Fusion Research Video Driver

This driver provides one-way TCP control of a Fusion Research video player, feedback about the player's current properties and the ability to browse the video library of the server. The player may be a stand-alone unit, or may be "built in" to a player/server conbination unit.

To use this driver, you must do the following:

- You MUST have a driver instance for each video playback device.

- Each driver instance must have the SOFTWARE serial number of the machine to be controlled.

- Each driver instance must have the IP address of the ONE Server in the system.

- Have firmware version 13.6.21.0 or newer on all Fusion equipment.

Things you should already be familiar with:

To configure the IP address of a video player/server combination unit, in the on-screen display go to the Main Menu, then into the Setup menu, then Network and select Local Area Connection.

To determine the IP address of the video player/server combination unit after it is set to a static address, in the on-screen display go to the Main Menu, then into the Setup menu, then Information.

To determine the software serial number of any video player unit, in the on-screen display go to the Main Menu, then into the Setup menu, then License. Use the "Sw Serial No." which is presented in the format xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx.

To determine the MAC address of any video player unit, in the on-screen display go to the Main Menu, then into the Setup menu, then Information. Use a reasonable "MAC Address" which must be entered in the format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx.

Settings:

- IP Address is the address of the server on your network. This should be static to ensure reliable communication. This can be determined from the server's GUI Setup/Information and configured in the server's GUI Setup/Network.

- TCP Port (Control) should be 5151 unless otherwise directed by support.

- TCP Port (Feedback) should be 5152 unless otherwise directed by support.

- Software Serial Number is the SOFTWARE serial number of the player to be controlled. This can be found in the player's GUI Setup/License.

- Hardware MAC address should be the MAC of the player to be powered on.

Note: Not all player hardware supports the Power On command.

- The network broadcast address is only required for networks using a subnet mask other than 255.255.255.0. It is used by the Power On command to reach the player viw UDP broadcast.

- Enable Feedback can be disabled if feedback is not required to reduce memory consumption.

- Enable Browsing can be disabled if library browsing is not required to reduce memory consumption.

- Send Cancel before Play is used to "cancel out of" dialog boxes that may be on the GUI (left by a GUI user) to help ensure proper playback. If the GUI is in a dialog box, the remote play commands will NOT override this without sending the cancel commands.

- Send Cancel Delay (msec) is the millisecond delay between each Cancel command sent before the Play command.

- Parental Rating is the rating to limit browsing of the media library to. This does NOT affect what's displayed on the player's GUI, only what is displayed on the RTI panel when browsing the library. Setting this to anything other than None will reduce the videos available for browsing to those with that rating or "friendlier".

- Unlock Code should be a numeric code (such as 4 digits) that the user can punch in from a panel to remove the Parental Rating temporarily. It will be restored after a certain time period.

- Unlock Time (in minutes) is the amount of time the Parental Rating is not enforced after "unlocked" by the user. After this number of minutes, the rating filter is restored.

- Art Height and Width (Large, Medium and Small) are used to size the art for the interface if the interface cannot dynamically resize the art. Dynamic images are available in Small, Medium, Large and Native. While Native will be the original art size (which can be very large), the other three sizes are dictated by these settings. This lets you optimize certain GUI elements for the capability or needs of the control device. The Fusion server resizes the art before the RTI system will ask for it, thereby "offloading" the art processing for resizing (to some degree).

- Jump Immediately is used to perform a jump on the TV GUI or in video playback on the first selection of a new position. With this off, the user can jump multiple times before deciding they no longer need to jump.

Basic Driver Use

To use this driver, you need to perform the following minimum tasks:

1) Set the Fusion Server (or player/server unit) to have a static IP address within your network.

2) Specify that IP address to the driver as the "Server / IP Address"

3) Determine the Fusion Player's (or player/server unit) Software Serial Number.

4) Specify that serial number to the driver as the "Player / Software Serial Number"

All other driver settings are optional and can be set according to customer requirements.

Driver Usage (Control)

Using the driver to execute control of the video player is a straight forward affair. The driver offers a number of commands seperated into categories. Most of these commands will be obvious from the name, but here is a summary with notes for unusual commands on ones that require explanation.

Power Commands - These can be used to turn the Fusion device on and off, however the following caveats should be kept in mind.

The Power On command is not supported by all Fusion hardware devices. To determine if your device supports it, try sending the command after proper configuration of the driver. To use this command, the driver requires the device MAC address and may also require a Network Broadcast Address (depending on your network configuration).

While the Power Off command is supported by all devices, powering off a server will cause all players to stop working ontim power to the server is restored. Even then, depending on the player's state when the server was removed and for how long, the player may need to be rebooted to properly re-connect with the server.

Generally, servers are intended to be left on at all times. While a player may be turned off and back on as needed, the players use very little power and can take some time to "power up" so we do not recommend turning them on and off on demand.

Navigation Controls - These are the usual "up/down/left/right" type of commands used to navigate around a player's TV GUI.

Transport Controls - These are the usual "play/pause/stop" type of commands used to control video playback of the player.

Stream Controls - These are used during video playback to select the next audio or subpicture track of a video that may have more than one of either (such as a DVD or Blu-ray).

Actions - These are special direct access commands for the player's GUI.

Details will toggle the "details" information on the GUI. This means the "side bar" while browsing series cover art and also the top and bottom bars for more information during video playback.

Filter will open the filter dialog box directly for immediate filtering of series.

Sort will open the sort dialog box directly for immediate sorting of series.

Disc will open the disc dialog box directly for status information about a disc import under way.

Jump (Jumping) - This is the act of navigating the player's TV GUI or the player's video playback to go from one location to another more quickly that scrolling of fast forwarding / rewinding. The player supports navigating video by jumping to a percent location in a title (such as 20%) as well as navigating the library by jumping to a percent in a list. On the series (art) view, when sorted alphabetically (the default sort) the player also supports jumping to a letter of the alphabet.

Jumping is accomplished in stages, first the driver must be "prepared", then commands are sent, then the action is completed. First, send the command "Prepare to Jump (Smart)". (Smart indicates the driver should figure out whether Percent or Percent and Alpha are appropriate and trigger the right one). This will cause the driver to trigger a variable such as "Jumping / Ready to Jump (Alpha & Percent)" or "Jumping / Ready to Jump (Percent)". This should be used to display elements to allow entry of the "Jump to X" commands where X is something like Start, 30% or M. If the driver is configured to "Jump Immediately" sending a single command will set the variable to false again, but if the driver is not (the default) the user can send repeated jump commands until they send the "Jump Complete" command.

Driver Usage (Feedback)

The driver supports a number of variables which will contain data about the player's status. This is referred to as feedback as it will dynamically change to relay what is happening on the player. This includes informatinon about what the player is displaying (current series) and playing (position in video). These variables are seperated into categories for easier use. Most of these variables will be obvious from the name, and many are essoteric and not terribly useful for most users, but here is a summary with notes for ones that require explanation.

Player Selection - This indicates what the player's TV GUI is currently displaying, such as the GUID (database ID) of the Series or Episode. the Title (display) of the Series or Episode and whether the user is seeing the Series or Episode view.

Player Transport - This is transport information about the player (if it is playing a video). State may be Play, Pause or Stop (nothing also indicates stop), the Speed of playback (- indicates backwards), and the position and duration in seconds as well as "time format".

Player Playing - This indicates information about the currently playing disc (accurate) and Episode (estimate since a disc can contain multiple episodes and the player only knows which one the user started on) as well as information about the video such as the audio track and chapter.

Import Status - This reports the status of a disc under import in the player (if appropriate).

Driver Usage (Browsing)

The driver supports remote browsing of the media library on the server, commonly referred to as "two-way" functionality. This does not affect the library browsing through the player's TV GUI. In fact this is an independent look at the library which can be used to select a video and start it's playback.

Parental Filter - These commands support a mechanism whereby a user can override the rating filter of the library browsing on their RTI interface (this driver instance).

This must be used in a specific way. First, send the "Prepare to Unlock" command. This lets the driver know the user wants to enter a code. The driver will set the visible variable "Parental Filter / Ready to Unlock" to true indicating it is ready. This can be used to display hidden controls used to enter the code.

The 0-9 commands can be used to enter the code. As the code is entered it is recorded as "clear text" in the variable "Parental Filter / Current Code (clear)" and as asteriks in the variable "Parental Filter / Current Code (cypher)". Once the user has entered the code, they indicate completion with the command "Unlock Complete".

Notes: There is no way to "delete" a code value once entered. Also, if the code is invalid, there is no feedback, it simply will not work. The "Parental Filter / Current Rating" variable indicates the current rating filter in effect.

Once the parental rating filter is "removed" temporarily, it can be restored immediately with the "Unlock Cancel" command.

Browsing - There are a number of commands as well as some variables in the Browsing category. These must be used together to support browsing on an RTI device.

Browsing works by creating a list of Series. This list is presented and navigated (Select Series command). Once a Series is selected it becomes the "Active Series", for which there are a number of variables defined for the series metadata. When the Series is "Opened" then the Episode list is loaded with a list of all episodes in the series. (Note: This may be only one). The user can then select an Episode. When an Episode is selected, it becomes the "Active Episode" (again, there are variables holding metadata for the episode) and can be played with either the "Play Disc" (start on disc menu) or Play Movie" (start in video) command.

Filtering and Sorting the Library - As part of the Browsing, the library supports filtering (removing things that do not match what is sought) and sorting (re-ordering based on a criteria) to more easily find something that the user is looking for. This is done in a stepped process where the user tells the driver they want to filter and/or sort (prepare) they select something to filter / sort by, and then they complete the action.

Sorting is relatively straight forward. The user can simply select from several ways to sort a series. Filtering is more complex, because the thing to filter by is dynamic and must be selected by the user from the "Filter List" which is populated after the user indicates which type of filter they want to apply.

Note: Filtering and Sorting only apply to the Series list.

Demonstration User Interface

To better display the capabilities of the driver, and how to implement certain functions, a demonstration Virtual Panel has been prepared. Remember to replace the demo project's driver "Server IP Address" and "Player Software Serial Number" with values appropriate to your system.

Also note that your Fusion equipment may require an update to be compatible with this driver.

The virtual panel provides three screens: Control, Series and Episodes:

The Control page features navigation and transport controls as well as Playing Disc information. It also supports smart jumping for the TV GUI. Click the "Browse" button to go to the Series page and browse the video library.

The Series page shows a list of series in the system (this may be fewer than you expect if you have a Parental Rating Filter set). It also shows metadata about the current (Active) series. The button indicating Parental Rating can be used to unlock the library temporarily, and the "Filter" button can filter and sort the series you are seeing. There is also a button to return to the Control page as wekll as "Open" the series.

The Episodes page shows the Episodes in the "Active" Series as well as metadata about the "Active" Episode. This active episode can be played using the play and play disc buttons, or the user can return (Back) to the series page.