External player support

[Luke 42077]

This seemed to fix my issues with VLC! Thanks so much!

 

Glad to hear it, thanks

[Luke 42077]

So with the direct play fixes, and with episode auto play being disabled for external players, i think the focus issue is really the main thing right? we're good besides that?

[solabc16 379]

So with the direct play fixes, and with episode auto play being disabled for external players, i think the focus issue is really the main thing right? we're good besides that?

 

Morning - and this, http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/31284-external-player-support/?p=323145.

 

With this not working (works in MBT), it's not possible to do anything more involved than launching a single executable.

 

- James

[solabc16 379]

Thx a lot for VLC advices!

 

Interestingly, this morning VLC on the system I was testing successfully on the other day, has now started opening VLC behind the main ET window.

 

PowerDVD15 Cinema is still working correctly as per the video I posted.

 

Curious.

 

- James

Edited April 21, 2016 by solabc16

[jscoys 147]

So with the direct play fixes, and with episode auto play being disabled for external players, i think the focus issue is really the main thing right? we're good besides that?

Absolutely! ET stays on first plan. It is correct on a normal use, with internal player for instance, but in that case it occult my video player (Splash 2.0).

 

I think putting ET in the foreground could affect ET behaviour and maybe brake something. That's why I proposed to minimize/maximize in the use case of external player. In my opinion it will avoid problems in the future with other implementation like video games launcher...

 

We rely on you Luke to find THE solution ;-)

[Heuer 76]

I have two systems here both with MPC-HC as external players and they work perfectly - no loss of focus. After pressing 'stop' there can be a delay before ET returns but if I am impatient pressing the 'exit' key on the remote restores it instantly.

[Luke 42077]

I have two systems here both with MPC-HC as external players and they work perfectly - no loss of focus. After pressing 'stop' there can be a delay before ET returns but if I am impatient pressing the 'exit' key on the remote restores it instantly.

 

What are your command line arguments?

[solabc16 379]

Evening

 

I've just tested MPC-HC (x64) on my system here, with the following configuration.

 

Worked without issue, playing a couple of movies in MKV format.

 

 

- James

[Luke 42077]

Good info, thanks!

[solabc16 379]

I've just tested with madVR (v0.90.17) configured in MPC-HC as well for completeness; which is the configuration dimitrik was running.

 

- James

[solabc16 379]

Interestingly, this morning VLC on the system I was testing successfully on the other day, has now started opening VLC behind the main ET window.

 

PowerDVD15 Cinema is still working correctly as per the video I posted.

 

Curious.

 

- James

 

PowerDVD and MPC-HC so far have worked without issue, but VLC appears to be a little erratic still - worked yesterday, didn't work this morning, worked first attempt this evening.

 

To try and force the situation, I used an old program (WinExplorer) to set/unset the 'topmost' window attribute to see if I can force the behaviour.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching VLC, it always opens in the background.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching PowerDVD, it always opens in the foreground.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching MPC-HC, it always opens in the foreground.

 

It appears that only VLC is senstive to this setting and for some (unknown) reason the topmost attribute is on occasion being removed from the ET window, causing VLC to seemingly work.

 

 

- James

[Della Dog 19]

 

Is there something that allows us to "record" or monitor ET events. I ask because for some of us ET must be firing some event after a short period that cases it to be the main focus. PowerDvd will launch on top, and after a short delay, ET presents itself on top - what possible fired event causes this?

I mention this again, because I think it's important. PowerDvd will launch in the foreground, but, after several seconds (5-10?) ET is brought to the foreground. This leads me to believe that some event is firing after launching the process that triggers Windows to refocus ET. Thoughts?

 

(Funny thing is though, MPC-BE doesn't do this)

Edited April 21, 2016 by Della Dog

[solabc16 379]

I mention this again, because I think it's important. PowerDvd will launch in the foreground, but, after several seconds (5-10?) ET is brought to the foreground. This leads me to believe that some event is firing after launching the process that triggers Windows to refocus ET. Thoughts?

 

(Funny thing is though, MPC-BE doesn't do this)

 

What do you have configured in your external player setting - which PowerDVD executable are you targetting?

 

- James

[solabc16 379]

PowerDVD and MPC-HC so far have worked without issue, but VLC appears to be a little erratic still - worked yesterday, didn't work this morning, worked first attempt this evening.

 

To try and force the situation, I used an old program (WinExplorer) to set/unset the 'topmost' window attribute to see if I can force the behaviour.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching VLC, it always opens in the background.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching PowerDVD, it always opens in the foreground.

 

• With ET forced to 'topmost' prior to launching MPC-HC, it always opens in the foreground.

 

It appears that only VLC is senstive to this setting and for some (unknown) reason the topmost attribute is on occasion being removed from the ET window, causing VLC to seemingly work.

 

 

- James

 

Here's a bit more info on what is going on with VLC (v2.2.1). There are two command line arguements in play...

 

    --video-on-top

    --fullscreen

 

It appears that there is an issue when both of these are specifed, i.e. --video-on-top does not work when --fullscreen is specified.

 

I'm still looking through the VLC forums, I can see that this has been documented as a bug/inconsistency in the past, but should have been fixed.

 

By removing --fullscreen from the configuration in ET, VLC is consistently displayed in the foreground when launched.

 

Unfortunately, not launching in fullscreen means this isn't really a fix, but it does suggest the issue is not with ET.

 

With this configuration PowerDVD (cinema), MPC-HP and VLC all launch in front of the ET window as would be expected.

 

- James

 

- James

[Della Dog 19]

What do you have configured in your external player setting - which PowerDVD executable are you targetting?

 

- James

Thanks James,

 

PowerdDvd 16 now has a TV mode, that once set is called with just the full path to the .exe , I m not at the PC, but I supply the path to the default .exe (PowerDvd16.exe?) with the {path} argument. Stumped.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Della Dog

[Heuer 76]

What are your command line arguments?

Posted them earlier in the thread but here you go:

 

[JMR 4]

I am having same problem as Della Dog powerdvd 16 keeps saying java script error but powerdvd 16 works fine in the old theatre any help would be appreciated

[Della Dog 19]

I am having same problem as Della Dog powerdvd 16 keeps saying java script error but powerdvd 16 works fine in the old theatre any help would be appreciated

Carefully check your command line. Mine was caused by a typo in the path.

[Luke 42077]

I am having same problem as Della Dog powerdvd 16 keeps saying java script error but powerdvd 16 works fine in the old theatre any help would be appreciated

 

Someone else mentioned on the previous page this was happening due to invalid player path entered.

[Pauli 0]

Hello,  I am trying to get TMT6 to work.  It actually opens the player fine but the movie does not start.  I added the /play /fullscreen /close to the path argument but the movies will not start.

 

Any suggestions on what to try now?

 

Thanks

[Luke 42077]

Hello,  I am trying to get TMT6 to work.  It actually opens the player fine but the movie does not start.  I added the /play /fullscreen /close to the path argument but the movies will not start.

 

Any suggestions on what to try now?

 

Thanks

 

Hi, have you checked TMT documentation for the command line arguments that it expects?

[JMR 4]

Thanks for responding i checkexd in the ole theatre and the path is the same and it loads thanks for the hard work

[jscoys 147]

Last very little thing to add and after all will be wonderfull :-) : auto check the movie as "seen" when the external player's launched.

[Luke 42077]

Last very little thing to add and after all will be wonderfull :-) : auto check the movie as "seen" when the external player's launched.

 

It should already be doing that.

[jscoys 147]

Ok don't know for others. For me it doesn't work.