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[kiwi]

Hello,

I'd like to use Media Center as an Alarm clock on my PC, however, I'm not sure of the best way to set it up.  I've played with the media scheduler, however, if MC is already running, just starting MC with the scheduler doesn't start music.  I guess that I could shutdown MC with the scheduler, and if it's not running that won't be a big deal.

Or, is there a command that can be run that will cause MC to start playing, even if it's running?

Does anyone else do this?  How do they do it?

Thanks,
kiwi

[Mastiff]

One version would be to use the regular scheduled tasks in whatever Windows version you use and just send a track or a playlist to MC or simply open a track or a playlist if you have MC as your default player for the media type. Or you could use Girder, but if you're not using it for anything else it would be overkill to install it for this purpose alone.  

[kiwi]

Yeah, I haven't played with girder at all, and probably wouldn't be using any other features that it has.

The other thing that would be cool is if you could control the volume and the playlist.  This could be cool for lots of other things as well.  I'd like it for an alarm clock so that I could be gently brought out of my slumber, and then when that doesn't work, I could have much louder/harsher music force me to get out of bed.

-kiwi

[Mastiff]

That can very easily be controlled by Girder, but if you don't want to go that way...  

[xen-uno]

> I've played with the media scheduler, however, if MC is already running, just starting MC with the scheduler doesn't start music

If MC startup parameters are at the same level of implementation as MJ in regards to MS, then you could use this...

mjextman.exe /Play [filename]

The commands are case sensitive. See this link for further info.

R_x

[kiwi]

I'll check out girder and see what I can do with it.  I guess it would be good to play with and see what I can do with it.

The link on mjextman is very helpful.  I should be able to do things with that.  Cool.

Thanks for the help.
kiwi

[nila]

Someone started making an MC alarm clock plugin once but then stopped half way through.
They sent me a copy of it to test it and give feedback.

Post a reminder on Monday along with your e-mail address and I'll send you the files for it. It works fairly well in the state they stopped doing it in and gives a much easier nicer interface for it.

I agree having this built into MC would REALLY give it a whole extra dimension and selling angle - a GUI for sleep timer and alarm clock built into the main program would go down well I think for a lot of people.

[kiwi]

I think that I can do what I want to with mjextman, however, I can't seem to get it to work properly from the Media Scheduler.

The program Path is:
C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\mjextman.exe

The Command Line is:
/Command Play


It doesn't do anything.  I've tried other commands and they do nothing.  mjextman doesn't seem to exist anywhere on my computer.  However, if I type it in a command line, it works without any problems.

Do I have to do anything special?

I'm running 9.1.203 and installed it over 9.0.180.

Thanks,
kiwi

Listening to: 'Touch the Hand' from 'Waking Up the Neighbours' by 'Bryan Adams' on Media Center 9.1

[xen-uno]

I just tried too. The /Play function is not working in v9.1 B203.

The play command should start MC if it's not running (it doesn't).

I put in the following on a one-time task in MS...
Start Custom Task
Start: system time + 2 minutes (stop time is grayed out)
Command Name: mjextman
Program Path: c:\winnt\system32\mjextman.exe
Command Line: /Play S:\ogg\Hedwig and the Angry Inch - 01 - Tear Me Down.ogg

It should work...but

The start MC command does work from MS

R_x

[kiwi]

My problem seems to be that I can't actually find the file path.

I fixed it however, and now have it working.

In path, I just put:
mjextman.exe

Then I put whatever command in the command line.

So now, for my alarm clock, I have the following commands:

at whatever time I want MC to actually start making noise, I do:

Make sure it's running:
mjextman.exe /Start

Set Volume:
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeSet 40

Load Playlist
mjextman.exe /Play TREEPATH=Playlists\_Personal\WakeNice

Then a bit later...
Set Volume:
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeSet 90

Load Playlist
mjextman.exe /Play TREEPATH=Playlists\_Personal\WakeMean

Seems to work well...



Thanks for all the help and input

[Mastiff]

Reminds me of when I was 15 and had my first summer job. The first thing I bought was a stereo system (separates from Technics with Warfedale speakers, I still use most of it and the speakers are my main speakers in the living room more than 20 years later, I still haven't found anything I like better, the set was a real bargain), and I hooked it up to one of those timer switches, so AC/DC's back in black woke me up. I knew that I had about five seconds to get out of bed and turn the volume down (on the other side of the room) from the highat started and before the guitars came in. l also knew that if the guitars came in on the volume I had it on it would wake my parents on the top floor, and believe me they were not very happy to be woken at 5 A.M. of mr Angus Young! I don't think I came late one day that summer!  

[kiwi]

Well, one problem with the Media Scheduler.  I don't know what the issue is but every time I set up a series of tasks, all custom tasks revert to "Start Media Center" and have random times.  

I'm using 9.1.203, so it might be a problem with that.  Maybe I'll play with girder, how hard is it to use?

-kiwi

[xen-uno]

kiwi,

I've been using any of the following to no avail...

Hope Sandoval playlist:
mjextman.exe /Play TREEPATH=Playlists\Hope

Individual tracks:
mjextman.exe /Play S:\ogg\Hope Sandoval - Bavarian Fruit Bread - 03 - Butterfly Mornings.ogg

which according to the link is equal to...

mjextman.exe S:\ogg\Hope Sandoval - Bavarian Fruit Bread - 03 - Butterfly Mornings.ogg

These commands will open MC if not open (which they do). It gets no further than that and then complains about an invalid file or something like that (for the single track play). The playlist example opens MC but nothing further happens. Your using an explicit command to open MC while I'm not. Syntax wise yours and mine are virtually identical.

Oh well...tired of goofin with it.

10^-27

[kiwi]

Yeah. I think that it's time to give girder a try.

[drosoph]

Playlist command works for me ..  
mjextman.exe /Play TREEPATH=Playlists\Favorites

But, individual files gives the same error you indicated


So, this is what Im going with ..
730am --
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeSet 100
mjextman.exe /Play TREEPATH=Playlists\RANDOM

830am --
mjextman.exe /Clear DontRemoveCurrent

[kiwi]

Yeah, that works for me, but MediaScheduler loses this information.  I'm going to try MC 9.1.204 and see if they fixed any of those problems.  Maybe I'll play with girder when I get home from work.

-kiwi