Solution: Media info on 2nd screen

triumvirrr Wrote:The newer version is already running on my system - just have to do some minor cosmetical changes before putting it online.
I think it will be ready and online until next weekend.

Many thx !!

New version is online, some tweaks in the HTML code and fanart support are the most notable changes.

You need Firefox 3.5 or newer for this interface to work. Older firefox versions are not supported since there was a change in opacity handling introduced with 3.5 and I wrote no code to check which version is in use.

Please report back if everything is working fine.
I just tested on my own system with all files on a remote storgae and with fanart for nearly every movie in the movie's folder (it's copied directly from there), but for example no music fanart, so I don't know how the interface behaves when confronted with music fanart.

The download link is edited into the first post.

First, thank you for the update.
I've tested it. Here's some feedback:
1st thing: I needed to change the resolution to 800x600 but the big clock and date aren't visible. They are also a bit too large (almost visible when not playing any media).
2nd thing: fanart isn't appearing. I just get a black transparant overlay over my background.
3th: the thumbs aren't visible. I just get a very very very small square in the upper right corner.
Greetz,
P

The font sizes can be configured within the styles-section of the .asp page. ATM the sizes are set for decent size with 1280x800 pixel displays and need to be reduced for lower resolutions.

Regarding points 2 and 3:
You are sure that you have modified "xbox_web_path" to your system path? If you don't use a German windows system, the path will most likely have to be adapted! If you do have adapted this value, please PM me 1) your modified *.asp 2) the path of your XBMC installation 3) example paths of media you are using.

I have disabled the clock/time when playing content in the current release, since I think, that a display jammed with too many information is not really stylish. Please refer to the new screenshots in the first posts to see, how it _should_ look like ATM.
If you however want it to be visible, just open the *.js file, search for

Quote://document.getElementById('bigtime').innerHTML=(Math.round

and uncomment it, therefore set a comment (two slashes) before the following line

Quote:document.getElementById('bigtime').innerHTML="";

. That should be it.

Cheers
triumvirrr

triumvirrr Wrote:The font sizes can be configured within the styles-section of the .asp page. ATM the sizes are set for decent size with 1280x800 pixel displays and need to be reduced for lower resolutions.

Regarding points 2 and 3:
You are sure that you have modified "xbox_web_path" to your system path? If you don't use a German windows system, the path will most likely have to be adapted! If you do have adapted this value, please PM me 1) your modified *.asp 2) the path of your XBMC installation 3) example paths of media you are using.

I have disabled the clock/time when playing content in the current release, since I think, that a display jammed with too many information is not really stylish. Please refer to the new screenshots in the first posts to see, how it _should_ look like ATM.
If you however want it to be visible, just open the *.js file, search for and uncomment it, therefore set a comment (two slashes) before the following line . That should be it.

Cheers
triumvirrr

Hi,

I adapted the styles (it was h5).
Path is sent via PM.

Greetz,
P

I'll try this weekend to test some more. But the problem with the thumb and fanart is still not working. More feedback around the weekend.

Hi,

first thanks for this cool and great tool! Exactly what I tried to have on the built in screen of my PC, thanks a lot!

However, as the other user I do not get the pics, neither fanart nor icon shown. The rest, like font sizes are under control for my 800x600 display.

I'm currently using Win7 business for testing until the system runs stable.
While I was trying to find the path where you copy those files to I saw a paths 'programme\xbmc\web which contained a 'currentthumb.jpg'. While I'm writing tis I found out that the current user does not have write rights in this folder, therefore I changed this and I now can see the thumbnails. That's really cool now.
And, for movies I also still see the complete path on the screen. Title only would be better. Any ideas?
Thanks
Dan

First of all, thank you very much triumvirrr for this script. I have always wondered what to do with my 7" LCD for my Zalman HD160XT Plus-HTPC.

Although I have been trying to get this to work for more than a week now, fan art and cover will not show.

I am running my system on Windows 7, build 7600 x86 (final version). I am admin and have read/write everywhere.

My system looks like this; C:\Program Files\XBMC\web

When I read the above post, i started looking for the currentthumb.jpg, and found it in the wrong folder. In order to get the currentthumb.jpg in the web-folder, I have to write..

var xbox_web_path = "C:\web\\";

.. in the multimediascreen.asp. This is very strange, but it works and everytime i start a new tv-show i get the new thumb in the XBMC\web-folder.

Problem 1: Although I get the thumb in the web-folder, it won't show on the screen. I get the name of the show, and current playtime.. but no thumb.

Problem 2: I can't seem to find the fanart anywhere.

FOI: I don't have any fanart.jpg or anything in my movie folders. All the fanart and covers I have is from scrapers only.

First of all - I'm glad to see some interest in my project! :-)

As for the open questions:
1) No thumbs showing
I think, that this is a problem with a "normal" installation with Win7 (and Vista): An installed application is not allowed to write to it's own directory, so Windows prevents copying the thumb file to the web folder, which is a subdirectory of the application's dir. This applies also if you have all rights on that folder, AFAIK - you are only allowed to write there during installation.

I guess (without having tested it, since still sticking to XP on my HTPC for various reasons), that using portable mode should do the trick. Just use XBMC out of a generic directory (c:\xbmx, for example) and adjust var xbox_web_path accordingly.

Switching off user account control would probably work as well.

2) No fanart showing
I myself have all of my fanart directly in the directory of the media. They are always called fanart.jpg, with separate folders for each movie and each tv show it's always clear, which file should be used.

I unfortunately have no clue, how to find out the fanart's filename and directory used in XBMC's cache. I do have access to the thumb via the HTTP API, but I haven't found anything similar for fanarts.
Does someone out there know, if there is a way to get the current fanart via the HTTP API?

3) No thumbs in TV shows
This is done intentionally. Since most of the thumbs for single episodes of tv shows (not the thumbs for the entire show) are just screenshots with ARs of 16:9 or 4:3, I haven't found a way to show them in a beautiful way. They are always too wide and look out of their place. So I have chosen to show just the fanart as background for tv shows.

4) Full file path showing instead of movie name
Are you sure, that your movie is scanned to XBMC's library? The full path is typically just a fallback, if XBMC doesn't find the movie's title in its DB. If the movie IS in your XBMC DB (not only in file mode!) please send a PM with a screenshot of the mediascreen and the content of http://127.0.0.1/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?comma...tlyPlaying while playing the file.

As always: Feedback is very much appreciated - if you think, that episode's thumbs are essential (and have an idea on where to place them on the media screen) or if you know a way to copy content to Win7's installation directory (or the webserver's directory, more specifically) - please leave a post!

triumvirrr Wrote:I have spent much time searching for a solution for bringing the information of the currently playing media to the embedded lcd screen of my HTPC, which offers a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, while watching tv shows, movies or listening to music on the "bigscreen".

I now have coded a small webpage for the built-in XBMC webserver, that does exactly what I need. I just have to start Firefox (IE doesnt work ATM) in fullscreen mode on the small embedded screen and all the relevant information is on screen.

The solution is easily adaptable to other screen resolutions via the variables found in the .asp file.

Installation:
Extract the contents of the .zip to your web folder inside your XBMC installation and open the url "http://yourxbmcip/multimediascreen.asp" in your firefox.
Be sure to first open the .asp file in a text editor and change at least "xbox_web_path" to your needs, since that is the path of the webserver, where the thumbnails are copied to to be available via HTTP. You can change other aspects there as well, eg. screen size or font size.

Here is the Version 1.1

Since I'm not a skilled coder, please feel free to add your changes to my code! :-)

Screenshots:
Movies:

TV shows:

Music:

Hello,
Great idea,
Can we have more windows with different options setup and used with http://www.foxtab.com/welcome/mozzila?
Thanks