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[glynor]

This is a collection of little things, but it is very annoying.  I'm using MC19 on my HTPC in Windows 8.1 (but all of this stuff applied to Windows 8 too).  It can be challenging to keep Theater View on top.  I'm not sure what you can do about all of this, but there should be at least one simple thing that will make it nicer.

I have a shortcut for mc19.exe /Mode Theater pinned to my Start Screen.  This is nice for launching MC directly to Theater View, and it works great with a remote on the Start Screen.

However, if the user then switches applications, making Theater View no longer in-front (without first closing Theater View) it is challenging to get it back "on top" without picking up a mouse and clicking on it.  MC19 is actually somewhat better than MC18 in this regard, but it can still be fiddly.  The main issue is that when you use that /Mode Theater shortcut, it does not bring MC back to the front, like using one for mc19.exe /Start would.  Can this be fixed?

That would largely solve my problem.

One way I encounter this constantly is if I use my remote to switch to the Start Screen, and then I launch a Web Browser or something.  When I go to switch back, if I choose Desktop, then I "see" Theater View (because it is covering the desktop), but it isn't active and I can't use it with my remote.  If I go back to Start and then launch the regular MC shortcut, this brings Theater View "forward" again and I can use Theater View.  As mentioned, I like to keep that Theater View "direct" shortcut pinned to start (so I can directly launch into Theater View), but when you pick this when Theater View is already running, it does NOT bring Theater View back to the front, so I can't use it.

That's confusing.  There are two icons on my Start screen for users to use to launch MC (depending on which mode you want, Theater or regular), but you can only use the Theater View shortcut if it ISN'T already running, and to bring it forward, you have to use the other one.

[glynor]

PS.  I've been mulling around making a Metro Tile "launcher" for MC.  The idea would be, essentially, to make a nice custom tile for the Windows 8 Start Screen that you could customize to launch it how you want, and would provide some nice "data" (of some kind) pulled from MC itself via MCWS.  If you launched the actual "tile application" (the full Metro thing) it would just be the "configurator" for the tile, where you point it at MCWS, set settings, and whatnot.

Could be pretty sweet.  It could have play controls and be kind of like a new Playing Now widget from days of old.  I've looked into developing it enough that I'm reasonably sure it could be done (you'd have to connect to MC via MCWS, since you can't use COM from WinRT, but MCWS provides what is needed to send all of the /MCCs and COM commands anyway, so that could still work).

But, it would stink to build something like that, if JRiver is kicking it around anyway.  If you know what I mean... 

[dean70]

Can theatre view itself be "metroized" (and fall back to desktop mode on earlier versions OS)?

[glynor]

Can theatre view itself be "metroized" (and fall back to desktop mode on earlier versions OS)?

Not without being completely re-architected, which seems like a waste of time.

I'm just thinking about a smart "launcher" with an Active Tile.  That would actually be handy, and could be helpful.  You could have it display playback info (and show play controls) while running and active, and while stopped, show stats, recently imported, and stuff like that.  With the new larger tile size, you could actually display a bunch of information

[stewart_pk]

This is a good topic, I'm always interested in hearing how people are using their HTPC's.
I don't ever seem to really have this problem with JRiver but I launch it differently.
I'm also using Windows 8.1, but bypass the start screen completely (not even one single tile on it) in favour of the desktop.
I have JRiver set in the options to always startup in Theather View on my HTPC.
I use Keymapping software (LM Gestion) to launch JRiver from a "Launch JRiver MC" button on my Logitech universal remote.
If there is another program (web browser) running and it's in the foreground and JRiver is already running (background) a press on the "Launch JRiver MC" will bring it to the foreground.

Everything is going pretty good at the moment but I'm contemplating what can be done on a HTPC with the start screen tiles.

[glynor]

Yes, if you only want to use MC in Theater View mode on the HTPC, you can just set that startup setting, and it will work properly without much more effort.  I actually switch back and forth, though.  Generally, we use Theater View on the TV, but I actually do some metadata management occasionally from the couch, and I sometimes find it is quicker to find music using Standard View (depending on the situation and what I'm looking for), so I switch back and forth quite a bit.

Incidentally, I was able to solve my problem.

Turns out, MC is smarter than I was giving it credit for... I'd assumed if I ran both mc19.exe /Mode Theater and then mc19.exe /Start in succession, that it would get confused and try to double-launch when MC wasn't already running (since MC takes a little while to launch on the HTPC since it is connecting to a remote library server).

But it doesn't.  I wrote a script that does /Mode Theater, sleeps for 500 ms, and then does /Start, and that works perfectly.  Now I have two copies of that script (one that points to Standard View and one that points to Theater View) pinned to my Start screen, and they work great.  I'll post copies of the scripts when I get home.

[kensn]

I have focus problem if MC is running and I give the MC19 command to open Theater View > Display View, it leaves the Windows taskbar open. I think this may be related.

Ken

[glynor]

File: MC-Launch_Theater.wsf
Purpose: Launches MC if it isn't already running, and goes directly to Theater View, making sure to bring it on top if it isn't already.

Code: [Select]

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
                'Create our handy dandy Shell object
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Launch MC in Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Mode Theater"

WScript.Sleep 500

'Make sure MC is on Top
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Start"
      </script>
   </job>
</package>
File: MC-Launch_Standard.wsf
Purpose: Launches MC if it isn't already running, and goes directly to Standard View, making sure to bring it on top if it isn't already.

Code: [Select]

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
                'Create our handy dandy Shell object
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Launch MC in Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Mode Standard"

WScript.Sleep 500

'Make sure MC is on Top
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Start"
      </script>
   </job>
</package>

[glynor]

I have focus problem if MC is running and I give the MC19 command to open Theater View > Display View, it leaves the Windows taskbar open. I think this may be related.

You could use the same strategy, just use this script instead:

Code: [Select]

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
                'Create our handy dandy Shell object
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Launch MC in Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Mode Fullscreen"

WScript.Sleep 500

'Make sure MC is on Top
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Start"
      </script>
   </job>
</package>
However, you might get better results if you use this command for your button instead:

mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0

This does the normal "Theater View toggle" that MC assigns, by default, to the MCE Remote "green button".  It is quite handy.  While in Theater View with nothing playing, it toggles between your current position in Theater View, and the root of Theater View (and back, so you can cycle back and forth).  While something is playing, it adds Display View into that "toggle sequence".  So it toggles like this: Display View > Theater View (Current Location) > Theater View (Root).

This is a super-handy Theater View navigation button to have on your remote.  Right now, my remote control logic is this for my "Theater View Button" on my remote (which is a button labeled "video"):

If MC is Running, do this:
mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0

Else if MC isn't currently running, execute: MC-Launch_Theater.wsf

It works brilliantly.

[drmimosa]

Hi Glynor, thanks for posting these. Just updated to Win 8.1.

If you have a minute, I ran into a problem using these scripts. I saved them as .wsf files, made a shortcut that pointed to the file, but windows doesn't give me the option to pin a .wsf shortcut to the Start Screen.

Is there a trick to get this to work as a Start Screen shortcut?

edit - never mind! Simple answer here:

http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2012/11/20/creating-your-own-windows-8-start-screen-shortcuts-tiles/

The shortcut appears in the "All Programs" list you get from clicking on the down arrow, you can then pin to Start Screen

[stewart_pk]

Very cool, will try.

However, you might get better results if you use this command for your button instead:

mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0

This does the normal "Theater View toggle" that MC assigns, by default, to the MCE Remote "green button".  It is quite handy.  While in Theater View with nothing playing, it toggles between your current position in Theater View, and the root of Theater View (and back, so you can cycle back and forth).  While something is playing, it adds Display View into that "toggle sequence".  So it toggles like this: Display View > Theater View (Current Location) > Theater View (Root).

This is a super-handy Theater View navigation button to have on your remote.  Right now, my remote control logic is this for my "Theater View Button" on my remote (which is a button labeled "video"):

If MC is Running, do this:
mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0

Else if MC isn't currently running, execute: MC-Launch_Theater.wsf

It works brilliantly.

[glynor]

Is there a trick to get this to work as a Start Screen shortcut?

Yep, it is a little tricky.  There are a few ways to do it, but here's an easy way.

1. Save the wsf file(s) somewhere you can keep them.  Mine are at \Users\Public\system\scripts\.  You can put them wherever.
2. Right click and make a Shortcut.  I save these right with the scripts to be simple.
3. Rename the Shortcut whatever you want (this will be the text below the icon in the Start screen), and give it whatever icon you want.  I'm using this one I made for my MC19 Theater View shortcut, and the default for my Standard View shortcut.

...You probably already made it this far...

Basically, we just need to add those to the "real" Start Menu folder (which is used to generate the All Apps view under Start, and that used to be used for All Programs shortcuts under Windows 7).

4. Navigate to this folder on your system: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
5. Copy and paste those two shortcuts you just made over somewhere appropriate in there.  I put them right with the other shortcuts MC makes.  I copy and paste them so that I don't lose them (I have my originals saved with the script) if I need to un/reinstall or whatever.
6. Close the Explorer Window.  Now when you open Start, you can find them under All Programs (or just type to search for them) and they'll come up.  Right click there and choose Pin To Start.

There are other ways to pin any item you want to the Start screen from the desktop, but that's the easiest and most reliable workaround I've found.

Mine looks like:



EDIT:  Just saw your edit while I was doing this.  Check out my post above anyway though, as I included my custom icon, which I like. 

[glynor]

Very cool, will try.

The /MCC commands don't launch MC if it isn't already running (they're just silently ignored).

I use Girder, which allows me to do a "Is X Application Running/On Top" checks before executing commands.  That's how I do the "if MC is running then run this, else run that" thing.

If you don't have a similar capability, but you want to use this method, you can use this version:

Code: [Select]

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
'Create our handy dandy Shell object
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Toggle Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0"

WScript.Sleep 500

'Make sure MC is on Top or Launch it
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Start"
      </script>
   </job>
</package>
It'll still work as long as you set MC to launch into Theater View automatically using the option in MC.  The /MCC part will just be ignored if MC isn't already running, you have to do the /Start.  If MC is set to always launch to Theater View, then you're set.  If you don't include that, then MC won't respond to the button if it isn't already running (and you'd need a separate "launch Theater View" button).

The bummer is that if you combine all three things like this:

Code: [Select]

<package>
   <job id="vbs">
      <script language="VBScript">
'Create our handy dandy Shell object
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Toggle Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /MCC 22001,0"

'Launch MC in Theater View Mode
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Mode Theater"

WScript.Sleep 500

'Make sure MC is on Top
WshShell.Run "mc19.exe /Start"
      </script>
   </job>
</package>
That doesn't work right because during playback, it messes up the sequence and makes it always skip past Display View.

The /MCC makes it switch to Display View, but then the /Mode command gets called, which switches back to Theater View, and then, finally, /Start brings it to the top.

So, Girder (or other similar tools that can do conditional branching depending on if a particular app is running or foreground) is better and more flexible.  But, if you always launch your HTPC to Theater View anyway, then it doesn't hurt anything to set that option, and then the above script works fine for both launching it from closed and for toggling modes.

[drmimosa]

[edited]

Great stuff.

Glynor, just got the custom icon and two scripts pinned and running from the Start Screen. Thanks again for your time and for posting the results on Interact. If you do develop a custom Win8 tile I'm sure there would be a lot of interest!

Just as aside, it used to annoy me 15 years ago how you had to find hidden folders and settings in order to customize Windows features...now, in 2013, I'm just grateful for any customization options you can find! In the post iOS computing world and "walled garden" philosophy of computing, it seems that customization is getting pushed further into the background of GUI's and menu settings.