Help the Noob!

by **3rdman** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:54 am

Well, I just decided to download the program and I'm doing my best to be able to configure it, but I'm having a hell of a time doing it.

I have lots of questions, but the main ones are how do you launch TheaterTek? There is nowhere to tell the program where my dvd playing software is located. Why is my setup dialog different than the one posted on the Help page? Is this a bug?

If these are common problems, please forgive me. I've been scouring the forums for a godd 2 hours and haven't found an answer to this. Thanks for looking.

by **oneman** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 12:37 pm

The pics on the help page are from an older version. I'm assuming you
have downloaded one of the newer 40 versions. To get to the setup
screen hit F2... Then select the last tab "File Types"...
There should already be an entry for Theatertek... If not, input the path
to theatertek... Add the file .ext(s) that you want to play...
Add any command line switches, for example /AP 2 / %playlist%
... Click the Add button... On the right side click the assign offline
dvd and find movies:show offline message, click assign start event and
find movies:play movie, and click assign end event and find goto:goto
movies.

That should do it if it is not already entered, I use zoomplayer so maybe
someone else can help a bit more with the command line switches...

by **3rdman** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:08 pm

I must be really stupid but I can't for the life of me figure this progam out! I followed your instruction to the letter (BTW, thanks for responding) and I still see nothing. Presing both the Movies tab as well as the TheaterTek tab does nil...Of course, for all I know nothing is step up properly.

Let me try again and if someone could, how about a step by step guide into making this work from a completely fresh install? I have no movies on my hard drive...all I want it to do is play movies off of my DVD drive ( E: )...thats it!

I really want to get this to work, guys. Xlobby seems to have everything I've been looking for and as an ex-myHTPC user, its qualities are not lost on me. Help me "get it" and I'll never bother you again with stupid request. :wink:

Deal?

by **Hiller** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:32 pm

The first question I will ask is which version did you download? I assume you grabbed the alpha 40.1 from the downloads page but I want to make sure...

Steve

by **3rdman** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:06 pm

Hiller wrote:The first question I will ask is which version did you download? I assume you grabbed the alpha 40.1 from the downloads page but I want to make sure...

Steve

Yes, thats correct. Out of curiosity...Is there a place to download older versions?

by **Hiller** on Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:45 pm

If you read in the Announcements section Steven (the developer) posts new versions for testing out. They tend to have more bugs but also have new features so it's a trade off. There are lots of bugs in the program still as it is in heavy development. When I get home tonight I will try to walk you through a setup if there isn't another reply by then. You could also try Chatting on the IRC channel we use. People in there are very helpful. I haven't used the client through the web here but it should work. Just click Chat at the top.

Steve

by **Hiller** on Thu Apr 01, 2004 3:05 pm

Sorry I didn't get back to you last night, I didn't get home until late. Since I don't have XLobby here at work this is going to be for memory so there will definately be some holes.

Press F2 and enter the setup. Within the setup there is a tab that says either DVD or Video, I can't remember. Here is where you enter the path for TT.

I don't think the default skin has a button to press so that you can just play a DVD that's offline. That can be added but I would have to be at home to explain that one.

If you plan on adding DVD's to the database I would get DVD Profiler and enter a couple of DVD's that you own in that. Export the listing in XML format. On the same page in the XLobby setup where you entered the TT info you can enter where the DVD Profiler XML is. Once you specify this you can go to one of the other tabs(sorry, can't remember the title) and load all DVD's. Since you don't have it as a rip on your hard drive when you click play it should ask you to insert the DVD in to your DVD ROM.

I know this is somewhat disjointed and probably not the step by step you were looking for but since I'm at work it's hard!

Hope it helps a little....

Steve

by **3rdman** on Thu Apr 01, 2004 4:32 pm

Hiller, thanks for responding and I will DEFINETLY be taking your advice on using DVD Profiler. But, sadly, your walkthrough doesn't help me as you are describing the setup used in the previous version of Xlobby. I'm running the lastest version (40.01) and there is no DVD tab nor is there a DVD Manger tab.

The only tab used to setup TheaterTek is the "File Types" tab which contains some predefined apps and their executables (TheaterTek, wmplayer, zoomplayer). Now, I've assumed that by checking "Enabled" for the TheaterTek entry that I should be able to run the program by clicking the Theatertek button on the main menu. Am I wrong in assuming this? Out of curiosity, could someone describe how the buttons in the TheaterTek area behave during movie playback...are they active?...If the movie is in fullscreen, how do you access these buttons?

by **noviceboy** on Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:58 pm

you read a little bit confused. Not a TT or DVD profiler user but ...

The DVD profiler stuff for latest rel. is on the import TAB under the database utilit. So F2, Database TAB, Import TAB, template is movies, type is movies. You can add the DVD profiler stuuf he mentioned there.

The theatertek button in the main menu does not launch TT is goes to a control screen. Pressing these button send Windows message to TT should it be running. The idea is this screen is running on a xlobby clinet somewhere . When you press these buttons on the client screen the button is activated at the server which sends the messages to TT, and so controls it

All the location/command line stuff for TT is defined if the file types section. make sure it is activated.

by **3rdman** on Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:34 pm

noviceboy wrote:you read a little bit confused.

Understatement of the year. :wink:

...and thank you for clearing that up. I wrongly assumed that TheaterTek would play WITHIN Xlobby...it makes much more sense now. I think I "get it" now and since I've finally figured out how to launch the app using Xlobby, it'll be a snap to configure the rest.

Thanks again to both of you for your help...Hopefully there'll be no more stumbling blocks.