Progress: MP 2 development status - 2010-10-11 (1 Viewer)

Albert

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  • February 18, 2008
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    Welcome to the MP 2 status report.

    In the past, I was posting a status report like this one from time to time, about every month, to an internal MediaPortal 2 forum. Now, that we moved the MP 2 development more in the public focus, I'll start posting those status reports in the public area.


    We're coming to a point where most of the big core functionality is finished. One of the last functions that have been missing is implemented now - the remote resource access. Now it is possible for each system component to access a resource which is located at any place all over the system, just by calling an appropriate method.
    We have many of the functions available which should be present in the first alpha version.
    But there are still many things to do. The most important thing is the playback quality.

    What has been done?
    • I reworked the server's database layer to be any more flexible against other database implementations
    • New SQL Server CE database plugin (offbyone)
    • Rework of the ContentManagement subsystem in the SkinEngine (Baboonanza)
    • Http server in the MP2 client (needed for remote resource access of client-local resources)
    • Remote resource access
    • More work at the DVD player (morpheus_xx and me)

    What will be done in the next time?
    • Tuning of new database plugin
    • Playlist management (load, save)
    • Playback quality and player stability (Audio, Video)
    • Skin beautifications
    • Bugfixes in the SkinEngine
    • Work items at the DVD player and the prospective picture player

    Feel free to ask questions.

    Cheers,
    Daniel
     

    zicoz

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    Thanks for this update, always fun to see the progress.

    My one question:

    Http server in the MP2 client (needed for remote resource access of client-local resources)

    Does this mean that you will include the functionality of say iPiMP in MP2?
     

    Albert

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    AW: Progress: MP 2 development status - 2010-10-11

    Well, I think we will have a web interface sooner or later, but not as an Apple application, at least in the main distribution.
    But it is easy to add a plugin to provide an arbitrary web interface. Our web server can be extended at runtime with so called "web modules" which can easily be added by plugins.
     

    FreakyJ

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    AW: Progress: MP 2 development status - 2010-10-11

    I'm so happy to hear about the future of MP.

    You guys do a really really good job ;)
     

    messo001

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    I"m not heaps involved with the technicalities of MP1/2, so excuse the ignorance, but:
    Is there a point in developing a video/audio player from scratch? Why not use an already existing one, such as VLC and just write an plugin for it?!
     

    Albert

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    AW: Re: Progress: MP 2 development status - 2010-10-11

    I"m not heaps involved with the technicalities of MP1/2, so excuse the ignorance, but:
    Is there a point in developing a video/audio player from scratch? Why not use an already existing one, such as VLC and just write an plugin for it?!

    Well, off course we're examining all possible options. And you're right, there are very good players available. I didn't start with the audio and video player development yet; all efforts taken so far were either done by other team members or they were taken just to have a starting point. So what I now say is not the last word, it is just a preliminary assessment.

    In the development of an audio player, the most work is the system integration. For the audio player itself, there exist implementations which just can be used. That's what we did (and we have to improve our integration a lot). So in that area, we'll do it as you say: We're using third party libraries.

    The video player development consists basically of two major tasks: 1) Correct graph building and usage of the correct filters and 2) presentation of audio and video to the user.

    For 1), we're mostly using third party filters with some exceptions. The building of the player graph is a very complicated area which still has to be reworked.
    For 2), we NEED to write our own code because we have our own SkinEngine which needs to present the video picture. If you have ever tried other MediaCenter solutions, you'll see that some of them integrate third-party players, which means a flickering of the picture when the other player is started, then a complete change of look and feel (because of the other player's OSD, commands and keys). Our approach is to integrate the video picture into MP2, which means the fullscreen content screen is skinnable with an own OSD and it provides the MP2 standard functions and behaviour.

    As we/I move my work into that area, I'll surely do an investigation which existing player components can be reused etc.
    Perhaps other team members can also comment that, as there are members with much more experience in that area than me.
     

    gingertom

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    Thank you for the update. These are really exciting times, not only seeing how far MP2 has come, but also how fast MP1 still is being updated. A BIG thankyou to all of you, for the work you all put in.:D
     

    SiLenTYL

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    nice !!!

    the new skin engine will be amazing and change the way we think about media players !!!
     

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