[mythtv-users] MythTv Player 0.1a for windows

[stan]

I wanted to watch live TV on my laptop with a wireless link.

I threw together two java programs. One is a "tuner" that reads my Hauppauge
PVR350 directly through /dev/video0, responds to tuning commands by issuing
ivtvctl and ivtv-tune commands, and just streams output to a client
"display" program.  Tuner is under control of xinetd so it isn't using any
resources when not running.

The other side of "tuner" is "display" which launches vlc, reads the video
stream from "tuner", and hands the video stream to vlc via stdin.  "Display"
also has a channel change window.  Display, being java, should run on just
about anything, and I think vlc versions are available for just about
anything. Vlc also has nice stuff like deinterlacing and graphics equalizer.

This has been working well over my 802.11g.  I tried 802.11b, but it's too
slow. Buffering doesn't solve speed problems; it only defers them.

I was hoping to expand the system to include more tuners (pvr350Tuner isa
Tuner isa Source), displayers (vlcDisplay isa Display isa Sink), Recorders
(source and sink for recording and playback), Transcoders (source and sink
for file format conversion), and a Manager to dynamically link up
everything.  Everything in java so it's machine independent where possible.

So far, I've only found time to write the one tuner and display.  Since this
met the immediate need, the priority has dropped :-)

--stan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org 
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Mikkel 
> Stensgaard
> Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 1:10 PM
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] MythTv Player 0.1a for windows
> 
> Hi fellow MythTv users
> 
> For quite some time I have been working on a player for MythTv on 
> windows. The reason is that I want to be able to watch livetv on my 
> windows pc, and that i want proper network buffering. Due to 
> my wireless 
> network other players sometime cause the video to stall or 
> even deadlock.
> 
> The goals of the player are:
>  - Small and fast
>  - Both windowed and fullscreen mode
>  - Network buffering
>  - LiveTv and channel switching directly from player
>  - Independent.. So no need for external codecs
>  - Simple.. Simple, clean GUI
> 
> I have not reached this far yet as 95% of my time has been put into 
> building the actual video player. Briefly explained, it is 
> built using 
> ffmpeg, SDL, tinyxml and fltk. All are OS independent so it should be 
> possible to compile for linux as well in the future if needed.
> 
> This first version only supports viewing of existing recordings and 
> network buffering. I have not been concentrating of the GUI, so it is 
> extremely basic.. But the point is to make it simple.
> 
> I would like some to give it a try and tell me what you think. My 
> backend has a pvr-150, and I have not done any testing on 
> other systems. 
> It has only been tested with version 0.19, but an option in 
> the config 
> file, allows it to use the 0.20.. Maybe it works,, but I do not know.
> 
> The readme file shows the hotkeys.
> 
> My plan is to make version 0.1 by fixing some bug. .. I have not done 
> any testing except on my own backend, so I bet there are some bugs.
> 
> There are of course some known problems.
> - Image scaling is slow in the current implementation. It 
> runs fine on 
> my stationary, but the image-scaling is to slow for my 1Ghz  
> Pentium3M 
> notebook,
> - After pause some of the frames are dropped,
> - Special characters are not showed correctly
> - not tested on 0.20
> - If it crashes or deadlocks you might have to restart your 
> backend as 
> it is very easy to crash it.
> 
> Roadmap:
>  - Livetv,
>  - deinterlace filters,
>  - unicode handling
>  - Volume control
>  - better image-scaling in hardware,
>  - use of other image-program than SDL,
>  - On-Screen-Display information,
>  - Delete recordings from menu,
> 
> 
> I would like to get some feedback
> - First of all...Is it worth my time? Does anybody wants a 
> mythtvplayer 
> for windows, or do you just want to play from a samba-share or dsmyth?
> - Is it stable? bugs? .. please let me know if you find any bugs.
> - Does it work on version 0.20?
> - Are there any other features that would be nice?
> - Which features are most important?
> 
> A temporary webpage, where you can download the 0.1 alpha version
> http://www.sudu.dk/mythtvplayer/
> 
> Sincerely
> 
> \Mikkel Stensgaard
> 
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