MediaPortal-client in XBMC (for TV-Scheduling/Rec/Live-TV,... etc.) [Archive]

around

2004-08-24, 17:02

i love everything the xbmc team has done to date and am very impressed with what the media portal team has done as well.

since there is a shared knowledge between the two teams it would seem logical to build an interface in xbmc that would allow for scheduling tv recordings through mediaportal.

this would make it very easy to add other htpc's to other tv's in the house for very little $'s as compared to having to build htpc from the ground up.

is this something that is being considered? i hope so. (actually this would be the last thing that i would need in xbmc to be happy)

thanks for listening to my opinion!

around

pike

2004-08-24, 17:06

it was with this intention mediaportal was once started (or so i believe)

not sure anymore though :rolleyes:

around

2004-08-25, 18:52

any response on the xbmc team? i do not want to know when but rather if this is in the works at this time. (or being considered)

thanks,
around

Gamester17

2004-08-26, 12:30

as far as i know no one on team-xbmc (nor team-mediaportal (http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net) for that matter) is currently planning/coding this feature. (however i can imagine the task of doing it would not be that huge, a developer could base it on mfxstream (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mfxstream/) which is also c# for .net to get it up-and-running quickly. alternativly a developer could base it on upnp (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=4997) for a more advanced approach and i think using upnp (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=4997) would be better for xbmc in the long run).

around

2004-08-26, 17:39

thanks gamester17!

this does not seem like it would be that hard like you stated but would be huge!

thanks,
around

dirkoneill

2004-09-23, 22:32

for a few months i have been thinking about setting up a computer to record tv programming. the problem is that you always have to be at the computer to record. back when frodo ported xbmc to mediaportal and added tv recording there was talk of maybe making the xbox a front end to mp so xbmc could record programs on a remote server. with microsoft releasing their own xbox media center in october, xbmc and mp could use an extra boost to stay ahead of windows media center edition. if you could run mp on a computer and use xbox (as a front end) to schedule recordings, it woudl be killer. the files then could be played off of the server to the xbox over smb as is usually done already in xbmc. this way the server running mp could be in a closet some place or in another room and any tv with an xbox could schedule recordings. this makes it easier to watch tv and record tv because then you don't have to be at your computer. it won't need to play live tv or timeshift because, well, that's why you have a tv. i was thinking about putting up a rewards program tied to a paypal account to convince a xbmc developer to do this because i feel that it is an essential part to the future of mp and xbmc. perhaps a reward would even bring frodo back to the xbox scene if only for a short while. would others contribute to this bounty if it gets the feature added?

nianhbg

2004-11-01, 18:48

Livin

2004-11-02, 02:21

i agree with dirkoneill!

i'd love to use xbmc to front-end mediaportal.

basically use mp to store all movies, photos, music, etc (not games) as well as the pvr functions.

then xbmc could be the front-end gui to do/display all functions.

all it would need then is a ppc/wince interface to "remote control" everything to replace the outdated plastic all-in-one remotes.

bingo... full integration!

mvoosten

2004-11-02, 16:39

count my vote as well!

ilovetechno

2004-11-02, 18:28

if the frontend is realisited than is xbmc complete in my opinion...

dinero112

2004-11-03, 00:20

count me in also!

the only thing missing at xbmc is live tv and recording. i am using my pc to do this now. m$ will use the xbox as a front-end for their xp-mce, it would be great if xbmx and it's pc sister (brother, whatever) would do the same.

françois

Gamester17

2004-11-03, 11:23

i was thinking about putting up a rewards program tied to a paypal account to convince a *xbmc developer to do this because i feel that it is an essential part to the future of mp and xbmc. perhaps a reward would even bring frodo back to the xbox scene if only for a short while. would others contribute to this bounty if it gets the feature added?team-xbmc was thinking the same thing, but not just yet, we know that frodo won't think about it until after mediaportal 1.0 is released.

lacitpo

2004-11-12, 23:19

so is this confirmation that there are plans to work with mediaportal to use xbmc as a frontend.

if so, does anyone know projected dates for a 1.0 release of media portal.

nullptr

2004-11-17, 03:17

i am working on a plugin (in media portal) that provides xml-based listings and remote scheduling capabilities via http -- this should enable someone from the xbmc team to develop a ui for scheduling.

once that part is tightened up, i can look into adding a remote streaming that integrates in a clean way.

if there is a representative from the xbmc project that would like to collaborate on this, please pm me here or on the media portal boards.

http://nolanparty.com/mediapo....?t=2299 (http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2299)

t029248

2004-11-17, 12:45

i'm also waiting to get a frontend for the media portal in xbmc. :sleep:

Gamester17

2004-11-17, 13:06

so is this confirmation that there are plans to work with mediaportal to use xbmc as a frontend.eh, plans and plans, no one on the team has yet specificly said they will do it, but i'm sure it will get done after media portal pass 1.0

if so, does anyone know projected dates for a 1.0 release of media portal.you have to direct that question to frodo and team-mediaportal (http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net), suspect they have a to-do list of major features to complete first?

Flyer007

2004-12-01, 19:19

well 1.0 has been released.

so....?

just kidding. i can wait for this as it would be sweet.

matt11601

2004-12-02, 01:59

actually media portal has reached version 0.1 not 1.0 but thats besides the point, i can imagine how great it would be if xbmc and mp were tied in together, that would defintely kill ms mce (in my opinion is already does for the money, but i still have problems with guests in my house still having trouble using xbmc). i know this would be a long term goal but i just wanna show my support for this and hope it will be strongly considered.

-matt

Redsand189

2004-12-02, 04:11

well, i am going to take a look and see if my programming skills can help at all with this. i am sure i will probably get in the way more than anything, but i would sure love to see this come through.

los93sol

2004-12-13, 10:38

i know this has been brought up in the forum before, but i cannot find anything as far as any official statements on the issue. *are there plans to add tv functionality to xbmc in the future? *i have read that it is possible once mediaportal matures, but after reading up on the boards here and on the mediaportal site, it is not clear if there are actually any plans to make this happen. *it appears most of the users of both pieces of software are very doubtful about this, i just want to try to get an answer from the source rather than reading all the gibberish. *there are several users that would love to have this feature so that xbmc can become their all-in-one solution to a media center. *xbmc, in my oppinion, brings all retail hardware and software to it's knees. *there is just one major area that it is lacking, and that is tv functionality. *i am aware of scripts to interface with this and/or that, and that is all fine and well for now, but what about the future? *i have also read arguments about wait for xbox 2, except, with that means that xbmc will pretty much have to be remade when that day comes. *i have other concerns with this as well, will m$ learn from their mistakes with xbox (not likely as we have seen in the past) and make it more difficult for the modding community to use the hardware for these uses, will they put out another sorry attempt at a media center of their own, etc? *anyways, enough ramblings from me, are there plans to implement tv support in the future?

edit by mod: splitted this post into two (instead of simply putting into garbage bin), separated the mediaportal-client and telephony questions!

Gamester17

2004-12-13, 15:22

because xbmc is a voleenteer based project we can't force anyone to program something they don't want to do themselves.
so (from both on xbmc and the mediaportal side) this will be coded when someone with the skill and time voleenter to do it.
all we non-devs can do is try give ideas how we think it can be best achieved and tell them why we feel it should be added.

to answer your question, no one on team-xbmc has yet said they will take on this task (so there are therefore no plans).

MrMario64

2004-12-13, 15:52

this all sounds very nice and would be fun to have.
but as gamestr17 allready stated the devs working on mediaportal all have other goals @ this moment.
none of them have the need for mediaportal<>xbmc connectivity.

i myself would not use xbox as it is nearing the end of it's life-cycle. better look for a different platform i think.

Frodo

2004-12-13, 16:17

mario is right.

we're working towards mediaportal v1.0 and believe me, it will take months before we get there.
there are no plans to integrate mediaportal and xbmc
why not? simply because non of the mediaportal developers are interested in this
i myself sold my xbox and dont even got the xdk anymore
others are much more eager to work on dvb-s/c/t support and other features for mediaportal.

so i dont think you'll see xbmc + mediaportal integrated unless offcourse a new developers comes up which is going todo this

frodo

Nickman

2004-12-13, 16:32

Frodo

2004-12-13, 16:54

to bad that you lost intrest in xbmc, and to bad mp is so much less intressting.

live goes on, better accept that
the xbox is near the end of its life and lets face it
a 733mhz box cant compete with any normal pc anymore
offcourse the xbox2 will arrive, but i doubt it will ever have a large developers community like the xbox1. reason? its probably much more secured to prevent modchips and
its not based on pc hardware anymore

mp being less interesting? i think not!
let me tell you something about mp:

we got all features xbmc has (except kai maybe) and more!
like :
-live tv with pause,timeshifting, recording, search tv guide, manage of recorded tv shows, ...
-integration with most remote controls like winlirc, usbuirt, irman, mce2005 remote
-support for german, french & english imdb
-support for www.allmusic.com to retrieve album, & artist info & cover art
-alarm plugin
-status plugin to watch your motherboard & set alarms
-wake up/suspend powerscheduler. wakes up your htpc if something needs to be recorded and shutdown again on inactivity
-my radio , internet, shoutcast and local fm radio
-msn messenger to chat with friends while watching your favortite video/tv show
-my mail to read your mail from within mp
-my recipies, this is for you wife. we accept meal master recipies and there are >10000 recipies of those
-my news, configure & read rss feeds

besides that we can play any media format, including dvd with menu's.
first beta for dvb-s is just released to watch,recording & timeshift any sattelite tv show. dvb-t/c will soon follow

to give you some more numbers.
last weekend we reached the top10 of sourceforge most active projects
we got more then 3000 registered users and the 0.1 version of mp has been downloaded >30,000 times

mp has been covered in well known magazines like c't in germany and 2 weeks ago a well know magazine rated mp as the top 6 mediacenters available (while we are still in beta fase!).
reason we where 6th and not in the top 3 was because we didnt had dvb-s support (which we do now)

so i wouldnt say mp is less interesting ;-)

frodo

Gamester17

2004-12-13, 17:36

well there you have it; frodo now stated that he will not be the one who codes it which means someone else will have to step up and do it.
ps! i for one do not agree with the opinion that the xbox is near the end of its life, it has got many years left in it as a cheap front-end :cool:

Redsand189

2004-12-13, 18:26

i don't see why the xbox is at the end of its life cycle even after xbox 2 comes out. what my xbox does, i doubt any system will be able to do in a long time. i look at microsofts media center and extenders and they totally fall short from xbmc except in tv. not to mention the xbox plays games and emulators. i think by adding tv functionality you will only be extending the life cycle and usefulness of the xbox.

don't get me wrong, i think media portal is totally necessary, a computer will always be the primary backbone to any new technology.

i think the main thing that needs to happen here is developing an api for media portal. if we can setup an interface for media portal that will allow streaming (video/tv) and passing of commands (play, stop, ff, record, etc..) then the media portal will become capable of functioning on any system which code can be compiled on.

i have been looking into this a bit on my free time, if anyone has any suggestions then please let me know.

Nickman

2004-12-13, 18:31

to bad that you lost intrest in xbmc, and to bad mp is so much less intressting.

so i wouldnt say mp is less interesting ;-)

frodo
to me it is. i have no plans buying a htpc in the near future. and xbmc works great. it's fast and has almost everything i need.

mediaportal on my computer is like driving through glue. it's slow and unresponsive. had the same problem on my old computer to. (i reasently bought a new one).
i'm playing doom 3 on the new one without problems but can't get mp to feel quick is a bit sad.

i'll keep xbmc and my xbox acouple of years more ;) until hdtv is more common. right now it does everything and does it great. a realy cheap media center solution.

but as i said before i wish you and the mp team best of luck in the future. and thanks again for making the foundation of xbmc.

//niclas

t029248

2004-12-13, 18:34

absolutely; i agree that the xbox 1 has some time left. of course a powerful mediaportal media server would be very welcome, including the cpu extra cpu power. the xbmc could be the front-end to connect to the media server from different rooms. xbmc is such a wonderful peace of software that it does what it can do very well. probably when 1080i hdtv content will be mainstream a more powerful front-end will be needed / welcome for sure. until then i’m very happy with my xbox, i bought is especially for the use of xbmc and i didn’t regret that a second.

i’m sorry to find out that frodo lost his interest in the xbox. i also agree with him that xbox 2 will be a different machine probably harder to mod and to write software for. perhaps one day i will get myself a dign and start running mediaportal on it but at the moment xbmc is good enough for me. dvb support could be the reason for me!!!! and more speed for mediaportal is what i would like too!!!

:pirate:

los93sol

2004-12-14, 02:01

thank you for an official response. that is exactly what i was looking for. anyways, with respect to the xbox being "near the end of it's life cycle". i absolutely disagree with this, xbox 2 is going to be much more secure which will make development much more difficult. it will be so long before you see xbmc for xbox 2 as far as it is with xbox 1 now (if you see it at all) that it will not matter if it supports live tv.
i for one, am looking forward to hanging on to my media center xbox because i have the dx-1480 with 128mb ram and a 1.4ghz processor so as far as power goes i am fairly up to date.
alright, well now that we have an official response, can we put a spot in the todo list to get this implemented first on the mp side, then we can get the xbox side working. better yet, can we get a fund setup and whoever steps up to the plate and actually gets it working takes the pot? would be a good way to encourage the development here. after scouring forums and reading several threads, it seems the general consensus is that this would not be an overly huge task, it seems more that somebody just needs to sit down and do it. i am stuck on the idea of it being built into both programs so scripts don't really do it for me. what do you guys think, should we setup a fund and start generating some serious interest in this?

Frodo

2004-12-14, 12:00

first of all, let me state that xbmc is great. no doubt about it
second, everyone is entitled to have their own opinion,
i hope for you guys that the xbox1 still has a long life, but i doubt it.
reasons for this in my opinion:
- the xbox2 is probably much more secure. remember m$ is losing money on every xbox sold. they business plan is to make money with the games. so their primary goal is preventing that these can be copied
-the playstation3 is coming. from what i heard, it runs a modified linux and seems to be far more open/accessable then the xbox2
-devs like new gadgets. so when the playstation3 comes out and its 'open' you will see devs moving to this console
-lets say the xbox2 can be modded and you can develop your own software for it. then its still very hard to port xbmc to the xbox2. reason: the xbox2 contains a risc processor
this means that all this optimized mmx,sse code used/borrowed from the mplayer group is useless on the xbox2. and its very very hard write your own!

-2005 is going to be the year of the htpc. everywhere you look you see mediacenters appearing. either in pc's, dvd-recorders, sattelite receivers. i expect that m$ will release a mce extender for their xbox2 so maybe you guys could use that

frodo

jmarshall

2004-12-14, 12:36

agreed mostly, i think frodo.

xbox does have it's limitations, but i still think it makes an ideal candidate for a media center. reasons are:

1. cheap. it will remain cheap (and get even cheaper) long after xbox2 comes out. this makes it an ideal candidate for a "one in each room" device.

2. relatively small and quiet.

3. enough power for playback of dvd resolution stuff, and higher (720p mpeg2 is fine, and mpeg4 at 720p is very close.)

4. interface.

number 4 is imo the number one reason that there are so many htpc products out there. every single one of them fails in the interface. mce2005 has it reasonably good, but is let down by the restrictions and hardware tie ins. hopefully you mediaportal guys can nail this one - perhaps you can look at the progress we've been making with xbmc on this front. ;)

i have never understood why so many people want tv capability. i personally just use the internet as my pvr :p

cheers,
jonathan

Frodo

2004-12-14, 12:45

about number 4
maybe you can share whats been added to mp?
also some screenshots would be cool

frodo

Gamester17

2004-12-14, 14:59

hope you still reading this thread frodo(?), i like to take the opertunity to get back on-topic and bump the discussion on upnp (link) (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st&f=4&t=4997);
if upnp-mediaserver (http://www.upnp.org/standardizeddcps/mediaserver.asp) is implemented into mediaportal by team-mediaportal then team-xbmc can implement upnp client-code in xbmc.
...and because upnp (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st&f=4&t=4997) is an open standard not only xbmc would benifit anyone can then make other upnp-clients for mediaportal ;)

Redsand189

2004-12-14, 17:31

los93sol

2004-12-15, 03:36

gamester17, should we take this as an attempt to implement tv support with your mention of upnp? would be nice, if we already had our side of things done, maybe mp would be more willing to work with us. not to be rude or anything but since frodo has lost interest in his xbox, and seems dead against this functionality, why come to check out the boards? don't take that the wrong way, just seems like maybe you haven't completely lost interest. why not open a doorway for xbmc to expand a little more, once that doorway is open, the developers here can at least make some progress on their own. it would definately extend the life of the xbox since people think it is going to be dead soon. there haven't been a whole lot of breakthroughs with the xbox lately, but maybe this would be just the thing we need to keep the interest and development alive.

Gamester17

2004-12-15, 12:56

@los93sol, reason i don't implement is i can't as i'm not a programmer, all i mean is not only xbmc would benifit from upnp in mediaportal.
ps! see no point in starting a 'which came first, chicken or the egg?' disscussion, doesn't matter who adds it first; must have both to work

Solo0815

2004-12-15, 17:10

i hope we see live-tv with any tv-card in the "near" future.

which way it will be build in is a matter of the coders ;)

i´ve always shown a way:
for this way we need to have to play udp-streams. until now i didn´t got it to work :(
look here:
http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin....;t=6868 (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=6868)

if the udp-stream can be played, then we need coders to write the external controls of gam.

Frodo

2004-12-24, 22:03

why come to check out the boards?
because someone told me about this thread
and that xbmc ppl wanted an offical statement from me

frodo

los93sol

2004-12-26, 11:35

@frodo, what are your thoughts on what gamester17 has said about upnp support being useful for more things than just xbmc? i can see it being used for several apps/features personally, but what are your thoughts, would it be useful or possibly implemented for another purpose?

Redsand189

2004-12-28, 23:57

this is from the todo list (http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=652) for mediaportal:

my tv:
general
- video network broadcasting...so we can send live video streams(from a capture device) to other networked computers..

the todo list is about a mile long, but at least this feature is on the radar. now the question is how does mediaportal intend to implement this so we can start working on a client?

smokeman

2004-12-29, 00:04

what about the python scripts already written for tivo functionality, and dreambox?

i'm going to get going on this, and figure out a way to do it.
it may take some time, while i learn how to xdk, but i'm committed!
i have a hauppauge nexus-s.
i think that the xbox being the cheapest, most powerful frontend you can buy right now will keep it going for years to come, not to mention the fact that i have 540 gigs full of games that my kids will never play in 10 years. the graphics quality of the xbox under hdtv is the best in the market, and games will continue to be released for at least the immediate future. the capabilities of the xbox as a frontend just makes sense.
buy a $800 pc, wiht 2, or 3 dvb-s cards, and a hdtv terrestrial card for locals, thus between $1000, and $1500 invested.
then, $140 per xbox (plus remote kit) for every other tv in your house.(plus a http://www.x2vga.com/ for your hdtv, or monitor/lcd projector)
the result could be a tivo killer for next to nothing in relation to other commercial ventures.

can a tivo do any of the graphics that an xbox can,
no, it plain ass sucks!
tivo menus are the slowest thing i've ever seen.

the myth project is catching up,
but there is a reason that both the xbmc, and mediaportal project is so popular....
there is nothing like it on either platform, that is well, opensource....

Livin

2004-12-29, 00:25

smokeman,
i agree with you... the xbmc still has life as long as the devs support/extend/improve it.

i'd love to use mp as the pvr and xbmc as my game machine and front end.

when you get a beta, start a new thread and i'm sure you'll get some testers!

Redsand189

2004-12-29, 01:38

well, i dont know how much help i can be, but i finally got the xdk and compiled the xbmc source code.

i am looking into implementing a upnp client. hopefully, i can at least get something started that others can work on.

smokeman

2004-12-29, 05:42

i had an epiphany on the way home from work,
the whole problem right now is that xbmc can't talk to mediaportal at all, right?

what about simply incorporating xbmc stream server into mediaportal, then simply expand on it's functionality?
xbmc stream code is readily available, and understood by many.
there are a lot of pc app coders that understand it already,
so how hard can it be to merge some of that code into mediaportal?

that would be step one, which would allow xbmc to watch shows that are recording. then the next step would be to port the python scripts for controling tivo recording database, or dreambox to control mediaportal's recording schedule.

that may be an oversimplification,
or, it may be a start :-)

los93sol

2004-12-29, 06:50

awesome! glad to see there are people actively working on this. personally, from everything i have read, it appears the best way to go about this is to implement upnp since it will allow the most efficient interface between the two programs. upnp will allow us to improve the interface and include mostly all of the mp functionality eventually. i don't know, i am certainly no dev, but i can help out. i personally think we should start up a donation fund for the development and do the same thing that xbmc is doing with their dvd thing.
los93sol

Redsand189

2004-12-29, 17:26

i have been looking into upnp and it definately seems the way to go. in a few years everything is going to be upnp compliant. it also seems that it shouldnt be too hard to develop with using some c++ libraries that already exist (cyberlink c++).

anyway, i am taking this slow, going to try to get a basic communication going between my laptop and my desktop. if that works, i will see about getting it to work on the xbox.

Frodo

2004-12-30, 14:16

just for your information:
mircosoft just relead windows media connect
http://www.microsoft.com/windows....lt.aspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/devices/wmconnect/default.aspx)

this turns windows xp in a fullblown upnp server
you can tell it which media folders you wanna share to which dmr
this means that mediaportal doesnt have to do anything
just install wmc, configure it and voila its ready to stream any media to any upnp digital media receiver.

so if xbmc is going to support upnp then i think we can close this thread since then you can stream all media from mediaportal->xbmc

frodo

Frodo

2004-12-30, 14:50

los93sol

2004-12-30, 17:56

wow, that's great news. i am a little unsure though, so through the webservices and the windows integrated upnp, we could control everything about mediaportal through xbmc if it was built in of course.

smokeman

2004-12-30, 18:27

so if xbmc is going to support upnp then i think we can close this thread since then you can stream all media from mediaportal->xbmc

frodo
not exactly close, but thanks for the info...
i think most of us are looking for more of a control interface for a media portal server(with tv tuner/dvb), that we can browse a program guide with(either gathered from a web guide, or straight off a dvb sattelite), select a program to record, if mediaportal has a budget dvb-s card in it,
possibly schedule 2 recordings for the same card, if the shows are on the same ts stream...

the fact that you can share media now is great,
and the web interface might allow a python plug-in to work really well.
but i don't see how that is any different from simply using windows xp to smb share mediaportal's folders, so that xbmc can browse them?

basically think tivo, only server/client.

smokeman

2004-12-30, 18:48

oh and besides this upnp
mediaportal now has a webcontrol interface so ppl
can control mp using a normal webbrowser
this way they can see the tvguide, channels, recordings
add new recordings, play any file etc etc

for this some web-services where developed
i guess xbmc could use these webservices also to get the tvguide and to control mp

more info:
http://nolanparty.com/mediapo....heduler (http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3216&highlight=web+scheduler)

frodo
i read the last post on the web control of mp link,
and the way he designed the web control, he may have un-intentionally coded the control interface that we can use
inside xbmc to do scheduling.
the webcontrol of mp was coded with a mp plug-in, which talks to a web service, which then talks to php for the pages.

we can use the mp plug-in, and i would bet some of the existing python plug-ins for xbmc,
and make this happen!

Redsand189

2004-12-30, 19:02

the windows media connect sounds great, if all we have to do is turn the xbox into a upnp device than we are a lot closer. i do have a couple questions....

1) wmc says you basically share folders that contain audio/video. can you share a live tv folder? we can already stream files, i think our goal here is to stream live tv.

2) even though i think this relies more on the device, but wmc might have compatiblity problems with a lot of media:

media connect supports many formats, including windows media audio (wma), windows media video (wmv), mp3, jpeg, mpeg-1, and more.

another option i was looking into was cybermediagate (http://www.cybergarage.org/net/cmgate/cc/index.html). which is an implementation of the upnp mediaserver (http://www.upnp.org/standardizeddcps/mediaserver.asp). he claims that this mediaserver already works with mythtv.

furthermore, this cybergate guy created a very useful set of libraries for upnp developers.

los93sol

2005-01-01, 03:07

@frodo, i understand that if mp is going to do anything with this it won't be specific to xbmc and that it would be something universal that could easily be extended to a variety of applications. i also understand your recent post about how this could be done, however, that is not really what we are after here. i agree with smokeman:
not exactly close, but thanks for the info...
i think most of us are looking for more of a control interface for a media portal server(with tv tuner/dvb), that we can browse a program guide with(either gathered from a web guide, or straight off a dvb sattelite), select a program to record, if mediaportal has a budget dvb-s card in it,
possibly schedule 2 recordings for the same card, if the shows are on the same ts stream...

the fact that you can share media now is great,
and the web interface might allow a python plug-in to work really well.
but i don't see how that is any different from simply using windows xp to smb share mediaportal's folders, so that xbmc can browse them?

basically think tivo, only server/client.
now, that in mind, i know that for dvd menu support in xbmc there was a donation fund setup, would it help sway your opinion of possibly developing something sort of xbmc specific in mp if there was a decent donation fund setup for the cause. say it would start out at around $400, would that sway your opinion any? it would be great to see a complete control interface.

smokeman

2005-05-02, 21:11

been busy with things in my life,
but i intend on following through with this.
will probably be one of those ongoing projects.

smokeman

Gamester17

2005-05-03, 09:14

forza has been looking into upnp (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=4997) which could be used for mediaportal <=> xbmc communication, however i have no idea how far he come

los93sol

2005-11-19, 05:18

alright, i am thinking this will be merged with an existing thread, so to the mods, if you feel this belongs somewhere else please move it as you see fit.

i had a thought earlier today. i was thinking about the limits of the xbox hardware and ways to get around them. then i remembered the media center extender and windows media center. this got me thinking about mediaportal and then i had a brainstorm. mediaportal has a nice plug-in engine that could be utilized when a pc app becomes necessary to add a specific feature to xbmc. to me this seems like i nice way to streamline xbmc and any "extended" features that are already or may be added through native code or scripts.

this brings up a few questions though. why in the hell wouldn't you just run the app to connect to xbmc? what if i have no use for mediaportal other than to get the usage of a few specific features in xbmc? the answers to these questions are what i am wanting to find out with this thread and if any developers think this is a good enough idea to pursue?

in my opinion this could be a really great way to streamline xbmc in that it could be managed and run like the xbmc scripts web site (maybe they would even be generous enough to host any plug-ins that may be written?). it is effective to just download and run the apps you need to use specific features in xbmc, but it stops there. even if you don't immediately have a need for mediaportal on your pc for anything other than a few specific "extended" features in xbmc, think of the possibilities. mediaportal is a rapid growing project just like xbmc and the best part is that it is based on xbmc's core (albeit vastly different by now). mediaportal has several features that could be extended to xbmc via plug-ins without having to necessarily write an entire app from scratch to do it on the pc or performing sometimes nasty hacks to add functionality to existing apps. also if this system was adopted as a standard you could just launch mediaportal and any of the plug-ins you have installed will automatically start-up as well so you would no longer have to launch multiple applications to gain each feature in xbmc.

from the developer's standpoint i can't comment on because i am definitely not a developer, but it would be interesting to see how the dev's feel about something like this. would it be worth it? would it be beneficial to have a standard? is this idea even on the right track? would it help xbmc and mediaportal to finally link the two applications most closely together?

i'm also interested to see how the users feel about this idea? would you like being able to go to one location and download your plug ins to simplify setup as much as possible? do you see any issues with this idea?

regards,
los93sol

HarshReality

2005-11-19, 10:19

by "plugins" you mean functionality or media capabilities? i ask because areound here the only reference i have heard involving plugins was like flexi-browser.

Solo0815

2005-11-19, 11:35

check this plugin: (to control mp with xbmc)
http://home.iprimus.com.au/miarose/

and this thread:
http://nolanparty.com/mediapo....ht=xbmc (http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=8044&start=45&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=xbmc)

HarshReality

2005-11-19, 13:38

omfg... it is so on!

los93sol

2005-11-19, 14:30

solo: yep, that's exactly what i am talking about. :) if you've ever installed that plug-in you'll understand better what i mean about how it could be utilized to tie xbmc and mediaportal closer together and how easy it would be for users to setup. in my opinion it would be ideal to use mediaportal plug-ins as a standard to create a sort of package deal like with windows media center and the media center extender.

regards,
los93sol

Livin

2005-11-19, 18:40

this is huge!

i wonder if they can build a "streamlined" version of mediaportal for just using as a back-end for xbmc?

los93sol,
are you heading this up for the xbmc forum? if you are, maybe you can suggest the "streamlined" version.

los93sol

2005-11-19, 21:29

i'm not sure this was merged into the right thread as i was speaking much more generally and this thread is rather restrictive to streaming and tv functionality. it doesn't stop there, think about the caller id script, could be a mp plug-in, xbmsp shares could be a mp plug-in, ftp could even be a mp plug-in. just some suggestions here to get you thinking along the lines of what i am talking about. if i could just install a plug-in if i wanted to use some "extended" feature of xbmc i would much prefer to have a centralized downloading location and to only run one app to have access to any of the "extended" feature i had setup rather than having to launch multiple apps on my pc each time.

regards,
los93sol

HerrRausB

2005-11-19, 21:59

hello, everybody!

this is my first post here and maybe it might help:

as for recording tv on a pc i am using iuvcr which can be downloaded here: download iuvcr (http://www.iulabs.com/iuvcr/download.shtml). this is shareware and requires some registration fee - but it's definately worth it.

i use the iuvcr to schedule my recordings on a pc in the net und then watch the results on my tv using the xbmc as streaming client - works perfectly!

hth

axel

Livin

2005-11-20, 01:40

herrrausb,
you are totally ot!

this is a mediaportal client thread...

jaiume

2006-10-05, 22:48

It would be great if XBMC could be a client to the upcoming MediaPortal server. 'My TV' Features could include :

Changing Channels
Viewing the Electronic Program Guide
Schedule Recordings
View Recordings
Pause, Timeshift live TV

See http://www.team-mediaportal.com/ (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/)to get excited

diagdave@msn.com

2006-10-14, 12:21

i was thinking the same thing jaiume, and it uses live555 to stream live tv, which i think is already in xbmc or could easily be added

Livin

2006-10-16, 03:16

I DEFINITELY AGREE!

My only question is will XBMC be able to be used as a pass through to allow HD video to pass? I'd like to only have the XBOX hooked to the TV, otherwise it basically defeates the purpose of using XBMC as a client.

fidodildo

2006-10-23, 08:42

Hey you guys ...

The MP-Server is with the .3 tv engine allmost a fact ... (klick (http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/showthread.php?t=11466))
MP supports a client-server setup, so why not port the client plugin to the XboX??

(wow, this thread has been dead a long time :oo: )

diagdave@msn.com

2006-10-23, 10:58

thats what me and affni just said, plus im working on getting live555 support with mplayer, until that time theres nothing we can do.

DonJ

2006-11-02, 10:30

MP-Server support would be awesome.
Here a quote from there web page:

Then you already have read the answer which is no.
XBMC is unable to playback RTSP streams.
Perhaps you should try to convince the XBMC team to add RTSP playback in xbmc

Do you need help with doing that or are people already involved. Since its been said it works via live555 it will be possible.

As i'm no longer active with XBMC (i dont even have an xbox anymore)
i'm not planning on working on XBMC.
They have good developers themselves which are surely capable of adding this in XBMC

Frodo

TheChad

2006-11-09, 10:43

The MP TVServer also is controlled via .Net remoting which I don't think will work from the xbox. This will require a Web service or something similar as a plugin to MP to proxy all requests to the master MP server.

gzusrawx

2007-02-12, 16:29

Has anyone looked into the possibility of using Media Portal's new TV-Server as a back-end for xbmc to schedule and watch tv? Their new tv engine allows a backend TV-Server to have multiple frontends and from what I understand doesn't require Media Portal itself on the server end.

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/TV-Engine_0.3

Plugins can be written for the tv server to do different things for example:

EPG importing
transcoding recordings
controlling external settopboxes when changing channels
Possibly even formatting tv-server to work better with xbmcFor anyone interested/willing to work on this I would help in any way I can.
Currently I use MythTV as a backend for tv I think this would be a nice windows alternative.

BodgeIT

2007-03-05, 11:28

Reading through this I notice all the threads are old...has there been any development on integrating mediaportal client into XBMC?
This would just be the perfect addition to XBMC. Imagine a multiroom setup with an XBox in each room providing PVR and multimedia wherever you were.
Not only that with the plugin flexibility of MediaPortal, all sorts of extras would be available...

gzusrawx

2007-03-05, 15:23

thats what me and affni just said, plus im working on getting live555 support with mplayer, until that time theres nothing we can do. Unfortunately there's npthing we can do until this can be implemented.

SandmanCL

2007-04-19, 00:40

Am I missing something ? I'm not sure how old this announcement is:

http://www.live555.com/mplayer/

BodgeIT

2007-04-19, 14:18

Ok, Live555 check!
What do we need to do now to make this happen?

BodgeIT

2007-04-26, 18:12

Live555 now in mplayer.
This was one of the things preventing XBMC with mediaportal client.
So now that this is in place what other obstacles do we need to overcome?

gzusrawx

2007-04-26, 18:33

Well first this has to be compiled into the xbmc version of mplayer.
Elupus would you be willing to give it a try?

BodgeIT

2007-05-03, 10:17

Bump :nod:

mrz

2007-05-21, 10:47

I spent some time yesterday configuring a system for TV server. Really impressive stuff.
As stated earlier in this thread RTSP does not work. I'm currently testing two alternative ways (while waiting for the RTSP support).
1. The active stream(s) can be viewed by adding the timeshift files to a playlist. When the server change file the new file is added to the list.
2. If recording is used the recorded material can be played.
Both alternatives results in excellent quality but none will be ideal for zapping.
I think I'll go for the recording alternative. By monitoring the sockets I should be able to find out how to order a recording.

mrz

2007-05-21, 12:54

OK!

Getting things recorded is just about adding records in the SQL TVLibrary.Schedule table. The TVServer seams to be polling this table at interval. So, if I manage to figure out how to access the TVServer SQL DB from Python (pysqlite2) this functionality will be added in DagensTV.
Recordings (even ongoing) are then available via SMB.

mrz

2007-05-22, 11:42

Dont know if anybody is interested but I'm almost done now.
SQL from XBOX looks impossible so I made an IIS frontend. This means that XBOX talks to TVServer DB via HTML.
Enhancements to DagensTV will be that TVServer is an additional channel source from which I read and present EPG data. DagensTV and TVServer channels can be correlated. DagensTV can order recordings on TVServer channels and view these.
One thing I found out while forcing recording schedule conflict (to check behavior) is that TVServer can record TWO channels simultaneously from a single card. I don't know how this is possible but its TRUE. I have a very simple LITE-ON USB stick for DVB-T.
If there is no feedback I'll keep silent until everything is done.

MrZ

pt-1

2007-05-22, 14:13

One thing I found out while forcing recording schedule conflict (to check behavior) is that TVServer can record TWO channels simultaneously from a single card. I don't know how this is possible but its TRUE. I have a very simple LITE-ON USB stick for DVB-T.
If there is no feedback I'll keep silent until everything is done.

MrZ

On DVB-T/C/S the Broadcasters work with Transponders and 1x Transponder can contain at least 10 or more single Digital Channels.

On the Dbox2 (German Digital SetTopBox) you can do the same ;-)

But only the channels that are on the same Transponder

mrz

2007-05-25, 01:57

Started thread on the Python script alternative here http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26568

MrZ

Gamester17

2007-05-25, 12:39

Can everyone here please respect that this topic-thread "MediaPortal-client in XBMC (for TV-Scheduling/Rec/Live-TV,... etc.)" in this Feature Suggestions forum is only about the request for a native MediaPortal-client (ie. written the in C/C++ programming-language, like all other suggestion topics in this specific forum should only be about native functions/features written in C/C++). All python-script related suggestion/ideas and development discussion should be address in the "Python Scripts Support and Requests (http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27)" respectivly the "Python Scripts Development (http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=26)" forums.

Thank you!

Bram77

2008-06-25, 19:52

EvilDude at the MediaPortal forum has created a patch that implements native tvserver support to XBMC. Any chance it can be added to the SVN? That would be REALLY nice. It works the same way MythTV support works. Just by adding..
tvserver://{server_ip}

The MP Tvserver is great software. Highly configurable, not to dificult to configure and with support for almost all TV-cards you can think of.

I'm a Linux user so I don't think I can compile the patch into XBMC (for the XBOX) on my machine. On the other hand, I wouldn't know how to do it on a Windows machine either.

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-talk-233/xbmc-python-script-36590/index9.html#post277808

Gamester17

2008-06-25, 20:38

@developers interesting in helping EvilDude should checkout this topic-thread too: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34247

:cool:

Nick8888

2008-06-27, 03:04

Nice, finally we will soon have numerous reliable pvr options in xbmc (mythtv & mediaportal). This makes me very eager for Alcoheca's GSOC work!!

Many thanks to all involved

sebas74

2008-09-12, 20:45

Hi,

Is there any support for FloppyDTV on XBMC? Vista MC recognises this tuner card, but XBMC doesn't. Is there any support for a tuner card in XBMC? Couldn't find anything about this, so thanks for your information!

Regards,

Sebas

t029248

2008-09-12, 21:56

Lack of Tv tuner support is the missing thing to make XBMC "perfect"

It know it was impossible with the old Xbox, but after the XBMC platform moved to other platforms it could and should be implemented. I really would like to hook up a DVB-xx tuner like floppyDTV to my MAcMini running XBMC.

I hope this will be done in the future, but it's depending on the devs.

Razor_109

2008-09-12, 22:07

XBMC is already supporting Mythtv Backend as far as i know, dont know about the Mediaportal TV Server maybe that can be used similar. Needs to be implemented in XBMC though.

An own TV Server is not yet happening for xbmc i guess in the near future.

sebas74

2008-09-12, 22:11

Thats a pity... :(

I am really a big fan of XBMC, but this causes me to use MediaPortal (which supports FloppyDTV).

Is it planned to be developped that anyone knows?

Razor_109

2008-09-12, 22:23

as far as i know XBMC will become a Frontend, thus means it needs a backend TV-Server to view and record tv.

For now the backend of Mythtv is supported so when you setup a linux based pc running Mythbuntu you can view tv within XBMC as far as i know.
Here you will encounter another problem, the linux drivers for FloppyDTV are still in development. There are beta drivers already though.

In the future i think it might support other tvservers like mediaportal, so you can just use 1 windows based pc and watch television.

For now this is limited to mythtv.

Razor_109

2008-09-12, 22:24

some urls for further info:

One common GUI front-end that can control multiple PVR/DVR/HTPC back-ends
http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=GSoC_-_Unified_PVR_Frontend

Discussion about supporting Mediaportal Tv-Server
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5376

EvilDude

2008-09-16, 04:59

Thats a pity... :(

I am really a big fan of XBMC, but this causes me to use MediaPortal (which supports FloppyDTV).

Is it planned to be developped that anyone knows?

Once the common PVR interface is set up, I am planning to write a TVServer client for XBMC. I already have code that sort of works, but needs some cleanup, but I don't want to bother porting it to the PVR interface till it is stabilised.

CASHMON3Y

2008-09-16, 05:12

I really wish there was something a non-coder could do to help. Im currently building my HTPC, but I think ill waith until some PVR is developed for XBMC so ill know exactly what kind of tuner card I will need.

sebas74

2008-09-18, 21:37

Then all my hopes are on you Evildude ;)

I am using MediaPortal now, but I miss XBMC... :( It runs so much smoother. My movies and music were easier, better and more beautiful to access on XBMC then now on MediaPortal. No offense to the MP-people (why am I complaining when everthing works AND is free??).

furto

2008-09-27, 09:08

I know this has been covered before but with the release of the windows, mac and linux versions, it would be easier to incorporate USB TV-Tuner support now wouldnt it?

I have a little Asus MyCinema and it would be awesome if i could get it to work. :)

Gamester17

2008-09-27, 17:21

See:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5376
and:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28918

:;):

Asmodision

2008-10-28, 01:00

Hi all!

Have been playing around with Mediaportal for some years now and have gotten it pretty good by now.

Now I want to use XBMC as a client for Mediaportal TV-Server. Have been looking around for some time now but can't find any good solution.
Found the XBMC integrator but it doesn't seem to be working with the TV-Server.
Is it possible and then how to do it?

Thx

topfs2

2008-10-28, 09:06

SneakerElph

2008-10-30, 04:33

I'd also love for this feature to be included. Mediaportal is the only program i can get working with my TV tuner. Mediaportal is no substitute for XBMC. It just feels so cobbled together, and XBMC is nicely integrated. Maybe I just don't like windows.

Jezz_X

2008-10-30, 04:51

jacobjust

2008-12-30, 20:44

Hi everyone

Been using MP for a long time but just tried XBMC.

I LIKE A LOT ;)

One simple thing stopping me is the abillity to watch and record live TV from DVB-C source here in Denmark.

So my question is ... why not make a plugin for the MediaPortal TV server to use in XBMC?

The TV server can be used with many different TV cards and are a stand alone application that doesent need MediaPortal.

Im not a programmer and cant do the job.

But it would be great to se this in XBMC.

And it is not tied up to other software like DVBviewer, GB-pvr or other.

Anyone care to comment on this ...

Regards

Gamester17

2008-12-30, 22:11

See:
http://xbmc.org/forum/tags.php?tag=mediaportal
and:
http://xbmc.org/forum/tags.php?tag=pvr

Please always search before posting.

Swifty

2008-12-31, 15:04

There is a patch on sourceforge for limited integration with TVServer although you would be forced to patch and recompile XBMC in order to test it.

If the patch is in good enough shape I would imagine it´ll be integrated in Atlantis+1.

Sounds good.. does anyone know if the Jester builds would include this patch ?

I'm trying to get some form of live tv working through XBMC since Mediaportal frontend runs like a 2 legged dog and falls over just as often :)

I've been trying to get Mythtv working but it doesn't like my DVB-S2 tuner :sad: