I also wanted to let you know that my modificaitns in the batch file also prevert someone from trying to play the same disc twice

when usieng ir codes trying to play the same disc twice can really make a mess of your IR sequence.

smile
i'll be submiting the new file very shortly

All this talk has me confused. I'm new to useing LoadDVD. I have read most of the post but get brain fried. I can get different players to pop up, but no movie plays.  Any help would be great.

Thank you

Here is my BAT file
@echo off
rem %1 DescriptionSideA
rem %2 profileid - this is usually the UPC code
rem %3 disc#
rem %4 slot# or collection#
rem %5 Title or Sort Title or Label Side A
rem %6 filepath
rem %7 mediatype = "DVD", "HD" or "BluRay"
rem %8 and thereafter - remainder of Location field
echo %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
if %7=="DVD" "C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD\PowerDVD" %6
if %7=="HD" echo Do whatever for an HD disc
if %7=="BluRay" echo c:\program files\powerdvd\powerdvd.exe %6
pause

Hello,

I am sorry if the question has already been asked but I could not find it in all the messages I checked.

I have installed the LoadDVD plugin but I have troubles making it work. Basically, i want to use it so that i can start reading my DVDs ripped on my hard drive. So, I am using the format :

Location: file
Slot: [empty]
Notes: [Filepath]C:\MyUser\Mypath\...\VIDEO_TS.IFO[/Filepath]

The problem I have is that I get the message:
No application is associated with the specified file for this operation

What puzzles me is that there is an association and when I double click the IFO file it starts WinDVD reader without any problem. The DVDs are simply copied on the hard drive with the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders. The DVDs I am trying at the moment have no protection of any sort. They are mine. Also, I do not wish to replace them by an AVI or other flat file. I want the menus and the chapters like in a good normal DVD.

I have tried to put the path between quotes like:
Notes: [Filepath]"C:\MyUser\Mypath\...\VIDEO_TS.IFO"[/Filepath]
Then I get the Error message: Please check file path and file association and retry.

I have tried to create a batch file. This batch file is working if I double click on it but if I put it in the filepath, I get the same message as before: Please check file path and file association and retry.

I have tried to put a VOB file instead of the IFO and that starts VLC without problem.

For the sake of it I have tried PowerDVD but not only PowerDVD does not start the DVD but is simply does not work at all on my system. I could not make PowerDVD 9 read a single DVD from file on HD. Anyway I like WinDVD and am used to it. I find the Media Center from Vista really crap when it comes to read a DVD. This is not an option. I am doing all that to get rid of media center library.

For information, I have Vista Ultimate with 4GB of RAM and intel Q6600. I do not see where it should make a difference but i mention before someone asks if I have enough resources to run.

I might have simply missed a step somewhere. Can anybody help?

Cheers.

Hi,

Thanks for that. It did help.

I had to do some modifications in the script. Mine is looking like this:

if %7=="DVD" "C:\Program Files\Corel\DVD9\WinDVD.exe" %6
if %7=="HD" "C:\Program Files\Corel\DVD9\WinDVD.exe" %6
if %7=="BluRay" "C:\Program Files\Corel\DVD9\WinDVD.exe" %6

Without the "" it does not work. That looks logical to me as spaces have never been welcome in Windows paths.

At the moment, it is kind of working although sometimes WinDVD remains simplys stuck and I have to kill it. Killing it takes ages by the way.

I have also noticed that inside the [filepath], if there are spaces, it does not do any good. Removing them helps quite a lot. Adding "" does no good in this case.

I suspect that WinDVD is not totally innocent in all the erratic behaviour. I will carry on with my experiences and will keep you posted if I discover anything interesting.

I have tried to Install Totalmedia Theatre but for some reasons the install screwed up and I cannot get it run. I will restore my system prior the install just after posting this very message. Then I will reinstall and make some tests. Here again, I'll keep you posted if I see any difference with WinDVD.

Cheers.

Am i reinventing the wheel? Ah well!... That's not good!

I've done the 2 search you have suggested and I find only our own 3 messages. But that's fine, I get the point. I'll try to read more in detail the 35 pages of messages of this thread. Now I understand better how the whole thing is working and I should understand better the nature of the messages and the ones that will help me.

May I ask you with no disrespect why this is all so complicated? Aren't you allowed to add a field or two when you write a plugin? I have the feeling that the solution is complicated because the application is quite closed. Am I correct? I am asking because I have tried "All My Movies" and this is real piece of cake to get the same result. You have a field you fill with the path (with a file browser) and you have a button starting the file. No need for all these complications. I suspect you have had troubles when you started all that. Saying that, I still prefer DVD profiler for all the other features and I wish to stick to it.

Don't take me wrong, I do appreciate the work you have done and I only ask because I am a developer myself and can't stop asking myself these questions. Another reason is that I have contacted the support for authorisation to write a plugin myself. I want to add screenshots to my movies (You see, personal films made with your own camera don't have covers and imdb info). So, i thought I'd write a quick plugin for that. But seeing how your plugin is working, I start being concerned by feasability... I thought that adding a couple of Jpegs to a record would be okay but I am less sure now.

All the best.

Quoting sliege:

Quote:
You have a field you fill with the path (with a file browser) and you have a button starting the file. No need for all these complications.

That field is the Notes field for the filepath. That button is the icon in the LoadDVD toolbar. But you didn't want to research and fix the file association problems, which varies from system to system and gives us all headaches. All LoadDVD does is execute the filepath with the microsoft verb "play". The file association issues have been discussed in this thread here.

That's one of the reasons people have migrated to using the PlayFromDisk.bat - complicated, but comepletely fexible. You can get whatever you want - done. But you have to know the scripting language. I don't know if MyMovies loads all forms of media from any filepath, but remember that you are locked into Media Center. The Media Center toolkit is easier to use and may be more flexible in loading media. You should take a look at it. It is free, and supports HTML/Javascript, etc.

Also, perhgaps you want to explore the simple process of putting a file URL in Notes, settimg Notes to be viewed as HTML, and just click on the URL. See the Layouts Forum. That's one of the reasons I allow filepaths to be done in that way for LoadDVD. So you can be compatible with the the HTML section trechnique.

Well, no I am not that experience in file processing. I have a PhD in computer science and have done most of my job with OO technology starting with Smalltalk, Java and other things of the sort. That was/is also more in banking, insurance and big development projects. I did not do many batch though and will not claim being an expert in that field. But I am confident I can catch up pretty quickly. I do believe you that a month from now (hopefully by next week) I will laugh loud thinking how easy it was. I'll share that laugh with you. 

Regarding the field thing, i want to be clear that my ideas are from someone who has not tried and knows nothing about the underlying technology. So, I am ready to hear that my ideas are ...out of scope to be polite. But the idea is the following. You wanted to be able to launch DVD from various sources. Why didn't you add a couple of fields in the DB to get the job done? You are cleverly using existing ones, but if I am correct, you are "highjacking" them. The tag XML like in the Notes field is a good example. It is cleverly done but you had to write a parser (or use one) to extract the info. I now write "Play" in the "Location" field. That is surely not what is supposed to be there. A drop-down menu with a couple of constants would have made your life easier. Etc. I also appreciate that you were after a rather generic approach. That might be the reason of that slight complexity. We always pay genericity one way or another.

All in all, my conclusion is that you have had a hard time to do that job, not because of your skills but for some strong constraints you had to work within. I might be wrong and it can be deliberate. This is why I am asking. Once again, I do appreciate the job you have done and my questions are genuine. I also appreciate greatly that even take time to support that plugin in this very forum. I am simply a bit concerned about the intention I have to add a couple of Jpegs to a record. I do not want to highjack any existing field. I'd rather add a few ones and make my life easy. But anyway, I am waiting for an answer from Support about my request. Maybe they will simply turn it down.

Cheers.

Ok, all is much clearer now, and you are pretty much right on all counts.

Although I am still curious about your assertion that MyMovies does it all like a charm. I don't see what magic they would have to overcome missing file associations (for IFO for example, which has nothing associated by default), unless they are messing with the registry directly - which I don't do as a matter of principle.

Oh, and as far as the innards of Profiler. We cannot discuss that outside the developers forum. So, even if you don't plan to actually write a plugin, perhaps you could get access to the forum to learm about the details and contribute your ideas.