MythVodka

MythStreams

MythStreams is a plugin that plays streaming content full screen using the internal player.

It currently only has content provided by the BBC iPlayer (and this is only available to people in the UK). it uses an XML file which I host and is updated hourly, this way I can sanity check the scripts i use which export data from the iPlayer pages. Also I will add in extra providers as time goes on.

All content is downloaded using mencoder and transcoded into an mpeg2 which mythtv plays. Its wasteful on resources and adds an extra dependancy, but is rock solid. If anyone wants to help out and get the internal player to play the streaming h264 files eb my guest.

A video of an early version of the plugin at work is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7eVgPMTa0g

Prerequisites: Mencoder (part of mplayer) Curl (in most distros)

To install:

wget http://www.bewhere.co.uk/mythstreams-1.tar.gz
tar xzf mythstreams-1.tar.gz
cd mythstreams
qmake mythstreams.pro
make
make install

Next you have to add the menu entries for the plugin:

cd /usr/local/share/mythtv vi library.xml

Add the following lines:

   <button>
     <type>STREAM</type>
     <text>Myth Streams</text>
     <action>PLUGIN mythstreams</action>
     <depends>mythstreams</depends>
   </button>

vi media_settings.xml

Add the following lines:

   <button>
     <type>SETTINGS_MYTHSTREAMS</type>
     <text>MythStreams Setting</text>
     <action>CONFIGPLUGIN mythstreams</action>
     <depends>mythstreams</depends>
   </button>