Playing Movies with TheaterTek

[jrunde]

How can I get a command button to start a movie using TheaterTek IP from a Movie Detail overlay. The Movie Detail overlay opens from a CAB using a DVD Profiler Repository using file based movies.

I've been able to get the movies to play directly from the CAB using the following commands:

System::StartRemApp(MediaServer, C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\TheaterTek DVD.exe, %(MediaRTV:LocInfo), C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\)
Devices::WaitDriverReady(TheaterTek, 10000)
Devices::FieldWrite(TheaterTek.PlayMedia, %(MediaRTV:ColCookie)

I have tried setting MediaRTV:LocInfo and MediaRTV:ColCookies as Global Variables in the CAB when the movie is selected:

GlobalVars::SetVariable(GVar:MovieLocation, %(MediaRTV:LocInfo))
GlobalVars::SetVariable(GVar:SelectedMovie, %(MediaRTV:ColCookie))

and using the following commands in the Movie Detail overlay:

System::StartRemApp(MediaServer, C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\TheaterTek DVD.exe, %(GVar:MovieLocation), C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\)
Devices::WaitDriverReady(TheaterTek, 10000)
Devices::FieldWrite(TheaterTek.PlayMedia, %(GVar:SelectedMovie))

but TheaterTek never opens. I just get a please wait clock that comes up for 10 seconds and an error saying command failed while waiting for the driver to ready. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Jay

[klindy]

Jay,

This is what I use to trigger TT in my command button

Code:

System::ExecApp(C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\TheaterTek DVD.exe\NOSPLASH, , Show)
      Devices::WaitDriverReady(TheaterTek1, 5000)
      Devices::FieldWrite(TheaterTek1.PlayMedia, %(GVar:SelectedVideo))

[IVB]

to make things simpler, let's check this out insteps. First, delete the 2nd & 3rd command, just get your overlay to start up TT - seems like that's an issue. Do the logs say anything? If not, I *think* you can startup TT in any directory (ie, not %(GVar;Movielocation)) and then send it the playmedia command.

If you can get TT to physically start, we can move on to the next 2.

EDIT: Looks like Klindy has the same idea - don't use the movielocation in your startup line.

BTW, using an ExecApp will start it locally, so you can't use a touchpanel or laptop to start dvds on your HTPC.

[klindy]

BTW, using an ExecApp will start it locally, so you can't use a touchpanel or laptop to start dvds on your HTPC.

That's correct, I am starting it locally with that interface.

[Dean Roddey]

C:\Program Files\TheaterTek\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\TheaterTek DVD.exe

You can't use 'naked' slashes like that. They are used for escapement. You should use double slashes if you want to end up with a single slash, like:

C:\\Program Files\\TheaterTek\\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\\TheaterTek DVD.exe

See if that helps. Always bring up the action trace window and you can see the expanded out versions of the parameters as the action runs. If this is the problem, you would see that the above path got exanded to something like:

Crogram FilesTheaterTekTheaterTek DVD 2.0TheaterTek DVD.exe

Or some such thing.

[jrunde]

Removing %(GVar:MovieLocation) from the parameters in the first command allowed TheaterTek to start up. I then added the next 2 commands in, and everything starts and the movie begins to play. Thanks for the help IVB.

Jay

[Dean Roddey]

Ok, I guess you are getting away with it because none of the characters that come after the \ are special characters that get escaped. But you should still use the double slashes just in case. Else, it could be broken if at some point in the future we made one of those characters be such an escaped special character.

[jrunde]

Well, I cannot get TheaterTek to start again using CQC on the Master Server. If I start TheaterTek manually, It will play the movie selected in the IV.

In the admin interface, it shows Wait for Connect. As soon as I open TheaterTek manually, it shows Connected to Device. I am using the following command to try to run TheaterTek

System::StartRemApp(10.0.0.50, C:\\Program Files\\TheaterTek\\TheaterTek DVD 2.0\\TheaterTek DVD.exe, ,C:\\Program Files\\TheaterTek\\TheaterTek DVD 2.0)

I did try using the ExecApp command, and that works to start TheaterTek locally on the MS. However, I need to use StartRemApp as I run the IV on my laptop instead of the MS.

Jay

[Bauer83]

Devices::FieldWrite(TheaTekApp.Power, True)
Devices::WaitDriverReady(TheaterTek, 10000)
Devices::FieldWrite(TheaterTek.PlayMedia, %(GVarVDset))

This is what I am using. I use the generic app control driver to control turning on and off Theatertek on my master server. I am able to run these commands from any interface, whether it be on my touch screen, laptop, or PDA.

[Dean Roddey]

The StartRemApp also still needs the App Control Server running there on the target machine, since it works through that. You don't need any driver, even the generic one, but the App Control Server needs to be there to field the remote start command.

And the first parameter is the binding name, not an IP address. So unless you actually set the binding name to the IP address, then what you have isn't going to work.