1.) You should use ShellExecute or ShellExecuteEx to start AnyDVD to pass the command line options. This will make sure, that you can start AnyDVD.exe regardless where the user has installed it.
2.) Even if you use ShellExecuteEx and wait for the started process to finish, there is no 100% guarantee that the command has been executed successfully (people might have an old AnyDVD version not supporting the command line option).
3.) You should make sure (well, at least try), that there are no open file handles on any optical drives. The reason is, that when AnyDVD is enabled/disabled it changes the sectors on the disc (at least from the system's point of view), so it must inform the filesystem. It does this by doing an unmount/mount operation, but this can only succeed, if no files are open.
Some advice:AnyTool (what a stupid name) can be downloaded here:
http://sandbox.slysoft.com/AnyTool.zip
It is a very small command line tool, which basically does what you wanted.
Usage:
AnyTool -d
Disables AnyDVD for all drives
Will wait for the command to execute
EDIT: Will timeout after 10 seconds, if it somehow didn't work.
AnyTool -e
Enables AnyDVD for all drives
Warning, will return immediately
Should work with all recent AnyDVD & AnyDVD HD versions 6.x
EDIT: Which is very nice, as you can expect all customers to have a version supported by AnyTool. It might even work with older versions, but I haven't tried or checked or cared or whatever...
AnyTool (what a stupid name) can be downloaded here:
http://sandbox.slysoft.com/AnyTool.zip
It is a very small command line tool, which basically does what you wanted.
Usage:
AnyTool -d
Disables AnyDVD for all drives
Will wait for the command to execute
EDIT: Will timeout after 10 seconds, if it somehow didn't work.
AnyTool -e
Enables AnyDVD for all drives
Warning, will return immediately
Should work with all recent AnyDVD & AnyDVD HD versions 6.x
EDIT: Which is very nice, as you can expect all customers to have a version supported by AnyTool. It might even work with older versions, but I haven't tried or checked or cared or whatever...
Sorry, my mind was blocked, couldn't think of a better name...AnyTool??? Seriously, James, AnyTool?!?!?!?! ROFLMAO!
What? AnyTool is the name of it.so any tool can use it?
so any tool can use it?
Read the thread...What specifically would you use this for?
bump...Feedback to the AnyTool beta would be appreciated. Thank you.
AnyTool -d
Disables AnyDVD for all drives
Will wait for the command to execute
EDIT: Will timeout after 10 seconds, if it somehow didn't work.
AnyTool -e
Enables AnyDVD for all drives
Warning, will return immediately
Do you know what command packets are sent to control the duplicator? They may need to be added to AnyDVD's "pass through" table.James -
I am planning to use AnyDVD in a similar application to Brian's, using a robotic duplicator instead of a changer. This particular robotic duplicator both has the keypad interface and also runs XP Pro with a copy of the keypad interface on screen. You can use it as a standalone device or as a workstation by adding keyboard/mouse/monitor.
However, I ran into some problems with the current AnyDVD trial: when AnyDVD was active, the bundled embedded software could no longer open or close the drive. Even in AnyDVD's "Safe Mode".
For a moment, I thought AnyTool might help, but it seems unlikely that I could somehow manage to time activation/deactivation as exactly as necessary via some scripting, and even if I were able to, who knows what other incompatibility might be discovered.
I figured if there were a compatibility problem, I'd see read/access errors. The actual symptom of lack of tray open/close just seems odd.
If the above pique's your interest, what's your gut reaction here? Duplication software that's tied too strongly with the drive firmware or performing unusual low-level commands/response interactions? Conflicting filter-driver installed by the duplicator manufacturer?
-brendan
PS - not sure if this belongs on a separate thread...
Yes, but not with currently released AnyDVD versions.It would be lovely if we could specify the drive to enable/disable, e.g.
AnyTool -d E:
Is that possible?
Where is the "Discid" recorded on the disc?A great alternative or augmentation would be a API that could be called to get the unmodified discid without disabling anydvd
Where is the "Discid" recorded on the disc?