[mythtv-users] Mythtv Backend Windows 7 Media Center upnp client

[David Blain]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of David Watkins
> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 5:47 PM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Mythtv Backend Windows 7 Media Center upnp
> client
> 
> >  I have since noticed the double entries and also hate the way all
> videos
> > are lumped together, I don't know if this is a media player or myth
> issue,
> 
> I believe that it's the UPNP server (ie MythTV) that controls how the
> media files are presented on the playback device.
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A few things to note about Windows 7 Media Center upnp support...

1) Double Entries -

It actually would be more than double if left long enough.
  
WMP does not perform a browse request, it performs a search against MythTV's
CDS.  The search request contains a Filter that should only allow actual
content, not referenced entries (think symbolic links).  MythTv currently
doesn't handle filters correctly, so it returns all entries including ones
that are just aliases in different folders.  Ultimately WMP treats them as
different recordings so it displays duplicates.

2) Sorting -

Due to #1 above, MythTv has no control over how WMP displays and sorts the
content we return.  It uses the metadata we return to organize it any way it
sees fit.  The only thing we can do is provide better metadata so WMP's
built in sorting works better.

3) Recordings lumped in with Videos -

Starting with Windows 7, WMP will allow upnp servers to return items that
would be grouped under the "Recorded TV" selection.  The problem with it is
that it only puts content there that says it's a Windows Media Center
Recording *.dvr-ms or *.wtv.  I've been able to override the content-type in
the returned recording data and it showed up in the "Recorded TV" section.
The problem I had was I couldn't determine who was making the request (the
user Agent header was non-descript), so I couldn't just blindly check in the
change (it would break it for everything other than Win 7).

All the above is solvable, I just won't be able to get to it until after
some other MythXML changes I'm working on.

David.