PowerDVD 15 Launcher (fix 3D Playback with Daemon Tools) (1 Viewer)

[KuLuYuk]

Update 01: After reinstalling my HTPC i realized, that there was a problem with the script. Instead of checking the drive passed by mediaportal, always drive D was checked. This is fixed now.

Hello,

I had some problems to launch 3D movies with PowerDVD15 as external player. Good news: I found a way to solve my problem and want to share it with you

1. Cause of Problem / Explanation
skip to point 3 if you just want a quick fix

For some reason, 3D mode is only working for me, when I use the autoplay feature of PowerDVD (e.g. double click on drive letter).
The Syntax to play a movie inside drive D:\ would be "PDVDLP.exe AUTOPLAY BD D:\" (PDVDLP seems to start PowerDVD in Cinema Mode)
However, this workes only, when you play real Bluray discs or mount an image manually with Daemon Tools.
When using the automount feature of MediaPortal, PowerDVD will complain that the disc is missing.
The reason seems to be, that PowerDVD seems to restart it's exe file when going to Autoplay mode. During this restart MediaPortal detects, that the exe is not running and unmounts the disc image imediately.

At least this seemed to be the problem for me, I am open for discussion

2. Fix of Problem / Function of Launcher

I have written a short Autohotkey script to Launch PowerDVD.
The script needs two parameters:
1. exe file + parameters (in my case: "PDVDLP.exe AUTOPLAY BD")
2. Drive letter (e.g. "D:\")

The Launcher starts PowerDVD when the given drive is ready to use. If the drive is not ready after 10 seconds the Launcher stops.
After starting PowerDVD, the Launcher keeps checking, if PowerDVD is still running. If PowerDVD is not running anymore, the Launcher quits with a delay of 2 seconds.
The delay is needed for the short moment when PowerDVD goes to fullscreen / autoplay mode and restarts.

3. Launcher and instruction
Place the Launcher.exe in PowerDVD directory.

In Mediaportal config set the following:
External Player: C:\Path-to-PowerDVD\Launcher.exe
Parameters: "PDVDLP.exe AUTOPLAY BD" "%root%" (including the quotation marks!)

Important: PowerDVD needs to be set to TV mode



I hope this will work for you! You can also modify the Autohotkey Script and recompile it.

 

[joecrow]

Many thanks for your Launcher it works really well. I had exactly the same problem and had almost given up on being able to use PowerDVD15 in Cinema mode. It also works using the "native" and VCD mounters though I found it was only 100% reliable by extending 10 sec, timeout to 12 sec.

Many thanks again for sharing this solution.

Regards
Joe

 

[joecrow]

@KuLuYuk

Sadly, further to my previous post I have found that using your launcher is not a 100% solution for me. I still have the no disk problem. It has certainly made an improvement but some BD3D titles still fail 100%, others occaisionally, while many never fail. All the problem .iso's play OK in Cinema mode outside of MePo when mounted first and from within MePo with image automount, via Moving Pictures using the PowerDVD Classic mode (PowerDVD.exe). I tried extending the 2 sec. timer to 5 sec with no effect any other ideas?

 

[KuLuYuk]

Hi,

I think to track down the problem we need to understand, when Mediaportal "thinks", that the external player is not running anymore and unmounts the disc image. I thought, that MePo is just checking, if the player executable is still running (or in my case, the launcher executable).

When it fails for you (PowerDVD Cinema Mode from MePo), does the Launcher close or is it still active, when you get the "no disk" message?

 

[joecrow]

@KuLuYuk
Hi
I'm not sure what is going on it is really weird. I have tweaked your Launcher some more and also disabled the option in PowerDVD15 to connect to the internet for certification (biggest improvement) with the result that all my images can be played but, and this is a big but, not consistantly. I still have images that will play 100% every time but others will fail many times before playing but once successfully played can be replayed consistantly till something changes for example restating MePe! I have also found that when I have difficulties getting one of the problem images to play it helps to play one of the non-problem images then invariably the problem one will then play. It makes no sense to me, I really would like to use the PowerDVD Cinema mode as the controls are much more remote friendly but this problem with images is a real pain.

When it fails for you (PowerDVD Cinema Mode from MePo), does the Launcher close or is it still active, when you get the "no disk" message?

Not sure how to tell, PowerDVD15 is always in fullscreen mode at that point. Please let me know how to determine that?

 

[Sebastiii]

I will try to debug it but not sure if we can fix that

 

[Sebastiii]

What i can try is to avoid ISO unmount does this help ?

 

[Sebastiii]

A bin to test
Based on 1.13 Final

 

[KuLuYuk]

Yeah yeah... go on and replace my beloved launcher script

Thank you very much, I will test your updated core file!

As an alternative: Attached you find an update launcher, which also detects powerdvd windows in background, maybe this will work for some people.

 

[joecrow]

A bin to test
Based on 1.13 Final

Many thanks for your help with this. I tried your new core in conjunction with the Moving Pictures plugin, path just to the PDVDLP.exe but no luck the problematic images all failed 100% either with PowerDVD15 saying "Unsupported Format" or "Cinema mode cannot play media files" (or words to that effect). Images that worked without problem still worked.

As an alternative: Attached you find an update launcher, which also detects powerdvd windows in background, maybe this will work for some people.

No maybe, THIS WORKS for me . All the problem images I have tried so far (most of them) played first try and continue to do so consistantly, really good work. I should add that I am still using Sebastiii's new core, I will go back to the old one and try it again later.
Many thanks
Joe

Update:- Also works great with the original core.dll.