If you were instructed to control a commercial DVD player from a computer program, how would you do it?
My company sells a product that does just that. We have several different approaches, and they have serious problems:
Get an IR transmitter, pretend to be a remote control
Pros: Works with almost all commercial DVD players.
Cons: An IR transmitter is another moving part that can (and too often) go wrong. Allows only one-way communication; You can talk to the DVD player, but it cannot talk; you can only indicate if it is turned on or not if it outputs a video signal.
Get a DVD player with an RS-232 serial port
Pros: Everything that “agrees” with the IR transmitter approach just disappears. A direct connection is more reliable and allows the code to understand what the machine is doing.
Cons: Niche Market; very few machines have an RS-232 port. So, when the manufacturer stops using the model you used, you are left to scramble to find a replacement.
And I suppose, for completeness, I should mention ....
Just use a DVD drive on your PC
Cons: The boss doesn't like it.
What other approaches exist? I saw DVD players with USB ports, but the last time I explored the topic, it seemed like it was just for playing media stored on an iPhone or the like, and not really a potential control mechanism.
, - - " , FOO, DVD? USB → FOO " !" , .