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[eddyshere]

When I launch a file in JRiver i can/do get feedback in MCWS what is playing and can also get various information about the status of the player. When I play a file through DLNA where JRiver pushes the file to a renderer i can get feedback in MCWS as well and source several informations.

Now if I pull a file from a renderer be it audio (sonos) or be it video (oppo) if I pull it through DLNA I have the indication as well in MCWS what is playing on the renderer.

Now if I pull a file through smb (which of course is completely outside of JRiver Server's "monitoring"...the status obviously doesn't change for that renderer).

I was wondering if JRiver Server could also monitor "raw" file-access on the files in its library ?? Would that even be possible ?

[glynor]

I was wondering if JRiver Server could also monitor "raw" file-access on the files in its library ?? Would that even be possible ?

No. Not really (not without some really fancy programming, likely to cause even more problems with AV applications).

Standard filesystem events you can monitor on Windows are:

• Created
• Deleted
• Renamed
• Changed

Each of these are raised when a file or directory is created, deleted, renamed, or changed in a monitored directory (or its subdirectories). That's how Auto-Import works. It watches for those events on the Watched directories.

There is no "accessed" or "read" monitoring. The only way to do it, that I can think of, would be to install a kernel level hook like AV applications do that triggers on every file read, and inject itself inbetween. That, while obviously fragile and probably a terrible idea, would also raise the ire of most AV monitoring.

[blgentry]

Why do you want this info?  If it's for a player of some sort, can't you query that player?  If not, can that player use DLNA?

Or, if MC can't talk to your player at all, why would you want to use it?    (Just kidding about that. )

Brian.

[eddyshere]

You really want to know ?

Here goes :

I have over a decade of HTPC behind me...honestly there is not a software / hardware solution I haven't tried.

You all know what will follow :

To put it bluntly : As a matter of fact the reality is that we are not supposed to make digital copies of DVD / BD's / CD's and SACD's. The whole system is hanging by a fragile string because we DO need programs like the reddish fox or the faboulus one to bring all this material to a harddisk. Also the industry and the studios (be it right or not do everything to stop this).

About copying: Once this is done it goes into how do we play it...the real disk like experience on a harddisk is only possible with systems aka Kaleidescape also here full stop. Besides that and for Bluray only a very few programs like PDVD still are licenced with full menu support.  Also here it's funny how history was written : every attempt to forbid copying and playing of copies was cracked and then came Cinavia. The only thing that could be done against it is to fool/disable it's triggering but within the player and not in the source. Without remuxing or rewriting the audio code no way to get rid of it.

About full menu support : only a licenced player is supposed to do that. BUT non-licenced player ala XMBC now also do it with a "modified" version of libbluray....I'm not sure how long this will last.

And JRiver you ask ? JRiver is the best media player/server... full stop and for AUDIO it's the climax. I decided therefore to come back to basics and use JRiver for audio mainly (SACD and CD's). For video I returned to dedicated hardware (ie Oppo 103D)...which with a little help... can still be regionfree and able to pull iso and of course be a DLNA renderer. The reason for returning to dedicated hardware is : To top Oppo's image quality with MadVR you need a strong GPU. My last and best combination was actually a HTPC with a GTX980Ti....this was the best combination ever...images that MadVR is able to produce with this gpuhorsepower are gorgeous...but you know what....to remain as gorgeous on a 4K display it's not sufficient. And on top you run into footprint /temp issues, once the HTPC in the living room is as big as a server you know you're wrong.

Coming back to the OPPO, like always there is a catch : He's good at pulling (smb) but dlna rendering is less featured. The GUI for file browsing...once you are used to JRiver just makes you wanting to kill yourself.

So I'm trying to mix best of the worlds....launch playback from JRiver...but also be able to monitor what is going on when I pull a file from it...all that from a simple remote...and in the case of the Oppo obviously pulling through smb is better. That's why my first question.


Sorry for the long post : A last thing. MKV with it's chapter division and most importantly ability to rename chapters is today the best solution which comes as close as possible to full menu playback. It now only needs to be integrated better into theaterviews OSD and goodbye the licenced player for full menu support.

[glynor]

Or you could not care about their extremely cruddy menu systems and just use MakeMKV. 

[eddyshere]

EXACTLY !!! MKV is the way.....but realize that it's chapter renaming ability opens a whole new dimension of navigation ability from within one single MKV (without splitting or "particuling")....just adapt actually display views OSD to show a chapter list.

[blgentry]

Also here it's funny how history was written : every attempt to forbid copying and playing of copies was cracked and then came Cinavia. The only thing that could be done against it is to fool/disable it's triggering but within the player and not in the source. Without remuxing or rewriting the audio code no way to get rid of it.

I've done just a little research on this.  As far as I know, Cinavia is a *player* feature.  So if your player doesn't look for it, it doesn't work.  So MC effectively bypasses it entirely because it's not in the code.  Can anyone confirm if my understanding is correct or not?

EXACTLY !!! MKV is the way.....but realize that it's chapter renaming ability opens a whole new dimension of navigation ability from within one single MKV (without splitting or "particuling")....just adapt actually display views OSD to show a chapter list.

For standard view, I think that right clicking brings up a menu.  On that menu is "jump to" and from there you can select a chapter directly.  Also while watching video, you can press the up arrow or down arrow to cycle through various choices for things to change:  audio track, subtitles, etc.  On that menu is chapter.  Pressing right or left, while chapter is displayed advances or retreats through the chapter list.  I believe down arrow starts on the chapter list, so it's pretty quick access.

I'm on a Mac so my observations might not be exactly spot on since the video engine is a bit different and it has no Theater View.  The Theater View part shouldn't matter I think; I recall Glynor correcting me on this in the past.

The major point is that chapter selection is directly available.

Brian.

[eddyshere]

I've done just a little research on this.  As far as I know, Cinavia is a *player* feature.  So if your player doesn't look for it, it doesn't work.  So MC effectively bypasses it entirely because it's not in the code.  Can anyone confirm if my understanding is correct or not

True. A licenced player HAS to implement the detection of the cinavia watermark (audio) and mute it's audio output whilst displaying a warning after some time of watching when the file is not on it's original disk. you'll find no dedicated HW player on the market which doesnt. MC as a SW player solution doesn't watch for it because it doesn't has to - it's not a licensed player - hence the absence of full menu support, bd-live and all other BD extra stuff. It's actually easier to enumerate the 2-3 remaining licenced software bd player because everything else is not licenced. The problem in becoming licenced is that you can get killed if something goes wrong. (search the net for the court ruling Arcsoft vs Dolby).


yes in MC osd chapter selection is easy. switching chapters is easy. On a music concert if i want to see a specific song I skip 14times to have my song. (OK OK some will say make one mkv per song and use the power of MC's tag and library, other will advocate for particles - (but for particles if you don't have your concert in chapter.org you end up writing down time codes to define where each particle(song) should start and where it ends.)

What I say is I prefer making one mkv file then with mkvtoolnix I have automatically all my chapters/songs delimited and finaly I only have to replace each chapter name with the song title and voilą....the OSD displays the song name.  1 file + all chapters/songs named....like an Audio CD.  - The same holds true for specific TV-Series.

The only thing now missing  is MC's ability to show the whole chapter list in the OSD of display view...the exact same that you mentioned in standard view ... but in OSD size
(BTW in another tread I was advised that this list is also available in theaterview which is true but it's location is not easy to reach and return when one is watching a concert in display view. )