Do you use DVDSpy under Windows XP?

[MMcM]

If you use DVDSpy under Windows XP, could you let me know a few things?

• What DVD player do you use?
• Do you see freezes or other weird behavior, especially when changing domains (from menu to main title or back)?
• Do you target an OSD or an LCD/VFD?

Some people are having problems and XP might be a common theme. I was pretty sure that someone was using DVDSpy successfully under XP or that I would have heard by now if no one was. But it will help to quickly confirm this one way or another.

Thanks.

[PGPfan@home]

Hi MMcM,

I use XP (both retail and SP1) with DVDSpy and have no problems.
DVD player is TheaterTek, and I feed a MatrixOrbital VFD.

Hope this helps.

-PGPfan@home

[Francois]

Funny you should ask...

I was about to post about some weird behavior with TT and XP, which I traced to DVDSpy: with DVDSpy enabled, TT only plays for a few seconds (sound and pictures) and then stops. It is sometimes possible to move to the next chapter, but the same behavior occurs again (This happens with menus, FBI warnings, as well as the feature movie).

After disabling DVDSpy, TT behaves normally.

This problem happens with both the latest Radeon video drivers (Catalyst 2.3) and the older 'good' drivers (6025). I have installed XP Pro SP1, but there are other people who experience the same issue with a barebone XP install (look at the TT forum for additional postings)

I am working on converting my VFD script (custom creation to control a SEE/BGMicro VFD via USB/Serial converter and proprietary protocol) to LUA, and would certainly like if DVDSpy could be fixed under XP

While I'm at it, it seems that the events that PowerDVD XP generates are not working properly on both WinME and XP... is this a known issue? (the payload is always 2 character long, and seems very strange).

I do hope that you'll be able to find an easy fix, as I do rely quite a lot on DVDSpy for my HTPC automation !

Thanks

Francois

Edit: HW acceleration or not, S/PDIF enabled or not, the issue remains...

[Mastiff]

I tried it this summer with ZoomPlayer, and I remember that the DVDs got stuck on the FBI warning and similar menus. But when it got to the movie, it kept playing until the movie was over. This was with XP.

[MMcM]

I took my old HTPC machine, which is in the process of becoming a file server, and put it back together enough to install XP Pro. I added nothing else other than TheaterTek + patch 83. Unfortunately, it cannot play at all. It freezes right away after loading the disc. No difference if I add XP SP1.

This machine has an nVidia GeForce 2 GTS video card, for which XP installed a driver. Most likely that is the issue, although I see there is a post in the TT forum suggesting it doesn't work with a newer driver, either.

I guess I will try again tomorrow with the real HTPC, after ghosting it. It has a Radeon 7500 and Audiophile 2496, and so should be just like the machines that are having problems.

[siwilson]

Mike,

I have XP Pro running on my HTPC with Radeon LE, 6037 drivers, TheaterTek and a Matrix Orbital VFD. No problems here running TheaterTek patch 80.

Girder 3.2.4 and DVDSpy 1.3.2 ad VFD 1.12

[rickd]

I am running 1.38.0.55 of spy plugin and have problems so perhaps it the version......

just tried 1.4 too no go

Rick

[MMcM]

I ghosted up the working Win2K configuration on the HTPC and installed XP. Specifically, I installed the following:

• Windows XP Pro, with defaults for everything.
• Motherboard device drivers: INF, IAA, LAN, Audio (for system noises, not DVD audio).
• Radeon driver 6025 (no uninstall, just ran the installer EXE, said no to Multimedia Drivers, whatever those are).
• Delta driver 27 "final".
• TheaterTek from CD.
• TT patch 83.

Then I checked that DVD playback worked. It did. Video was of course washed out, but I didn't bother fooling with that.

Then I installed a minimum Girder:

• Girder 3.2.5.
• DVDSpy 1.40.
• Logger 1.0.4 ("for 3.2").
• Self-register MediaSpy.DLL and nothing else.
• Enable DVDSpy and Logger.
• Enable input devices.

Then I played a few discs again. Everything was still fine. The logger window filled up with domain change events from MENU to DVD, title and chapter change events, and lots of elapsed events.

Then I filled things out:

• USB RS-232 serial hub that the VFD is connected to.
• LCD 2.3.
• Enabled LCD; disabled Logger.
• Loaded DVD2LCD2.GML.
• Enable input devices.

This could now be called a minimum HTPC. Played a few discs again. The VFD displayed just what it should. No pauses between domains or chapters or anything.

Then I installed Zoom Player 2.80 and repeated the tests with it. Still no problem.

So, even though it sounds like I should have the same setup as the number of people who are having troubles, I am not seeing any. Can anyone spot something that looks odd? Did you do something I didn't or vice versa? I'll try a few things more, but I'm running low on ideas.

Side note: Before I installed the USB hub device driver, the VFD was filling up with xpxpxpxpxpxpxp, a couple of characters every time it rebooted. Now that could just be garbage and some bizarre coincidence. But I think it more likely that XP is trying to Plug-and-Play announce itself to whatever's at the other end of the USB port. And whatever packet it sends looks like an output command to the hub and then character output to the display. Net effect is that my HTPC is being used for brand advertising while I install. :evil:

[Francois]

McMM,

I can't spot anything that looks odd in the XP tests you ran. In fact, what you installed is very close to my setup. The only differences (or potential differences) I can see are:
- I have also installed SP1 and PowerDVD XP (before TT)
- I have upgraded my radeon drivers to the new catalyst 2.3 (but had the same problem with 6025)
- My XP setup is a dual boot (on drive D), with NTFS formatting

Could the issue be due to hardware? (I have an ASUS CUSL2C with a PIII at 1 GHz, a radeon LE/7200, a delta 410, a regionless Toshiba DVD/CDRW, a network card, and a ADTV card)... FYI, I did disable the NIC and ADTV cards and still have the DVDSpy lockups.

One other thing I noticed, is that, one of the DLLs (MediaSPY, IIRC) was difficult to unregister (or register to upgrade to the latest DVDspy), even without running TT or Girder... is this normal?

Are there some debugging tools which could generate some useful information to fix the plug-in? I'd be glad to test things I than can help.

Francois

[Ron]

note: The catalist drivers came up in an unrelated bug report too ( about irman not initializing.... )