OpenPLi Wiki: How to setup and run my personal Movieplayer / media center

DM7025/DM800 users click here for your Howto setup and use my personal video player / movie player

With the introduction of the PLi® Jade software in the summer of 2008, you are now able to make your DM box into a true DM media center client or what is also known as an extender.

If you have not upgraded to the latest Jade software please use VLC version 0.86i

The PLi® Movieplayer will allow you to playback many different video file formats from any computer that will run the VLC application [Mac, Linux, Windows, Vista], direct to your TV or to multiple TV's [not covered in this howto] with different content if you have more than one DM box using the new PLi® Movieplayer.

So you can now do this from the comfort of your lounge chair with your DM remote control, without the need to convert, transcode or otherwise play with the computer before you sit down to watch a movie. All thanks to the PLi® Movieplayer in your DM box and VLC running on your computer.

Support the PLi® team and get a cup of coffee.

Howto set the Movieplayer up for the first time

All you have to do is follow these two simple steps.

1. VLC:

MUSTDO: Always do this VLC step when you reboot or restart your computer

Note: see the Power User section at the bottom of the page for other ways to do this

A. You should download and install the latest VLC client from here if you not already done so for other applications that use VLC i.e. Web-X-TV.
B. VLC needs to be running in the background on the computer at all times, when you use the Movieplayer plugin on your DM box.

If you are running a graphic user interface you simply:

Run VLC
Click on the Setting menu
Click on Add Interface
Click on Web Interface
Minimize VLC and leave it running in the back ground.

If you are running VLC from shell then run VLC using the parameter --extraint=http (to enable the VLC web interface)

--extraint=http

C. Open "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\http\.hosts" in notepad. The .hosts file regulates the access to your VLC player, i.e. which LAN devices are allowed to control your VLC player. To get VLC up and running with your Dreambox, uncomment the line referring to your local area network (LAN) or add the IP address of your Dreambox.

# # Access-list for VLC HTTP interface # $Id$ # # localhost ::1 127.0.0.1 # link-local addresses #fe80::/64 # private addresses #fc00::/7 #fec0::/10 #10.0.0.0/8 #172.16.0.0/12 192.168.0.0/16 # Gives access to most LAN's #169.254.0.0/16 # The world (uncommenting these 2 lines is not quite safe) #::/0 #0.0.0.0/0

Remember: VLC needs to be setup and running on your computer before you use the Movieplayer plugin in your DM box.

on the Mac you need to do this;

Tip: Always ensure NO other service/application on your PC is running on the VLC port of 8080. See how to check this at the bottom of this page.

2. World Wide Web interface (Webif):
This setup is only needs to be done once, or when you change your computers IP address.

Open your World Wide Web Interface in your web browser, click here to learn more about your World Wide Web Interface (Webif)

Click on Stream

Click on Settings

Click on Edit

In the final popup screen "Streaming Server Settings", please setup these settings as they apply to you;

Server IP: The IP address of your computer where you have your CD / DVD and media files (Tip: this should be a static IP)
CD/DVD Drive Letter: as it says, what drive letter is your DVD or CD drive on your computer
Movie Directory: the directory on your computer that has the movies you want to watch on your DM box

Now click on Change to update your DM box.

Tip: Do not change the VLC settings on this screen. If you do change this, your Movieplayer will stop working.

Now we have to define the video setting for our TV's depending on where we are in the world, you should know what your TV format and size is. These changes need to be made of each file type you are going to use, and you can see the list in the picture below.

It is most likely all non PAL TV users will have to change these setting to suit your TV format i.e the USA's NTSC format.

The important options to bear in mind are;

Video Rate: the amount of bandwidth your DM box will receive from the VLC application on your computer
Video Ratio: is your TV size (default for PAL TV)
Auto Subtitles: If this is not selected you will not see any subtitles on your movies

Tip: for multi-sync / multi-standard CRT/LCD/Plasma TV users - if you are playing back a NTSC encoded files, make sure you are on the PAL settings on your TV, not multi-sync (or visa versa).

Howto use your personal Movieplayer

Great, I have now setup VLC and it is running on my computer in the background and I have setup
the other settings in the Web Interface as you suggested for my environment. So I am ready to go.

So how do I run this new Movieplayer plugin?

1. Press the YELLOW button on your remote control and this menu will appear. Now use your down arrow key and select the Movieplayer option and then press the OK button to continue.

Tip: If you assigned the YELLOW button to another function, you will need to find where you assigned the plugins menu too.
Tip: Make sure you have the volume turned up on your DM box before pressing the OK button

2.You should now be connected to your computers 'media drive and directory' like this example below.

You will now be presented with four 'coloured' options at the bottom of the screen which are controlled by these buttons.

Press the RED button to see all the media files on your computer

Press the GREEN button to see what is in your CD Drive

Press the YELLOW button to see what is in your DVD drive

Press the BLUE button to make changes to the Movieplayer configuration

Tip: If you do not see your computers media directory above, that you defined in the Web Interface settings, it most likely means you forgot to run VLC on your computer, as shown in the first step above or you entered the wrong drive or wrong media directory on your computer. Press the RED button to retest the connection from your DM box to your computer and take note of any error messages that maybe displayed.

3. Once you have selected a movie to play and pressed the OK button to watch it, this screen will appear.

Tip: you can change the buffer times with the BLUE button, under the Options settings (see details below)

4. The movie you selected should now be playing on your TV.
To get more information on the movie, simply press the OK button and this example screen will appear, telling you how long the movie is in minutes and the movies file size.

The Movieplayer settings and options

In this menu (the BLUE button above) you can make lots of little changes on this Movieplayer, which will make it preform much better.

Tip: DM500 and DM7000 users, allow as much buffer size as possible i.e 100%

So what can I do with this Movieplayer?
Once you are playing a movie, there are many options that allow you to control the way you use the Movieplayer.

Press the HELP key at anytime and you will see this screen.

For VLC Windows XP & Vista Power users

MS XP & Vista example

If you use the MS Windows Xp or Vista Operating Systems you can preset the VLC properties in Windows
to always have the VLC web interface open / turned on. Simply add this line of code below and VLC
will always start with the web interface turned on. See the image below.

--intf wxwin --extraintf=http

If you also copy VLC into your startup directory under your start menu like the example
above shows, VLC will then always start when your PC does and if you added the line of code
as shown above, you just set and forget.

TIP: If you upgrade or change version of VLC you will have to add this line back again.

From time to time, if there is an issue with the file format, VLC displays message:

"This AVI file is broken. Seeking will not work correctly.
Do You want try to repair it (this might take a long time)"
Yes/No/Cancel

and if you want streaming this file, you must press NO.

If you want not this message and automatically "press" NO, add into line below to the Target line in the
image above.

--avi-index=2 (XP, Vista)

How to see what is on Port 8080 on your PC

To check you have everything set up properly you should;

Open your web browser to your PC (same as you set up in the webif above)

Double check if is the VLC web interface running

TIP: The PLi® Movieplayer is only as good as your LAN is! If you LAN is mis-configured or not setup correctly, then expect issues!
TIP: Click here to learn howto stream real HDTV from any E1 DM box using Web-X-TV and Movieplayer [mileage may vary]
Question: Does this work on Wifi? Yes perfectly if your LAN is correctly setup.
Question: Does this work on a small 10mb LAN? Yes perfectly if your LAN is correctly setup.
Question: What do you use for a LAN when you wrote this? All the above and a bridge to a 1gb CAT6 LAN
Question: Can the PLi® team help me setup my LAN as I do not have one? In short no, we can not, but you can ask in the PLi® Forums

Back to the PLi® Wiki Home Page : Back to Webif : DM500 : DM500+ : DM56xx : DM600 : DM7000 : DM7020 : DM7025 : DM800

E1MoviePlayer

How to setup and run my personal Movieplayer / media center

works with all PC's and operating systems including the new Windows7

PLi® Yellow button

Howto set the Movieplayer up for the first time

All you have to do is follow these two simple steps.

1. VLC:

2. World Wide Web interface (Webif):

Howto use your personal Movieplayer

So how do I run this new Movieplayer plugin?

The Movieplayer settings and options

So what can I do with this Movieplayer?

For VLC Windows XP & Vista Power users

MS XP & Vista example

How to see what is on Port 8080 on your PC