NowPlaying Measure not detecting Track info for WMP

[mintmason]

Hello! I'm having trouble getting my Skin to detect any Track information through "Measure = NowPlaying" with the WMP player. I would like to primarily use WMP, but I also tested out Winamp and was able to get the Skin to work. I noticed that in the Skin variable viewer in the log dialog, the measure that is supposed to pull the track title doesn't display any string when running WMP as the player but accurately shows the string for the track title using Winamp. Here's the generalized code:

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
BackgroundMode=1
Group=Group3

[Metadata]
Name=MediaPlayer
Version=1.0

[Variables]
FontSize=20
FontFace=Courier
FontColor=0,0,0,255


[TrackMeasure]
Measure=NowPlaying
PlayerName=WMP
PlayerType=TITLE
;PlayerPath="C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"


[DisplayMeter]
Meter=String
MeasureName=TrackMeasure
Text="Track: %1"
FontSize=#FontSize#
FontFace=#FontFace#
FontColor=#FontColor#
SolidColor=100,100,100,100
AntiAlias=1

Any thoughts on what might be happening here? I'm otherwise not getting any errors that show up in the log. Thanks in advance!


My Machine:
Rainmeter 4.3.1.3321 (64-bit)
Language: English (1033)
Build time: 2019-09-22 7:26:11
Commit Hash: 0ba4dfc4
Windows 10 Home 1903 64-bit (build 18362) - English (1033)
Path: C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\
SkinPath: C:\Users\mason\OneDrive\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\
SettingsPath: C:\Users\mason\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\
IniFile: C:\Users\mason\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.ini

[balala]

Any thoughts on what might be happening here? I'm otherwise not getting any errors that show up in the log.

Try to add a DyanmicWindowSize=1 option to the [Rainmeter] section. This option is needed because without it, when you start playing with WMP, the size of the skin doesn't change, so although the skin shows the title, this is not visible, being outside of the boundaries of the original skin (which doesn't show the title). If you add the above option, the size of the skin is updated when the title changes, so you'll get title on the skin.
One single thing is weird for me: the skin should act the same way with both players. I have no explanation why do you get it working without the above option, if you use Winamp. An explanation would be needed here, but i don't have it.

[Yincognito]

Hello! I'm having trouble getting my Skin to detect any Track information through "Measure = NowPlaying" with the WMP player. I would like to primarily use WMP, but I also tested out Winamp and was able to get the Skin to work. I noticed that in the Skin variable viewer in the log dialog, the measure that is supposed to pull the track title doesn't display any string when running WMP as the player but accurately shows the string for the track title using Winamp.

Yeah, just tried in my own not yet finished player skin and experienced the same. Only the fact that the player is on worked, the other fields did not. I'm on Win 10 1803, so maybe the newer WMP versions are not supported by the probably older NowPlaying detection system. To be sure of that, we'd need someone that still uses Win 7 (and its WMP) to tell us if those fields are correctly detected on his system.

[Yincognito]

This option is needed because without it, when you start playing with WMP, the size of the skin doesn't change, so although the skin shows the title, this is not visible, being outside of the boundaries of the original skin (which doesn't show the title).

I'm not sure this would help - in my case I looked directly at the log and the measure values (which are not affected by a dynamic window size option), and everything but the player's status was blank for WMP.

P.S. Incidentally, I'm just working on my NowPlaying skin at the moment, so it's right into my focus area for the time being.

[mintmason]

Try to add a DyanmicWindowSize=1

That did the job. Or, I guess I should have just tried setting the width value of the meter first *facepalm*. That is strange though how it seemed to dynamically update with Winamp.

Thanks for the help.

[balala]

I'm on Win 10 1803, so maybe the newer WMP versions are not supported by the probably older NowPlaying detection system. To be sure of that, we'd need someone that still uses Win 7 (and its WMP) to tell us if those fields are correctly detected on his system.

I'm not sure this would help - in my case I looked directly at the log and the measure values (which are not affected by a dynamic window size option), and everything but the player's status was blank for WMP.

It did help for me, exactly as I described above. Got the title on both, the skin itself and on the Skins tab of the log. I'm on Windows 10 x64, v1909, with WMP 12.0.18362.900.

[mintmason]

Weird, so after I managed to get the track title to display using DynamicWindowSize=1 I removed it, refreshed everything, and now the measure picks up data in the log whereas before, nothing showed up.

[balala]

That did the job.

Alright, I'm glad.

Or, I guess I should have just tried setting the width value of the meter first *facepalm*.

Don't think it's a good approach, because over time, different sizes of the skin will be needed, depending on what are you playing.

That is strange though how it seemed to dynamically update with Winamp.

Exactly. Don't understand this either...

[balala]

Weird, so after I managed to get the track title to display using DynamicWindowSize=1 I removed it, refreshed everything, and now the measure picks up data in the log whereas before, nothing showed up.

Yeah, such weird thing does go on from time to time. Have no explanation...

[Yincognito]

It did help for me, exactly as I described above. Got the title on both, the skin itself and on the Skins tab of the log. I'm on Windows 10 x64, v1909, with WMP 12.0.18362.900.

What?! Since when setting something that only has an influence on the visual / skin / meter side has an impact on the measure side?
That's really strange indeed, on that we agree.

P.S. By the way, in my skin I do have a dynamic window size option in the [Rainmeter] section, yet the only data I get in the measures for WMP is the status one, so it doesn't seem to work in my case (not that I'm very interested in making WMP work if it doesn't want to, LOL). But then, if the OP is happy and got it working, I guess the problem is solved (just exactly how it's solved is still a mystery though).