Hi,

Another member just referred me to this automation program, and I have seen it suggested elsewhere as well. It seems to the "standard" for automating AV tasks on your PC.

Thought I would ask people who have used this program to describe their experiences here.

Thanks!

- Eric

There are only a few programs which work, or there were, a few years ago when I first stated using Girder. That was initally the main reason I began using it, it was the only progam to work and work well with both my hardware and software.

I assume by AV you mean Audio/Video, well it does infact do a lot more, you name it, it will do it (with in reason!) I turn my monitor off, control the mouse, start programs etc.

One thing to be aware of it the time it takes to progam it, all of the tasks need to be made before you can do anything, if you want to do complex things for example a shift button allowing the same buttons on the remote to control to control different pieces of software or an OSD type interface it will take quite a lot of time and effort to get it to work properly.

Dont let me put you off, its well worth using!

Potato

i have started using girder (for about a month)
it is very challenging to use...not "user friendly" for the novice...however, the user forum is populated by very knowledgable people who respond rather promptly to questions, and will do a fair amount of hand holding with you if you ask for it.

girder can do anything!! it has innumerable plugoins, it has it's own programming language.

any "event" can trigger a "command"

events can be inputs from a remote, time of day, the initiatiojn of a program, literally anything...
the "command" can be to launch a program, output a signal via a ir blaster or rs-232 connection, via a x-10 connection, or any combination of all the above!! you can automate extremely complex tasks invoving lots of different commands very easily..

but this power comes at a price....
girder is a "lifestyle", not a "program"

you've really got to be committed to getting something done with it..if your looking for a simple fix, this isn't it.
if you really want to automate your pc to control other stuff...this is how your going to do it.

girder is so slick..i believe someone actually wrote a plugin that lets you trigger commands via email!! the program runs checking your email, and when a valid command comes in it carries out the command!..i believe it also has some sort of internet plugin that lets you initiate commands from a remote computer..
i'm pretty sure you could control the infrastructure of a small country with Girder if you set your mind to it.

I used it for a Pronto -> Winamp interface.

I had a database of all my MP3 albums, each album had a number.

I then used supernudelist to create a layout for the pronto with all the album and track names, this then sent commands to girder which opened the playlist in winamp.

I think everything you need is on my website:
http://brucehartley.com/

This was reasonably easy to achieve in girder but then my background is software engineering so I have the mindset for it.

Edit: Just saw that you are using Access for the database. Very cool, Bruce