Updated iMON (Soundgraph) LCD Driver (1 Viewer)

[cybrmage]

Hi everybody,

First of all I want to say "thank you very much" to all the people that make this plugin to exist, in detail: Ralhpy and Cybrmage you are great!!

Your welcome.

1) if I power off or hibernate the system from Mediaportal's home screen (the X button in the upper right corner) the display powers off correctly (actually almost correctly, see point 2). On the contrary if the hibernation is performed from the Powerscheduler plugin (I activated a time of idle after which the system goes in hibernation) the display freezes and continues to display the last thing it was showing at the moment of the hibernation even if the computer is off. When the computer powers up, the display continues to be freezed. I have to close Mediaportal and start it again to reactivate the display. I think that the good behaviour when closing from the X button is due to the fact that I have MCE standby tool that, when going in hibernation, closes Mediaportal and starts it again at the resume;

It shouldn't matter how the achine goes into hibernate... The ExternalDisplay core monitors Power Events and shuts down the display driver when the machine goes into Sleep/Suspend/Hibernate... but, you never know....
Please start up MediaPortal, put the machine into Hibernate (or whatever method of sleep you prefer) using the method that doesn't work, then wake the machine and shut down MediaPortal... then post the MediaPortal.log so I can see what is happenning...

2) In cases when the display powers off correctly the backlight of the control buttons (play, stop, etc) remains active (see attached photo). I think it should go off together with the display;

3) I configured all the parameters following the install.txt file and the display functions correctly in Mediaportal, anyway the "Test display" button in the advanced window of the configuration program doesn't work.

Yes, that is correct... It was a tool that I used in getting the advanced features of the display working.... and with the advanced features came changes that rendered the "test display" feature inoperable... In time the button will be removed...

4) is it possible to show on the display that there is a recording active? I see that there is a little "Rec" icon but it doesn't light up when I record. Maybe, as an alternative, it would also be nice to have it written in one row of the display or with a large icon or using the led that is near the iMedian button that is unused now (see the photo);

5) is it possible to activate the mute led when the system is in muting?

The "REC" icon does work... if you are using the internal tv recorder... I do not use TVserver, so I haven't tested the driver with it... which is why it may not be working for you... (As I've mentioned before... MediaPortal is not my primary PVR software)...

As for the unused LED or the control panel backlight... I do not have that hardware (I have and Antec VFD and an Antec LCD), so getting them to work will be unlikely unless you can determine the commands used to turn them on and off... (To do this you would have to trace the iMON manager and determine what data it sends with the iMONLCD_SendData() command).

I still have problems with playing audio CD when LCD is active.

If have now tried a clean RC2 install. I uninstalled MP. I deleted mediaportal folder completely to remove remaining config files and made a new install. Then all I did was to install iMonLCDg09-22-2007 and activated external display in config. I started MP and inserted a CD. Nothing happens. Then I navigate to the CD through My music and I find the tracks (Track01.. etc) I try to start a track, but nothing happens. I try to choose "Play CD" from menu but nothing happens. If I disable external display plugin from config CD works perfectly. It autostarts and plays fine. It also finds the correct tracknames from internet.

So is this a imon plug-in problem or something else?
I have also used RC2 and MediaPortal-svn--09-08-2007--00-59-Rev15792 (what I normally run) but it's the same results. I get some really strange log entries when playing CD. See attached file.

It looks like it was the CD/DVD detection method that was causing problems... try the new driver... it should fix the problem. Thanks for posting the logs!!

Hi cybrmage!

After all things work really fine ... I've an additional wish

It's not important but maybe possible !?

Is it possible to ad some System Information while MP shows its Infomation on the display (f.e. CPU usage; CPU temperature ; every 30 sec or something else) ?

cu

btw: I try to built a plugin, which shows those information and displays a message when limit values has been reached ... but with my decent attainments ... it will take some time

Possible.... yes... but that would require changes to the ExternalDisplay core (otherwise the core would overwrite the data before you could read it)... that is probably not going to happen.... (i'm still waiting (more than a week) to hear back from JoeDalton about some other changes of a more immediate nature)




Anyway....

Here is the new version of the driver....

Fixed: CD/DVD detection interfered with actual use of said media....

Please note... When you first start MediaPortal... The display will no longer start immediately.... it may take several seconds for the display to begin displaying data or for the icons to appear.... This is due to the driver waiting for the CD/DVD drives to report their initial status...

 

[cybrmage]

Another new version....

Fixed: exception thrown on shutdown when using VFD hardware
Added: display shutdown message for VFD if backlight control is not used.

 

[Johan]

Another new version....

Fixed: exception thrown on shutdown when using VFD hardware
Added: display shutdown message for VFD if backlight control is not used.

Hehe iMON spree! You are crazy cybrmage! New versions just popping out

Thanks a lot for you excellent work and your fantastic dedication!

I will try your new driver soon to see if I get CD to play!

 

[cybrmage]

As a follow-up to macnam's post.... I looked into the recording icon... just to make sure that it didn't get broken by some of the more recent changes....

Long story short.... I didn't get broken.... BUT the conditions that define a "recording" are different from what I expected....

a) watching Live TV in not considered recording.
b) watching Live TV is not considered "Playing" or "Paused" by g_player

(personally... I think that whenever the TV card is sending video data to the computer... The card is recording... but that's just a paradigm shift to the left)

so this leads to the situation that the Recording icon will only come on when you explicitly select "Record Now"... or what a scheduled recording is actually recording...

When watching LiveTV there is currently no indication that anything is actually happenning....


So... Here is a new version that addresses this issue.

Added: Indication of LiveTV status
Added: Volume bar display when watching LiveTV
Added: Animated Disk icon when watching TV AND "Use Disk Icon For All Media" is selected

Regards,
CybrMage

 

[macnam]

Dear Cybrmage,

Please start up MediaPortal, put the machine into Hibernate (or whatever method of sleep you prefer) using the method that doesn't work, then wake the machine and shut down MediaPortal... then post the MediaPortal.log so I can see what is happenning...

yesterday I tried to get the logs but it seems that my system is no more able to wake up from hibernation (it freezes during boot, maybe because I played a bit with MCE Standby Tool ). So I have to solve that first (not a big problem because I have a ghost image, but I have to wait the weekend).

As for the unused LED or the control panel backlight... I do not have that hardware (I have and Antec VFD and an Antec LCD), so getting them to work will be unlikely unless you can determine the commands used to turn them on and off... (To do this you would have to trace the iMON manager and determine what data it sends with the iMONLCD_SendData() command).

Ok I would like to try to trace iMon Manager but I do not know how... Is it too much if I ask you which procedure I have to follow?

About the recording icon I considered it to function following this logic:

the Recording icon will only come on when you explicitly select "Record Now"... or what a scheduled recording is actually recording...

Anyway it seems that with th TVserver it can't be controlled. Do you think it will be possible in the future?
Thank you for your usual fast response.

Bye

 

[cybrmage]

So I have to solve that first (not a big problem because I have a ghost image, but I have to wait the weekend).

Post the logs when you can... thanks.

Ok I would like to try to trace iMon Manager but I do not know how... Is it too much if I ask you which procedure I have to follow?

Well... you need to have an application that will actually set those LEDs and control the panel backlight... I don't know if the iMON manager does that with the information it displays... If it does, let me know and I willo detail the procedure.... (It is long, involved and will take you a lot of time.. and involves installing some debugging software)

About the recording icon I considered it to function following this logic:

It does... The part that was lacking was the LiveTV indications...

Anyway it seems that with th TVserver it can't be controlled. Do you think it will be possible in the future?

Maybe... If I find the time (and possibly, the inclination) to install and configure the TVServer components.... remeber... MediaPortal is not my primary PVR software

Thank you for your usual fast response.

No problem 8-}

 

[macnam]

Well... you need to have an application that will actually set those LEDs and control the panel backlight... I don't know if the iMON manager does that with the information it displays... If it does, let me know and I willo detail the procedure.... (It is long, involved and will take you a lot of time.. and involves installing some debugging software)

At the beginning I did some tests with iMON Manager and I saw that, when it manages the display, if i activate muting the orange LED lights up. In the same manner if I close iMON manager the display and the buttons' backlight go off. So I think it can be used. No problem for installing software, for the long time I can try this weekend. So if you can send me the procedure I will try.

Thanks.

 

[Kossan]

The lates and the one before give me an error when i enter MP-config/Plugin section.

"MediaPortal.ProcessPlugins.MusicDBReorg.MusicDBReorg.
It's incompatible with the current MediaPortal version and won't be loaded"

I use 0.2.3.0.RC2 SVN from 22/9-07
and TVE3 SVN 22/9

 

[PatrikN]

For me to, don't bother! (I think)

 

[blanquart_c]

The same for me.

Christian