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[globetrotters1]

Since a long time my wife wants to go to sleep with music and wake up with music... but I don't know how to do it in Theater View

I would like to
- set a time frame (10, 20, 30 minutes in Theater View... for example) the music should continue to play until the music server should switch into "sleep" state
- set a wake-up time in hour/minutes the computer should start, start Media Center and continue to play where it left off in the evening

Who can help me solve this problem?

thanks

[globetrotters1]

I wonder if no one using MC 15 has a whole-house music system and wants this kind of feature...

It might be a solution out of the Media Center program, something which Win7 offers, I just have no idea how this kind of funcionality could be implemented
(but my guess would be: if available in Theater View the people would love to use it)

Any ideas?

[rick.ca]

You can add commands to Theatre View for time delayed exit from the program—see screen shot. The batch file is simply...

Code: [Select]

timeout /T %1
MC15.exe /MCC 20007, 1
I don't know of any way to set a time from MC for restarting the computer. But you could easily schedule an event in Windows to start MC playing a particular playlist (e.g., a random "morning music" smartlist) at the same time every day.

[Scolex]

You can do it in tree>Services & Plug-ins>Scheduler also.

[pcstockton]

Scolex,

I assume the computer must be on for the 2nd task to work correct?

Thanks,
Patrick

[pcstockton]

Rick,

Can you set it to Exit Theater view and shut-down the computer like in a manual exit from Theater?

Thanks!
Patrick

[rick.ca]

You can do it in tree>Services & Plug-ins>Scheduler also.

The idea is to set a delay for stopping for the evening, rather than doing so at a fixed time. But this gives me another idea. If the timed event I suggested was a Stop rather than Exit, then Playing Now would remain active—including the currently playing track at the time of the stop. The scheduler could then be used to do a Play—which would continue playing the same list, starting where it stopped the night before. I assume the program will allow the computer to sleep according to it's normal settings if it's not playing anything.

I assume the computer must be on for the 2nd task to work correct?

I'm not sure. Maybe not, if the MC service is running. I suppose it could replay PN using the Recent PN's playlist group, but it would start over.

Can you set it to Exit Theater view and shut-down the computer like in a manual exit from Theater?

That occurred to me too, but I don't see a MCC for that. If it were me, I'd be happy just to let it sleep.

[Scolex]

It should be able to bring the computer out of sleep as I think that is the purpose of having the MC exe in the win/sys32 folder.
It won't be able to do play from a shutdown state.

[pcstockton]

Sleep is fine.... drives are spun down and its basically off right?

[Scolex]

Sleep is fine.... drives are spun down and its basically off right?

If you have made that distinction in the Control Panel Power Options yes.
Go in and click where it says  "Change plan settings" next to whichever profile you are using.

[globetrotters1]

WOW, guys, you made my day     

good hints, if I run into problems I'll ask again

THANKS

[pcstockton]

I tried many different things but I cannot get MC to pull the PC out of sleep.
I of course tried the scheduler without sleeping the PC  and it worked fine.

I tried "Stand By" and "Hibernate".  Neither worked.

Any thoughts?

thx,
Patrick

[Scolex]

I am not sure how to do it but I know it can be done. If you search the web
you will find everyone says it can NOT be done but they are all full of spit.
I am going to do some research for future reference just in case my next
motherboard doesn't have a built in wake program which I am currently using.
Proof

[pcstockton]

Thanks Scolex.  Id love this function.

Does it matter that I am on XP?

Thanks again for the help.
Patrick

[Scolex]

not sure
I am getting ready to test now, pretty sure it will work.
I am on win7 but I do have an xp machine I can test on also.

[Scolex]

Well I am able to bring the computer out of standby/sleep or hibernation.
MC doesn't have to be running when the computer goes to sleep but it
can be makes no difference.
I scheduled a task in task scheduler and 2 batch files that run when the
computer resumes. The first opens Media Center and then launches
the second batch file and closes. I had to do it this way because if the
MC15.exe file that is in sys32 is run by TS it opens instead of just sending
the commands. With both MC15.exe and Media Center 15.exe running it
causes a conflict and both processes must be killed.

Once the second batch opens it sends a VolumeSet command to get to a
known volume level (50%) and then issues a VolumeDown 40 so it doesn't
come on at a high volume and scare you awake. Play starts and then
volume comes up at a configurable amount and speed. I decided to have
all of the commands come from the batch instead of the built in scheduler
for more flexibility.

I have not tested on XP yet. I have to dig the old laptop out and dust it off first.
However you should be able to schedule the task with no trouble.
You will see this string timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL in the batch several times
this is to delay executions to alter the delay length change the 5 as desired (seconds)
Next is to incorporate pseudo snooze function assuming I can figure it out.
Any questions don't hesitate.

XP Task Scheduler page (simple)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308569

Additional commands for MCplay.bat
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/The_Command_Line
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Center_Core_Commands

Batch files

edit: forgot that you can enter an integer after the VolumeSet instead of using the
default and remove the VolumeDown. I was running on empty when I finished it.

[pcstockton]

Scolex,

Awesome work.  You lost me though.

I get the Schedule Task in MC.
But Im not sure what the batch files you refer to.

This stuff might just be a little above my head.

-patrick

[Scolex]

There is a link at the bottom of my post to a zip with both .bat files
They are just text files with a .bat extention instead of .txt
below is what they look like when you open them in a text editor
I can explain what they mean/do if you wish

MCwake.bat

@echo on
Start C:\PROGRA~2\JRiver~1\MEDIAC~2\MEDIAC~1.EXE
start D:\Desktop\MCplay.bat
exit

MCplay.bat

@echo on
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeSet 10
MC15.exe /MCC 10001
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeUp 10
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeUp 10
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeUp 10
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeUp 10
timeout /t 5 /nobreak > NUL
MC15.exe /Command VolumeUp 10
exit

You could also just copy paste each section from echo to exit in separate
notepad files and give them their respective .bat names.

[Scolex]

Forgot if you are on an 32bit OS you would need to change from PROGRA~2 to PROGRA~1