What the heck is LDJ

[QuickCarl]

What the heck is LDJ (LUA DVD Jukebox)

I just read something in another thread about DVD profiler and LDJ, what exactly is it and what does it do?

I have a Sony 200 disk DVD Jukebox, would this program and Net Remote help control it? Would it give me database driven, visual interface for controling it? What pieces and parts do I need?

This is exciting! -Carl

[z.mash]

Hey Carl,

I think that is exactly what you will be able to do. Check out this thread:

http://www.netremote.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22

Basically, you load all of your DVDs into DVD Profiler, export an XML file, and load Gavin's LUA scripts, and you are done! Hopefully we will be able to enter data into a specific field in DVD Profiler that he can use to populate a "Play" button. However, that is down the road!

-Zak

[brockgr]

Carl,

Zak has explained pretty much of all of it

http://www.brock-family.org/luadvdjb/sample1.gif

I have been designing it around playing ripped DVD's, but, since it should be simple, I would like to add DVD changer support. Could you explain to me how you control your Sony changer. I assume each DVD in the changer has some kind of identifier - do you store this in DVD profiler? If so what field? Is there a standard among changer users?

Also are you a ZoomPlayer user? I haven't thought about support for other players yet.

Cheers,

Gavin

[QuickCarl]

Gavin... the interface looks cool!

Ok, to answer your questions.... I control the jukebox with my pronto. I have macros set up that do the choosing of the DVD (all of the button presses) based upon the numbered slot.

I am using a program called SuperNudeList that designs the interface panels in the CCF, puts all of the actions in the macro list. It imports from CSV file where I keep my disks. Very cool program, uses XML.

The CSV file has fields for genre, slot number, title, short title, sort by title

I am using MC9.... I don't know what ZoomPlayer is. Also, I have never used DVD Profiler... what is it and where do I get it?

Carl

[brockgr]

Carl,

I hadn't seen SuperNudeList before - it's an interesting interface design.

When you say you have Macros, is this in Girder or some other form of automation? All teh LDJ stuff revolves arround a Girder back end. This doesn't preclude Girder talking to some other software though.

It sounds to me that there must be some conversion tools between DVD Profiler (http://www.dvdprofiler.com/dvdpro/) and SuperNudeList - they seem ver closely related. If not I'm sure I could handle the SuperNudeList files too - LUA is a great parser. Which is the standard format? You mention both CSV and XML. XML is my prefered format since I already have a parser for DVD Profiler.

Zoomplayer (http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml) is not so important to all this - it's just what I use. It's a DVD playback front-end that allows you tweak everything. Give it a try, most people (apart from TheatreTek disciples) seem to like it when they get used to it.

If you use something else, what I will probably do is generate a girder event "LDJ_play_changer_dvd" and set the variable "pld1" (payload 1) to be the DVD ID number. Then leave it up to the user how to get that to start the playback.

Anyway, if SuperNudeList support is something that would worth doing, let me see the file format and I'll work from there. Last thing I want is people hand coding lists of DVDs, or millions of DOS batch files.

Cheers, Gavin

[brockgr]

Carl,

Duh - just realised you're coming from a Pronto background (I never could afford one :cry:) So you mean Pronto IR code combinations.

If you are using NetRemote, you will need some form of IR transmitter (UIRT or similar) to generate the codes for the changer - unless it has a Serial/USB interface. You would need to train Girder to have the relavent IR codes. I could then trigger them.

Are there any good Sony Changer GML files out there?

Gavin

[QuickCarl]

Gavin, send me an email and I will send you all my files (CSV, CCF, SNL, and startup tips written by SNLs current author)

The macro is merely strung together IR commands that are in a Pronto action list for each DVDs assigned button. They consist of a:

"before DVD number event" "
"the DVD slot number button presses"
"after DVD number event"

These are standard for ALL changers.... just that each changer has differing events for the first and last parts...

I can see that entire macro just being a pass trough IR, really don't need girder for anything other than the image feedback....

[brockgr]

Carl,

Actually pass-thru would be hard. All the LDJ logic is currently on the Girder side. It uses a simple CCF and populates the text and images. It's not currently possible to populate a button "action" on the NetRemote.

I would probably end up generating the following Girder Events:

LDJ_dvd_chnager_preamble
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_1
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_2
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_3
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_4
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_5
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_6
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_7
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_8
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_9
LDJ_dvd_changer_digit_0
LDJ_dvd_chnager_postamble

Then all that would be needed would be to poplulate the actions for these 12 events. Tedious the first time, but pretty simple once running.

Let's see how the evening goes I may be able to do soemthing like this for DVD Profiler users.

Cheers,

Gavin

[aducrejr]

Can someone post a simple step-by-step to get me started or point me in the right direction. Please keep it basic because info come out so fast I am lost again :(

a.) How should I rip the dvd to HD? I have done it before using the guides at doom9.org I want to know what exact guide you guys are using.

b.) How does DvdPofile fit in? is the main function to create the collection.xml does.

c.) How does Zoomplayer play the selected file? is this done through some type a batch setup.

I know I might be answering some of my own questions just can't seem to get a handle on this yet.

Thanks

[brohebus]

Can someone post a simple step-by-step to get me started or point me in the right direction. Please keep it basic because info come out so fast I am lost again :(

a.) How should I rip the dvd to HD? I have done it before using the guides at doom9.org I want to know what exact guide you guys are using.

b.) How does DvdPofile fit in? is the main function to create the collection.xml does.

c.) How does Zoomplayer play the selected file? is this done through some type a batch setup.

a. Use DVD Decryptor to rip to HDD. You can use the IFO method which gives you a bunch of files, or the ISO method which gives you an exact duplicate of the DVD that you can mount as a virtual disc (using Daemon Tools or a similar proggie).

b. DVD profiler is an online database that provided information about DVDs that can be used forcataloging purposes.

c. You can use a lua script to launch a selected DVD image.

-Dave

[aducrejr]

Dave,

Thanks you for your help. I will try to start from the begining tonight when I get home. I am trying to print out all the guides and guidence I can get a this point.

[brockgr]

FYI, the guide I used was the "Ripping 101" thread over at AVS forums. This describes how to do it with SmartRipper.

DVD Profiler get's a lot of information about the DVD's - Genre, Cover, etc - but it has no automatic way of building the collection - you have to enter it by hand.

The other option is to just point LDJ at your ripped DVD directories and let it get the titles from the file names. It will also use related image files for the cover (see the README). Only if you want to use Genres, do you need to add a little data file for each rip.

Cheers, Gavin