DVD Play/Pause separated

[xentaur]

Hi all,

Downloaded and registered GameEx this week with a view to putting it into a video cabinet. I am enjoying the interface - congrats to the developers.

Lots of tweaking to get my MAME arcade games working - check.

Now I come to my Digital Leisure DVD's. I've got three of them (DL, DL2, Space Ace - first conquered DL in a Pizza parlour may years ago and HAD to have them once I found them) and I've made some inroads using them in GameEx.

I've avoided using Daphne (I don't understand why Daphne needs to download more stuff when I've got the originals there and as I'm on wireless broadband my quota is download-prohibitive) as I found the DVD's will launch fine using the Multimedia/DVD option in GameEx.

The problem I'm having using it this way is that the PLAY/OK/ENTER function - as it would be used on a stand-alone DVD player remote - isn't emulated in the same way using keyboard controls in GameEx, nor does there seem a way to separate the functions PLAY & PAUSE for DVD settings in the GameEx Keyboard Input config.

FYI, I have PowerDVD however I'd prefer to have all games played within GameEx, as PDVD won't launch fullscreen nor honor the steps outlined in the tutorials to pass the DVD details to the application (i.e. "C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" [DVD]).

PowerDVD, uses the keyboard arrow keys for directions, as does GameEx. PDVD also uses ENTER as fire/sword but there doesn't appear to be an equivalent for DVD's in GameEx. - arrow keys seem to work but ENTER just changes the aspect ratio - CTRL just pauses the playback.

If it is there and I've missed it, can someone show me where to map these keyboard controls to mirror PDVD playback in GameEx?

If it's not there, can it please be considered for future releases?

Many thanks

[AlphaUMi]

IIRC (cannot check now) in DVD options in Setup Wizard there is an option to set an external player. You could give it a try.

[xentaur]

Thanks Ultimate.

I'd consider using PowerDVD if I could pass the video parameter to it.

The GameEx DVD's function seems to work OK with ISO,s and VIDEO_TS folders, but neither of the options I've tried when launching PowerDVD as an external player will pass the video parameter to PowerDVD - the application just opens with nothing in it.

I've tried:

"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe"

and:

"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe "

and

"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" [DVD]

and

"C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe [DVD]"

Any suggestions most welcome.

Cheers

[AlphaUMi]

I don't think you can separate play & pause buttons in GameEx because it is programmed that way. However, you could post a feature request in the appropriate thread: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/10189-feature-enhancement-requests/.

I found this thread http://www.avsforum.com/t/390263/powerdvd-command-line-options which explains how to pass the drive letter to PowerDVD and autoplay the DVD. In PowerDVD video settings there is and option to launch the program in fullscreen, too.

Please give it a try and report back, I'm curious...

Cheers xentaur, and welcome to the forums!

[xentaur]

Ok, more info to chew over:

PowerDVD will run with VIDEO_TS.IFO in Windows using the Run command, as follows:

POWERDVD.EXE "C:\DVD\Space Ace\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO"

..so the issue has to be with what filename parameter - if any - is being being passed by GameEx to PowerDVD as the external player.

I've tried (with and without quotes)

%file% , %DVD%, %VIDEO%, [file], [DVD], , even %parameter%.

Gurus with knowledge of the variable reference used to pass the filename to the external player, enlighten me!

Many thanks

[xentaur]

Thanks again AlphaMUI.

I had found that thread before posting and it hasn't helped I'm afraid.

I've mapped folders of each games to drive letters but PowerDVD won't launch the game with just the drive letter being passed, it still requires the full path to the IFO file.

In any case, I still see a problem not knowing the parameter that needs to be passed.

Will keep plugging away - any insight appreciated.

Cheers

[AlphaUMi]

My guess is that, once GameEx lanuches an external player, all command line parameters are "on charge" of that external player.

Another idea is to convert your dvd to ISO and use this image file with deamon tools that is fully supported by GameEx (but i don't use daemon tools, so I can't be of any help in this matter).

[Tempest]

The setup wizard says """C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\DVD9\WinDVD.exe" "[dvd]"" as an example. Does that not work?

[xentaur]

Hi Tempest,

There's four open quotes but only three close quotes in your example, is that correct? Our should it be quotes around the program command, separate quotes around the parameter, and then quotes around the whole lot?

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try at home tonight and post back. If no worky I'll have to go the ISO route.

Cheers

[Tempest]

No, that doesn't sound right. I would try getting rid of the first open quote. If you get it going please let us know, and we will see if we can get the command corrected in a future release.

[xentaur]

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

With Daemon Tools installed I found the following value in External Player CMD is launching the game (all quotes need to be included):

""C:\Program Files\CyberLink DVD Solution\PowerDVD\PowerDVD.exe" "[DVD]""

For the issue with Play/Pause vs Enter I've had to remap MAME to accommodate the PowerDVD proprietary controls. Not sure if there's an option in PowerDVD - .ini file or what have you - to change the default program controls - but am doing ok for now.

Next issue is getting my PSX emulator to work - that's a story for another thread!

Thanks all for your suggestions.

Cheers