Sports Bar - New Windows Media Center add-in

[kd6icz]

I should browse the other forums more often. If it wasn't for taptalk suggesting this thread I would have no idea it existed. Very cool add in! I use extenders all around but I might be able to reconfigure and give this a try. All my computer has is display port so I'll have to get a cable to convert to HDMI.

[kd6icz]

Cable and remote kit ordered!

[leewcraft]

Sorry for the lack of progress on this, everyone, but I'm making a push to try to get it working more smoothly in time for March Madness. For those of you having issues, please download the latest build at http://www.myownchannels.com/MOCWeb/Sub ... lient.aspx. You'll have to un-install/re-install. This version has some options for generating log files that may help with troubleshooting.

After you have the latest build installed, click on Start / Run and type in %userprofile%\AppData\Local. Create a new folder there called SportsBar (no space), and it will then be able to log what it's doing a little better.

If you're still having issues, please email me your log files at support@myownchannels.com and I'll take a look and try to figure out what it's doing.

[kd6icz]

So I finally got my system reconfigured to run the plug-in but am having difficulty launching it. I click on S and it makes it where I can't see the boxes except for one.

I keep getting the error "this plug in is not full screen capible. So I try not running in full screen and that's when it distorts it so I can only see program 3.

[leewcraft]

I'm having that problem periodically too...not sure why yet, but I'll dig into that tonight. You can use Alt-Enter to switch back and forth between full screen and windowed modes and hopefully be able to see all 4 boxes. Once you start playing videos, just make sure you take WMC back out of full screen mode or it will hide the videos in the background.

[leewcraft]

Ok, here's what I've found with the issue that kd6icz described. It looks like Windows Media Center is behaving unpredictably (some might call it a bug) when it launches in windowed mode instead of fullscreen. I've gotten the add-in to work pretty consistently by doing the following:

1) Change WMC back to full-screen mode
2) Close WMC
3) Open WMC again
4) Launch SportsBar and click Continue when it prompts you to take WMC out of fullscreen mode

Sorry for the bugginess. I haven't had good results with the way WMC renders the GUI when it's not in fullscreen mode. One of my next bug fixes is to redo the UI in a way that doesn't require switching back and forth this way (hopefully in a way that would be more friendly to extenders, too).

[leewcraft]

I've launched a Kickstarter project to try to improve this add-in. If you're able to contribute to it, great! If not, please share the link with your friends or on whatever social media platform you prefer. I hope to be able to really build out this add-in and add things like Extender support, but it will take some effort and time. Thanks!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... sports-bar

[dubzga]

I haven't responded to this thread in a while but just wanted to say thanks again for your hard work on this. I just downloaded the latest build and I'm able to see all 4 channels once I back it out of full screen! Awesome! no audio though...might be something on my end Got too excited and didn't create a log folder yet but will do and post results if it isn't something boneheaded I'm doing on my side, FWIW, I do not let applications take exclusive control of the sound card in my settings (for a couple of reasons) and the WMC menu sounds are working/

[leewcraft]

I have the same sound issue with one of my machines, but not the other. I figured it was something weird with my video/audio driver. I'll investigate a little more and let you know if I can come up with a solution.

[mdavej]

Not a sports fan, so I didn't pay much attention to this thread before. But am I reading correctly that this add-in shows any 4 live tv streams at once? If so, that would be very useful beyond just sports (news, security, etc.). Got any screenshots?

FYI, exclusive mode may be the culprit with the sound issues.

[mdavej]

Can't edit my post, but I see the screenshots in the first post. Obviously does 4 in 1. Will try it out. Thanks for making it!

[leewcraft]

But am I reading correctly that this add-in shows any 4 live tv streams at once? If so, that would be very useful beyond just sports (news, security, etc.)

Interesting idea...my only time to see something like this that was not related to sports was in a Command Center at a datacenter where they kept an eye on weather and news events. Do you have some specific corporate kinds of applications in mind? The security thing is interesting, too, but it would be a little different since it's more of a video capture than doing broadcast channels. But similar for sure.

[mdavej]

Nothing specific in mind. But that made me think of some other corporate applications like video conferencing. Not sure how you could leverage your code for that, but it's something to consider.

As for security, I'm sure many would like to integrate that into WMC and possibly use something like your add-in to do it.

There's a hardware box for doing this called SkreensTV.

I'm looking forward to trying it out for news channels, especially when there is some big event everybody covers at once.

[Ylinen]

Corporation and Military all need to have monitors with multiple news and weather channels up at a time. Being able to switch the audio to the one they want to here is perfect.

Killer feature of your app would be to put a DLNA stream in each window also.

[Crash2009]

Speaking of Military....Drool on this one..

[leewcraft]

Ok, I've been investigating the no audio issue that some people, including me, are having. I tested on several different machines I have and can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to it. If anyone could post the following info about your systems and whether audio is working or not, it might help nail it down. To get the Windows Media Player version, open WMP and then press Alt-H to get to the Help / About menu (Help menu is hidden until you press Alt-H).

Here are the machines I've tested it on:

System 1 - Audio works
Windows 7, 32-bit, WMP version 12.0.7601.17514

System 2 - Audio works
Windows 7, 64-bit, WMP version 12.0.7601.18150

System 3 - Audio doesn't work
Windows 7, 64-bit, WMP version 12.0.7601.18741

System 4 - Audio works
Windows 8.1, 32-bit, WMP version 12.0.9600.17031

[Jathor9000]

I've launched a Kickstarter project to try to improve this add-in. If you're able to contribute to it, great! If not, please share the link with your friends or on whatever social media platform you prefer. I hope to be able to really build out this add-in and add things like Extender support, but it will take some effort and time. Thanks!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... sports-bar

Sweet, I was just going to recommend this to you. I would also recommend placing a donation link to paypal on your site or at the very least make us pay a few bucks for your development time. This has huge potential and I think given enough time this can be the app of apps IMO.

Thanks again for a wonderful app!!

Jathor9000