[mythtv-users] mythmusic alternatives

[Robert Longbottom]

On Tue, July 3, 2007 4:24 pm, Mike LaPlante wrote:
>
>
> Gianpaolo Racca wrote:
>> First of all, I do not want to be polemic. I appreciate the efforts any
>> software requires to be written and tested, so don't tell me "build our
>> own
>> tool and be happy".
>> Now the question:
>> Any of you is using some alternative to mythmusic to play music from tv?
>> I mean, there is some software which can:
>> - play music
>> - manage (dynamic) playlists
>> - support podcasts
>> - support internet radio
>> and which can be used on a normal PAL TV screen, in conjunction with
>> mythtv
>> and controlled via remote?
>> On my laptop I use amarok, which does well all these things, but is
>> unusable
>> via TV screen. Maybe someone will write a TV frontend for amarok?
>>
>> and BTW, can I setup a remote button to switch between applications
>> (like
>> ALT+TAB) and set focus on a specific one?
>>
>> Thanks for any hint,
>>
>> 	gianpaolo
>>
>>
>>
> I love Amarok and have been wanting to figure this out but haven't had
> the time. I did google around and I have added amarok events to my
> lircrc using irxevent as the prog. The problem is, like you said, being
> able to get back and forth between myth and amarok. Could probably write
> a script to killall mythfrontend and start amarok (or vice versa if
> amarok is already running) then map it to some button on my remote. You
> wouldn't be able to do serious file management via remote but you can do
> the simple stuff like skips songs and pause.
>
> Mythmusic does need some work, I'd like to see a way to background music
> playing via mythmusic, so that I could start some music, then swap over
> to mythgame and play emulators.
>
> If you come up with an easy way to switch back and forth to amarok via
> remote let me know, I may get some chance to tinker with it after the
> holiday.
>
> Mike

I've been using mythmusic for a while and it's okay, but I'd also like to
find something better.  In my opinion, what I want is a music playing
application that follows a server-client model.  Let me explain;

You have a "music server" app running on your mythbox.  This app has no
user interface, but it knows about your music collection, holds your
playlists, and can play music on your speakers.  This app runs 24/7 in the
background.

You then have multiple "frontends" - these front ends talk to the "music
server" backend.  They can get lists of songs, start a song playing, stop
a song playing, get status info (what is playing, etc), they can manage
playlists.  The idea here is that you have a "MythMusicFrontend" that is
nicely integrated with Myth, and a WebFrontend that allows you to
start/stop/manage playlists from a remote laptop / pda / whatever via your
network.

Maybe the server application also exports your library so you can play it
in iTunes using mtdaapd in some way.

I've not found anything that does this yet, but I've not looked very hard
either.  I kind of think that vlc might have some of this functionality
available, but I've never found time to look into it.

Robert.