Question:
What can I do with the Event Handler functionality in My Movies for Windows?
Answer:
The Event Handlers in My Movies for Windows is powerful plug-in DLL based functionality extension option, written in C# or VB.NET and .NET Framework 2.0. Event Handler plug-ins can be something technical users or professionals can create for their own or clients usage, but some event handlers are by default included in the application suite for generic functionalities and devices.
We also see positive on users sharing source code on their event handlers with other users, either for other users to use fully if they have a similar setup, or use in pieces to create an event handler for their own setup. You can share or request information on Event Handlers on our User Customization forum area for Windows Media Center: http://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=topics&f=20
The typical overall usage scenarios for Event Handlers are the following:
Volume Controls
Handling of volume up, down and mute events received from the remote control part of any of the My Movies mobile applications. By default, volume controls are passed to Windows Media Center and your computer, which however is not ideal if you normally control volume on a receiver or a television set.
Using the Remote_VolumeUp, Remute_VolumeDown and Remote_Mute functionalities, the volume controls can be passed on to an IP or RS232 controllable receiver or television set, rather than being passed to Windows Media Center.
Power Off and On
Functionalities have been added to the My Movies for Android 1.95 application, and is upcoming for My Movies for iPhone and My Movies for iPad that allows the remote control function to wake your Windows Media Center PC from sleep or powered off state by sending Wake On Lan events to it, when using an added power button on the remote control. Once the PC becomes available, and event is set to the event handlers.
Using the Remote_Power, Remote_PoweredOn functionalities you can create an event handler to power on all IP or RS232 controlled devices, such as tv or projector, and receiver, and set the inputs on these to where the PC is connected, and similar power off all devices when the power button on the remote is used to power off the devices.
Using the Remote_Home and Remote_StartWindowsMediaCenter events, you can react to the press of the green Windows button on the remote, no matter if Windows Media Center is started on the machine or not, and when the user clicks these buttons, ensure that all devices such as TV or projector, and receiver is configured to the correct inputs.
Using the MachineResume and MachineSuspend events, you can either take over these events, and do other things when the machine is resumed from sleep, or suspended.
Lights and Curtain Controls
Controlling lights and curtains adds the extra level to your home cinema. Entering your home cinema, you typically turn on the lights with a standard wall switch. But, when you power on the system, you might lower the lights a bit, and close window curtains, and perhaps move away a curtain in front of the screen. Once you start a movie, and view intros and trailers, you likely would like to lower the lights even more, having only enough lights for people to get in and out of the home cinema.
Then, once the main movie starts, the lights should surely be off fully, until you pause the movie, in case someone needs to attend to the bathroom, in which case you would like the lights to turn on at low level, for that person to be able to see his or her way out and in.
Once the credits is reached on the movie, it also feels as a natural time to turn the lights on at low level, and then perhaps turn it up to a medium level when the playback fully stops.
When using the remote control on the My Movies mobile applications, when the user requests to suspend the system, you then again can turn the lights on fully, and put curtains back in position.
Using the PlayStarted, PlayStopped, PlayStateChange, Remote_Power and Remote_PoweredOn, and perhaps the Remote_Home and Remote_StartWindowsMediaCenter functionalities, you can control every situation on the system to control lights and curtains, if you have a controlling system that you can program against.
Notice! The option to mark where credits starts on a movie is reasonably new, and therefore, this setting and the marking of which title set on a disc contains the main movie may not be available on all titles. Please create these markings and contribute them for titles where you can. If a main movie is not known on a disc, the event handler will be notified, and can therefore turn off lights fully at the start of the entire disc, similar, if the credits start position is not known, the event for this will not be fired, and the event handler can instead react to the stop of the playback.
Other Scenarios
There can be many other scenarios where you can use Event Handlers to extend your system. If you have requests for events to be made available to the Event Handlers, please contact us.