XLobbyMC & SageMC...what a cute couple...

[mlbdude]

Nice, thanks guys! Sage will let us use any external media player for video or DVD's but nothing integrates well with external music players. Thanks for all the effort!

Naylia, is all the built in and ready to go in your XLobby skin?

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

Naylia, is all the built in and ready to go in your XLobby skin?

Paitence dear watson...

No not yet, as you yourself probably well know it's easy to make a big list of things you can do and a whole nother thing to get them all done.

From the list I have completed:
-Basic Functionality for Movies, Music, Weather, and SageTV
-PocketPC Control of SageTV (hopefully ZP/TT tonight)
-Touchscreen Control and WebClient Control can access all the regular screens in XLobby so Music, Movies(ZP and TT), Weather, SageTV all set
-Both 16x9 and 4x3 versions

I'll certaintly be taking suggestions but here's what I'll be tackling next...
-Complete Set of PPC screens for Movies, Music, Weather and SageTV
-Add a basic manual of things that can be configured and that should get me to a 1.0 sort of release status.

After that
-Games...MAME and Others
-NetRadio
-Webcams/Weathercams
-Rip CDs
-PhotoAlbum/Slideshow
-Recipes/MealMaster
-Equalizer controls
-Multi-zone audio
-X10 interfacing

Built into XLobby-
-Interact with and control any program that accepts commandline or sendmessage commands

And I'll be taking advantage of any updates Steven makes along the way. I have integration between the two in a solid steady state now without the use of girder...uses a small bundled exe called sendfocus. If sage fixes the bug on their end I get to make this go away altogether...fingers crossed.

Multizone and X10 will probably be last since...I don't have a multi-zone setup but have a spare sound card I can throw in and do the config and testing. I also don't have X10 but caught my gf with the smarthome catalog so that might end up having some basic capability added, although that's much more a situation where you'd want to learn to modify the skin and customize to you r own home setup.

I'll try to keep unnecessary posting here on my part to a minimum but I will always answer any questions, provide any help anyone needs and will always post changelog version updates. That way if you have a stable sage setup maybe you want to wait to try it out using xlobby until certain functionality is available so to keep you from having to check xlobby all the time I'll always post updated version releases information here.

[Naylia]

v1.00 Changelog
-Complete Pocket PC screens
---My TV (controls SageTV)
---My Videos (screens for ZP + TT)
---My Music
---My Weather
-Weather:Refresh added (for those of you that never reboot)
-Now Playing:Visualizations added

[Alig Proudblade]

Which version of XLobby does this work with please? Can it be used with XLobby2?

Thanks

Chris

[lovingHDTV]

Chris,
It is used with the latest Xlobby2.

If you to www.xlobby.com, click on skins, then you will see the thread where the version of xlobby is shown.

good luck,

[Naylia]

You should just need the downloads that are available here in the 'Latest Versions' section:

http://www.xlobby.com/downloads

and make sure .net is installed first.

If you need help configuring anything just let me know. You'll probably want to read through some of the stuff on the help pages.

[dagar]

So how consistent is the focus when you switch back and forth?

FWIW, I haven't tried it in a few weeks but the MeedioSageTv plugin was very very inconsistant; I'd be pressing buttons 'in sage' and it would simultaniously press buttons in Meedio.

[Naylia]

Well the way I set mine up was that you actually press buttons in XLobby to 'press' buttons in Sage.

I'll kind of outline the different ways you can control it.

Touchscreen - I'm not personally a touch screen user but there are 'screens' in xlobbyMC that have all the buttons you need to be able to navigate sagetv and when you push a button it sends the appropriate sendmessage command to Sage.

IR - IR commands from a usbuirt can be linked to any 'event' in XLobby. XLobby looks first for the IR command to be linked to a button on the current screen, and then it looks globally for a way to fulfill it. Essentially when you push 'My TV' XLobby moves to the Sage navigation screen, and sends Sage to the front. XLobby even in the background still accepts all the commands from the usbuirt and being on the Sage screen processes them differently than if you were on the music screens or in the movies page. So I actually disabled the IR in Sage altogether and rely exclusively on XLobby to send the commands to it. There's no noticable delay doing this and it keeps the IR processing to one program.

PPC - you get 3 screens that are designed to navigate and have full functioality over sage. Theoretically you can just shrink XLobby, never look at it and still get ppc control of Sage.

I don't have any trouble, and haven't heard any reports from people of major issues with it not being able to send commands. From my personal experience I find that when I'm testing functionality and quickly switching back and forth between the two programs (much faster than normal use...menu/sage...menu/sage back and forth real quick) I somehow make it so the sendfocus program can't send focus back to xlobby. If I wait a minute I'll get the ability back occassionally it requires a reboot. But this has never happened while my gf uses it just to watch tv, and then switch back and put on a movie or music, only when I do it very quickly xlobby to sage back and forth a few seconds apart.

I'll pose the question at xlobby, just to do a check on people's experiences.

[dagar]

Ok, I'll have to give it a go (hopefully this w/e). And having native UIRT support is great. Thanks, hopefully this will be an improvement over my Meedio/Sage experience.

[Naylia]

Hopefully!

The upshot is that I'm trying to continually incorporate people's feedback to make it as smooth as possible and continue adding more functionality on the xlobby side. Games this week, netradio next week I think. If you get it up and running and there are big things you think should be added I'll make them apart of the baseline releases and if there's little things you want to tweak for your particular situation I can help you do things like move buttons, change the way a particular button or event works, that sort of thing.

[dagar]

First question:

Must I use the MCE Sage Skin? Or can I use Cayars 17?

[Naylia]

You can use whatever STV you want, XLobbyMC just uses the same graphics as the BlueTwo skin in SageMC. (I'm hoping to add BlackTwo, and the WinMCE themes at some point) There are a couple things that are customized for SageMC that you may want to adjust and I can walk you through those. The one that comes to mind is that currently when you press 'My TV' in XLobbyMC it executes a sendfocus to sage and then 'Custom1', which in SageMC brings you to the My TV SageMC screen. You would probably want to remove the 'Custom1' button press and when you get up and running i'll pm you through that.

[Naylia]

The reason I recommend SageMC is because XLobbyMC is on the right and SageMC is in the center..then XLobbyMC again on the left...



Well at least at my resolution I get left right center. The menu and movies are XlobbyMC the tv is Sage obviously.

[dagar]

Ok. Just checking before I ax my next question(s) :P

2. Getting back to Xlobby (hereafter 'X') from Sage. From what you posted 2 up, to get back to X from Sage I need to do what? Should I PM you on this?

3. Do I turn off USB-UIRT in Sage? (I don't think so, but wanted to check)

4. I have Sage set to launch from the registry (the normal 'launch full screen',) How should I have X and Sage launch (besides Full Screen and no screensaver on sleep)?

[lovingHDTV]

One thing I miss is the ability to hit the back button on my remote while in Sage, and have it go back to Xlobby. Is there a way to do this? Then the forward and backward transitions would be seemless.

Is there a way to bind a sendmessage command to the back command when on a certain screen in Sage? So that Sage would execute the given sendmessage command instead of moving backwards. I would also settle for this if the back command is sent from the "top" menu in Sage. I could then edit my dynamic menus in Sage and get seemless integration that way.

Or I guess I could add a "back to menu" button in Sage and work it this way?

Other ideas?

[Naylia]

Ok, dagar first...this is good i'm doing a readme tonight so I'll just cut and paste this all together

2. Getting back to Xlobby (hereafter 'X') from Sage. From what you posted 2 up, to get back to X from Sage I need to do what? Should I PM you on this?

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE IR SETUP AT ALL...
-Copy the 'ir' folder from XLobbyMC.zip into your XLobby directory (often 'c:\program files\xlobby')
-Allow it to overwrite...this will replace you existing XLobby ir commands with a template to learn against using a usb-uirt and remote of your choice.
-Open XLobby and press 'F2' to enter setup
-Goto the 'IR Plugin' tab.
-Make sure 'IR Plugin' is set to USB-UIRT
-Under 'Device' choose (xlobby) xlobby-xlobby-xlobby instead of (c) c-c-c.
-Hopefully you have lots of commands in the list box now.
-To learn commands from your remote...
.....click a command
.....click 'Set' next to ID:
.....push the button on your remote you want to assign
.....click 'Learn'
.....hold down the button on your remote you want to learn till it reaches 100%
-There you go command learned!

Command Definitions (for those that are not obvious)
-Exit (SageTV back button...I suppose I should call it Back)
-Menu (Sends XLobby to Main Menu and gives XLobby focus..works in XLobby and Sage)
-My TV (sends Sage to My TV screen and gives Sage focus...works in XLobby and Sage)
-Next / Previous are the FF2/RW2
-Settings (In XLobby goes to Settings screen, in Sage goes to Sage Settings screen)

-Commands that have dual/triple function will work differently in different parts of XLobby. If you start a movie in ZP 'Next' skips chapters. If you're listening to music, 'Next' is next song, if your're in Sage it's whatever FF2 is for you.

That should cover IR commands I think...

3. Do I turn off USB-UIRT in Sage? (I don't think so, but wanted to check)

Yes you do. XLobby is always listening and will sendmessage Sage the commands you press on your remote. I had to do it this way because otherwise when I was in Sage and pushed say 'play' sage started the show and then xlobby would kick winamp on in the background. From the information above you should be able to derive how to add an IR command of your own if you need more and I will add to the readme how to attach an IR command of your own to a sage event.

4. I have Sage set to launch from the registry (the normal 'launch full screen',) How should I have X and Sage launch (besides Full Screen and no screensaver on sleep)?

Ideally you want Sage and XLobby both open and full screen with XLobby on top to start.

My computer is on 24/7 so I haven't dealt with a way to make sure XLobby opens on top on a reboot. There is a program called DelayRun you should be able to find on google that basically takes a program command line and a delay length in a config file and waits that long then runs program. That's one solution. The other if Sage always boots on top is that you could set the 'main menu' screen in xlobby to be the 'SageTV' screen so that that's open and ready to send/recieve commands.

If XLobby is on top when you sleep it wakes up on top which is good.

Lovin'

One thing I miss is the ability to hit the back button on my remote while in Sage, and have it go back to Xlobby. Is there a way to do this? Then the forward and backward transitions would be seemless.

see linking IR commands to buttons above...I suppose I can write the linking to events section now...

-Open XLobby and press 'F2' to enter setup
-Goto the 'Event Manager' tab.
-Under 'Events' expand 'SKIN'
-In 'SKIN' expand 'sagetv'
-These are all the sagetv commands I have programmed in. More can be added if there is something missing.
-Choose the event you wish to bond an IR trigger to.
-Select the 'Triggers' tab on the right.
-Select the newly available 'IR' tab.
-Alias: select (xlobby) xlobby-xlobby-xlobby (i really have no idea what that means by the way)
-Command: select the command you created for you remote earlier and press add.
-Now XLobby will check the local screen first for the commands existence and if not found will look globally. So if you want to ensure that a command always gets used in Sage, you can add a button 1x1 pixel with no image on the 'sagetv' screen and set it's event to the event you just assigned a trigger to. This will ensure the event will be the top choice when in Sage and XLobby looks for the command (since the 'sagetv' screen is opened when SageTV gets focus), in case you use that IR trigger elsewhere in the skin.

Is there a way to bind a sendmessage command to the back command when on a certain screen in Sage? So that Sage would execute the given sendmessage command instead of moving backwards. I would also settle for this if the back command is sent from the "top" menu in Sage. I could then edit my dynamic menus in Sage and get seemless integration that way.

Sage does not differentiate between screens with regards to command which I why have both the 'Menu' command to goto the big XLobby menu, the 'My TV' command to goto that great My TV screen in sage, and also the Back/Exit button which goes back a screen inside of Sage.

Or I guess I could add a "back to menu" button in Sage and work it this way?

I think the above should cover everything, let me know if you need another event.

Wow...that was fun...time for some

[dagar]

Odd. I have the IR config'd, what appears to be correct, but when I am in Sage I can only 'exit Sage' back to X. I'll have to try it again tonight - will probably overwrite the IR folder and restart from there. I also have the UIRT off in Sage.

[Naylia]

dagar,

which command is not happening for you, it sounds like 'Menu' correctly brings you to the X menu, which is what I thought you were looking for. Is 'Exit'/Back not working? (I'll probably rename this to Back for clarity in the version update end of week.)

[dagar]

The MyTV works in X. The Exit works in Sage. None of the other commands appear to work; i.e. pause, guide, stop, etc...

[Naylia]

ahh..when you click 'My TV' on the menu does X go to the sage controls screen? If not I may have fixed that right after uploading the last version. That's key to getting the ir to work since otherwise it'll associate play/stop with winamp I think.