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Disc Changer control in CMC

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Jamie
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Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Jamie » Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:48 pm

Hi Paul,

I was wondering whether you thought about providing Disc Changer control in CMC. Windows Media Center with Mymovies supplies this ability. This has been discussed on the Mymovies forum lately. Here are some links.

https://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=44615

https://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=44802

https://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=44855

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Pauven
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:54 pm

Since no one had asked for it, I really hadn't thought about it.

Are you asking for it?

Anyone else?
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Jamie
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Jamie » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:04 pm

I think it would be a great addition since you added offline support. I think there is a good number of mymovies subscribers that use it and are hanging onto WMC due to that functionality.

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Pauven
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:19 pm

I just read through that first link. Seems like the My Movies installer fails on certain tasks when WMC isn't installed. What a pain.

Conceptually I don't think it would be super hard to integrate with a changer. Basically you just need to tell it to move to a slot, and pass commands like play/pause/stop/ff/rew, etc.

Perhaps I can even leverage those same changer DLL's, and I would just need to know how to call them.

I don't have a changer to test with, and I just checked prices and they are way $$$$.

If anyone here has a changer and wants support, please let me know, we would have to work together to do some testing.

I also don't understand how these changers are hooked up to the TV. I don't think you can send the video signal from the changer over the serial line, and I'm guessing you would hook the changer straight to the TV (or through the Receiver). But you also need the PC + CMC hooked up to the same TV to browser your collection and select a disc to play. Unless I'm missing something, I think you would have two devices, the changer itself and CMC, both wanting to use your TV.

Paul
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Pauven
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:26 pm

I found a picture of the back of that super expensive Sony 400 disc changer. I see the HDMI out, and the RS-232 for the PC to control it. I don't see any kind of video-in for a passthrough. I also don't think you can pass the video signal from the changer through the PC (HDCP would break).

I suppose if you had CMC running on one screen, and the changer hooked up to another screen, then this makes sense. But that begs for the CMC screen to be something like an iPad or tablet, no?

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Jamie
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Jamie » Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:44 pm

Isn't the disk changer the input to the PC which displays to the tv. How does wmc center do it through the mymovies plugin? Does wmc just act as a remote control?

I see a LAN and possible a USB port. Could this be the connection to the PC? I think that the RS232's are used to connect multiple changers. I will can discuss this offline if you want. No need to muck up the forum with some of my thoughts on this matter.

I can post a thread in the mymovies forum to see whether someone is interested in testing their setup with you.

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Pauven
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:33 pm

I think we need someone with one of these to chime in on how they work. My impression is that MMCM just works as a remote control.

If there was a USB port, I don't see why you would need the RS-232 serial port to control it, though I could be wrong.

The fact that it has audio and video out tells me that this is basically just a stand-alone Blu-ray player that hooks directly to a TV/AV Receiver, and just happens to hold 400 discs, and can accept external control via RS-232 from various HT control devices, including PC's.
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Pauven
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:35 pm

Jamie wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 5:44 pm I will can discuss this offline if you want. No need to muck up the forum with some of my thoughts on this matter.
I prefer to chat here, actually. It allows other users the chance to chime in and share their knowledge and vote for features. It also gives the search engines something to do.

Talking about ways to make CMC better is exactly what this forum is for.
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Thu Jun 18, 2020 5:21 pm

Hey Frank @fdavis71,

I was starting to work on changer support, beginning with configuring a changer in My Movies so I can add some fake test discs. I hit a brick wall really quickly.

Apparently (and as you already know), the MM changer support is only installed if you have WMC, which of course I don't (and don't plan to install on Win10). So I'm not able to configure a changer for assigning discs to slots, and I can't do any testing. Arg!!!

Even worse, I read through this thread, and it seems like Binnerup's stance is that changer support is only for pre-Win10 with WMC (and not officially supported on a Win10 WMC hackinstall): https://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&m=214347

I know that Binnerup just recently turned off most of the web access for MM v4, essentially making the product end of life. Your posts seems to suggest that you are continuing with v4 in a fully manual mode, though I'm wondering if you are planning to make the leap to v5 at some point.

For me to do some development, I need sample My Movies xml metadata that include the changer slot assignment data. But since v4 files are encrypted, that means I need them from v5.

I'm also wondering what all this ultimately means for a changer user like yourself - can you ever upgrade to Win10 without having to force hackinstall WMC just to enable the changer support in MMCM? Sure seems like a lot of hoops to jump through.

Paul
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Re: Disc Changer control in CMC

Post by Pauven » Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:55 am

This post is for Andy, who has offered to collect some My Movies v5.x metadata for a Title that has discs in a changer. I'm posting here instead of on the My Movies forum since their 14-year-old forum software thinks my <xml> code snippets are somehow dangerous and won't let me post them there.

Here is how to grab the metadata via the API. You will need to open a couple URL's, as shown below, and you will need to swap a few values in the URL's to match your environment.

First, I'll assume that you are opening these URL's on the same PC that is running the My Movies API (i.e. "localhost"), but you can swap localhost for the PC Name that has the API service running if that is more convenient.

Please note that the My Movies API only runs on a My Movies Desktop install (not Home Server), and runs inside of the "My Movies Tray Application" icon - so whichever PC of yours has the system tray icon is the target for opening these URL's. And make sure that the tray icon is running/visible, or else these steps will fail.

First, run the GetTitleList command, which will bring back a list of your titles:

Code: Select all

http://localhost:51414/?command=GetTitleList&SortBy=ID&FieldList="ID,LocalTitle,"&APIKey=abcde
You'll need to replace the "abcde" value for the APIKey to match the API Key configured in MMCM on your system (MMCM > Tools > Settings > Remote Control Server). While you're in the settings, also make sure that "Allow connections from remote control devices" is enabled.

And replace localhost with the My Movies desktop PC name if you are not on that PC.

You should get data like this:

Code: Select all

<Response status="ok">
<Titles>
<Title id="1" recordChanged="8/8/2017 6:31:36 PM" personalDataChanged="12/31/2019 7:52:59 PM" worksAsTVSeries="false" localTitle="Eulogy"/>
<Title id="2" recordChanged="8/8/2017 6:31:42 PM" personalDataChanged="8/10/2019 10:36:50 PM" worksAsTVSeries="false" localTitle="Like Dandelion Dust"/>
From the Title List, choose an interesting Title (preferably one that has multiple discs in your changers), and use the id # in the next step:

Code: Select all

http://localhost:51414/?command=GetTitleAndPersonalData&ID=83&IncludeMediaInfo=True&ExcludeDiscTitles=False&APIKey=abcde
Again, replace the APIKey value with your API Key, and localhost if needed. Also replace the ID=83 with the ID # you chose from step 1.

TIPS: Sometimes the API doesn't respond in a way that opens the URL successfully in a web browser. If you get an error message, often just try hitting Refresh in your web browser to try loading the page again.

The output you get from this 2nd step is essentially what goes into the mymovies.xml metadata files (formatting and content is slightly different, but very similar).

Please copy all and send to me. You can past here if you want. You can also save it as a file and post it, but to do so here will require a 256 prefix of text data at the top of the file to get around forum safety measures. For example, place this at the top of the metadata file:

Code: Select all

This is a 256+ character text string that is placed in from of XML data to prevent the forum software from treating it as dangerous code.  Do not shorten this text string, if it isn't long enough it won't work.  Here's some extra blah blah blah text just to make it long enough.
<Response status="ok">
  <Title IsBoxSetParent="False" IsBoxSetChild="False">
    <ID>83</ID>
Thanks,
Paul
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter

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