[Android] aMPdroid - Android MediaPortal Client (1 Viewer)

[DieBagger]

MP is open source right? Will this app be open source as well like most of the plugins here?
I have no intention of rubbing anyones feelings, but to me selling an app for a free program feels a little bit ... off. I cant find the right words for it.. But I might be uninformed here. Are there more plugins available for mediaportal you need to buy? (Im just asking as Im unaware of this)
As for adds, Personally I am no fan. It generates data, occupies too much of the too little screen already. It can be quite distracting at times. Adds in view would take away some of the glamour when showing off to friends ghehe...

With that said... I would gladly donate for an app like this. It is very... VERY good looking. I am following the development of this thread closely

A different approach could be.
- dont put it in the market, but make it available for download here.
- Make an infotab in the programm with a putton/link in there to be able to donate. You can even produce a popup screen every day/week/month with the question if youd like to donate.

Well, this is just my thought about the current topic.

Thank you for all the hard work you are putting in to this program. You are really taking the development of an addon like this to a higher level. I applaud iT!! Thank you!

In theory I would have every right to write this as closed source an charge money for it all day long... I'm not using any MediaPortal sourcecode (I'm only talking about the actual app here, the backend is a different story) nor am I linking to any MediaPortal libraries. I'm only communicating with MP via json api. So from a legal point of view I could do whatever I want...

But ... as I said the sourcecode is available on the project page (a-mp-droid - Project Hosting on Google Code) and I'm a big supporter of everything mp-related being Open Source.

for the kind words guys, much appreciated...

 

[edterbak]

In theory I would have every right to write this as closed source an charge money for it all day long... I'm not using any MediaPortal sourcecode (I'm only talking about the actual app here, the backend is a different story) nor am I linking to any MediaPortal libraries. I'm only communicating with MP via json api. So from a legal point of view I could do whatever I want...

But ... as I said the sourcecode is available on the project page (a-mp-droid - Project Hosting on Google Code) and I'm a big supporter of everything mp-related being Open Source.

for the kind words guys, much appreciated...

Hehehe.. Theory, legally and reallity.. Choices to make
No matter what you decide, I will definetly get/buy/donate an app like this. (preferably without adds gheheh)

Just a side note or more of a followup idea to help you make the decision. If you make this available on market to buy, I think you automatically create some sense for buyers they have the right for technical support. If people buy something, they'd expect it to work on their device. There might be more strings attached in that respect than you personally would like. Ofcourse I dont know you or your personal situation. You might even like the idea of the more proffesional provider/customer relation.
Just so you are aware of the possible effects.

Thanks again!

 

[DieBagger]

Hehehe.. Theory, legally and reallity.. Choices to make
No matter what you decide, I will definetly get/buy/donate an app like this. (preferably without adds gheheh)

Just to make this clear if I would charge money for an app I wouldn't put ads on it. I find it unacceptable if apps do so, for me it's either the one or the other.

Just a side note or more of a followup idea to help you make the decision. If you make this available on market to buy, I think you automatically create some sense for buyers they have the right for technical support. If people buy something, they'd expect it to work on their device.

Have you seen what sort of crap is sold on the market... Also in my experience people couldn't care less if they bought a program or got an open source one for free. They'll always expect technical support (see the mediaportal forums ) and that's not necesarily a bad thing. I want it to be as bug-free and good as possible too.

And one more thing I'd like to mention: I'm doing this project for fun/because I love mp and don't expect to make a living out of it, aMPdroid is a love-child after all...

Going to work on another project now, a guy's gotta make a living...

 

[edterbak]

Going to work on another project now, a guy's gotta make a living...

LOL!

I agree on all points, your right.
I never had any experience in buying apps off of market. I Never saw a 'must have' on there....Yet!
I love your... ehh... love child? Gheheehe.. growing up nicely.

Regards,
me

 

[bodiroga]

Hi DieBagger!

First, (as I've told you thousand of times) many thanks for all your hard work and the effort you are putting into developing the app, the results are going to be amazing.

Here are my feature requests/questions/comments about the app:

1) I'm a little bit worried (and confused) about how the app is going to handler a multiseat scenario. The way you have designed the app is clearly for a singleseat environment where Mediaportal and TVServer are installed in the same machine, isn't it? But that doesn't fit with that welcome screen where you have to choose the client to what you are going to be connected. We can consider my personal configuration, that consists in one server PC with TVServer (only) installed and where all the movies, music, videos, tvseries,... are stored, and other 2 pcs with Mediaportal (client) installed that are used to watch TV, movies, listen to music... In this case, I should add three clients in aMPdroid, because I have three different pcs with their own IPs: server pc, kitchen pc and living room pc, right?

Imagine that I'm on my living room and I want to see one movie. I take my phone, start the app, select Living Room client, go to Movies section, choose the film and click on "start movie on client". Everything's fine. Movie finishes (and I enjoyed it a lot because it was a Bergman's movie ) and now I want to watch news in TV. What should I do in this case? Because I figured out that pressing on the TV icon is not going to work, as TVServer is not installed in my living room client. I should go back, select server client in welcome screen and press tv icon in main menu? If the answer is yes, how can I start the stream in the living room pc if now I'm in the server client?? WTF???? Sorry if I'm missing something really stupid, but I swear that I don't understand how this is going to work. Where is the trick? I really hope that you have considered this case and all is under control ;-)

2) I know that you have it in mind, but: multiple language support. I'm ready to translate the app to spanish when you want, just call me ;-) It would be wonderful if you could add the possibility to autochoose the language based on the Android device language. Too much work?

3) I would personally change the horizontal context menu that appears when long-pressing in a movie/tvserie and make it a vertical context menu. With the horizontal menu the buttons are too small and you have less space to add more options without having to scroll ("play on device" for example). Anyway, this suggestion is not important at all.

4) Add the option to play movies and series in details view, because it doesn't make sense to force the user to go back to play the movie when he has read the description. For movies you can place a "Play" button under the certification label.

5) Make the app fullscreen to gain more space. The more I think about the it, the most I realized how important it is; we really need that extra space to handle all the data that the app is going to show.

6) In Media Browsing menu, what do you think about adding the option to change between Videos, Movies, Series and Shares moving the finger from left to right and from right to left (just like in Windows Phone 7). Is this possible in Android?

7) Less important thing but with more future perspective: tablet layout. This is probably going to be the Android tablets year (with Honeycomb) and an app like this can be the most important reason to buy one. Have you start thinking about this? Which ideas do you have for the interface? Maybe you can contact with kiwijunglist to talk about this and he can help you with the design ;-) I'm thinking on a 3D wall (like in the Youtube app for honeycomb) for movies and series and.... wowwwwww, this can be absolutely amazing!

Well, I think that this is enough for now, don't you think so? I hope that you can answer to my first question (the most important for me) and if I thought about more features or comments I will write them here or in google codes page, wherever you want.

Many thanks for all and keep up with the good job.

Best regards,

Aitor

PS: Sorry for the length of the post

 

[DieBagger]

1) I'm a little bit worried (and confused) about how the app is going to handler a multiseat scenario. The way you have designed the app is clearly for a singleseat environment where Mediaportal and TVServer are installed in the same machine, isn't it? But that doesn't fit with that welcome screen where you have to choose the client to what you are going to be connected. We can consider my personal configuration, that consists in one server PC with TVServer (only) installed and where all the movies, music, videos, tvseries,... are stored, and other 2 pcs with Mediaportal (client) installed that are used to watch TV, movies, listen to music... In this case, I should add three clients in aMPdroid, because I have three different pcs with their own IPs: server pc, kitchen pc and living room pc, right?

Of course I thought of this...

So here's how it works, all comunication is done through 3 different datapoints: WifiRemote, GmaWebserviceController and Tv4HomeController (see graphic in first post). WifiRemoteController is for communicating with the MediaPortal plugin (WifiRemote) so this will only work if MediaPortal is actually running on the pc. It is used for the remote control screen and for sending commands to MediaPortal (play on client, open window, etc.). GmaWebserviceController gets all the data about media items on the machine. As it reads the data directly from the databases it doesn't require MP to be running. These two services each have their own configuration (although it wont't be possible to configure different ip's for those, as I don't think it would make any sense). Tv4HomeController is a different story though. It also has it's own configuration and it will be possible to configure a seperate ip for this service. The only reason why this isn't (yet) possible in the settings is because they aren't finished yet (because their hasn't been a release yet ).

2) I know that you have it in mind, but: multiple language support. I'm ready to translate the app to spanish when you want, just call me ;-) It would be wonderful if you could add the possibility to autochoose the language based on the Android device language. Too much work?

I tried as best to use android resource string fo every text I use in the app but over time a bunch hardcoded strings have sneaked in. I'll use a quiet hour sometimes to extract all hardcoded value to the translatable xml file and will let you know when your services are required... Language detection base on device language shouldn't be a problem, please add an item on the issue tracker for that.

3) I would personally change the horizontal context menu that appears when long-pressing in a movie/tvserie and make it a vertical context menu. With the horizontal menu the buttons are too small and you have less space to add more options without having to scroll ("play on device" for example). Anyway, this suggestion is not important at all.

I don't like the "context menu" (I'm guessing that's what you mean) very much because I find it very intrusive and it requires the usage of the back button to get out of it. The quickactions (the horizontal menu) still needs some work though as well. With proper icons their shouldn't be the need for long text.

4) Add the option to play movies and series in details view, because it doesn't make sense to force the user to go back to play the movie when he has read the description. For movies you can place a "Play" button under the certification label.

Yes, also I want to add a menu entry for this, just didn't have time yet.

5) Make the app fullscreen to gain more space. The more I think about the it, the most I realized how important it is; we really need that extra space to handle all the data that the app is going to show.

I guess since the screen of my desire hd is so big I didn't see this as a problem yet. Also add an issue for this please.

6) In Media Browsing menu, what do you think about adding the option to change between Videos, Movies, Series and Shares moving the finger from left to right and from right to left (just like in Windows Phone 7). Is this possible in Android?

Good idea -> issue

7) Less important thing but with more future perspective: tablet layout. This is probably going to be the Android tablets year (with Honeycomb) and an app like this can be the most important reason to buy one. Have you start thinking about this? Which ideas do you have for the interface? Maybe you can contact with kiwijunglist to talk about this and he can help you with the design ;-) I'm thinking on a 3D wall (like in the Youtube app for honeycomb) for movies and series and.... wowwwwww, this can be absolutely amazing!

Planned once the 36hour-day has been invented... Yes their will be different layouts and tablet will most likely be the first to come. I haven't yet used fragments (Android Developers Blog: The Android 3.0 Fragments API) but those might come in handy later on.

Hope I answered all questions...

 

[thomas_fogh]

Cool app! I was going to make something similar myself... but now I don't have to!
Looking forward to the first test version.

BTW: Where can I find a description of the APIs for the webservices for MediaPortal, Tv4Home and GMA? I couldn't find anything anywhere...

 

[dint10]

Hi there - pardon me for what I am sure are some very dumb questions I am about to ask.

I have read all the previous posts, many of which seemed a little technical to a luddite like myself.

I was [only twenty mins ago] looking at a website and considering whether or not to buy an Android tablet when it popped into my head - wouldn't it be great if you could use it as a remote control for MP. So, I came straight to the forums and did a search and found this thread. I am now very excited as I have always had problems with my remote.

As I understand it - with your plug in running on an android tablet I would no longer require my remote. Is that correct?

Would I be able to completely control every aspect within MP as I do now or would remote functions be limited in any repects?

I saw mention in an earlier post someone else say they were interested in the music playback functions. This is what interests me mainly also.

Would it be possible, as suggested, to control music playback with android tablet and not need to turn on telly?

I am really excited about this - as others have said it looks amazing! I would be more than happy to Donate or Pay for it.

 

[dirki1972]

AW: [Android] aMPdroid - Android MediaPortal Client

cant wait for testdrive, too

regards
dirk

 

[DieBagger]

AW: Re: [Android] aMPdroid - Android MediaPortal Client

As I understand it - with your plug in running on an android tablet I would no longer require my remote. Is that correct?

Yes that is correct, although I find that I miss the tactile feedback on the phone screen, so I still mainly use my remote control.

There will be a layout specially designed for tablets but I can't give you any eta on that.

Cool app! I was going to make something similar myself... but now I don't have to!
Looking forward to the first test version.

If you're an android/java dev and want to help, shoot me a pm...

BTW: Where can I find a description of the APIs for the webservices for MediaPortal, Tv4Home and GMA? I couldn't find anything anywhere...

WifiRemote: APIDocumentation - wifiremote - This page describes the messages a client can send to or receive from the plugin. - Project Hosting on Google Code
Gma & Tv4Home: Sourcecode