[Angelscry]

Here are my recent investigations into the use of Advanced Launcher (version 1.11.0) with Frodo (release version) on Windows operating system (Windows 8 - 64bits).
For my tests I have created a stand alone launcher opening a Youtube page using Internet Explorer into kiosk mode :

Code:

...
<application>C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe</application>
<args>-k "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7OjD8e-FxU"</args>
...

And I have played with the different video/audio parameter of XBMC. Here are the result :

• Audio(WASAPI) + Video(Fullscreen Windows) + IE -> No Sound
  
• Audio(WASAPI) + Video(True Fullscreen) + IE -> No Sound + XBMC stay minimized after IE was closed
  
• Audio(DirecSound) + Video(Fullscreen Windows) + IE -> Sound OK + IE start into background (XBMC Freezed)
  
• Audio(DirecSound) + Video(True Fullscreen) + Audio(DirecSound) + IE -> Sound OK + XBMC stay minimized after IE was closed
  

Using WASAPI is en epic fail. No sound at all for external applications. I have try the method to use the <streamsilence>0</streamsilence> value into advancedsettings.xml but it has change nothing.

All this measurements have been made using the "Toggle XBMC into Windowed Mode" set to OFF (default value). If we put this value to ON we obtain.

• Audio(DirecSound) + Video(Fullscreen Windows) + ALA windowed mode ON + IE -> Sound OK + IE start into background (XBMC start minimized then Freeze into fullscreen mode on foreground)
  
• Audio(DirecSound) + Video(True Fullscreen) + ALA windowed mode ON + IE -> Sound OK (we shortly see XBMC windowed)
  

The last option seems to be the most interesting :

• Audio set to DirecSound
  
• Video set to True Fullscreen
  
• and Advanced Launcher "Toggle XBMC into Windowed Mode" option set to OFF.
  

The only thing is that we shortly see the XBMC windows minimized during 1sec. You can decrease this delay to 100ms by going into Advanced Launcher advanced settings and put launcher delay value to minimum (100ms). You will be able to decrease this value to 0ms with the next Advanced Launcher version (1.11.1). In this lasdt case you will pratically no see XBMC to be minimized.

[Angelscry]

Version 1.11.1:
This new version of Advanced Launcher just allows to set the minimum delay to start an application at 0ms (insteand of 100ms for previous versions).

Changelog:

• Set minimum launcher delay to 0ms.
  

[gurgietrueshot]

Version 1.11.0:
This new version of Advanced Launcher attempt to fix all the annoying bugs appearing during the last days. It first fix the way thumbs and fanart images are saved during update/refresh. I'm not sure it will definitively fix the problem of launchers.xml file corruption (empty saved file) but for now I was not able to reproduce the problem. This version also rollback to the way used by version 1.10.15 to start windows application to avoid problem under Windows systems.

Changelog:

• Fix launcher thumb image update/refresh.
  
• Fix launcher fanart image update/refresh.
  
• Rollback way to start Windows application as for version 1.10.15.
  

Because previous version was really unstable, feedback on this version will be really appreciated.

Well I was just about to post and say it appears to be fixed but I tried to change and overwrite some art in my Mame launcher and got the error again. This time it just knocked out the first few lines.

After error: http://pastebin.com/uFtF8rYP
Before Error: http://pastebin.com/w43ss6QH
xbmc.log: http://pastebin.com/yAGTF86q

The error at the end crashed XBMC after I set the launcher delay to 100ms

[hunterx]

So this Advanced Launcher won't automatically find my ROM's, but I think I read that's a bug currently?

[count_zero]

To be able to have sound with external application I think that you will have to waitthe release the final version of Frodo or use the stable version of XBMC (Eden).

Hiya, just wondering if there are any fixes / workarounds for the issue with sound in external apps with Frodo? I'm using xbmcbuntu, attempting to launch skype but get no sound.

This is how I have configured my linux system to have audio for applications started from XBMC Frodo. I'm using the Archlinux distribution, so I'm not sure this manipulation will be exactly the same for other distributions (Ubuntu, XBMCBuntu, Openelec, etc...). The main cause of the problem is that applications using pulseaudio (XBMC) and applications using ALSA (firefox, mednafen, etc...) cannot always play audio at the same time.

First you need to have ASLA and Pulseaudio packages installed on your system. This is the package I have installed on my systems :

alsa-firmware
alsa-lib
alsa-oss
alsa-utils
pulseaudio
pavucontrol

You have to check that the pulseaudio-alsa package is not installed on your system. If it is installed, just remove it.

Then you will have to edit the /etc/pulse/default.pa file.

First, found the lines refering to module-alsa-sink and module-alsa-source loading and edit them to indicated to use dmix and dsnoop parameters, like this :

Code:

load-module module-alsa-sink device=dmix
load-module module-alsa-source device=dsnoop

Then, found the lines refering to module-udev-detect and module-detect and comment them, like this :

Code:

# load-module module-udev-detect
# load-module module-detect

Save the /etc/pulse/default.pa file and reboot your system.

Thanks!
I can confirm this works. I'm not a huge fan of pulseaudio, but this is a workaround.

You need to set your audio playback preferences in XBMC to pulseaudio.

[Dondi]

Recently joined the XBMC madness in December. Been configuring, cleaning libraries, updating, refreshing ROM sets, reading forums, etc. - I'm dizzy. I made a standalone MAME cocktail cab back in 1998 (http://www.dondi.net/cocktail.htm) check it out, its pretty cool. Stumbled upon 3DArcade back in 2000, which breathed new life into the cab; Pins, consoles, etc. Last time I did a refresh was about 8 years ago - now, with XBMC, I want to start off setting-up my main XBMC machine with MAME, N64, NES, Genesis, SNES and 3DO. I was thinking RomsCollectionBrowser was the ticket, but now I think Adv Launcher is the way to go (still not sure)... which leads me to the reason for this post: 3DO setup for XBMC

Pretty sure I can figure out the other EMU/Consoles either via Adv Launcher or RCB. I have a dev machine (Win 8) that I am using to test before I move everything over to my XBMC. I started with 3DO because that's proven to be one of the hardest to set-up for me in the past.

I intend on using 4DO as the EMU. Now, here's where it gets tricky. The ROM set I have is a Trurip set where the individual game ROMS are zipped. The name of the zip is the name of the game with region (ex., Gex (US) [61060] [76-5979-63060-2].zip) and when it is unzipped it creates a parent folder (same name as the .zip) and in the parent folder is a Media folder with 3 files (ex., CD-ROM [61060] [!-].ccd, CD-ROM [61060] [!-].img & CD-ROM [61060] [!-].sub).

I've read the wikis and realize that the 2 emulators for 3DO are expecting either a .bin/.cue or .iso natively. I've started a discussion on my ROMs forum and the feedback I've gotten is to throw Virtual CloneCD in the mix. (I don't particularly like to run virtual drives/daemons)

I figure I can do one of two things (just my assumptions at this point, please correct me if I am thinking this wrong):
1) Manually unzip each, and convert the .ccd/.img/.sub to .iso
2) Manually unzip each (unless Adv Launcher or RCB, can parse the image .ccd from within the .zip), and figure out how to pass the .ccd to 4DO via Virtual CloneCD

Not sure which way to go on this; either way it looks like I need to start unzipping in either case (??). If I go with option 2, I'm definitely going to need help with the commandline for getting Virtual CloneCD to launch and exit etc.

Sorry for the lengthy post. All, and any, help at this point is a godsend!!!

[Angelscry]

So this Advanced Launcher won't automatically find my ROM's, but I think I read that's a bug currently?

You need to perform a scan to add new item to a Launcher.

---

Version 1.11.0:
This new version of Advanced Launcher attempt to fix all the annoying bugs appearing during the last days. It first fix the way thumbs and fanart images are saved during update/refresh. I'm not sure it will definitively fix the problem of launchers.xml file corruption (empty saved file) but for now I was not able to reproduce the problem. This version also rollback to the way used by version 1.10.15 to start windows application to avoid problem under Windows systems.

Changelog:

• Fix launcher thumb image update/refresh.
  
• Fix launcher fanart image update/refresh.
  
• Rollback way to start Windows application as for version 1.10.15.
  

Because previous version was really unstable, feedback on this version will be really appreciated.

Well I was just about to post and say it appears to be fixed but I tried to change and overwrite some art in my Mame launcher and got the error again. This time it just knocked out the first few lines.

After error: http://pastebin.com/uFtF8rYP
Before Error: http://pastebin.com/w43ss6QH
xbmc.log: http://pastebin.com/yAGTF86q

The error at the end crashed XBMC after I set the launcher delay to 100ms

Thank for the report... Bad new it is not yet fixed.... I have to understand now WHY the launchers.xml file is corrupted at its begining an not, like most of the time, at its end.... Pleae could you confirm me that after the bug, the begining of the launchers.xml file is filed with spaces and and the first visible character is a ">".... because... heuuu... that's do not have any sens. The launchers.xml file is writed line by line. I can understand that first lines could be replaced by spaces... but not that a line was partially written...

For the delay, If you do not have a fast computer and if the value is to small.... XBMC will effectively crash. Set the value to 1000ms... then decrease it to slowly until it not crash. For example on my different systems :

Windows 8 Laptop -> delay of 0 ms is ok.
Archlinux Laptop -> delay of 100 ms is ok.
Archlinux HTPC -> delay of 300 ms is ok.

The idea is to reduce to a maximum the delay between the moment of start the application and the moment you switch to this application. This delay was added since Frodo.... With Eden use delay was never needed.

---

Hiya, just wondering if there are any fixes / workarounds for the issue with sound in external apps with Frodo? I'm using xbmcbuntu, attempting to launch skype but get no sound.

This is how I have configured my linux system to have audio for applications started from XBMC Frodo. I'm using the Archlinux distribution, so I'm not sure this manipulation will be exactly the same for other distributions (Ubuntu, XBMCBuntu, Openelec, etc...). The main cause of the problem is that applications using pulseaudio (XBMC) and applications using ALSA (firefox, mednafen, etc...) cannot always play audio at the same time.

First you need to have ASLA and Pulseaudio packages installed on your system. This is the package I have installed on my systems :

alsa-firmware
alsa-lib
alsa-oss
alsa-utils
pulseaudio
pavucontrol

You have to check that the pulseaudio-alsa package is not installed on your system. If it is installed, just remove it.

Then you will have to edit the /etc/pulse/default.pa file.

First, found the lines refering to module-alsa-sink and module-alsa-source loading and edit them to indicated to use dmix and dsnoop parameters, like this :

Code:

load-module module-alsa-sink device=dmix
load-module module-alsa-source device=dsnoop

Then, found the lines refering to module-udev-detect and module-detect and comment them, like this :

Code:

# load-module module-udev-detect
# load-module module-detect

Save the /etc/pulse/default.pa file and reboot your system.

Thanks!
I can confirm this works. I'm not a huge fan of pulseaudio, but this is a workaround.

You need to set your audio playback preferences in XBMC to pulseaudio.

Are you also be able to make it works using HDMI? I was able to make it work on my linux laptop system (using analogic output) but not on my linux HTPC system (using HDMI output).

[Angelscry]

Recently joined the XBMC madness in December. Been configuring, cleaning libraries, updating, refreshing ROM sets, reading forums, etc. - I'm dizzy. I made a standalone MAME cocktail cab back in 1998 (http://www.dondi.net/cocktail.htm) check it out, its pretty cool. Stumbled upon 3DArcade back in 2000, which breathed new life into the cab; Pins, consoles, etc. Last time I did a refresh was about 8 years ago - now, with XBMC, I want to start off setting-up my main XBMC machine with MAME, N64, NES, Genesis, SNES and 3DO. I was thinking RomsCollectionBrowser was the ticket, but now I think Adv Launcher is the way to go (still not sure)... which leads me to the reason for this post: 3DO setup for XBMC

Pretty sure I can figure out the other EMU/Consoles either via Adv Launcher or RCB. I have a dev machine (Win 8) that I am using to test before I move everything over to my XBMC. I started with 3DO because that's proven to be one of the hardest to set-up for me in the past.

I intend on using 4DO as the EMU. Now, here's where it gets tricky. The ROM set I have is a Trurip set where the individual game ROMS are zipped. The name of the zip is the name of the game with region (ex., Gex (US) [61060] [76-5979-63060-2].zip) and when it is unzipped it creates a parent folder (same name as the .zip) and in the parent folder is a Media folder with 3 files (ex., CD-ROM [61060] [!-].ccd, CD-ROM [61060] [!-].img & CD-ROM [61060] [!-].sub).

I've read the wikis and realize that the 2 emulators for 3DO are expecting either a .bin/.cue or .iso natively. I've started a discussion on my ROMs forum and the feedback I've gotten is to throw Virtual CloneCD in the mix. (I don't particularly like to run virtual drives/daemons)

I figure I can do one of two things (just my assumptions at this point, please correct me if I am thinking this wrong):
1) Manually unzip each, and convert the .ccd/.img/.sub to .iso
2) Manually unzip each (unless Adv Launcher or RCB, can parse the image .ccd from within the .zip), and figure out how to pass the .ccd to 4DO via Virtual CloneCD

Not sure which way to go on this; either way it looks like I need to start unzipping in either case (??). If I go with option 2, I'm definitely going to need help with the commandline for getting Virtual CloneCD to launch and exit etc.

Sorry for the lengthy post. All, and any, help at this point is a godsend!!!

Yes, if your 3DO emulators are not able to start zip files. you will need to unzip them. You could use Advanced Launcher with a bash script that will do it (unzip the file) before starting the emulator... It will surely works... but I think you will have a delay before the emulator will be able to start the game. I this case I suggest you to unzip them manually.

Next, for auto mounting/unmonting .ccd files you can simply do it with a bash script. Here is an exemple with Daemon Tools and NeoGeo CDZ emulator : http://www.gwenael.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7

[psychomaniac]

Version 1.11.0:
This new version of Advanced Launcher attempt to fix all the annoying bugs appearing during the last days. It first fix the way thumbs and fanart images are saved during update/refresh. I'm not sure it will definitively fix the problem of launchers.xml file corruption (empty saved file) but for now I was not able to reproduce the problem. This version also rollback to the way used by version 1.10.15 to start windows application to avoid problem under Windows systems.

Changelog:

• Fix launcher thumb image update/refresh.
  
• Fix launcher fanart image update/refresh.
  
• Rollback way to start Windows application as for version 1.10.15.
  

Because previous version was really unstable, feedback on this version will be really appreciated.

I can confirm that the problem with iexplore.exe (IE9) is gone. Also the problem with explorer.exe is gone. For me Advanced launcher is working perfectly thnx man!

[davelr]

Version 1.11.0:
This new version of Advanced Launcher attempt to fix all the annoying bugs appearing during the last days. It first fix the way thumbs and fanart images are saved during update/refresh. I'm not sure it will definitively fix the problem of launchers.xml file corruption (empty saved file) but for now I was not able to reproduce the problem. This version also rollback to the way used by version 1.10.15 to start windows application to avoid problem under Windows systems.

Changelog:

• Fix launcher thumb image update/refresh.
  
• Fix launcher fanart image update/refresh.
  
• Rollback way to start Windows application as for version 1.10.15.
  

Because previous version was really unstable, feedback on this version will be really appreciated.

I can confirm that the problem with iexplore.exe (IE9) is gone. Also the problem with explorer.exe is gone. For me Advanced launcher is working perfectly thnx man!

As for Psychomaniac, I find this morning that everything seems to be behaving well (1.11.1). I tested both .lnk launchers and direct .exe launchers. For your earlier question, yes as far as I could tell it was mainly IE, but I don't use Chrome or Firefox so did not test them. My IE is V9 fully patched. Thanks again for all the help.

[mechevarria]

Has anyone gotten external audio working via HDMI? I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Passthrough audio to my receiver in XBMC is flawless, but XBMC doesn't release the audio device when I try to launch emulators (i.e. mednafen), browsers or any application. Streamsilence in advancedSettings.xml doesn't seem to work for alsa (I think this is a known bug) and trying to use pulseaudio results in 'no passthrough device found' in XBMC.

[Angelscry]

Has anyone gotten external audio working via HDMI? I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Passthrough audio to my receiver in XBMC is flawless, but XBMC doesn't release the audio device when I try to launch emulators (i.e. mednafen), browsers or any application. Streamsilence in advancedSettings.xml doesn't seem to work for alsa (I think this is a known bug) and trying to use pulseaudio results in 'no passthrough device found' in XBMC.

Have you try this : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1322276 ??

[pgjensen]

Has anyone gotten external audio working via HDMI? I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Passthrough audio to my receiver in XBMC is flawless, but XBMC doesn't release the audio device when I try to launch emulators (i.e. mednafen), browsers or any application. Streamsilence in advancedSettings.xml doesn't seem to work for alsa (I think this is a known bug) and trying to use pulseaudio results in 'no passthrough device found' in XBMC.

Have you try this : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1322276 ??

If anyone has this issue with Windows, either use DirectSound only (which works better with receivers and launching external apps), or use WASAPI with advancedsettings.xml setup for <audio><streamsilence>1</streamsilence></audio>. I don't believe this matters for the passthrough device.

[Angelscry]

Has anyone gotten external audio working via HDMI? I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Passthrough audio to my receiver in XBMC is flawless, but XBMC doesn't release the audio device when I try to launch emulators (i.e. mednafen), browsers or any application. Streamsilence in advancedSettings.xml doesn't seem to work for alsa (I think this is a known bug) and trying to use pulseaudio results in 'no passthrough device found' in XBMC.

Have you try this : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1322276 ??

If anyone has this issue with Windows, either use DirectSound only (which works better with receivers and launching external apps), or use WASAPI with advancedsettings.xml setup for <audio><streamsilence>1</streamsilence></audio>. I don't believe this matters for the passthrough device.

Thank you for the advice.

[bakito]

hey angel!
long time I have no problem with advance but...well since sometimes now xbmc, when quitting pcsx2 ( with autoit script) , is not on focus...the most strange is that it is not every time...some all works fine some times xbmc don't get focus after quitting ps2 game...I remember having this kinfd of problem and I add a "wait" line in the autoit script to fix it, sadly I don't remember how I achieve this ( and I have far less time now to search and experiment
I remember that you post my script somewhere at that time ( the one who shut down xbmc then start it ) but I could not find it...could you help me?
I'm pretty sure that this focus thing happen because xbmc start to shortly after pcsx2 is closed...well I hope it's this anyway!
thanks!!
cheers