[mythtv] New MythTV interface announced!!

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Sun, 2009-07-05 at 10:48 +0100, Richard Morton wrote:
> Excellent feedback thanks for your reply. We will look into UPNP
> control point. I think this should be the long term aim for MythTV as
> it is a standard. However this part of uPNP still requires an
> interface being created for your specific tablet device; I am sure
> this will happen given time, but the standard has been released for 5
> years and yet I can only find a couple of pieces of software (after a
> very brief search) targetting a couple of platforms; neither have a
> compelling UI.

The UPNP interface is generated by the server, i.e. the mythfrontend
in this case. A UI does not need to be specific to a device, just
specific to it's capabilities. So if Sony releases a device tomorrow
with the same capabilities as the Nokia N8xx devices it would work
out of the box with the N8xx UI. 

> Feedback from other contributors have also shown how we can use the
> Telnet interface (at least for TV/recording playback via altering the
> OSD UI), although video, music, ripping, weather and other plugins
> would require either extensions to the telnet interface to permit
> command control of the plugin (rather than key-press control); OR
> implement the playback of videos/pictures/other plugins in a custom
> manner - directly controlling playback software (such as VLC/MPlayer)

Yeah, I've had in mind extending the telnet interface for some time.
I just have not had the time.

> I am aware of LinuxMCE; but have you tried to get it running? I have!
> It is far beyond what most people will implement and it is difficult
> to remove unused options for the interface (lighting and automation).
> I also think the LinuxMCE UI is awful from a visual point of view,
> although it is quite usable. Finally LinuxMCE although actively
> developed is still some way from moving off Ubuntu 710 and I believe
> they have been working on the port to 810 since Ubuntu 810s release...
> that's over a year.

I'm well aware of the capabilities and limitations of LinuxMCE.
I really just wanted you to be aware of it. In part so you don't
lose interest when you discover it and in part so you can learn
from it. Despite it's architectural limitations, the N8xx interface
is very usable for cueing up music without turning on your TV,
but not quite there for controlling MythTV. Using it for a few
weeks will give you an idea of both things to emulate and things
to stay away from.

> Please bare in mind that this solution is just a design, and we are
> looking for developers to help implement this; as mentioned before
> there is currently a GBP£500 bounty. If serious interest was shown in
> developing it, we'd lodge the bounty at an independant
> location/website.

That bounty will not motivate anyone, best just avoid mentioning
it and figure out how to implement things yourself. Learning
programming is not as hard as you might imagine and a GBP£500
budget will buy a lot of books. Really, it is just problem solving
with a set of powerful tools, learning programming is also like
learning mathematics, even if you never use it directly in real-life
the skills you learn will make your life easier. We'll teach you
all the stuff not in the books when we review your patches. Plus,
OSS is like nail soup sometimes, if you get the pot boiling others
will toss in their own turnips. 

-- Daniel