Space.py
Contents
Synopsis
The MythNetvision Space Mashup grabber (space.py) supports a search and creates treeviews of videos from various space media sources (e.g. Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
Treeview user customizations:
- Enable shows and select the download file size [1]
- Control the maximum number of items that can be added to directories globally or for a single subdirectory [2]
Country Restrictions
- Videos can be played in any country
Search
The Space search restricts its scope to the items in the Space treeview. If you do not subscribe to the Space Treeview you will not see this search when subscribing. There are a large number of items returned in the Space treeview so this search makes finding videos on a specific Space topic convenient.
Treeview Customization Instructions
Initialization steps
- You need to enable this treeview from the Media Library menu, select the Browse Internet Video menu option and press MENU (M). Select Scan/Manage Subscriptions, then Manage Site Subscriptions. Now subscribe to the "Space" grabber.
- You will need to download the treeview. To do so, select MENU (M). Select Scan/Manage Subscriptions, then Update Site Maps. The update process can take several minutes. Once this is complete the Space Mashup will contain a subdirectory for each show (e.g "IRrelevant Astronomy"). These are not necessarily the shows you want but have just been enabled to provide you something to view until you specify your preferences.
Customization
Note: Customization of this grabber is entirely optional. You only need to customize the grabber if you wish to change which items appear in the tree.
When you updated the treeview in Initialization step #2 a user configuration file was created at:
"~/.mythtv/MythNetvision/userGrabberPrefs/spaceMashup.xml". To customize the Treeview open the "spaceMashup.xml" file with a text editor and make changes according to the instructions below. After you have made your changes and saved the "spaceMashup.xml" file, update your subscriptions again (Initialization step #2).
Enable shows and their video quality level
The shows are split into subdirectories which represent how Space Mashup categorizes the videos. Some sub-directory has one or more down-loadable file formats and some with audio in Spanish. The formats represent various video quality levels.
To enable a down-loadable file format you must change a "sourceURL" element's "enabled" attribute to 'true'. When you change the attribute to 'true' that down-loadable file format will be added to the Space Mashup tree view. You could activate more than one format but that would result in duplicates. Of course you can disable any subdirectory by changing all of its 'sourceURL' element's 'enabled' attribute to 'false'.
When the Space Mashup Tree view is created it will have links to the video's web page but also a link to a file that you can download through the MythNetvision interface.
In this example the "Spitzer SD" subdirectory has its "SD" file size enabled.
<sourceURL enabled="true" name="Spitzer SD" xsltFile="spitzerRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/resource_list/6-Hidden-Universe-NASA-s-Spitzer-Space-Telescope?format=xml" parameter="NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope"/> <sourceURL enabled="false" name="El Universo Escondido Spitzer HD" xsltFile="spitzerRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/resource_list/12-El-Universo-Escondido-NASA-s-Spitzer-Space-Telescope?def=hi&format=xml" parameter="El Universo Escondido Spitzer"/>
Special Notes
- The HubbleCast demands high bandwidth. If the flash player keeps running and stopping to re-buffer then it is best to download then view these videos. Even the HubbleCast web site requires that you have high bandwidth.
- All the NASA sources do not have embedded flash on their Web pages. So here are your options:
- If your PC has a plug-in such as Totem (movie player) installed, MythWeb will play these videos.
Ubuntu desktop distributions come with this plug-in pre-installed. - If you do not have a plug-in installed then download the video either through Web page or Netvision
- If the plug-in is installed and working you can get full browser screen auto play by enabling the source that generates autoplay links. Here is an example where "NASACast VideoPlugin" is enabled and the default "NASACast" is disabled:
- If your PC has a plug-in such as Totem (movie player) installed, MythWeb will play these videos.
<subDirectory name="NASACast"> <sourceURL enabled="false" name="NASACast" xsltFile="nasaRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://www.nasa.gov/rss/NASAcast_vodcast.rss" parameter="false"/> <sourceURL enabled="true" name="NASACast VideoPlugin" xsltFile="nasaRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://www.nasa.gov/rss/NASAcast_vodcast.rss" parameter="true"/> </subDirectory>
Controlling the number of items included in a subdirectory
You can optionally control the number of items added to a subdirectory through two attributes:
- "globalmax" - Limits the number of items included for all subdirectories. A value of zero (0) means there are no limits.
- "max" - Limits the number of items included for an individual subdirectory. This value will override the "globalmax" setting. A value of zero (0) means there are no limits.
In this example any "subDirectory" without their own maximum setting will not exceed 25 items but the "The Beautiful Universe: Chandra" sub-directory will be specifically restricted to no more than 5 items:
<directory name="Space" globalmax="25"> <subDirectory name="IRrelevant Astronomy"> <sourceURL enabled="true" name="IRrelevant Astronomy HD" xsltFile="spitzerRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/resource_list/4-IRrelevant-Astronomy?def=hi&format=xml" parameter="IRrelevant Astronomy"/> </subDirectory> <subDirectory name="The Beautiful Universe: Chandra" max=5> <sourceURL enabled="true" name="Chandra HD" xsltFile="chandraRSS_item" type="xml" url="http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/podcasts/hd/podcasts.xml"/> </subDirectory> <directory