Controlling the dvdplayer from an external program

Well, I figured out a couple of things today, my day off...

First, the RootApp. I figured out that it is required in order for the Power Off button to work. Otherwise, the unit does not shut down properly. This becomes critical with the second discovery...

In a prior post, Fun with the Player I detailed that you have telnet control over the screenplay if you launch the DvdPlayer program after executing a stopall. You can then send keypresses to remote control the screenplay. This trick was stopped in R1.8 firmware, although it still works if you kill -9 the RootApp process. The real trick is to get it to allow you to connect to some kind of key queue that you can fill up after the screenplay is booted.

For the ScreenPlay Pro, the /usr/local/etc has an rcS file that launches the DvdPlayer portion in conjunction with the RootApp. So, using a suggestion from jamoba posted to the emtec group back in february, I modified my rcS as follows:

if [ -f $DEFAULT_AP_DIR/DvdPlayer ] && [ -x $DEFAULT_AP_DIR/DvdPlayer ]; then
cd $DEFAULT_AP_DIR
if [ -f $DEFAULT_AP_DIR/RootApp ] && [ -x $DEFAULT_AP_DIR/RootApp ]; then
echo Running dvdplayer with RootApp
touch /tmp/command_sender.txt
tail -f /tmp/command_sender.txt | RootApp DvdPlayer -l on -o /var/log/dvdplayer/user_input&
else
echo Running dvdplayer
./DvdPlayer -l on -o /var/log/dvdplayer/user_input&
fi
else
/usr/local/etc/dvdplayer/script/run_tail
fi

sleep 10
cat /tmp_orig/startscript >> /tmp/command_sender.txt

So basically, I have a series of keypresses in the startscript file that it sends 10 seconds after launching the program, which is just about right. I can have the startscript read something like:

  XX 
(There's a single space before XX and a single space after)

To have it automatically go into the ScreenPlay drive and press down twice and select the folder or media at that location.

Now, if I wanted to send more keystrokes outside of the startscript, I can simply add to the /tmp/command_sender.txt by commands like "echo O >> command_sender.txt" to have it automatically shut down the screenplay. I can do this in a telnet prompt AFTER the screenplay has booted. Theoretically, I could write an http webpage that displays all of my movies, say in thumbnail mode, and if I select one, it could send the necessary prompts to the screenplay to automatically select and play the movie. It could even send the necessary prompts to launch the movie from a DVD menu. Or shut off the screenplay from a remote location.

There is a condition in which it won't run the script. This script will run each time the screenplay is powered on, but does not work if the screenplay is brought back from standby mode. If you shut off the screenplay with the remote, then any scheduled recordings you have will automatically boot up the screenplay. The screenplay is in Standby mode.

If you shut it down by holding down the power button on the front of the console, then it shuts off the power and you will miss any scheduled recordings. It is not in standby mode.

When you power up from standby mode, the "Iomega" logo does not appear during the boot process. That is one way you can identify that you are in standby mode. It also isn't going to run the rcS script, and thus won't run the startscript text file either.

Something else I discovered: If you telnet in, go into standby mode, then turn the screenplay back on, your telnet session will still be running. This is a symptom of it coming out of standby mode. All processes are still running. Thought it was interesting.