MediaPortal Configuration for 0.912

[jitterjames]

Guess it'll be a while before I get to use the second licence on my HTPC then! No problem though

I have a Marantz Amp with an HDMI feed from my HTPC and music sounded good but when I installed ASIO4ALL it was like I had taken a pillow off all of my speakers - the sound is that much better!

You can use your single license on two machine, as long as they both belong to you.

If you are using an exclusive digital connection via hdmi with something like asio4all, there is no program that will be able to output sound at the same time (AFAIK), because the sound pipe has basically been hijacked.  If I come up with a "fix" it will probably not really be a fix.  It will be an option to disable TTS in VC completely so that it doesn't interfere with your MP sound setup.  The way I have it set up now, is that the TTS voice is "created" as soon as you start VC so that it is ready to use.  If I create a new TTS voice each time you want to use TTS it can take a long time to respond.

   I have a similar "hijack" situation when I am watching 5.1 DTS or AC3 in XBMC, (or if I use WASAPI output in MediaMonkey).  The sound works in XBMC, but I cant use TTS or generate any other sounds.  The sound is taken over by XBMC until I pause or stop the video.  The weird thing is that TTS gets "stuck in the pipe" so if VC tried to TTS anything while the movie was playing, I'll hear the TTS voice when I stop the video.

 What I propose as a solution though, which (works fine for me) is this: if your htpc has hdmi then you have an anolog sound output that is not being used.  This can be sent directly to your TV since the AMP is handling the "real" audio.  The TTS settings can specify that you want to use the analog output for TTS.  That way there is no conflict.
- TTS via analog to your TV
- all else digital via hdmi to your AMP (as you have it now)

That is why I was suggesting earlier that you try setting a different audio output for TTS.

[jitterjames]

I'm trying to get asio4all working on my system and reading the instructions which say this:

● Set the power scheme to “Always On” (XP) or “High Performance” (Vista) in order to turn off
Processor P-State switching! Advanced: Modify an existing power scheme so as to not switch CPU
speed, because other power settings are not that critical.
● Turn off system sounds! While e.g. the Windows logon sound certainly will not be a problem,
sound effects in response to button clicks, notifications etc. will mean that for the time they play,
ASIO4ALL may be unable to initialize the audio device.

that pretty much tells me everything I need to know...

[jitterjames]

After much fiddling around, I was able to get ASIO4ALL working in MediaPortal.  It seems that there are a lot of things that can cause it to not work, however, (ironically?) on my system, running VoxCommando is not one of them.  So I think you are out of luck on this one.

[Kalle]

You can use your single license on two machine, as long as they both belong to you.

If you are using an exclusive digital connection via hdmi with something like asio4all, there is no program that will be able to output sound at the same time (AFAIK), because the sound pipe has basically been hijacked.  If I come up with a "fix" it will probably not really be a fix.  It will be an option to disable TTS in VC completely so that it doesn't interfere with your MP sound setup.  The way I have it set up now, is that the TTS voice is "created" as soon as you start VC so that it is ready to use.  If I create a new TTS voice each time you want to use TTS it can take a long time to respond.

   I have a similar "hijack" situation when I am watching 5.1 DTS or AC3 in XBMC, (or if I use WASAPI output in MediaMonkey).  The sound works in XBMC, but I cant use TTS or generate any other sounds.  The sound is taken over by XBMC until I pause or stop the video.  The weird thing is that TTS gets "stuck in the pipe" so if VC tried to TTS anything while the movie was playing, I'll hear the TTS voice when I stop the video.

 What I propose as a solution though, which (works fine for me) is this: if your htpc has hdmi then you have an anolog sound output that is not being used.  This can be sent directly to your TV since the AMP is handling the "real" audio.  The TTS settings can specify that you want to use the analog output for TTS.  That way there is no conflict.
- TTS via analog to your TV
- all else digital via hdmi to your AMP (as you have it now)

That is why I was suggesting earlier that you try setting a different audio output for TTS.

James do you have tried VirtualAudioCable, it can route 5.1 sound

@Bleazle 

I have a Marantz Amp with an HDMI feed from my HTPC and music sounded good but when I installed ASIO4ALL it was like I had taken a pillow off all of my speakers - the sound is that much better!

It is possible that this is the Realtek-mixer and with his EQ, the mixer is visible in the taskbar (deer horns), I think you can terminate it with a right click on the icon and click "finished/exit/end program".
The problem with Asio4All is: When you have a cheap soundcard "like realtek" it can't handle low latency at two times, so when you play music and in a other program anything that use a soundoutput to the same soundcard, so it won't work.

[Bleazle]

I guess I won't know until I try VC on my HTPC (I read the licence info before hitting "buy" and yes, I definitely own it!  ... or maybe it owns me...mmm...now you've got me thinking  ) which I won't do until the release which is more MP specific comes out but thanks for the suggestions.

I'm (slowly) getting my head around building commands. I've sorted out how to set set volume to 50, jump to recorded TV and now I have TTS set up for a few commands too like: "Start Listening" - says "David I'm listening" - my kids will love that!  (they're not here at the moment) and I'm hoping I can can use VC to train my wife lol!!!!! She thinks it's funny so that's a start 

When I upgrade to a new version of VC I take it tweaks like this are not carried over, or are they? (I know I should back the contents of the VC folder up)

Dave

[jitterjames]

When you upgrade VC your settings and commands are retained.  However, if you want to use a preset configuration (which you will in this case because it will contain new MP commands) then you will lose your commands because the preset will overwrite it.

So you just need to

1)  move the commands you want to keep to the bin. (the tree on the right side - just drag and drop)
2) save all
3) upgrade
4) apply the new MP config
5) drag your custom commands back over form the bin to your main tree.
6) save all 

or something along those lines.  the main thing is to keep a copy of your original voicecommands.xml file because you can always import groups and commands from that.

Obviously you should zip up the whole folder in advance and put it somewhere safe in case something goes wrong.

As for testing on your htpc, the demo is 100% identical to the paid version (except the 25 commands limit) so you can test  on the htpc to your heart's content before activating it.  You just have to restart VC periodically.

[Bleazle]

Thanks for clarifying all of that 

I can't get "play song XX" to work (I appreciate that this is a test release that I am using..). I've tried creating a new command and changing a few things as shown but still no go - any ideas?

Thanks

Dave

[Bleazle]

FIXED! Changed strSong to strTitle 

[jitterjames]

cool.  you're becoming an old hand already.  I'm sure I must have tested that, so I wonder if MP changed their database naming conventions in a recent update.  I'll try to remember to test and update this in the next release.

[jitterjames]

FIXED! Changed strSong to strTitle 

I must say I am thouroughly confused by this.  Where did this command come from? I cannot find it in the version "VC 0912 MediaPortal test.exe" which is in the first post of this thread.

What version are you using?  Did you create / modify this command?

[Bleazle]

I'm still using the test release. I didn't create the original command (top left of the above screenshot) - maybe I dragged it from the right hand side? (I did drag a command from there but I can't remember which one)

Hope you're less confused now 

[jitterjames]

nope.  still pretty confused.

this is what it looks like "out of the box"

[Bleazle]

It's coming back to me now! (sorry, my mistake, I've been playing with lots of different things trying to work out how to do stuff) - yep, what you have shown is the original but it didn't work so I went and looked at a command that was working (can't remember which one) and more or less copied that - strSong was a guess on my part (I don't know anything about this sort of stuff!) until I realised that I should take a look at the music database (I've had to do that for a couple of other MP plugins so I know the basics) and see what the field was called - obviously it's "Title", not song! 

Right now I've got a problem which is bugging me (because I can't work out what has happened) - "play artist XX" & "Play genre XX"etc were working great then I decided to take a stab at making the command "who is this?" - it didn't work so I deleted it but now none of the other MPWIFI Music commands work  I have generated new MP Payloads but that (as expected) didn't help... what have I done???

[Bleazle]

UPDATE: MPWIFI Music commands are working now - I haven't done anything since posting the above post apart from launching MP again (which I had done several times before posting the above comment, as well as a full restart) and it's working again. Must've just been a bit of a glitch.. working now though so all good 

I think I mentioned this earlier: For some reason the first "select" command I make once MP is launched doesn't "stick" e.g.: Launch MP (MP opens), scroll up 1 (works), select (VC says "connecting" but nothing happens), select (works).

Cheers

Bleazle

[jitterjames]

"play song X" works perfectly for me out of the box (0.912) with no modification other than doing an xml scan and rebuild.  Also, the 2 plugins are already enabled with no need to go into options to enable them, so this is partly why I am confused, and wondering if you are downloading the same version that I am.

I am glad you are learning to make your own commands though, and that you actually figured that one out.  That is excellent. 

I think that with the older version (0.912), the connection once severed for some reason would only be fixed by restarting VoxCommando.  Don't worry about that for now since I hope I have improved the connect action and I also hope to release an update fairly soon... a matter of days I think, if I can focus.