Sony VGP-XL1B2 Media Changer (also: VGP-XL1B) Support

[pdermody]

Since I dropped a line over at AVS on how to get this monster working outside of MCE (its bigger and louder then I thought it would be) I thought I would drop a line here as well.

1) Download MediaChanger.zip

unzip the file and copy the MediaChanger.exe out of the Debug directory to somewhere in your path

2) Stop and disable the RSM (Removable Storage Manager) service

3) open a cmd prompt and cd into the directory you copied MediaChanger.exe into and run:

MediaChanger drivestatus

If all looks well you should see something like

drive: full, source=0

Now execute MediaChanger without any arguments for usage syntax

usage:
ChangerControl mount <slot number>
mount the disk in slot <slot number> to the drive
ChangerControl unmount [<slot number>]
move the disk in the drive to slot <slot number>. If <slot number> is not
specified then put it back to the slot that it came from.
ChangerControl slotfull [<slot number>]
Is there a disk in slot <slot number>? If <slot number> is not specified
then display the status of all slots
ChangerControl drivestatus
Show the status of the drive. Returns -2 if drive is empty, -1 on error,
source otherwise.
ChangerControl fullslots
List all slots with media
ChangerControl emptyslots
List all slots without media

With this you should be able to say use DVD Profiler and Xlobby to control the unit and pass it the slot # you are looking for for your "offline" media.

I have this working with a XP SP2 machine, no guarantee it will work for you at all, but I thought I would pass along my findings. Also I am not the author of the above linked program, I believe Alex Wetmore is and you can read about his adventures here .

A side note is that the above program does include source code... (would be kinda interesting to see native support for this changer in Xlobby, or at least some kinda integration for error handling vs what I am doing with a wrapper script and Girder OSD messages)

Enjoy

-pd

[wkearney99]

Any chance of updating this software to include an eject function? It'd be handy to have a way to eject a given slot number.

Is there a good way from the command line to tell if a blank disc has been inserted?

Also, I've had inconsistent errors when trying to use this. Sometimes it kicks out an error about not having a changer connected. This when MCE2005 sees it. But then other times it works fine. I've not had a chance to duplicate the error, nor did I write the message down. Just wanted to mention it.

[wesblack]

Ripping Mega Changer, cool project. We will be adding open, close tray events for specific drives on the new versions of xLobby for individual loading and unloading of content.





Wes Black \ Calrad

[wkearney99]

I've found a thread over on AVS forum that discusses the changer. We've collaborated on adding parameters to the exe. It now supports different changers, ejecting, inserting and other features.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... p=10239337

[bhorrell]

Have you incorporated this changer controls into Xlobby? If not is there a tutorial on how to incorporate it into Xlobby, I just want to be able to watch the DVDs that are in the changer though Xlobby.

Ben

[sunnyvali]

Has anyone been successfully able to integrated this media changer with XLobby? I am thinking of getting one these units and it seems like this changer will integrate better than the 400 disc 995V model.

Thanks!