[mythtv] Recorder & Output plugins.

[Isaac Richards]

On Friday 30 January 2004 05:52 am, James L. Reese wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:20:46 -0500
>
> Isaac Richards <ijr at po.cwru.edu> wrote:
> > On Thursday 29 January 2004 08:29 pm, Kenneth Aafløy wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I've been playing with splitting up libmythtv's recorders and video
> > > output classes into plugins today. I've done the attached patch against
> > > tv_rec to enable plugins (missing handler for nuppelvideo), and some
> > > other tiny modifications here and there. I plan on trying to do this to
> > > the output classes soon also, but I wanted to "air" the idea before
> > > going further. So my question is, is this something that would be
> > > accepted into cvs?
> >
> > Had this discussion with someone else a few months ago -- I don't really
> > see the point to making them plugins.  All it really adds is extra code
> > to debug. Is there a benefit that I'm missing?
> >
> > Isaac
>
> It would sure make it easier for those of us trying to interface to mythtv
> with hardware devices like the Hauppauge MediaMVP that require something
> besides X and XV to display things.
>
> For example, the mediamvp needs to stream the mpeg file down a TCP channel
> but uses a different method for the on-screen display.  Having things in
> plugin form so they could be "switched out" at will would be nice.
>
> Otherwise patching the code will be necessary to support these devices.

Plugins don't magically give something the ability to be "switched out" at 
will.  The exact same code has to be written to select which method to use 
regardless of if something is a plugin or compiled in, unless you're just 
going to say 'use the first plugin you find in a directory', which obviously 
doesn't work.

Isaac