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Author Topic: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?  (Read 5088 times)

MikeAus

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Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« on: September 01, 2010, 10:19:37 pm »

Currently I have Media Center to startup automatically in Theater View mode. I have a remote control I use, the idea being to power on the PC and then just use the remote control to navigate Theater View.
The problem I have is there seems to be a 'clash' at startup with some other Windows Services. This means Media Center starts, however it is not in full screen mode, the Windows taskbar is visible. When this happens I cannot use the remote, I have to then logon via Remote Control, click on Media Center in the Task Bar and then it goes to fullscreen mode as planned. All is then fine. Sometimes it will load fullscreen, but other times I assume something loads after Media Center and causes the task bar to pop up - thereby taking back control from MC.
So my question, is there a way in MC to delay the auto startup of MC, say 30 secs or so, so that everything else has loaded first, then when MC loads it will be full screen?
Not really interested in batch files, registry , magic loaders , etc. (even though I work in IT ) life's too short :)
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jmone

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2010, 10:29:12 pm »

Hi Mike, This used to happen to me all the time but has not occured for months, I've no idea what causes it to happen or why it stopped.  One thing to try is on my RC I have the "Green Button" mapped and it will fire up MC and put it back on top....
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MikeAus

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2010, 12:05:53 am »

One thing to try is on my RC I have the "Green Button" mapped and it will fire up MC and put it back on top....
I use J River Media Center Option to disable Windows Media Center controls as if I accidentally hit the green button on the remote - it would start up the dreaded Windows MC ...
How did you map the 'Green button' in JRiver ? Thanks.
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jmone

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2010, 06:52:36 am »

Ahhhh it just does - I can not find the setup in MC  :'( must be getting old!  If MC is running the Green Button will bring it back to the front (for me with Theaterview in Front), if MC is not running it does Zip....
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JimH

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2010, 06:54:39 am »

The green button should just work, except for XP.

Try running Media Server.  It's a very small copy of MC that runs in the background.  Read about Servers on our wiki for more information.
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rpalmer68

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2010, 08:45:58 am »

I must admit recently (the last couple of weeks) I've had the taskbar come into focus over the top of Theater View a several times, don't rememebr every having the issue previously.

It certainly happens now if something in the taskbar pops up a message.

I thought there was an Always on top option in MC, but stuffed if I can find it now so I guess there isn't.

Richard
 
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JimH

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2010, 10:18:12 am »

Turn off task bar notification in Haali and FFDShow.
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MikeAus

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2010, 09:52:16 pm »

Turn off task bar notification in Haali and FFDShow.
This was already set. I spent quite some time on the weekend trying to resolve this. I tried adding the Media Server on startup as suggested. I disabled Windows Media Center 7 in an attempt to get the 'Green' media button to work on the remote (yes option to disable MC controls is now unchecked in J River) - however the 'Green' button doesn't do anything. It used to launch Win7 MC. Anyway, after 20 reboots of my PC, I 'm back to using remote control via my laptop to my Media PC after startup - just to maximise Theatre View and banish the task bar. AArgh ...
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rpalmer68

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2010, 12:27:39 am »

The only way I've got around this is to make Girder (my automation s/w)  set the focus to MC when I start MC.

Something has changed as MC always used to sit on top of everything and it doesn't any more.

R

 
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datdude

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #9 on: November 12, 2010, 10:34:46 pm »

I have experienced the same problem as well for a loooong time. :)

I wish there was a way that MC's Theater View could just force itself to be on top of everything else no matter what.
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glynor

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2010, 09:42:58 am »

If you are on Vista or Windows 7, there is a better way to launch MC at startup, and yes, you can have it delay as long as you want.  Instead of launching it the way you're doing it, use the Task Scheduler to launch it.

I use the Task Scheduler to launch almost all of my startup items.  It is convenient, easy to use, and powerful.

1. Click Start and type task scheduler and hit enter.
2. I like to make a folder for all of my Startup Items.  You can do this if you wish.  This makes it easy to disable all of your startup items at once if you need to (you can enable/disable whole folders).
3. Create a basic task, using the panel on the right.
4. Follow the wizard, choosing "when I log on" as the event, and putting MC's exe and command line options in the program fields.
5. On the last page, check the "Open Properties panel" checkbox and click Finish.
6. Switch to the Triggers tab, and click the Edit button to modify the "At Log on" trigger.
7. You can add a configurable delay here of 30 seconds to 8 hours.
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datdude

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #11 on: November 14, 2010, 10:22:50 am »

Thanks glynor, I'll check that out.
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lhwidget

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #12 on: November 14, 2010, 10:42:31 am »

I realize this solution isn't for everyone, but I'm on XP Pro using MC as my main Audio and DVD app, with Beyond TV & Total Media Theater 3 for ripped BluRay playback.

I use Event Ghost to translate MCE remote button presses to the appropriate commands for the 3 different programs.  This allows me to handle some things in Event Ghost instead of in the program I'm trying to control.

The cool part is how easy it was to make macros (in Event Ghost) which pull MC into focus wrether it's in windowed view or theatre view.  Also, making a toggle to switch from theater view to standard view is easy.  (Both use a short/long button press logic to determine the action.)

I've set MC to launch TMT3 for ripped BluRay file playback.  For some reason, MC (in theater view) stays on top of TMT3 when it launches it.  The same focus command (but for TMT3) lets me pull TMT3 on top of MC (while it's in theater view) when MC launches TMT3 to play a BluRay.

MikeAus

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2010, 05:52:22 pm »

If you are on Vista or Windows 7, there is a better way to launch MC at startup, and yes, you can have it delay as long as you want.  Instead of launching it the way you're doing it, use the Task Scheduler to launch it.

I use the Task Scheduler to launch almost all of my startup items.  It is convenient, easy to use, and powerful.

1. Click Start and type task scheduler and hit enter.
2. I like to make a folder for all of my Startup Items.  You can do this if you wish.  This makes it easy to disable all of your startup items at once if you need to (you can enable/disable whole folders).
3. Create a basic task, using the panel on the right.
4. Follow the wizard, choosing "when I log on" as the event, and putting MC's exe and command line options in the program fields.
5. On the last page, check the "Open Properties panel" checkbox and click Finish.
6. Switch to the Triggers tab, and click the Edit button to modify the "At Log on" trigger.
7. You can add a configurable delay here of 30 seconds to 8 hours.
Sounds promising, what would be the MC's exe and command line options to start in Theater view mode? If these change then it won't work. Hence my initial request to JRiver to have them allow a delay at startup or similar.
Thanks Glynor.
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glynor

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Re: Autostart MC in Theater View - Delay startup?
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2010, 07:24:20 pm »

mc15.exe /Mode Theater

You can paste exactly that in.  You don't need to specify the full path to mc15.exe.  It is in the System32 folder, so it is in the default search path on Windows.  The documentation for the flexible MC command line system can be found in the Wiki here: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/The_Command_Line
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