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Author Topic: Zones -- starting playback  (Read 3987 times)

ryancooper

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Zones -- starting playback
« on: October 18, 2006, 11:28:45 am »
Hello,  I downloaded the trial of MC, read the FAQ and scanned the boards.  Before I buy MC I want to be 100% posative It can do what i need.

I need to have 3 zones, (3 seprate sound cards) that will all play 3 different playlists at one time.  I believe this can be done with zones. 

The other thing I need is when the computer starts up I need all three to automatacally start playing with no user intervention.

At this time I have a winamp playlist in my startup folder and that starts up winamp for me.  Can MC do the same and how?\

Thanks!

Ryan
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2006, 11:57:17 am »
A quote from: http://www.jrmediacenter.com/DevZone/CommandLine.html
Quote
Media Center can be controlled by command line parameters. Designing the Media Center command line interface, we focused mainly on power and simplicity. Following these principals, we split the interface into two parts: (1) Execute parameters,  and  (2) Control parameters.

Execute Parameters

Executing one of the following parameters starts Media Center if it's not running.

NOTE: Older versions,including Media Jukebox, use mjextman.exe instead of MC11.exe

Playback Execute Parameters

MC11.exe [filename] plays specified file. This command behaves the same way as /Play command.

MC11.exe /Play [filename] plays specified files. Filename parameter can point to a specific file or URL as well as to a location in Media Jukebox organization tree. Any item in the tree, except for CD & DVD and Handhelds can be accessed by replacing filename parameter with following command, TREEPATH=location of an item on the tree (e.g. TREEPATH=Playlists\Top Hits). To play items under the CD & DVD and Handhelds item use DEVICE=drive letter (e.g. DEVICE=G:)  Note that filenames can be separated by pipes. (i.e. c:\1.mp3|c:\2.mp3)

MC11.exe /Append [filename] appends specified file to the currently playing list of files. Also see notes for /Play command on replacing filename parameter with TREEPATH and DEVICE commands.

MC11.exe /PlayReplace [filename] works like /Play except that it always clears Playing Now and replaces it with the new files (Media Center specific)

Note: Playback execute parameters can be issued to a specific zone by adding Zone=x as one of the filenames in the pipe delimited filename list.  An example would be "MC11.exe /Append c:\1.mp3|c:\2.mp3|zone=1" (requires Media Center 10 or later)

...

A batch file that contains suitable MC11.exe commandline strings in the startup folder should do the trick.
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ryancooper

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2006, 12:04:31 pm »
AWESOME!  Once I can figure that out I am SOLD!

Thanks for the quick reply!

Ryan
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2006, 12:08:55 pm »
It is quite easy.

Just write three MC11.exe lines with the correct parameters and save the file as text only with the .bat filename extension.

Place this .bat file in the startup folder.
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ryancooper

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2006, 12:21:32 pm »
Ok I tried and nothing happened.  Here is the bat file i wrote:

MC11.exe /Play [C:\Documents and Settings\Ryan Cooper\Application Data\J River\Media Center 11\Library\Playlists\Christmas\Christmas.m3u]|zone=1


I also tried:
MC11.exe /Play [Christmas.m3u]|zone=1

tried putting them all in the same folder and running it.

Any ideas?
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2006, 12:30:13 pm »
Possibly the playlist must be internal, inside the MC playlist tree as documented.

I have not tried the syntax yet, so I cannot advice exactly how the command line should be written.

Perhaps somene else could help.
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ryancooper

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2006, 12:49:27 pm »
Hopefully someone can help.  I tried a few other things. . .

MC11.exe /Play [DEVICE=C:\Christmas.m3u]

MC11.exe /Play [TREEPATH=Playlists\Christmas\Christmas.m3u]

MC11.exe /Play [TREEPATH=Playlists\Christmas\Christmas]

MC11.exe /Play [TREEPATH=Playlists\Christmas]

These all open MC but do not start the music or open a playlist. . . 

Thanks for any help...
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2006, 12:55:50 pm »
I tried it.

You are not supposed to include the brackets in the command line.

E.g. this works

mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u


Unfortunately, I cannot make the |zone paramater work for some reason.

I have tried these command lines:

mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone=2
mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone=Zone 2
mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone="Zone 2"
mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u"|zone=2
mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u"|zone=Zone 2
mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u"|zone="Zone 2"

Zone 2 is the name I have in Zone Manager.
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JimH

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2006, 01:02:30 pm »
I think zones start at 0.  Try zone=1.
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2006, 01:09:36 pm »
Hmm...

Quote
C:\>mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone=0
'zone' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\>mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone=1
'zone' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\>mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u|zone=Zone 1
'zone' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\>mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\100% Christmas.m3u"|zone="Zone 1"
'zone' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I tried also MC12.exe, but it didn't work any better.
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Matt

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2006, 01:21:39 pm »
You just need quotes.

i.e.

MC11.exe /Play "C:\1.mp3|C:\2.mp3|Zone=1"
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2006, 01:42:22 pm »
Quote from: Matt on October 18, 2006, 01:21:39 pm
You just need quotes.

i.e.

MC11.exe /Play "C:\1.mp3|C:\2.mp3|Zone=1"

I was just about to ask this. Those OS messages indicated that the pipe was handled by the command line interpreter, not by MC11.exe.

Perhaps fix the documentation too.

The first quote is now in a wrong place. I thought that the quotes were used as a visual separator.


EDIT

I still can't make it work.

Does it work with only a single item before the zone part?

Is the X in  zone=X  a number or the name that is written in the zone manager?
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2006, 01:52:09 pm »
this works:

mc11.exe /Play X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3


these do not:

mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3|zone=1"

mc11.exe /Play "X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3|zone=Zone 1"

My two zones are named as Zone 1 and Zone 2.
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Yaobing

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #13 on: October 18, 2006, 01:57:58 pm »
This should work:

mc11.exe /Play ""X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3"|zone=1"
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Alex B

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Re: Want to buy - a few questions first
« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2006, 02:04:22 pm »
Quote from: Yaobing on October 18, 2006, 01:57:58 pm
This should work:

mc11.exe /Play ""X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3"|zone=1"

Thanks,

it started playback in Zone 2 and

mc11.exe /Play ""X:\100% Christmas\CD1 - 01 - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody.mp3"|zone=0"

started in Zone 1.
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ryancooper

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Re: Zones -- starting playback
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2006, 02:14:40 pm »
Awesome You guys rock.  I am sold.  Placing my order right now!

Thanks for the fast and great replys.

ryan
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dag-inge

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Re: Zones -- starting playback
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2006, 11:40:02 am »
I have managed to play a playlist in a specified zone, but how do you change the volume?

Can't use "/command Volume Set [value]" because it changes the volume in the active zone.

Regards,

Dag-Inge
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Mastiff

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Re: Zones -- starting playback
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2006, 01:51:26 pm »
Have you tried adding |zone=1" or whatever the zone name is to the end?
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gappie

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Re: Zones -- starting playback
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2006, 03:51:06 pm »
Quote from: dag-inge on November 17, 2006, 11:40:02 am
I have managed to play a playlist in a specified zone, but how do you change the volume?

Can't use "/command Volume Set [value]" because it changes the volume in the active zone.

Regards,

Dag-Inge

to change the volume up for zone 0 in steps of 5 use:
mc11.exe /mcc 10018,16777221
down
mc11.exe /mcc 10019,16777221

for the next zone:
mc11.exe /mcc 10018,33554437
down
mc11.exe /mcc 10019,33554437

now this looks like hocuspocus, but it is explained here at the top: http://www.jrmediacenter.com/DevZone/MCCommands.h

i did never understand that till i found an exell file in the j rivers programm files:
i use 12 now but it could be at: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\Data\Extras\Girder\MCC Commands-131

at the bottom you find all the commands for the different zones. also what to use to set a volume.

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dag-inge

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Re: Zones -- starting playback
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2006, 01:08:07 pm »
Thank you

I'll try that!

By the way, I'm using this to get HomeSeer to play some nice music in the back ground in my bathroom when it detects movement.

Dag-Inge
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