so that it sends out the data to be displayed. I can write a plugin for LCDHype.

I think in this way most displays can be supported. And no LCD stuff have to be done in MediaPortal.

I hope, this was understandable. My english is not the best.

 

[lugiber]

I can easily write a plugin for LCDHype. I have done some plugins for this LCD app. One for data from ZoomPlayer. One for data from GotTV. And @ the moment I'm working on a second for GotTV whitch shows more data.

But my skills in C# are not good enough to implement the funktionality in MediaPortal. My plugins are written in C++.
So, if one implements a funktion in MP, so that it sends out the data to be displayed. I can write a plugin for LCDHype.

I think in this way most displays can be supported. And no LCD stuff have to be done in MediaPortal.

This sounds great! Since lcdhype supports displaying info from media player, winamp, GotTV and zoom player there will be no trouble finding use for my lcd. To get menu info etc from media portal would be nice though. But i suppose there are many things that have a higher priority on the todo list. Lcds are not the most common computer accessory.

I hope, this was understandable. My english is not the best.

Sure! There is nothing wrong with your english.

/Peter

 

[MrMario64]

we will 100% sure support lcd's in the future.
but as we r still a young program the list of things to do is still long.
And indeed, you first do stuff most people will have a need for and stuff you like yourself (hey! we sould have fun to! )

Frodo has an MSI mega 180 with built in lcd, it cannot yet be controlled though (stupid non 3rd party support).

Anyway, it will be here, when is unsure.
it could be a dev walks in here and thinks, hey! this is what I want. Lets ,make it!.

enjoy the working features

 

[dman_lfc]

This would be a nice to have... in a future release.
I have a Matrix Obital which would benefit from this.

DMAN.

 

[tomtom21000]

2 days ago i sent an pm in meedio forums to HDWagner, who made a lcd plugin for meedio to ask if he wants to adapt his plugin for open source project media portal (Of course with link to mp homepage) with the help of Frodo&Co.
the plugin is in c# and he is kind of stuck with meedio, because most of the promised "datastreams" are just not there, so he has nothing to display.
So I tried my luck, but so far no response

tomtom21000

Here is what is supported:

Hi all,
I uploaded mee2LCD into Maid. It sends media infos to your LCD.

Please use this thread to make suggestions and report bugs.

Notes:
- This version supports Girder. You can find it here: www.promixis.com and here: www.girder.nl
- This version supports jaLCDs 3.2. You can find it here: www.jalcds.de
- This version supports LCDC. You can find it here: www.lcdc.cc
- This version supports Smartie 5.2. You can find it here: http://backupteam.gamepoint.net/smartie
- This version supports LCDHype. You can find it here: www.lcdhype.de.vu
- This version supports LCDInfo. You can find it here: www.lcdinfo.com
Only one (1) of these softwares may use its Mee2LCD-plugin at a time!

thread is here: http://www.meedio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16681

 

[Schrauber]

An info for all, who uses ZoomPlayer with MediaPortal:
As I said before, I have already written a plugin for LCDHype to display information from ZoomPlayer. So, if you use ZoomPlayer with MediaPortal, this information can already be displayed. The plugin can be found on www.lcdhype.de.vu in the plugins-section.
But note, only information from ZoomPlayer can be displayed. Such as runtime, DVD-title, Track-number, actual filename and so on. There is no info from MP.

 

[tomtom21000]

I finally got an answer from Harald Wagner via ICQ. So, I let you know.

Here is what I wrote him initially:

German:

Hallo Hd Wagner,

ich bin seit einiger Zeit von myhtpc über meedio zu Media Portal als HTPC Frontend umgeschwenkt.
Es ist windows basiert, open source und in c# programmiert.

Das Ganze ist schon sehr weit gediehen und entwickelt sich extrem dynamisch.

Es gibt dort einige Leute, die auch gerne eine LCD Ausgabe hätten.
Vielleicht hast Du Lust Dir das mal anzuschauen und mit Frodo oder MrMario64, den Hauptentwicklern Kontakt aufzunehmen um Dein Plug-in vielleicht für Media Portal einzubauen.
Bei Meedio sitzt Du ja mit den Data-Streams wohl etwas fest.
Bei Media Portal gibt es zwar keine Datastreams, glaube icht, aber so wie ich die Entwickler kenne, kann das schnell eingerichtet werden.

Bestünde da grundsätzlich Interesse?

Ach ja der link:

Viele Grüße

tomtom21000

My English translation:

I have switched some time ago from myhtpc via meedio to MediaPortal as a HTPC frontend. It is windows based, open source and written in C#.

The whole thing has got fairly far and is developping extremely dynamic.

There are a couple of people interested in a LCD output. Maybe you like to have a look at the program and contact Frodo or MrMario64, the head developers, about a possible integration of your plugin into MediaPortal.
As far as I know, you are kind of stuck with the datastreams in meedio.
I believe there are no datastreams in MediaPortal yet, but as I know the developers, this could be established on short notice.
Are you basically interested?
...

Now the answer of Harald Wagner:
German:

servus!
mee2lcd kann (theoretisch) jetzt schon für alle möglichen drittanwendungen missbraucht werden. die datei m2l.dll bedient alle pollenden lcd softwares, also alle außer jalcds und girder. es gibt eine funktion namens _SetVariable(byte[] key, byte[]value), mit der die daten in M2l hinein gefüttert wird. Diese Datei im Anwendungsverzeichnis UND im lcd-software-plugin-verzeichnis sollte für eine lcd-ausgabe reichen.
ansonsten bin ich mit mediaportal nicht allzu glücklich, da es nur ca. 50% von dem ist, was meine "ideale" htpc-software sein sollte. Ja, Meedio ist auch nicht sehr viel besser...

My English translation:

Hi!
mee2lcd can already (theoretically) be (mis)used for all kinds of third party progs. The file m2l.dll serves all polling softwares, that is all except jalcds and girder. There is a function called _SetVariable(byte[] key, byte[]value), which feeds the dat into m2l. This file in the application folder AND the lcd-software-plugin-folder should be enough for a lcd-output.
Anyway, I am not too happy with mediaportal, because it covers only about 50% of what my "ideal" htpc software should be capable of. Yes, Meedio isn´t much better...

Not sure if the "missbraucht" translates with the same touch as in German with misused. It is meant with a smiley. So I understand, that he has no problem if the dll is used but seems not to be eager to make an active contribution or lay the source open.

I understand only half of the answer (technically). Don´t know if it is difficult to develop such a thing from scratch( or expand Schraubers lcdhype plugin), or if it is appropriate to work with a non os dll.
He has integrated a lot of lcd sw and now integrates an output screen designer and works hard on this. So maybe someone who is interested might try his plugin. plugins in meedio come in a mpp format so I guess to get hold of the dll you need to install a trial version of meedio.

I made the contact, but I am out of this now, because this is way above my technical understanding.

tomtom21000

 

[tomtom21000]

short update:

the meedio .mpp files are only renamed .zip files
Harald Wagner intends to rewrite the code completely the coming 4 weeks. He might integrate jaLCD and Girder in this time
He probably lays the source open by then.
It is O.K. with him to use the .dll

tomtom21000

 

[Anonymous]

Hi! Time to give my own 2 cents...
First the reasons why I'm not very happy with MediaPortal (my last review is many months ago, so I might be wrong):
- Menu items can't be renamed / created to support custom actions / deleted
- Menu items can't be user defined groups
- Menu items can't be batches of actions
:arrow: This makes it impossible to create a personal user interface
- There's no way a plugin can communicate with Media Portal
:arrow: This makes it impossible to seamlessly integrate 3rd party apps
- Player plugins create their very own user interface with own menus, own look and own keyboard requirements
:arrow: This makes it impossible to set up a user interface that can be used with a reasonable amount of front plate buttons or remote control buttons, without mouse and without keyboard

So Media Portal is a nice media player, but a not so nice HTPC. Anybody here who uses MP as a stand alone, below the TV set, no keyboard, no mouse HTPC?
You don't really need LCD support for a media player: Your PC monitor is turned on anyway...

But anyway. If you want me to code a plugin supporting all major LCD softwares, I can do that.

First I need some definitions:
- What is the LCD plugin (not the LCD itself) for? Only the menus and file lists? The menus, file lists and the player plugin's user interface? The menus, file lists, player plugins' user interface and the media data?
- If media data is to be shown via the plugin, where does this data come from?
- If media data is not to be shown via the plugin, what should be displayed while a player plays? Nothing? The menu? How does the plugin know about the playing player?
- When to show what? (Menus when they have focus, menus only if they were used in the last x seconds)?
- How will this data be sent to the LCD plugin?
- What if a plugin doesn't send anything?
- What if an external player doesn't send anything?
- What if an external player sends something?

Setting up an LCD software is a mess. If you want the LCD plugin and the LCD software to be easy to set up, MP and its plugins had to send everything one would want to see on the LCD. If you don't care, the menus and file lists would probably be enough.