- August 29, 2009
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(note: this is mainly interesting to developers, even though user input on what you want to see is welcome too).
Hi,
I believe the current situation with MediaPortal-webservices isn't good for the enduser: there are a lot of projects, all aiming to provide the same or parts of something that should be a single solution. Every service has its own webserver, TvServer plugin and (sometimes quite difficult) configuration.
We currently have this:
If you've both an iOS and Android device, and you want to be able to use MediaPortal on your PC too you'll have to install about 5 different services... That doesn't sound good. The ultimate goal is a smooth user experience: the user downloads one installer, that installs all dependencies, configures everything and just works. Then there's a single webserver running that hosts everything.
I see a few problems here:
Another problem is that people are implementing the same in different ways: both MPWebStream and iPiMP have implemented transcoding, there are like 10 (some of them obsolete) webinterfaces available, etc. It would be much better if things are implemented just once, and we focus on creating new cool stuff instead.
Main goal of this topic is to reach some consensus on how to continue to create the best user experience, hopefully without duplicating effort. After all a perfect webinterface can be one of the unique features that other mediacenters lack
Hi,
I believe the current situation with MediaPortal-webservices isn't good for the enduser: there are a lot of projects, all aiming to provide the same or parts of something that should be a single solution. Every service has its own webserver, TvServer plugin and (sometimes quite difficult) configuration.
We currently have this:
- TV4Home Core Service: an API that can be used to communicate with the TvService. 'Just' an dependency for other services.
- TV4Home Web Interface: a webinterface to manage the TV Server over the internet: schedule recordings, etc (no stable release yet?)
- MPWebStream: stream LiveTV and recordings over the internet (no stable release yet, but it should come quite soon)
- GMAWebService: A webinterface for the clientside of MediaPortal (not yet released)
- iPiMP: webinterface to the TvServer and the client, quite advanced, but mainly meant for iPhones
- kroko's Android app: an Android remote for MediaPortal with a serverside
- What did I forget?
If you've both an iOS and Android device, and you want to be able to use MediaPortal on your PC too you'll have to install about 5 different services... That doesn't sound good. The ultimate goal is a smooth user experience: the user downloads one installer, that installs all dependencies, configures everything and just works. Then there's a single webserver running that hosts everything.
I see a few problems here:
- How do we get things so far that everything uses a single webserver? At least some of the sites are simple ASP.NET which can be adapted quite easily to IIS (Express), but I don't know about the others.
- How do we integrate the client part with the server part? For multiseat, you want a single webinterface for the TV Server, and another one for the client, so that the server is still available even if the client isn't online. For singleseat installations, you want a single webinterface (just like MediaPortal).
- If you have multiple clients, you ideally want to have the same databases (music, tv series, movies, etc) available on all of them. This seems more like a design flaw in MediaPortal: it was a lot easier if everything was client-server and not only the TV part. But it isn't, so we have to work around it, but how?
Another problem is that people are implementing the same in different ways: both MPWebStream and iPiMP have implemented transcoding, there are like 10 (some of them obsolete) webinterfaces available, etc. It would be much better if things are implemented just once, and we focus on creating new cool stuff instead.
Main goal of this topic is to reach some consensus on how to continue to create the best user experience, hopefully without duplicating effort. After all a perfect webinterface can be one of the unique features that other mediacenters lack