iMONDisplayPlugin Release

[pBS]

now that i look at them, the 2x16 *is* an imon display...tho it shows up as "SG Remote Control Device" in device manager..lol
it came with a standard mce remote module in a coolermaster case..
the other is VLsystems vfd...tho i still want to port to registry cuz then just one plugin to support all vfd/lcd types..
[plus the one in my main machine is hte vlsystems one ]

smartie has a direct-write to imon plugin which requires no other installs, just the dll..much nicer setup...
cuz i had to download imon soft,so i could update to another download patch, then install plugin..
can't we just isolate the parts needed for api and skip the whole installation part?

[pBS]

my imon display won't work with imon itself, it says "this vfd is for vfd controller, not imon vfd" and doesn't start..it always has failed..
but i can write to it with demo app and sample apps in imon api....[and that access of api only uses the dll, not whole install]
my logs show it failing:

2011-01-02 09:46:18.166 [INFO][1] iMonDisplayPlugin: Init API...... Succeeded
2011-01-02 09:46:21.176 [ERROR][1] iMonDisplayPlugin: PluginFailed

2011-01-02 09:46:24.838 [DEBUG][1] ACTIVATE_PLUGIN: Videos
2011-01-02 09:46:24.839 [ERROR][1] iMonDisplayPlugin: No Valid DisplayType detected.

any ideas?

the displaytest.exe shows 'the latest imon is not installed or imon is not running' when inited...
it's returning "DSPN_ERR_IMON_NO_REPLY" from init tho it does init..
i guess check all the other values and allow "DSPN_ERR_IMON_NO_REPLY"

[kindt nick]

1. The running text while watching a video file within the video library is a LOT better then the running (stuttering) text within the music library.
2. The plugin should try to read the mp3 tags (of course only if it's possible!) instead the filenames. The running text is stuttering.

Really strange, cause the function/method for both video an audio are the same.
only difference is that for audio is that after starting playing, nPVR reads the ID3 tag and sends it. But I'll guess there will be a bug over there. I'll have a look at this.

3. The plugin seems to have problems with the folderdepth for running text? Example:
H:\MEDIA\Filme\Animation\FSK 00\Der Glöckner von Notre Dame.mkv <- this filename will be displayed very fine within the vfd.
H:\MEDIA\Filme\Animation\FSK 00\Asterix Collection\Asterix der Gallier.mkv <- no display of the filename (date and clock stays in the vfd. perhaps path to long?)

I'll test this over here.

The above things are very small issues, i think. Another thing is more complicated:
4. After using the plugin, the reactiontime of npvr on this machine is VERY low. I'll have to wait between 5 and 10 seconds till the selected action will be performed. Can this be?

I would be surprised, cause the VFD section runs completely in a diffirent thread.
Still, this is my first .NET app, so it could be that I overlooked something.
Could you test this thouroughly? So you are absolutely sure?
strange part is that the sourcecode for the LCD is allot bigger en also has events in it and I don't notice anything over here.
If ist actually is this way, I sure do hope that the problem has nothing to do with the API itself. Cause this way I would not be able to fix this.


@ pBS,
Could you give me the registry path to write to and the format of the info that lcdsmartie requires?
Also, i will implement A force set to VFD option. This way the plugin will ignore the return values.
Sadly for LCD's I cannot do this. Since I need the API to return the "SCROLLING_ENDED" value.

& ryanmc,
Could you give me the format of the textfile that you require?

grtz,
Nick

[kindt nick]

can't we just isolate the parts needed for api and skip the whole installation part?

There will be an option where you can select either:
1. iMON VFD/LCD
2. Write to Registry
3. Write to textfile

If you select 2 of 3, you won't have to install or update the imon software since it will completely ingore the API. Still, it will be required to install the imonapi.dll into the system32 but it will not be used.

grtz,
nick

[ShiningDragon]

3. The plugin seems to have problems with the folderdepth for running text? Example:
H:\MEDIA\Filme\Animation\FSK 00\Der Glöckner von Notre Dame.mkv <- this filename will be displayed very fine within the vfd.
H:\MEDIA\Filme\Animation\FSK 00\Asterix Collection\Asterix der Gallier.mkv <- no display of the filename (date and clock stays in the vfd. perhaps path to long?)

You can forget about this one. It has nothing to do with the folderdepth. A restart of npvr suddenly showed the name. Perhaps it's a small bug within the plugin (overflow or something like this, if used a few times).

Could you test this thouroughly? So you are absolutely sure?

Yep, yes i am. The presence of the plugin slows down the whole npvr experience (and npvr is installed on an intel ssd at this system).

Today i thought (npvr was in standby) that npvr had crashed... after a few minutes npvr waked finally up (without plugin this happens within seconds). Perhaps some kind of memory leakage?


And now, after your plugin progresses, i'll think about to buy more iMON VFDs for the other pc's here.

[pBS]

excellent.. write anywhere to the registry, but i've been using HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\gbpvrlcd\line1 & line2 with a couple of keys for info..
[tho i guess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\npvrlcd\line1 would be more apt..lol]
if you can separate the info that would be great...like current plugin on one key, current file on another, current channel,etc..i'll know more what when i get to play with it a bit to see what's available..smartie can display single char bar graphs and stuff based on a reg entry data and other cool stuff..i made drive temps and space on mine...
but for now just a line1 and line2 keys mimicking the lines that would be on imon display, with no scrolling and unlimited length..[smartie handles scrolling if too long]
i believe RyanMC could use registry option as well as it's same but doesn't lead to drive fragmentation/usage..[reg is all cached in memory]
but i'd check with him..
i've been using reg for data swap for about 3 years now without problems or slowdowns..

[pBS]

p.s. i would still like to get my imon working natively, it looks like it just fails the plugin mode check with no reply, but all other vfd functions work for imon displays...

i know, i don't ask for much...lol

oops,sorry i misread your comment on that...n/mind..thanx btw..
this was one of the things holding me back from upgrading to npvr..

btw, the reg option will enable pretty much any lcd like this for just $29.99
http://www.directron.com/prolcdb.html

[kindt nick]

OK,

ShiningDragon', there was indeed a huge memoryleak, well not really a memory leak, I just didn't shutdown the threads and eventwachters.
Could you restart your whole system and try it with the update?
Really strange that I didn't notice this here. I guess my I3 just rocks :-)


Regarding the ID3 tag, here it works like a charm, except, there a small bug regarding this in nPVR 1.5.36.
If nPVR plays the next song in the playlist, it will only update the ID3-tag when you click or press a button.

Regarding the stuttering scroll problem, I tried it here on my LCD (limitted the max chars to 16 so it didn't scroll) and it works really well here.
Only change I made was that I setted the scrollspeed (threadupdaterate) to 750 instead of 500ms.
If it still stutters, could you play around with this value? Maybe the VFD hardware doesn't like 'fast' changes.
i.e. The LCD can go up to one change every 200ms before going nuts.

PBs,
I've added the ForceLCDType to the xml file. Possible types are (VFD, LCD, TEXT, REGISTRY)
Text and registry are not implemented yet, still, this would resolve the problem that you had regarding the fact that your display does not respond properly to the iMON API.

thx,
Nick

[pBS]

cool, thanx...this will at least let me see what kind of events and data are available so i can plan what would be good separate....
i'm still getting 'no valid display type detected' in logs...and a plugin failed msg..
even tried setting ignore imonapifaults to true and same..
logs don't show any new errors..just pluginfailed msgs and the no valid display type stuff..
the events are showing in logs...

[ShiningDragon]

ShiningDragon', there was indeed a huge memoryleak, well not really a memory leak, I just didn't shutdown the threads and eventwachters.
Really strange that I didn't notice this here. I guess my I3 just rocks :-)

Hey... my mediacentre is powered by an i3-550 (3.2 ghz), 4 gb ram (ddr-3 1333) and a very fast intel ssd. =P I am just very... sensible/experienced to things like this (you can think about this like 'i can feel if something isn't running fine on one of my babys').

Could you restart your whole system and try it with the update?

Yeah, this one is a LOT more smoother than before.

Regarding the ID3 tag, here it works like a charm, except, there a small bug regarding this in nPVR 1.5.36.
If nPVR plays the next song in the playlist, it will only update the ID3-tag when you click or press a button.

Regarding the stuttering scroll problem, I tried it here on my LCD (limitted the max chars to 16 so it didn't scroll) and it works really well here.

Hah! Got you! Put your hands up and say the truth: you changed something. Now even under mp3 the display is running fine without any stuttering. Great!

For the moment i just see "one" bug:
Playing play a music file, then the VFD displays the data. If i browse directly to any videofile and start it up, the VFD won't display the filename of the video. If i stop and restart the video, then the vfd will display the name.
This problem does NOT occur, if i switch between different videofiles. Just changing from one playing mp3 to video.

And again, many thanks for your work! Thinking about the "3rd version", the state of your work is already very good!