Media Player control

I have searched the various threads w.r.t. the problem I have to control Media Player from a Colour Touch Screen, but have not found anything on this particular issue.
Installation of the plugin in Media Player 10 and 11 works fine.
On the Touch Screen I use a tiny project, which consists of a standard theme with just a button for the Media Player control.
Firstly I find that Media Player needs to be running on the computer, which is no problem.
Launching the control on the Touch Screen works perfectly, and navigation within the Media Control works fine too, including starting a song. Now for the trouble:
Once I skip to the next song, Media Player freezes. That is, there is no more reaction to any functions from the Colour Touch. The first thing noted in that state is that the highlight bar over the relevant song does not advance to the next song.
If I then exit the Media Control on the Touch Screen, and re-start the control on the Touch Screen, I can do the same as before (until a skip).

If I launch the Control interface as before, but then operate from the computer, all works well, and updates correctly on the Touch Screen.

I have changed the setup in the Project properties in Piced to define the proxy server using the Router IP, or either of the two computers. No change.
When I select ?find servers automatically? in the General tab under Media I can use either of the computers to gain control over Media Player within the above limitations. When I change this to one of the computer IPs then, quite correctly, only that specific computer?s Media Player is available to the Colour Touch.

One of the computers is a PC running XP Professional SP3. Static IP.
The other is an Acer Laptop running XP Professional SP3. Also static IP.
I use Piced 4.7.1
The physical setup consists of a Colour Touch V2, tried with a relay on the c-bus side, and without anything on c-bus.
The computers and the Colour Touch is on a small network, connected via a router.

I can?t think of anything else which appears relevant to this.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem, and more importantly, is there a known cause and solution to this?

At the same time, how is control over an ipod? Are there similar issues. Are there specific docking stations which work better than others?

Thank you for any help in advance.

 

Try rolling back to Piced 4.6.1. My media player connection works fine with this version. I had no end of (other) problems with 4.7.1 so didnt try media player.

 

Me Too

I have a client with exactly the same problems. This is a relatively new occurrence over the last months, although the software has always been buggy. I suspect that the current problem has more to do with a Windows Media Player update generated incompatibility than with a specific problem with the original media player plug-in.

I lodged an error last Thursday 26th with support; I am still waiting for acknowledgement and a job reference. I am not expecting any great action though because it is a free-bee and not one of their main core products.

My biggest issue is when Media Player throws an exception; a message box appears that you have to click to continue. This occurs on the host PC not the Touch Screen. In my case, the PC is running Windows Home Server so there is no screen or keyboard. The client has to log-on via VNC to access the desktop to clear the error. With the new bugs it is almost unusable.

I would rate nearly all C-Bus products as (10 out of 10). This particular product would only rate a (2 out of 10) Nice idea but is failing in the field. For the amount of time that I have spent debugging and attempting to get this product install working, I would not do another.

In my personal opinion, I feel this new bug could be the products end of life. I would like to see a concerted effort to solve the issues and have it brought up to scrath or have it removed from the downloads as it will be wasting a lot of time for installers who have to debug it, clients who have to tolerate its quirks and it tarnishes an otherwise fabulous product range.

In the meantime, if I find a solution / work-around, I will post here.

p.s. (This is NOT the Wiser Plug-in, just to be completely clear)

p.p.s. Just a quick thought. I seem to recall that this might have been someones private project, rather than a CIS driven product. If so or otherwise if the product cannot be supported, could it be made open source for those of us who could move it forwards?

Colin
www.1touch.co.nz

 

Hello Gentlemen,

I have just noticed that windows media player 12 has been released. The wmp plugin that has been released with PICED may or may not work with wmp 12. Are any of these problems a result of using this version?

I haven't has any reports of problems like this occurring since this was released in PICED 4.0 over 2 years ago.
Colin Smith, can you provide any details of the problems you've experienced and I'll be happy to take a look into them.

With regard to the errors appearing in wmp. These are annoying and they are typically caused by missing files or missing codecs. These errors are raised by wmp and cannot be cleared by the plugin. The best I can do is tell the user via the 'Media Director' that wmp has raised an error, wmp stops responding until these are cleared. The only way to not have these occur is to remove all dead links and remove tracks from wmp that don't have a corresponding codec.

This uses the same front end (Media Director) and a different back end. This only works with the iPort dock. The issues mentioned in this thread sound like they occur on the wmp side and not the 'Media Director' side so my conclusion is that this won't have the same problems.

Alternatively you could wait for this http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=28669&postcount=81

Regards,

Matty

 

Thank you to all for your replies!
Well, it seems that it will be much better not to try and go the route of WMP. Just thought it nice to have effectively access to sound and video, and select it on a Touch Screen. But as things stand it would appear to require moving in with the cleint.
Matty, thanks for the link, that looks great! It also sounds as though it will not be too long before the product will be ready, but I won't ask...

 

Thank You Matty
<Insert>
Something just occurred to me as I got to the end of my thread. I have been back to see my client multiple times this last month. I noticed that on some of the visits that the plug-in was de-activated (Not Ticked) in Media Player, I assumed that the client had been playing and had deselected the plug-in while trying to overcome the problem. If Media Player itself were deselecting the plug-in on a random basis this would explain why it seems to hang. This is something you might want to check Thomas!
<\Insert>

My client has been reasonably happy to tolerate the error message issue caused by the Media Player, the client runs a software company and understands the issue. You are correct in stating that it is caused by missing files and codec's. Using a play list is the nicest way to use the interface. The play-list that media player produces; adds music files (The problem ones) back into its list even after the file was deleted. It is as if it is referring to cache rather than re-reading the folder.

This however is becoming more of an issue as the children who are now preteens are getting in to music and downloading from the net for use on other media devices. Media player is throwing this error on a more regular basis, so not only do you have to click to restore Media Player, there is a good chance that you will have to edit the play-list and possibly more than once. The kiddy-winkles are generating their own play-lists, so the client is forced into file maintenece on a more regular basis. I am just lucky that he is IT savvy.

The fault occurs exactly as Thomas has stated. The touch screen interface appears to be waiting for a response and freezes the screen. You end up pressing any button and then you cannot tell what worked, as the screen will change and then freeze again. The close application button does work. Restarting the application brings back the all functions, but only for a short while and then it hickups again.

The application at the end of the day is a simple music player and while it makes the project simple to wrap it around Media Player the issues it is presenting to the client are problematic. It would be a nicer product if it used a standalone media player such as the one from (Visual Studio, whatever flavor). This would remove it from the Windows Media Player versions issue and also from the possible problems caused by service pack updates. You could test the music file before playing and discard it if incompatible.

I have just re-sent a support request to keep it official.

Colin Smith
1 Touch Automation

 

If the problem is simply one of Codecs, could I suggest that you download the "K-Lite Mega Codec Pack" (Just google it, no real need for a hyperlink).
It contains 95% of the most used codecs around (In my opinion anyway).

I've been using different versions of it for years on my own, and many other computers, and except for some VERY obscure or malware infested files/filetypes, I've never had any issues at all (DRM infested files obviously don't apply).

Perhaps installing that on your client's WMP machine would solve the problem?
Then WMP will be able to play almost all common (and several obscure) files out there, audio and video.

HTH

 

Recent Windows Update

Power pack 3 for WHS. (Link) found here
Automatic download if updates are enabled. Available November 24th. Update Windows Media on WHS to interface better with Windows 7.

Colin Smith

 

Hi Colin, W.r.t.

I have noticed that if WMP hangs seriously, or crashes, it disables all plug-ins. There is also a message to that effect on the PC running WMP. I have seen this a couple of times during my efforts to test it.

Then, as far as missing codecs are concerned, I think that it is not an issue here, as I use only very few music files to test, and they all play fine on WMP, with no hassles when playing them on the PC in WMP.

But once again, thank you all for your inputs!

I'd like to add this, for what it's worth: If you check this thread http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=28790&postcount=14, Dave mentions that the ipod server has a similar problem as was discussed there in connection with a missing Registry entry for the Diagnostic Tool.
Could something like that be related to the WMP issue (same interface as ipod control)?

 

Thank you Ashleigh,

I have to ask a little more about this. The comment in the other thread was, as far as I understood, that it also influences the ipod plug-in. That would be a networked product, not serial. If so, is it still not relevant?
Thing is, I do not want to go from one to the next, and find a different version of the same problem.
Did I mis-read something there?

 

Thank you Nick and Ashleigh,
It almost sounds like a nice Bedtime story
I have, at the time, checked the link with info on the new MRA, and it sounds great.
The reason why I pained myself with WMP is that I can serve video files with it as well. This rounds off a big hole in our offering. But, alas, it doesn't work.

So, with bated breath I ask if Ripple can also 'see' video files, specifically DVD files? I am hoping for a 'Yes', as all we need is the sound from that to go to the MRA, even via a separate audio connection to MRA, and the video can be fed via a video network throughout the house.
All done, no more wishes open.....

Can you say if that will be possible?