Controlling a remote blockbuster instance with sidecar
Sidecar provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for interacting with a remote instance of blockbuster, providing all the blockbuster controls on a local interface, called the "remote control GUI."
Sidecar remote control interface vs. blockbuster control interface
The remote control GUI is always visible in Sidecar. It duplicates the blockbuster GUI as can be seen in the above image. In fact, the only difference between the two GUIs is that Sidecar has some buttons for connecting to blockbuster and for showing its Movie Cue interface.
The remote control GUI appears different depending on whether it is connected to blockbuster (as shown here) or disconnected from blockbuster.
Sidecar remote control GUI when disconnected
When sidecar is not connected to blockbuster, the GUI is mostly greyed out. Five elements are active, plus the File and Movie menus.
1) The Launch Blockbuster button opens the Launch Dialog which allows you to launch or connect to blockbuster. See "Launching and connecting to blockbuster from sidecar" for more details.
2) The Connect button, which allows you to connect to blockbuster running on the host and port specified in fields 4 and 5. Make sure you put the right port number in the Port field. Note that the port changes with each blockbuster launch, for security purposes. See the Lesson "Getting the blockbuster connection port".
3) The Show Movie Cues button, which shows the movie cue editor and controller dialog. See below for more details.
Controlling blockbuster once connected.
In this mode, the full range of blockbuster controls is available on your local console. If you click "Connect Keyboard to Blockbuster," then you can also use the keyboard to control blockbuster. For example, Z/z zooms in and out, etc. Note that "Launch Blockbuster" has changed to "Terminate Blockbuster" and "Connect" has changed to "Disconnect."
Sidecar File menu
Under the File menu, you can open and save cue files, or exit sidecar. When you exit sidecar, then sidecar will terminate blockbuster if it launched blockbuster.
Sidecar Movie menu
From the Movie menu, you can perform certain control tasks. Also there are shortcuts shown for each task. For example, to go to the end of the movie, type "Control-E".