How do I make Windows Media Player mute on a timer?

February 18, 2005 8:22 AM

I like to fall asleep while watching DVDs on my Windows XP PC in Windows Media Player. The problem is that on DVDs with loud menu screens after the movie is over the DVD returns to the menu and blasts loud exciting action music, waking me up. Is there a freeware program out there that will mute Media Player after the movie is over?

I already have a program that shuts down the PC after time elapses, but there are some nights I want to leave the computer on overnight. What I want is a program that will mute Media Player (or the whole computer) after X minutes have elapsed and, if possible, activate the screen saver or put the monitor into standby mode. Anyone seen anything like this?

posted by Servo5678 to computers & internet (7 answers total)

I like to do the same on OS X though... usually after computer inactivity, my machine will just go to sleep, but not while the DVD player is running because it assumes my inactivity is just me watching the movie... So I just set the timer on my machine to shut down after an hour and a half or so.

I don't know XP, but there must be a similar scheduled shutdown feature? Unless of course, you want to keep your machine running...
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:39 AM on February 18, 2005

I don't know XP, but there must be a similar scheduled shutdown feature? Unless of course, you want to keep your machine running...

But I do want to keep the machine running. I can shut it down on a schedule easily, it's allowing the machine to stay on but mute the audio that's the challenge.
posted by Servo5678 at 8:49 AM on February 18, 2005

You could use VLC, which can play a DVD in a "no menus" mode. When telling it to open a disc, select "DVD" instead of "DVD (menus)". So when the movie's over, it will just stop.

You can then put your monitor the computer at a specific time with Windows' "at" command in conjunction with
something like Wizmo. On the command line, you can do "at 1:00AM wizmo quiet monoff" to blank the monitor. If you want to keep on using Media Player, you could also use at and wizmo to mute your sound: "at 1:00AM wizmo quiet mute=1" (The "quiet" command keeps the wizmo program from making noises itself).
posted by zsazsa at 8:57 AM on February 18, 2005

Oops, I got the syntax to "at" wrong. It takes military time, so you'd just do "at 1:00 ..." Though I guess it would be easier to use the task scheduler instead of messing with the command line.
posted by zsazsa at 9:00 AM on February 18, 2005

I use JetAudio for my multimedia stuff. A quick search tells me that it can play DVD's (haven't done it myself yet). I'm pretty sure there's a free variety that has most of the same features as the full version, one of those being an alarm or timer you can set to do a specific thing (like close JetAudio). That could be a good solution, since you could set the timer to close the software around the time the movie would be over.
posted by Stunt at 10:35 AM on February 18, 2005

Go here and get Mute.exe and run it as a Scheduled Task at a fixed time (appx the length of the movie you plan to watch + x).
posted by m@ at 11:10 AM on February 18, 2005

Thanks for your help, gang. I'm going to go with mute.exe and the task scheduler, although I think I'll check out Wizmo as well.
posted by Servo5678 at 4:48 PM on February 18, 2005