DVDSpy problem with PowerDVD XP 4.0

[MMcM]

It sounds like there are now multiple window that match the spy hook's criteria for an update. Each of them is competing for the same LCD real estate. If you turn on the Logger plug-in, you can see what the data is each time. That may suggest what these other controls are.

I downloaded the trial version of PowerDVD XP and tried it myself. Oddly enough, I cannot find the dialog window with those controls now at all. I do not get any events. Did you have to fool with the PowerDVD setup at all?

I also checked that DirectShow spying, as used by TheaterTek, Zoom Player, and the ATI Player, does not work. Although DirectX is used, it does not just defer to the Microsoft DVD Navigator as those players do.

It may be that the information is only reliably available in the "remote control" window. Since that window is skinnable, getting its state would mean decoding what the bitmap drawing meant. For instance, by remembering a hash of each digit bitmap and getting the position of each field from the skin file. In effect, a skin decompiler for the hook. Of course, that assumes that the window is being updated at all when in full screen mode, which may not be the case if it's only the WM_PAINT handler that knows about the skin. I'll see what I can do about this new approach longer term. In the meantime, if you can suggest how to get the extra events you're seeing, I'm happy to look at it before my trial copy expires.

[Francois]

I've observed the same symptoms under both WinME and XP: the time elapsed events seem corrupted (I initially though that it would be possible to make sense of the information generated, like hour, minutes, seconds, etc, but couldn't build a gvms script to clean it up...)

[Francois]

McMM,

Thanks for looking into PowerDVD XP issues. I only have an OEM version of PDVD, but I remenber applying a patch that was posted on the www.digitalconnection.com download section. Maybe this is the cause of some of our problems (it may impact events...).

Francois

[CH Chang]

I'm having a strange problem with DVDSpy 1.38 and PowerDVD XP 4.0. I'm also using LCD 2.3 and WinAMP3 plugins on Girder 3.2.5.

When I'm playing back a DVD in PowerDVD, the time elapsed seems to only display the seconds on my VFD. And, when it updates the time it looks like it is "rolling through" other numbers on the refresh.

For example, between displaying "55" and "56" seconds, you'll see a brief flash of other numbers. This happens when displaying to my VFD and it also happens if I use an OSD display. I've got a feeling that the time in minutes is being over written by the time in seconds. I can't tell for sure as even on the VFD it refreshes too fast for me to make out the numbers.

However, DVDSpy works perfectly with the WinAMP3 plugin. When I'm playing back something in WinAMP time elapsed and total time (both the mins and secs) displays properly and the refresh acts normally. Track info also displays and scrolls.

Because of this, I suspect there is an issue with the data my version of PowerDVD is sending during the Elapsed event.

I'm running everything on Win2k and the VFD is setup as a 2x16 HD44780 device. And, I'm using a sligthly modified version of the DVD2LCD2.GML.

Does anyone have any idea what maybe going on and how to correct it? Thanks.

[Marsupial]

Hi Francois and McMM

I just bought a DVD player, ans started to interface it with Girder.
I tought I would have to put some plug-in so I can use DVD Spy for it, but I just placed it and my dvd-spy gml was ready to receive.

I reveice the "title" that is "Power DVD" all time.
Elapsed time: I also receive only the seconds, lit it is rolling, as said by francois.

Does power DVD sends hours, then sends minutes, then seconds?

As well I have no status displayal, no total time

I am wiling to help debug this thing, or to change to another DVD prog if anyone can point me where to get a girder 100% compatible one.

I checked that no DVD-spy program is running at the same time as powre-DVD (I tought of this when I saw the rolling effect)

I run winME, girder 3.2, LCD2, PowerDVD XP4.0 (came with dvd-drive)

[Francois]

Marsupial,

McMM is the plug-in expert, and I'm only a user of his great work. I don't know if and when a fix can be found for PowerDVD, but in the meantime you might want to try another DVD program.

On my WinME HTPC, I rely on TheaterTek for DVD playback, as this program has very good picture quality and a nice user interface (it is also very well supported by enthusiasts, as Girder is). A new version of this software is due in a few weeks, with even better Picture Quality.

Enjoy!

[CH Chang]

I turned on Logger, and the only events I'm seeing are PowerDVD.Elapsed events. Here's several lines of the log that occured at the saem point in time, The time elapsed here should be 1m13s.

Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 00
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 13
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 12
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 11
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 10
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 09
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 08
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 07
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 06
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 05
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 04
Dev: 215 PowerDVD.Elapsed 20:40:55 Pld1: 01


Am I right in interpreting the log as the PowerDVD.Elapsed event just spewing out improper/too much data? It appears that the first payload maybe the minutes and the last appears to be the current seconds. It does appear that PowerDVD.Elapsed is "rolling" the seconds as someone mentioned.

As Marsupial suggested, it seems that PowerDVD maybe sending hours, then minutes, then seconds in multiple seperate Elapsed events.

Like everyone else that posted, I also have the OEM ver of PowerDVD and the upgraded audio packs too. Actually have two OEM copies as I bought two DVD drives recently...

BTW, I didn't have to do anything to get the events working.

[Marsupial]

I installed powerDVD 3, the time is now OK. Still I have *only* the time, plus the title being always "powerDVD"

*sigh*

I guess I'll do as you guys suggested and forget using my DVD"s suggested software.

where can I get TheaterTek?

[Francois]

Marusupial,

The only way to get TheaterTek ("TT" pour les intimes, as one would say in my mother tongue) is to buy it from www.theatertek.com (this site will also provide you with some more information (in english...)

Cheers

Francois

[MMcM]

You could also try Zoom Player. It is not a new DVD decoder, just a new front-end. It will use the filters you bought with PowerDVD.

It is supported by donation. You pay what it is worth to you once it has demonstrated that worth.

It works with DVDSpy well. In fact, you can even use it without MediaSpy, which has been troublesome for some; it has its own LCD API. You do not get 100% of the information, but enough for a good display.

[Marsupial]

So you're saying that ZoomPlayer would "replace" the front end of powerDVD, and give me 100% DVDspy compatibility? (status, title, elapsed and total time)

It's not that I don't have confidence in TT, but I already paid for PowerDVD XP4... I would not want to pay some more for the same, so I guess I'll give a try to ZoomPlayer. Where can we get it?

[mattwire]

http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/

[Marsupial]

Thanks!
work great!

Er... is it normal I do not get a title from a DVD?
and is there a way to get ID3 instead of filename, or at least to cut filename not to include the path??

is there a way to have the "status" of zoom player as well?
(like in winamp - Play, Pause, Stop) ?

finally, for the ZoomPlayer expert - I get an error if I load a VCD - cannot set filter or something like that. Anything I can do?

Thanks guys. ZoomPlayer is awesome! VIVA LES FREEWARES!
better, cheaper. :D

[MMcM]

DVDs do not have a title in an easy to access format. Disc.Insert events include a best guess, based on a variety of techniques. This is still in need of a more satisfactory solution.

There is an ID3 plug-in, which you can use to extract information given a filename. There is also a special filename trimming LCD command, if that is your destination. Perhaps an equivalent LUA function can be added at some point.

ZoomPlayer.LCD.State is the player status.

I believe that to view VCDs you need the XCD filter. Do a search for VCD in the ZP forum and you should find some more details. I've never done this myself.

[Marsupial]

Is it possible that Zoomplayer / Girder ends up with stability trouble?

I was watching Resident Evil on DVD yesterday. During the film, Zoomplayer AND girder froze 3 times just playing, plus 3-4 times when I was using the remote (rewind / fastForward / language setting / pause).

Both Girder and ZoomPlayer freezes, I have to kill the apps to be able to do anything. Is there an issue with the hard disk not being used for a while?

I use girder 3.2.3 pre1, Latest zoomplayer. all was stable without playing DVD...

Thanks.

[MMcM]

DVDSpy 1.44 changes how PowerDVD is supported. Information is now extracted from the skinned remote display. The spy notes what images are drawn into the digit positions and reassembles the position / time information. Furthermore, it knows about the state icons, so playing / paused information is now available, too. In sum, you get Status, Elapsed, TitleNo, and Chapter.

This all seems to work with the several versions that I tried. I don't think the skin code has changed in a while.

The extraction is now sensitive to the skin, because it must know the screen positions of the various display components. This comes from the DVDSpy part of the registry. If you use a non-standard skin, you must update the registry. Just copy the positions from the skin definition file (the keys have the same names to make searching easier). I suppose that someone could write a program to parse the skin and update the registry automatically if this is a big deal.

[CH Chang]

The extraction is now sensitive to the skin, because it must know the screen positions of the various display components. This comes from the DVDSpy part of the registry. If you use a non-standard skin, you must update the registry. Just copy the positions from the skin definition file (the keys have the same names to make searching easier). I suppose that someone could write a program to parse the skin and update the registry automatically if this is a big deal.

Thanks for the work on DVDSpy. I was able to get it to work with the default skin just fine. But, now that I'm working with other skins, I believe I'm having difficulty getting some of the values for the registry correct. I cannot get anything displayed on my VFD when DVDSpy is loaded and PowerDVD is running with other skins.

I have tried several skins and couldn't get any of them to work. Sedaka Silver was worked on the most. It can be found on dvdonnet.
http://www.dvdonet.com/skins.jsp?cat=1&item=49

My registry entries for Sedaka Silver settings in the DVDSpy\PowerDVD tree and the .SKN file are attached. Can you help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Thanks for your time.

[CH Chang]

Hm, I'm having problems attaching files, so here's my reg settings

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\girder3\HardPlugins\D VDSpy\PowerDVD]
"Status_SIZE"="44,18"
"TimeDigit_SIZE"="8,14"
"LocationDigit_SIZE"="8,14"
"PlayStatus_POSITION"="273,35"
"Title_H_POSITION"="139,33"
"Title_M_POSITION"="150,33"
"Title_L_POSITION"="161,33"
"Chapter_H_POSITION"="220,343"
"Chapter_M_POSITION"="231,33"
"Chapter_L_POSITION"="242,33"
"Hour_M_POSITION"="345,38"
"Hour_L_POSITION"="356,38"
"Minute_M_POSITION"="372,38"
"Minute_L_POSITION"="383,38"
"Second_M_POSITION"="399,38"
"Second_L_POSITION"="410,38"

[MMcM]

Your settings look right. I think that the problem is that DVDSpy's consistency checking is less forgiving than the real PowerDVD skin interface. Those bitmaps are shorter (by one pixel) and wider (extraneous subimages at the end) than they need to be.

I've tried to make things more forgiving in 1.48. Try that (as soon as it becomes available for download) and let me know whether it helps. If that works and there's another skin that still does not work, I can have a look at it.

[adenhaan]

Hello MMcM,

I'm using Girder 3.2.6b with DVDSpy 1.50, LCD 2.4 and the DVD2LCD.GML.... trying to update a Matrix Orbital VK202.

All I get is the local weather on the display !! (No PowerDVD information at all). If I check with event Logger, the only event from PDVD through DVDSpy - device 215 - is PowerDVD.Close.

This thread leads me to think that this is caused by skin sensitivity ;-)

I updated my powerDVD XP 4.0 to BUILD 1811 using the July 2002 patch from gocyberlink site. I'm using the default "CrystalXP" skin (Other choices are Epiphany XP, Neo XP and Oscar XP)

I can not verify the positional data in the skin's since they are in a dll..... My Registry contains the following data (From the default DVDSpy.reg file that is included with 1.50):


Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\girder3\HardPlugins\DV DSpy\PowerDVD
Class Name&#58; <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time&#58; 12/31/2002 - 2&#58;54 PM
Value 0
Name&#58; Status_SIZE
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 16,15

Value 1
Name&#58; TimeDigit_SIZE
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 8,12

Value 2
Name&#58; LocationDigit_SIZE
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 7,10

Value 3
Name&#58; PlayStatus_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 62,55

Value 4
Name&#58; Title_H_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 91,60

Value 5
Name&#58; Title_M_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 98,60

Value 6
Name&#58; Title_L_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 105,60

Value 7
Name&#58; Chapter_H_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 125,60

Value 8
Name&#58; Chapter_M_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 132,60

Value 9
Name&#58; Chapter_L_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 139,60

Value 10
Name&#58; Hour_M_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 154,58

Value 11
Name&#58; Hour_L_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 162,58

Value 12
Name&#58; Minute_M_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 181,58

Value 13
Name&#58; Minute_L_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 189,58

Value 14
Name&#58; Second_M_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 207,58

Value 15
Name&#58; Second_L_POSITION
Type&#58; REG_SZ
Data&#58; 215,58



Another possible related datapoint is: I've loaded DirectX 9.0 on XP SP1.

Any suggestions on how to proceed with troubleshooting are appreciated.

Thanks, Andre.

[jsw]

I'm seeing the same thing as Andre. Any help would be appreciated.

--Jeff

[MMcM]

Am I correct in understanding that this never worked for you? The problem is not that the stopped working when you upgraded something, correct?

A compiled skin has the .BMP files in Bitmap resources (with the same names) and the .SKN file in a SKIN resource (named SKIN_FILE). It also works to look at the .DLL in a text editor and search for <Skin>.

That said, the default numbers are for the Crystal XP skin from that version (which despite what the download comment says is build 1813).

If you are running Full Screen, make sure that the "Remote Control" window is visible underneath and not in tiny mode (which is effectively a separate skin).

If you compile the debug version of DisplaySpyHook.DLL from the DVDSpy sources, it will use OutputDebugString on bitmap drawing before it attempts to match to the skin file. Use DbgView to log it.

[adenhaan]

Am I correct in understanding that this never worked for you? The problem is not that the stopped working when you upgraded something, correct?
That is correct, it never worked with PowerDvD XP 4.0.


...look at the .DLL in a text editor and search for <Skin>.
I did as you suggested, and opened ui_skin.dll with Wordpad. Found the section that started with


; ------------------------------------------------------------------
;
; PowerDVD 2.0 Skin Definition file
; Date &#58; 2001/01/04
;

;
; Skin Version tag,do not modify this field
;
<SKin>
Version=1.0

;
; Skin Informaion
;
<Information>
Name=Crystal XP
Version=1.0

Compared all the values in there with the values in my registry (see my previous post) and as you suspected.... they match perfectly.



If you are running Full Screen, make sure that the "Remote Control" window is visible underneath and not in tiny mode (which is effectively a separate skin)

I made sure of this... even tried keeping the "remote control window" on top, never using the tine mode. Still same symptoms.


If you compile the debug version of DisplaySpyHook.DLL from the DVDSpy sources, it will use OutputDebugString on bitmap drawing before it attempts to match to the skin file. Use DbgView to log it.
Sorry compiling sources is out of my league. If you can point to a location where I can download a debug version of the DisplaySpyHook dll, I am more than happy to test and assist in troubleshooting.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Andre.[/code]

[sibix]

I experience exactly the same problem. Girder doesn't receive any events from PowerDVD. I tried WinDVD (4) as well, it doesn't work either. I used the Chrystal and the Oscar XP skin (of course I modified the reg-settings and restarted Girder).
I did the testing with a VCD but since DVDspy gets its data from the UI that shouldn't cause that problem.

config: WinXP Pro SP1, Girder 3.2.6b, DVDspy 1.50, PowerDVD 4.0 (don't know what built it is), other plugins disabled for testing

btw: I'm 'unable to register the ShowShifterSpy.dll'. I already tried setting the path variable, used the cmd-file in the ShowShifter dir and copied the file to windows\system32. I don't need it because I don't use ShowShifter but ... .

[jsw]

Here is the dbgview log from a brief run. All of the values look good to me.

--Jeff

[MMcM]

It looks like 1.50 had a bug in the handling of skinnable apps. It was introduced in 1.49 and fixed in 1.51 but hasn't been released yet. I'm running 1.52, which is why I didn't notice it right away on my system. I'll try to get it out this evening (EST). Support for hardware that I do not have is being added, which increases the testing time. If someone would care to test a prerelease to verify my diagnosis, let me know.

[jsw]

It looks like 1.50 had a bug in the handling of skinnable apps. It was introduced in 1.49 and fixed in 1.51 but hasn't been released yet. I'm running 1.52, which is why I didn't notice it right away on my system. I'll try to get it out this evening (EST). Support for hardware that I do not have is being added, which increases the testing time. If someone would care to test a prerelease to verify my diagnosis, let me know.

I'd be happy to test out a prerelease.

--Jeff

[sibix]

I'd like to test the prerelease as well. :)

[adenhaan]

MMcM, Great job and quick turnaround. Just downloaded the freshly posted 1.53 version of DVDSpy and it works like a charm with PowerDVD XP 4.0. :D :D :D

[sibix]

dito