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Question about PowerDVD external player


GhostRider

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GhostRider

Hi

 

Updated to version 2.9.6 of desktop Emby Theater today. Since then I have been unable to get my external player working.

 

Tested from the command line and PowerDVD starst and plays file - so PowerDVD is OK.

 

post-2099-0-57953400-1516465499_thumb.jpg

 

I have checked the Emby Theater settings many times, they look OK to me:

 

post-2099-0-14449700-1516465762_thumb.jpg

 

post-2099-0-16383800-1516465815_thumb.jpg

 

However, from Emby Theater PowerDVD always starts up at main menu and never plays the file. It looks like the {path} setting is not being passed to PowerDVD.

 

Any suggestions please? Does 2.9.6 work with the new Emby server 3.2.70?

Edited by GhostRider
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GhostRider

Thanks Doofus for testing.

 

Unfortunately using PDVDLP.exe does not help. I still get the default PowerDVD screen startup.

 

I think it is a permissions problem. I installed on a general user account. This is the one that fails as I described. If I go to the AppData\Roaming\Emby-Theater\system folder right click on  Emby.Theater.exe and select run as Administrator it plays the movie!

 

Obvisouly I cannot be entering the admin password each time, any suggestions what is going wrong on my installation?

Edited by GhostRider
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GhostRider

Afraid not that would mean the whole family would get admin access to the HTPC, keen to keep the viewing account as a general user.

 

I just tried reinstalling without that additional driver for remote control, alas that did not fix the issue. Something odd going on as it all used to work with the previous version 2.8.3

Edited by GhostRider
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GhostRider

Found the solution, it was a Windows config issue and not an Emby issue.

 

Somehow my homegroup setting had got messed up. I had to create a new homegroup and then get the other PCs to join this new homegroup. Once that was setup Emby theater was able to pass the path OK to PowerDVD and Theater works from a general user account.

 

My best guess is that the Windows 10 Creators Fall update trashed the home group when it forced its way onto my server PC just before Xmas, not sure how the old 2.8.5 on the HTPC kept access but updating to 2.9.6 seemed to have finished  the connection.

Edited by GhostRider
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GhostRider

I've had an issue with needing to use a homegroup, in the past. Glad you figured it out

 

Thanks for helping with this Doofus, sorry to have troubled you with the testing.

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  • 3 months later...
dannygp87

Found the solution, it was a Windows config issue and not an Emby issue.

 

Somehow my homegroup setting had got messed up. I had to create a new homegroup and then get the other PCs to join this new homegroup. Once that was setup Emby theater was able to pass the path OK to PowerDVD and Theater works from a general user account.

 

My best guess is that the Windows 10 Creators Fall update trashed the home group when it forced its way onto my server PC just before Xmas, not sure how the old 2.8.5 on the HTPC kept access but updating to 2.9.6 seemed to have finished  the connection.

 

Hi, how did you exactly fixed it?

I have the same problem as you. From the command line, powerdvd works nicely but from Emby it just opens but doesn't start playing.

 

My player path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD18\PDVDLP.exe and then the command: {path}

 

Even if try opening both emby and powerdvd as administrator, it still doesn't work.

I don't use homegroup at all, as my server is not on the same network, so I don't really understand how that could be a problem. Also, homegroup has been deleted from Windows 10: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17145/windows-homegroup-from-start-to-finish

 

Thanks!

Edited by dannygp87
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GhostRider

Hi

 

Using an external player it is playing the movie file directly so you need to be able to access the file on the server. I use Homegroup for this as it is so easy to setup file sharing. Shame on Microsoft for removing this in the next version of Windows 10, fortunately I am still on version 1709 of Windows 10.

 

I find using PowerDVD.exe is better than PDVDLP.exe (launch policy). launch policy calls PowerDVD.exe anyway and having this extra step makes returning to EMby difficult. When using PowerDVD.exe then you close PowerDVD Emby will pop up as it monitors the exe file in the command line arguments.

 

For your problem the diffcult part will be accessing the file on the server. Are you able to mount the remote file system on your server from File Explorer on the client PC?

Edited by GhostRider
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dannygp87

Hi

 

Using an external player it is playing the movie file directly so you need to be able to access the file on the server. I use Homegroup for this as it is so easy to setup file sharing. Shame on Microsoft for removing this in the next version of Windows 10, fortunately I am still on version 1709 of Windows 10.

 

I find using PowerDVD.exe is better than PDVDLP.exe (launch policy). launch policy calls PowerDVD.exe anyway and having this extra step makes returning to EMby difficult. When using PowerDVD.exe then you close PowerDVD Emby will pop up as it monitors the exe file in the command line arguments.

 

For your problem the diffcult part will be accessing the file on the server. Are you able to mount the remote file system on your server from File Explorer on the client PC?

Thanks for the quick answer!

I have also tried with PowerDVD.exe but it doesn't start playing, although as you say, Emby minimizes when I click play and then comes back when I close PowrrDVD, so I will use it.

 

I can't mount the server on the client PC, but the files are always Direct Played without problems because I have a good connection and peering between the server and the client PC. In fact, if I use MPC-HC as the external player in Emby, it works flawlessly.

 

So, the problem seems really to be with PowerDVD interpreting/accesing the filepath.

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Guest asrequested

Heads up for you guys. Window 10 1803 is removing homegroup. I just upgraded all three machines, and my network went away :) It's reverting back to workgroup, which works just fine. But the upgrade disabled two services that were needed. These two:

 

5aef8000b7ead_Snapshot_54.jpg

 

So if you lose connectivity, check them.

Edited by Doofus
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