[mythtv] MythWeb
Dustin Coates
dcoates at systemoverload.net
Tue Dec 30 19:25:37 UTC 2008
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 30, 2008, at 12:26 PM, "Richard Morton" <richard.e.morton at gmail.com
> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is my first posting to this list as I have just joined. I am
> quite obviously not a Mythtv developer but I am interested in
> finding about the status of a component and contributing, if I can.
>
> My particular area of interest is building a context sensitve web-
> browser based remote control for my Sony Ericsson P1i, Apple iPhone,
> Nokia N800i and of course this laptop.
>
> I was browsing around the MythWeb code and noticed that there is a
> place holder in it for just such a remote, but nothing more... so
> before I worked on something I wanted to where we are at. I would
> most likely build it as a seperate module as my PHP is not too hot
> and I would hate to mess up someone elses hard work, hopefully if it
> catches on it would get adopted/refactored.
>
> The concept of the remote is to use a touchscreen as the primary
> screen for browsing media, although eventually it would be fab if it
> (e.g. the EPG) could be seamlessly moved between the mobile remote
> and the main playback screen. One thing that is becoming obvious is
> that the mythtelnet interface would need some alterations to
> complete the project, or some other way of starting and controlling
> playback of games, music, video and recordings.
>
> I have written a few thoughts of how this would be used, feedback
> welcome. I am sorry if this is being posted in the wrong place.
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
>
> MythWeb Advanced Remote
>
> There are a few usecases for mythweb;
> Remote scheduling
> Remote Viewing
> Local (in room) remote control of a front end with control of
> onscreen UI
> Administration (predominantly local)
>
> there is a usecase that is not currently supported by MythWeb
>
> local (in room) remote control of a front end but with all data
> presented on the remote device (e.g. webpad)
>
> it is this last usecase that the advancedremote would be targeted
> at. There are cross overs between the usecases in certain situations
> and this is where tight integration with mythweb would allow the
> mixing between scenarios.
>
>
> The Use Case description:
>
> using a web pad as a (touchscreen) remote control, the user must
> look at the screen of the device in order to use the onscreen
> (touchscreen) buttons. As the users attention is on the touchscreen
> display the result of the user interaction should also be on the
> touchscreen display. If the user is in a group who are all
> interested in the information the information should be able to be
> shown on the main display, ideally in sync with the information on
> the touchscreen display.
>
> The network may consist of multiple front ends, the user should
> ideally be able to control each of these front ends and swap between
> them. The control software would ideally only need to be installed
> on the master-backend.
> The user may have many different web-pads and so the system must
> account for multiple web-pads of various types. A type of web pad
> has generic settings about the web pad stored and specific settings
> to that web pad stored against it (over writing general web pad type
> settings) these settings would include screen resolutions,
> orientations, themes, button size and spacing, flash support, ajax
> support, available locations and other settings. All the web-pads
> maybe in use simultaneously.
> All the controls should be finger sized be in a consistent location,
> have a logical layout, each control has multiple states, enabled,
> disabled, selected/toggle/depressed, not shown. The system should be
> efficient on resources and also be fast (caches which periodically
> update – pre-generate complex screens?)
>
> When a new webpad connects to the system the system asks for a
> password to ensure that the device is authorised to use the system.
> The system then goes through a series of setup screens for the
> device. Once complete the system shows which front ends are
> available (select distinct(hostname) from settings – assumes setting
> identifier is resolvable in DNS).
> The webpad when it connects to the solution, the system should
> provide a relevant page based on the context of what the front-end
> is doing, I.e. it's context; the following contexts are to be
> supported, they remember the last frontend they were connected to
> and they query the front ends state to determine the page it should
> move to – a setting should exist which determines if it queries the
> state of the front end and move to that page every so long (after no
> activity).
>
> standard controls (button to go to mainmenu, back / forward to page,
> name of frontend, keyboard remote, synchronise remote with frontend)
>
> MainMenu: TV, Recordings, Videos, Music, Streams, Images,
> Information, Games, change frontend, removable-media (rip / play /
> eject / burn/archive), mythweb, switchoff
>
>
> Custom Calls. All modules installed will have to have custom
> handlers for all events. This is so that modules may be contributed
> such as context sensitive, lighting, home automation etc.
>
> Moving to the TV EPG on the device would issue to the handlers
> "remote", "TV" "program" and "listing" selecting a channel to show
> on the screen would issue something like "display", "TV",
> "channel=bbc1", "play", "genre=action". This would allow custom
> modules to change the sound volume, balance, equaliser settings,
> lighting settings, close the curtains based on the modules rules
> about these things.
>
> Change Frontend: list of registered frontend servers (ping to
> confirm alive and indicate status)
>
> Play Video / Play Music Play-pictures / Live-TV / Stream Trailors:
> TV playback controls (pause, previous/next-chapter/track/commercial-
> marker, fast-forward/rewind, toggle-subtitles, volume/mute, controls
> should integrate with infrared senders / home automation etc show
> information on main screen display, EPG on touchscreen, save
> screenshot as thumbnail), information about the currently playing item
>
>
> EPG – Grid:
> grid of programs and channels over time, able to scroll with a
> finger vertically through channels and horizontally through time.
> Controls (select a program to show information, select a program to
> show the program/record the program if it is in the future, toggle
> display order, genre filter, search, favourites channel list, EPG
> now/next, channellist). If the user selects a program to play, the
> screen changes to the play control screen.
>
> EPG - now/next:
> column of channels with now and next programs indicated
>
> Channellist – thumbnail buttons for each channel and title of channe
> l, pressing a thumbnail changes the channel, brings up the program i
> nformation in an information box with a button to move to the play s
> creen, after a configurable amount of time the screen changes to the
> playback screen anyway. (channel list - select channum, chanid, ico
> n, name from channel order by channum, program information - select
> * from channel, program where channum=1 and channel.chanid = program
> .chanid and starttime<now() and endtime>now(); )
>
>
> Search/filter: dialogue box for search criteria and genre drop down
> filter. Configurable on screen keyboard?
>
> Item Information page: shows full title, and other program
> information (title), auto updates when item playing changes. Allows
> search depending on websites (depending on category: video,
> recording, tv, music), searching for artist, artist and album,
> artist, album and track for music, tv program, film name, etc. may
> just use google, but could be imdb for films, amazon
>
> Media Browser: Video / Music / recordings / games / streams
> Controls (same as EPG + switch to playlists/genre list, browse into
> folder as well as select a program to show the program/record the
> program if it is in the future & add item to playlist – hidden in ep
> g but space remains, delete item, play item in flash on remote – usi
> ng mythweb flash support)
> thumbnails of items in columns shown in folder list structure,
> playlists, truncated title, vertical scrolling, press for
> information (Information page) or play depending on control setting
> (play page).
>
> Playlist management:
> create new playlist based on selected items, setup task on selected
> items/playlist (transcode and copy to device for example)
>
> Thumbnails should consist of an custom image of the item (channel
> icon for TV channels, coverart for videos/music/game, preview image
> for recordings, stream graphic, image preview), if these are not
> available use a standard image for that media type. images: should
> use images located in theme directory above those generically
> created. All images including customised thumbnails should be stored
> in theme directory if they are not available use generic directory
> as setup in settings for thumbnails in the frontend/backend settings.
>
> Information;
> enable integration with mythweather and mythfilms
>
> Removable Media:
> option to play disc or rip disc:
> rip happens in background with all interaction through the webpad.
> Playback moves the screen to the playback screen. Controls (Option
> to move interface to main screen such as for title entry)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Themes
>
> Themes should be specific to a device or series of devices with
> similar capabilities. Three themes that are to be created: Nokia
> N8xx, SonyEricsson P1i, Laptop
>
>
> Nokia N8xx – 800 x 480
> split into a vertical column for main controls, rest of space used
> for context total of 10 buttons across and 5 buttons high, space
> between them. Visual feedback for button presses.
>
>
>
>
> SonyEricsson P1i – 240 x 320
> Laptop – 1024 x 768
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Initial Features:
> change front end
> Channel List
> Channel Now and Next
> standard remote control ( to enable the rest of the functions )
>
> Second Release
> EPG
> ability to set record from EPG
> Rip/play disc
> show list of recordings / info about recording
>
> Third Release – requires integration – enhancements to MythTelnet?
> Start playback
> Music browsing and playback
> playlists
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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