MP navigation using LCD - which plug-in? (1 Viewer)

[Anonymous]

Hi
I'm a little confused - there are two LCD plugins (JoeDaltons and AllenConquest's). I haven't bought any LCD yet, because I don't know which one to buy, also my purchase might be influenced on which LCD plugin I should use.

I know that both plugins can show information on the videos playing ect. But for me that isn't the important part. I want to use MP without having the TV turned on.
1. So basicly I want to navigate through MP using only the LCD - ie choose the correct channel on the net-radio, is that possible?
2. Is it also possible to schedule a TV-recording using EPG by the LCD-display?
3. Which of the two LCD-plugin should I use for this purpose?

And after selecting the correct LCD-plugin, I then need to select a LCD - any suggestion is welcome.

Thanks
Steen

 

[Anonymous]

Hi sbp,

the answers are
1. no
2. no
3. none

 

[T-Square]

Hi sbp,

I've the same target as you and I don't agree 100% with the answers HdWagner gave.
I've a graphic LCD with 256x64 pixel. Because I can show 8 lines of text, I would like to have as much information as possible on the LCD.
The external display plugin (Joe Dalton) is quite flexible and you can show every information which is known by the PropertyManager (f.e. #selecteditem, #currentmodule, etc.).
Unfortunately this is information not enough to have real smart navigation only with the LCD.
At the moment I'm trying to add some information to the PropertyManager which I would like to have on my LCD (f.e. CPU temp and CPU load, when there is nothing else to show) or which I need for navigation with the LCD.
On the hardware-side I would propose to buy a LCD which is supported by LCDHype and can show as many lines of text as possible.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your answer.
Then I will go for at LCD that is compatible with LCDHype.

Just a short question before I buy one of these. I noticed that you can by really cheap LCD screens so your kids can watch DVD's in the rear of your car. These screens are in colour and should be able to show the same as would be produced on your TV. Would it be better to buy one of these instead???

Steen

 

[T-Square]

I think this decision depends on the price of such LCD screens and this topic has nothing to do with any LCD plugin.
Of course you would need a graphic card with two video outputs. One for the LCD and one for your TV (or whatever you use).
If you perhaps would like to have all navigation on the LCD and playing videos etc. on the TV you must read about dual screen support which is discussed somewhere else in this forum.

 

[Anonymous]

1. So basicly I want to navigate through MP using only the LCD - ie choose the correct channel on the net-radio, is that possible?

The external display plugin (Joe Dalton) is quite flexible and you can show every information which is known by the PropertyManager (f.e. #selecteditem, #currentmodule, etc.).
Unfortunately this is information not enough to have real smart navigation only with the LCD.

Any news on this? Last time I checked there was definetely no way to navigate through menus, media lists, radio channels or EPG.

Is this possible now?

 

[vbap]

JoeDalton's plugin does show which menu option you are currently on, so I can navigate from home screen to the TV menu and select a channel. But I haven't tried much else. Besides, I only have a 16x2 VFD, so there's not much point. My TV is 1280 x 768, 32bit colour - I know which one I prefer!!!

 

[AllenConquest]

Since my plugin uses LCDSmartie you can get it to display anything Smartie can display, which includes Fan speed, Temperatures, etc.

You can also display anything in the ProperyManager with my plugin. Look on wiki for more configuration details.

I've been working on navigation, but it's a bit tricky (MediaPortal isn't really designed with this in mind). I would agree that you need a display with more than 2 rows.

I'd be interested to hear some comments as to how you would like to perform the navigation.

Allen