Comand line options in Xlobby

[guile]

I am (still) trying to operate my 200 Dics DVD Changer through Xlobby. I am using an app called "Powerexplorer" which has the ability to create a shortcut. Would I be able to set up this "shortcut" within Xlobby to automatically call the disc/slot number and being playing with Theatertek?

Here is an example of a shortcut.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe
e:\POWERA~1\Debug\POWERE~1.DLL,MoveMedium d200003006 1


Thanks.

[sharp_1]

I have something on my help pages that might help you with this.

Sony VGP-XL1B Media Changer Support

[guile]

I actually read your tut on this. Can you please "dumb it down" for the thinking impaired? I do have dvd profiler but how would that work with the changer and Xlobby? I'm REALLY stuck here and would appreciate any help I can get. I just wish there was native support in Xlobby for the Sony Changer (or any other changer for that matter).

[sharp_1]

Sorry, your kinda on your own on this one since I do not have one of these changers. I know it can be done though...take a look at these posts on the AVS forum

You need to find out what the command/arguments are and run the mediachanger.exe with the arguments thru xLobby. Sounds technical but possible.

Good luck!!!

[sunnyvali]

It can be done with Xlobby. I had it working with Sony 200 DVD changer, DVD Profiler and Theatertek. Unfortunately, I switched HD on my laptop and may not have the information available. I'll try to find the old HD and post how I did it. I just switched to MCE 2005 and MyMovies and trying to figure that stuff out.

I actually read your tut on this. Can you please "dumb it down" for the thinking impaired? I do have dvd profiler but how would that work with the changer and Xlobby? I'm REALLY stuck here and would appreciate any help I can get. I just wish there was native support in Xlobby for the Sony Changer (or any other changer for that matter).

[guile]

It can be done with Xlobby. I had it working with Sony 200 DVD changer, DVD Profiler and Theatertek. Unfortunately, I switched HD on my laptop and may not have the information available. I'll try to find the old HD and post how I did it. I just switched to MCE 2005 and MyMovies and trying to figure that stuff out.

I actually read your tut on this. Can you please "dumb it down" for the thinking impaired? I do have dvd profiler but how would that work with the changer and Xlobby? I'm REALLY stuck here and would appreciate any help I can get. I just wish there was native support in Xlobby for the Sony Changer (or any other changer for that matter).

Man I would be THRILLED if you could find this info!! I'm really surprised more people aren't running these changers with Xlobby. Can't wait for the info. Thanks again!!

[sunnyvali]

Unfortunately, I could not recover anything from my old hard disk. However, I tried to put together something from memory which may help you. Most of my time was spent on Events section of the skin and you can see how things were setup (picture below). The second "Execute File" is to run TheaterTek. I have also included what's inside the play.bat file. I followed the steps outlined on this forum to import my DVD collection from DVDProfiler.

Once you have the play.bat file working the way you want it, make sure to add "hidden" in the "Window Type" to not see the black DOS/CMD box. You will need to have the mediachanger.exe in your path or define the path/working directory accordingly. I suggest keeping play.bat and mediachanger in the same folder.


Play.bat - -->
mediachanger unmount
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >nul
rem echo %1
mediachanger mount %1

BTW - I was using the last free version of Xlobby. I hope this helps. Let us know how things turn out.

[sharp_1]

Let me know if this works and I'll post it to my help site http://xlobby.help.googlepages.com/sony ... gp-xl1b%29

Thanks!!!

[sunnyvali]

BTW - I just tested this on my new laptop and it works!

[guile]

Unfortunately, I could not recover anything from my old hard disk. However, I tried to put together something from memory which may help you. Most of my time was spent on Events section of the skin and you can see how things were setup (picture below). The second "Execute File" is to run TheaterTek. I have also included what's inside the play.bat file. I followed the steps outlined on this forum to import my DVD collection from DVDProfiler.

Once you have the play.bat file working the way you want it, make sure to add "hidden" in the "Window Type" to not see the black DOS/CMD box. You will need to have the mediachanger.exe in your path or define the path/working directory accordingly. I suggest keeping play.bat and mediachanger in the same folder.


Play.bat - -->
mediachanger unmount
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >nul
rem echo %1
mediachanger mount %1

BTW - I was using the last free version of Xlobby. I hope this helps. Let us know how things turn out.

This is terrific and I thank you. I will check this out later today. Question. The "ping 1.1.1.1. -n 1 -w 10000 >nul", is that because you are using a different changer then the xbl? Also, I would think you would have to create a batch file for every single movie. How would you do that in "Events"?

[sunnyvali]

I am using the XLB changer. The ping command is to wait before the next command is executed in the batch file. The changer takes time to unmount the DVD and I wanted to give it few seconds before the mount command is executed. Perhaps, it is not needed...

There is no need for multiple batch files. The collectionnumber from Events is passed on as a parameter to the batch file and hence the %1.

For testing, you can use the following play.bat file. This has a pause command to let you see what is happening within the bat file.

Play.bat - -->
mediachanger unmount
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >nul
echo %1
mediachanger mount %1
pause

[guile]

I am using the XLB changer. The ping command is to wait before the next command is executed in the batch file. The changer takes time to unmount the DVD and I wanted to give it few seconds before the mount command is executed. Perhaps, it is not needed...

There is no need for multiple batch files. The collectionnumber from Events is passed on as a parameter to the batch file and hence the %1.

For testing, you can use the following play.bat file. This has a pause command to let you see what is happening within the bat file.

Play.bat - -->
mediachanger unmount
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >nul
echo %1
mediachanger mount %1
pause

Again, I want to thank you for the info. I am, however, a bit confused. If/when I would add this as an "event", when I would launch each individual movie, how would Xlobby know which slot it would reside in? I am not useing dvd profiler. Also, when applying this event, wouldn't this now happen to every movie you launch when hitting play? I use Xlobby to play mostly high def (ie blu ray, HD-dvd, etc) and use Theatertek to play a lot of it. I guess a quick and dirty option would be to create bat files for each individual movie. Not a prospect I would be too crazy about.

[sharp_1]

One other thing you could try is adding a field in your database for the slot number and use that in your %argument%.

[guile]

One other thing you could try is adding a field in your database for the slot number and use that in your %argument%.

Sorry, consider me a newbie here. Where exactly would I enter %arguments%?

[sharp_1]

Create your bat file using notepad and saving it as "play.bat" exactly as below to your xlobby directory.

mediachanger unmount
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >nul
echo %1
mediachanger mount %1
pause

Then press F2 while in xLobby and goto your movies database. Select a movie that you have in the changer and add a field named "slot". Then instead of %movies>collectionnumber% you would use %movies>slot% in your argument field as sunnyvali illustrated previously.

If you need screenshots let me know...it will just take me until tonight to do it.