MALA as HTPC FE?

[Le Chuck]

I'm blending a media box and a gaming rig into one mellifluous contraption.  I figger that rather than try to shove my games into a boring movie list that I'd shove my movie lists into MALA.  Seems legit right?

Easy part - point mala at folder full of avi files a command line player that's worth a damn.  I'm using videolan (VLC).  Still fiddling with the syntax, trying to get 'Esc' to quit rather than the default 'Ctrl-Esc' but that's not totally necessary I don't think.  I'm running like a champ from the command line.  Although I haven't tested it out inside MALA yet there should be no reason it shouldn't work. 

Once I get a blue ray player for the system I'll need to figure out how to get discs to auto play from inside MALA.  With VLC I can open discs and skip through menus to the main attraction through the command line but I'd rather just have any disc in the reader take focus and display fullscreen with eng subs automatically rather than have to navigate to a specific entry w/in mala to execute that command.  Ideally everything still plays through VLC tho so I don't have to wrangle two different programs into playing nice with arcade controls.

Any hints? Seems like it's something I could do with AHK but there maybe a simpler solution out there and I'm just not hip to it.  Endstate:  From any screen in MALA upon inserting a disc in the drive the movie takes focus and leaves MALA right where it was.  On exit I'm back at the same spot.  Unpossible?  Do computers do this automatically and I'm just totally unaware?  I'm not a rocket sturgeon, help me out! 

[BadMouth]

My gripe about most other front-ends is that they look too much like meda players.
...and now you want to turn Mala into a media player?!?!
 

Autohotkey all the way.  A lot will depend on if the bluray autoplays when inserted.  I'm guessing it will.
If it does, just have ahk kill VLC (process, close, vlc.exe) when the exit button is pressed.
Throw in a mouseclick, left afterward to return focus to Mala.

There is probably also a way for ahk to send a specific command line when a disc is inserted.
A quick search turns up this interesting script:
http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/44433-a-simple-script-to-add-psuedo-hd-dvd-autoplay-in-win7/


IfExist, %Drv%:\HVDVD_TS
Sounds like it detects if a disc is present and will do what you want if it is. 

.....of course you don't want it to relaunch after the movie has exited and the disc is still present.
The easy fix would be to have the ahk script also eject the disc when the move exits, but there is probably a better way.

I'm no expert.  I just cobble together sloppy scripts from examples I find online. 

[Le Chuck]

My gripe about most other front-ends is that they look too much like meda players.
...and now you want to turn Mala into a media player?!?!

You see, basically, what had happened was...yes. 

I'm no expert.  I just cobble together sloppy scripts from examples I find online. 

You and me both sister.  Good links though, once I get the player I'll take a look.  I'm going to mess around with Mala Tree and see what I can do with it.  I'm pretty sure I can run my entire gaming collection, movie collection, and music all from a MALA hub.  Speaking of which I need to go hit up the jukebox threads and see which FE integrates well into MALA for jukeboxing, I think one of them does.