Solution: Media info on 2nd screen
#16
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.
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
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#17
Smile 
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
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#18
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.
_HTPC_: Zalman HD XT 160 Plus incl. 7" LCD / Intel E8400 / Intel X-25 SSD / Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H / 4 GB Corsair DDR 800 mhz / 6TB HDD / ASUS XONAR DS / Microsoft LifeCam Cinema 720p / Logitec DiNovo Mini/ _LAPTOP_: Sony Vaio TZ31 / MTron 1.8" SSD / _TV_: Samsung 52" FullHD LCD / _RECIEVER_AND_SURROUND_: Harman Kardon 245 5.1 / _ROUTER_: DLink DIR-655 / _INTERNET_AND_ISP__ Telia 100/100mbit / _DOG_ Miniature Schnauzer
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#19
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!
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#20
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:
Image
TV shows:
Image
Music:
Image

Hello,
Great idea,
Can we have more windows with different options setup and used with http://www.foxtab.com/welcome/mozzila?
Thanks
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#21
This is good stuff, this should in theory work on all platforms, no?
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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#22
Although not tested by me, I also think that this script should work on any platform.
It only uses documented features of the HTTP API, and the scripting behaviour of Firefox as webclient should be the same on all platforms, as well...
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#23
Hi,
still love your tool. Unfortunately I don't know how to let Firefox start-up in full screen mode (like pressing F11 button). Can one of you maybe give me a hint how to start it up always in 800x600 full screen mode without borders?
Thanks
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#24
There are a few Firefox Add-ons out there, that can accomplish fullscreen on startup.

Take a look at https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/1568, for example.
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#25
I have a Zalman HD160XT plus (with 7"LCD). And this works very nice. I open up this in Firefox in fullscreen.
Only problem is, how do I start firefox AFTER xbmc is started? I am using Linux.

Also it can use a bit of styling, but it works very good for now! thanks!
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#26
Ubuntux, I think a shellscript like the following should do the trick to start Firefox somewhat delayed.

Code:
xbmc&
sleep 15
firefox&

Regarding style:
I'm totally with you, the style is by far not perfect, but I'm not really a style-artist. If you have suggestions about the style - feel free to make some Photoshop drafts, if I like them I will try re-code the script to match your suggestion.

@Admins:
Since it's now confirmed to work on Linux, too - could you please move this thread out of the Windows specific section?
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#27
Is this still being worked on? I have some photoshop skills and can contribute to make it look prettier.
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#28
I'm not really working on this ATM, since I have reached a state which more or less matches my personal demands.

Though, there have been a few small tweaks over the last months (especially after the release of Dharma), so I will post the current version in a few days (not at home ATM) - would be great if someone else is willing to contribute.

And if there are some interesting suggestions to make it better / prettier / faster, there is a good chance that I will restart working on the code as well, since I really like the idea of having a perfect, tidy, little info-app on the built-in 2nd screen of my mediacenter (one of the very few things XBMC is missing) :-)
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#29
This looks great, did you remove the file? Says requested file is deleted...Sad
Image
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#30
Triam, have you considered turning this into an addon? Not really sure how much more work would be involved, but then XBMC could host it in the repository.
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Solution: Media info on 2nd screen2