methods of using TV server - discussion thread (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter infinite.loop
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- October 7, 2006
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Israel
Support XBMC as a client!
I think that the most important thing for me is that the protocol between the client and server will be well documented so I can help in porting the code to the XBOX Media Center....
Excellent news, guys, good luck!
I think that the most important thing for me is that the protocol between the client and server will be well documented so I can help in porting the code to the XBOX Media Center....
Excellent news, guys, good luck!
Good question!, I'm curious about that as well, as I have a very small fanless (VIA EPIA MINI-ITX based) PC that (though I haven't tried it) can boot directly from a USB-key, so I don't even need a CompactFlash to IDE/ATA converter, and I got a USB 2.0 PCI-adapter in it which has an internal USB-connector too so can just connect the USB-stick inside the computer via that.
However I'm not sure one can fit both the Windows XP Home-Edition or Professional-Edition (or 2003 Server) operating-system and MediaPortal on just 1GB (or 2GB), even with the virtual-memory page-file disabled in windows, (plus I'm not sure how well Windows and MediaPortal run without a virtual-memory). Best would probebly be if one could install and run MediaPortal on Windows XP Embedded or Windows CE 6.0 (with the .NET Compact Framework 2.0) as those have a much smaller footprint for the Windows operating-system.
Speaking about Windows CE 6.0 and the .NET Compact Framework 2.0. Does MediaPortal support the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and run on Windows CE 6.0?, have anyone tried it? .NET Compact Framework 2.0 is not exacly the same as the normal .NET Framework 2.0, they both do the same thing but the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 doesn't have all the libraries/classes that the full .NET Framework 2.0 so MediaPortal code might have to altered just a bit to support both.
Now Windows Operating-Systems usually only run on x86 processor/hardware-platforms, however a other cool thing about Windows CE 6.0 is that it supports ARM, MIPS and SH4 processors/platforms as well. Though Windows CE 6.0 does not support as many device drivers as Windows XP and Windows XP Embedded does (which both supports the same device drivers), and Windows CE 6.0 does only support the .NET Compact Framework 2.0, (while Windows XP and Windows XP Embedded both support the full standard NET Framework 2.0), but is so happens that the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 is the same .NET Compact Framework 2.0 that will run on the Xbox360 when the XNA Framework for Xbox360 is released by Microsoft in December this year, (thus also making it possible to port MediaPortal to the Xbox360 when the XNA for it comes out).
will there be:
>DVB-subtitles and Teletext-subtitles ?
don't think so, planned for a later release.
You can watch Teletext pages, but subtitling. not yet
>Placeshifting?
yes
>Whats the protocol?
For streaming RTSP (mpeg-2 transport stream)
For controlling the tv server : via .net remoting.
which is implemented in a seperate dll you can use.
Frodo
>DVB-subtitles and Teletext-subtitles ?
don't think so, planned for a later release.
You can watch Teletext pages, but subtitling. not yet
>Placeshifting?
yes
>Whats the protocol?
For streaming RTSP (mpeg-2 transport stream)
For controlling the tv server : via .net remoting.
which is implemented in a seperate dll you can use.
Frodo
Frodo, first of all, great work !!!
Just want to understand what you mean about first version. You mean the first SVN released version of the first final version, will not have plug-in support?
I don't know how the team plans to roll out the server engine (svns, beta, final releases) and etc.
Julio
- Thread starter
- #66
After more intensive team internal testing, a public preview version will be released.
Interesting stuff about .NET CF 2.0 on the Xbox 360 - be interested to see what happens... sounds like it'll kick the PS3's arse anyway
Anyway, the problem with .NET CF 2.0 is that I don't think its inline with the MP team's long term goal of moving off direct DirectX manipulation and onto WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation, aka Avalon). AFAIK, there won't be a WPF equivalent in the .NET CF 2.0. The most that will get into .NET CF 2.0 will probably be WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere), which is the version designed to take on Flash essentially. Problem is, if what I've read is true, the 3D features will be stripped out in that version.
Best result will be if the MP code is flexible enough to run on both WPF/E or WPF but I think that sounds unlikely.
Hopefully once Windows Vista Embedded is released, and when we all have flash/HD combination drives, we'll finally have one of the best features of Windows CE - instant on.
EDIT: I'm not speaking on behalf of the MP devs...just what I gather from reading the forums.
Sam
I have a quostion: according to the diagram (pdf) tv card should be placed in server. so the question is: do I need one or three tv cards if I have 3 media center computers? sorry for a dumb question but it's not clear for me...
You can have a tvserver with just 1 card and 1,2,3 or more clients
All clients can watch tv at the same time.
However since the server only has 1 tv card they all see the same tv channel.
Now if you had 3 tvcards in the tvserver, each client could watch a different channel.
The first version which will be made publicly available wont have plugin support yet as said, we'll add it soon after so people can extend the server with various featues
The only client there is right now is MediaPortal, so if you can run MP on your flash card then the answer is yes.
Maybe in time other clients will arise, I can imagine other htpc's apps looking at the tvserver as well and it wouldnt surprise me someone is developing a client-plugin for mce 2005, sagetv, ....
Note, that since the server uses RTSP you can watch streaming tv also in
VLC and/or mplayer (dunno XBMC, can it play rtsp video streams?)
However these apps cannot control the tvserver at this moment
For controlling the tv-server (example zap to another channel) the client should
either implement the protocol or use the tvcontrol.dll (.net) we supply
As always things take (much) more time then we first thought.
At this stage we're working on fixing the last issues with streaming.
Once thats done we'll release it.
I hope/expect that within a few weeks you will see a release
Frodo