EmpegFace 1.5 Available

Posted by: tfabris

EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 12:46

EmpegFace 1.5 is available at my home page (click on my name below) or at the Downloads section of www.riocar.org.

Release notes from the readme are:

- Removed the ImageGrabber code. Now uses the Winsock
control and loads the images directly into memory without
making a trip to the hard disk first. Hopefully making it
more reliable in more environments. Thanks to Trevor Man
and Bitt Faulk (and others) on the empeg BBS who offered
help and advice, and who kept needling me until I finally
did this. :-)

- You may delete the file IMAGEGRABBER.DLL from your hard
disk if you wish.

- MSWINSCK.OCX is now required. See the notes above for
installation instructions.

- Fixed a bug where sometimes the VFD-refresh timer would
get reset to 1000.

- Added the "resolves to" box to the configuration screen.
 I'm anxious to hear whether the overhaul of the downloading code solves problems or creates problems for anyone.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 12:52

Works great for me!

Seems to hover at 25-30% CPU when viewing the face, and very little when face is hidden.

Found a little bug for when I unchecked show face, it showed the remote. So I unchecked show remote and it showed the face. I went back and forth for a while. After messing around a bit more, it started behaving as normal.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 12:55

Cool!

Hey, Skunknumber1, does this version solve your problem with the screen sometimes refusing to update on Windows XP?
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 12:58

I should mention that the 25-30% number above was with an Athlon 1.2ghz and Windows XP

It also just exhibited the bug mentioned above again.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:03

Seems to hover at 25-30% CPU when viewing the face, and very little when face is hidden.
The CPU usage is now directly proportional to the number of screen refreshes per second. Increase the time between screen refreshes and the CPU usage will decrease linearly. From the readme file:

To control the number of CPU cycles that the program
consumes, adjust the time between screen refreshes in
the configuration screen. This also controls how much
network bandwidth is used. The less time between screen
refreshes, the more CPU cycles will be consumed.

The program should only consume CPU cycles when it is
actively grabbing screen images from the player and
displaying them. To consume as few CPU cycles as possible,
minimize it to the system tray, or show only the remote
and leave the face hidden.

Found a little bug for when I checked hide face, it showed the remote. So I checked hide remote and it showed the face.
 By design. From the readme file:

- You can't turn off both the remote and the face. If you
turn them both off, then one of them will reappear. If
you want to make them both hidden, minimize it to the
system tray.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:03

Not sure if this behavior is by design, but the screen doesn't refresh when the config window is open.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:04

Guess I should RTFM eh?
Posted by: tman

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:07

Excellent. It's solved the 100% CPU usage problem.

In the readme you go on about determining whether the player is in standby or not. Since you've got the HTTP code going, you just need to grab /proc/empeg_power and look at the display line.

About the OCX, you could package everything up with InstallShield (or your favourite installer) and it should install and register the OCX for you. It would bloat the download though.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:10

Not sure if this behavior is by design, but the screen doesn't refresh when the config window is open.
Correct, that is also by design. Allows you to change the parameters (such as the network address) without messing up or crashing an in-progress screen refresh. There are a few other cases where it will deliberately pause the screen refreshes, such as when you're dragging the window around the screen. Makes for smoother operation all around.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:16

You can't turn off both the remote and the face. If you
turn them both off, then one of them will reappear. If
you want to make them both hidden, minimize it to the
system tray.
It would seem to be more logical to have the face always present unless minimized. Then allow the remote to show or hide. I can't imagine too much demand to be able to use the remote without seeing what's going on with the display.

EDIT: unless the hardware display is within easy sight. nevermind.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:16

Since you've got the HTTP code going, you just need to grab /proc/empeg_power and look at the display line.
 Cool. I'll look at that for version 1.6, thanks!

you could package everything up with InstallShield
 My day job involves writing InstallShield programs, so I know all about how to do that.

and register the OCX for you
 Fortunately, this OCX didn't need to be registered in order to work. Just drop it in the system folder and all is well.

It would bloat the download though.
 Exactly why I didn't do it. An installshield program would be overkill for just one EXE and one OCX. Also, if I'm going to make an installshield for the thing, then it would be silly if I didn't include the VB6 runtimes (I mean, what's the point of doing an installer if it doesn't have the runtimes) and that would REALLY REALLY bloat the installer. So I just figured since hand-copying the OCX works, it was the most lightweight and therefore the best option.

Also, there's something about getting a utility that doesn't require an installer that I really like. I feel better knowing exactly what files I'm getting instead of having them hidden in an installer.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:19

I can't imagine too much demand to be able to use the remote without seeing what's going on with the display.
That's the way I use it most of the time. I just have the remote up and leave the face hidden. Allows me to play/pause and switch tracks without using any network bandwidth to download screenshots. Most of the time I'm just switching tracks or pausing the player.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:24

touché.

I assumed that's what Empeg Tray was for. Ok...I'll stop giving useless criticism now.

Thanks for the great app.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:27

I assumed that's what Empeg Tray was for
 From the beginning, this program was just meant to be a graphical version of Empegtray anyway.

...and your criticisms are not useless. I'm listening. It's just that some of them are things I'd already considered. Thanks for offering the suggestions, it's what communities like this are all about.
Posted by: tman

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:35

You could probably get rid of the OCX if you called wsock32 directly. It's a lot more involved though as the OCX provides a simplified interface. I think it's the only way you can get UDP support as well but don't quote me on that.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:38

You could probably get rid of the OCX if you called wsock32 directly.
 I had definitely considered doing just that. But like you said, the functions in the OCX are much simpler. If I'd had to do it from scratch, it would never have gotten done at all.

I think it's the only way you can get UDP support as well but don't quote me on that.
The OCX does have UDP support, but I'm not sure how extensive it is.
Posted by: tman

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 13:51

The OCX does have UDP support, but I'm not sure how extensive it is.
Oops. There are quite a few companies selling their own UDP controls and they go on about how you don't need to call wsock32 directly if you buy their control etc...

There is some example wsock32 code for TCP here.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 14:00

Thanks for the sample code. Looked at it. Yeah, definitely a lot easier to just use the OCX.
Posted by: ricin

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 14:46

Killer, it runs in Wine under Linux.

Older versions might have too, but I didn't try until now.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 15:37

Cool! How well does it run, and do the buttons work correctly?
Posted by: ricin

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 15:49

Yeah, everything works fine. I haven't played with it too much, but so far it hasn't crashed on me or anything.
Posted by: skibum

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 16:27

Just out of interest, why does it require 24 bit colour depth? Surely 16bit would be enough? My slow old laptop supports 24bit, but I only run it at 16bit as it's not that critical to me.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 16:52

Because of the method I used to create buttons on the skins. Any other color depth other than 24 bit, and the results of the visual basic point function were random and unreliable.

It knows which button you hit because it does a "point" call on the mouse position on the skin file. I tried a million ways to read that information in color depths other than 24 bit, and the RGB value returned was totally random unless it was in 24 bit. The problem is totally VB's fault and it's at a lower level than I've got control over.
Posted by: jbauer

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 17:10

Thank you for continuing to work on this Tony! Each version is better and better!

- Jon
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 17:20

Quite welcome. Glad they're getting better, and not worse, like the software put out by certain companies *COUGH*microsoft*COUGH* these days.
Posted by: skibum

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 17:23

Tony,

Thanks for explaining it. I was just curious.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 17:27

You're welcome. The truth is that I could (theoretically) use a completely different skinning method and be able to have it work in low bit depths, but then the program would run slower and creating the skins wouldn't be nearly as easy.
Posted by: Skunk

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 05/12/2003 22:28

Dude Tony, right on!! I cant wait to try it!
I've been stuck at home these past two days due to a starter problem in my car. I would try it now but my lap top is at work and I took the Network card out of my 5 year old son's computer, since he does not need it. Looks like I'll have to wait till Monday.
Posted by: skibum

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 06/12/2003 06:23

Tony, a small enhancement for version 1.6 for you. Currently the tooltip for the icon in the task bar is 'empegface 1.5'. Any chance of including the hostname/ipaddress. Will make it easier for me to work out which one is which.

Also, I tried doing a screen capture using paintshop pro of the pair next to each other. However, psp doesn't capture them. I even captured the whole screen, and got everything except the empegface's :-(
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 06/12/2003 12:57

Tony, a small enhancement for version 1.6 for you. Currently the tooltip for the icon in the task bar is 'empegface 1.5'. Any chance of including the hostname/ipaddress.
 Ah, I take it that means you've got two separate copies working for two separate empegs? That's cool, I was trying to remember what other birds I was killing with the stone of the Winsock calls.

It sounds like changing the tooltip might be do-able, so that's on my to-do list now. Thanks for the suggestion.

Also, I tried doing a screen capture using paintshop pro of the pair next to each other. However, psp doesn't capture them.
 It must be a malfuction in that version of PaintShop, because I just got a perfectly good screen shot, including transparency and everything. The resulting screen shot is attached to this post.

Of course, I didn't use PaintShop's "screen capture" feature to do it. Didn't you know that screen captures are built into the Windows OS? The PrintScreen key captures the whole screen to the clipboard (then you select EDIT-PASTE in PaintShop), and Alt+PrintScreen captures the currently selected window. Both methods worked for me just now when I tried them.
Posted by: skibum

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 06/12/2003 13:19

In reply to:


Ah, I take it that means you've got two separate copies working for two separate empegs? That's cool, I was trying to remember what other birds I was killing with the stone of the Winsock calls.



Yep, works a treat :-)

In reply to:


It sounds like changing the tooltip might be do-able, so that's on my to-do list now. Thanks for the suggestion.



Ta.

In reply to:


It must be a malfuction in that version of PaintShop, because I just got a perfectly good screen shot, including transparency and everything. The resulting screen shot is attached to this post.

Of course, I didn't use PaintShop's "screen capture" feature to do it. Didn't you know that screen captures are built into the Windows OS? The PrintScreen key captures the whole screen to the clipboard (then you select EDIT-PASTE in PaintShop), and Alt+PrintScreen captures the currently selected window. Both methods worked for me just now when I tried them.



Forgot all about that. psp allows more control, but I'll try print screen later.

Thanks again.
Posted by: Skunk

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 08/12/2003 13:18

Tony,
I works like a charm.
Thanks
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 08/12/2003 20:43

Hm, does EmpegFace show the visuals? Or do I need the VNC thing for that? And... hm... the sound still comes out of the empeg, I'm assuming, with both EmpegFace and VNC. Well, that's cool, at least I won't have to go over to the stereo to change songs (but since I've been listening to MP3 at home exclusively, I haven't had to go to the stereo in a LONG time).
Posted by: Ezekiel

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 08/12/2003 22:27

I'm guessing you didn't try it? Yeah, it displays the visuals & plays from the line (or sled's line) outputs. For streaming you'd need Charcoalgrey's web interface (there may be other ways to stream, but that's the one I know).

-Zeke
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 09/12/2003 01:24

For streaming you'd need Charcoalgrey's web interface (there may be other ways to stream, but that's the one I know).
Actually, CharcoalGray's web interface merely puts a pretty face Hijack's built-in streaming feature. To stream from the empeg directly from Hijack, the following URL is used:

http://empeg/?fid=101&ext=.html

(Where "empeg" is the IP address or DNS name of your empeg)
Posted by: Ezekiel

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 09/12/2003 09:26

And again, the pebble remains in the hand of the master!

-Zeke
Posted by: Skunk

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 09/12/2003 09:36

I find
http://empeg?playlists
is easier to remember.

Again, "empeg" being the IP address or DNS name of your empeg
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 09/12/2003 11:45

Hey, no fair. He must have added that in a later version of Hijack...
Posted by: wvloon

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 12/12/2003 02:45

In reply to:

My day job involves writing InstallShield programs, so I know all about how to do that.



Since my next job will probably involve a lot of installshield scripting could you point me to some handy online resources ?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 12/12/2003 12:14

Since my next job will probably involve a lot of installshield scripting could you point me to some handy online resources ?
InstallShield's own KnowledgeBase: http://support.installshield.com/kb/
Lots of cool scripts and info here: http://www.installsite.org/

A basic understanding of the way IS works is needed to get the most out of these sites. The best thing to do is mess around with the development environment, hack up some scripts yourself, and see what happens. Once you're comfortable with that, you can start messing with the stuff at installsite.

For me, the single most important tool I've ever used in relation to InstallShield has actually been Powerquest's Drive Image product. Here's how I use it:

I have my main development computer, and a test computer. The test computer is strictly for testing my installs. The test computer has two disk drives, C: and D:. Drive D: contains the DriveImage program and a bunch of images. The images are things like:

- Windows 95 clean installation.
- Windows 98 retail clean installation.
- Windows 98 SE clean installation.
- Windows 98 SE with IE 6 installed.
- Windows NT 4 clean installation.
- Windows NT 4 with Internet Information Server installed.
(etc...)

Drive C is the boot drive. Whenever I create an image like the ones above, I make sure it's dual-boot to DOS. So I can boot the system, drop to DOS, go to D:, run DriveImage, and put another image onto the C: drive. Reboot, and it's a clean fresh install of that version of the OS.

I can run my installer against that version of the OS and see if it really included everything that it needed to include, and did everything it needed to do. Far too often, an installer doesn't include enough DLL files and such, and therefore fails on some in-the-field systems. Testing against a pure version of the OS goes a long way towards making sure your installer really works.

This system also allows for very fast testing across multiple platforms. The image restore only takes a couple of minutes, then boom, you're testing in the next OS on your list. Very slick.
Posted by: ricin

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 12/12/2003 12:49

A good set of vmware virtual machine images works perfect for something like that too.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 12/12/2003 13:17

We're actually running into trouble with VMware and networking. Issues with the virtual TCP connections and stuff. There are certain test cases that I can't do on VMware machines because of it.

But if you can't spare a second computer, then yeah, VMware is the way to go. Of course, my test box is just an old 100mhz job that's about 8 years old and it still serves its purpose...
Posted by: Cas_O

Re: EmpegFace 1.5 Available - 12/12/2003 18:33

Works a treat!

Thanks Tony,

Cas.