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View Full Version : Bounty offer for winamp plugin to stream to xbox


manekineko
2005-01-11, 23:46
edit: consider the offer revoked and the bounty cancelled. if anyone is interested in doing this still, then contact me, i'll probably still be game for funding you, but don't do any work expecting to be paid without checking with me first.



offer:
i will personally paypal $50 to whoever can create a winamp 5 compatible plugin that seamlessly streams music straight to the xbox and plays it. this is a similar concept to itunes and the airport express. i would like when i have this output plugin loaded in winamp for my music to come out of the speakers connected to my xbox instead of the speakers on my laptop.

conditions:
the product must not be complicated to install. i.e. i do not want to have to be running a separate stream server on my computer in addition to the plugin or anything like that. while perfection may not be necessary, i reserve the sole right to determine whether or not i am satisfied, and my satisfaction is required for payment to be made. for example, if you provide a product which only works 1 out of 100 times, and crashes 99% of the time, i will not be satisfied. your output must be usable for me on a day to day basis, not just a proof of concept. i reserve the right to terminate this offer at any time if i do so in good faith.

possible suggestion:
maybe somebody could design or modify an existing plugin that creates a shoutcast stream, and simultaneously sends the necessary web server commands to xbmc so that it starts playing, so that to the user all that he sees is hitting the play button on winamp. alternatively, i'd be willing to accept some sort of program that would just send all system sounds to the xbox, as opposed to a winamp plugin, but that seems much harder.

background/rationale:
i would like to play my music over my home theater from my laptop. i was thinking of buying something like a soundblaster audigy nx, but then decided i'd rather have this. this would let me stream music wirelessly from my laptop, like what mac users do with their airport expresses. additionally, i'd rather support the community and xbmc and have something everyone could use rather than just waste the money on an audigy. the developers for xbmc have already made clear this is not something they're willing to work on, so the only alternative left was this.

additionally, if anyone else is interested in this, and would be willing to chip in the pot to try and attract a programmer's help, that'd be a great help. :)

Gamester17
2005-01-12, 12:13
fyi; generic directsound plugin for windows suggested before => www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=3890 (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=4;t=3890)

Vidikron
2005-01-13, 17:43
just out of curiosity, what is the point of a feature like this? xbmc can already play mp3s from your pc using shares, so what is the advantage of streaming across winamp 5's output to do essentially the same thing (i.e. play music from your pc on your ht)?

Gamester17
2005-01-13, 17:57
what is the point of a feature like this? *xbmc can already play mp3s from your pc using shares, so what is the advantage of streaming across winamp 5's outputthe decoding would be done on the pc by winamp, so anything winamp can play xbmc could play through it, (ex codecs that xbmc don't support yet) :d

Vidikron
2005-01-13, 18:00
ahh.. that makes sense. thanks.

manekineko
2005-01-13, 18:06
just out of curiosity, what is the point of a feature like this? xbmc can already play mp3s from your pc using shares, so what is the advantage of streaming across winamp 5's output to do essentially the same thing (i.e. play music from your pc on your ht)?
personally, because i keep most of my mp3s on my laptop due to the annoying file name issues on the xbox. and the pc has a much, much better user interface for playing mp3s.

like i said before, it's pretty much like apple's airport express concept the way it can play over your home theater music streamed over your lan/wifi.

Rooster6975
2005-01-24, 23:52
i think you are making your life far more complicated than it has to be. i keep all of my mp3s on my pc, and use j. river media jukebox to play them when in front of the pc. when upstairs and in front of the tv hooked into my stereo, i use the xbox. i modified my xboxmediacenter.xml file so that when i go into my music in xbmc, it pulls up my mp3 directory on my pc. i have music categorized by album, so i just pick any album i feel like listening to via its directory. i have also created many m3u files in j. river which all found in the playlist section. if i want to listen to a mix, i just launch the relevant playlist.

i can't see how i can improve on this setup. all my mp3 files are stored locally on the pc, and are not on the xbox. but all are streamed via the smb shares perfectly. using the shuffle option in xbmc, i have an unlimited variety of music via my m3u files. and all of that with very limited modifications of existing xbmc files! how could winamp possibly do better????

r.

manekineko
2005-01-25, 01:29
i think you are making your life far more complicated than it has to be. i keep all of my mp3s on my pc, and use j. river media jukebox to play them when in front of the pc. when upstairs and in front of the tv hooked into my stereo, i use the xbox. i modified my xboxmediacenter.xml file so that when i go into my music in xbmc, it pulls up my mp3 directory on my pc. i have music categorized by album, so i just pick any album i feel like listening to via its directory. i have also created many m3u files in j. river which all found in the playlist section. if i want to listen to a mix, i just launch the relevant playlist.

i can't see how i can improve on this setup. all my mp3 files are stored locally on the pc, and are not on the xbox. but all are streamed via the smb shares perfectly. using the shuffle option in xbmc, i have an unlimited variety of music via my m3u files. and all of that with very limited modifications of existing xbmc files! how could winamp possibly do better????

r.
playing the music on the xbox just isn't the same. as good an effort as has been made, playing music on the xbox is just awkward unless you're using preconstructed playlists. it's slow to load directory listings, it's slow to find what you're looking for, it's a hassle to have to deal with in general compared to using a computer. the interface could possibly be improved (emulate an ipod wheel with a joystick) but as is it's pretty hard to use.

also winamp supports a lot of formats that xbmc doesn't.

really i know i'm not out totally in left field, since the airport express is selling well. i dunno, well it seems like there's no interest in this besides me. i guess i'll break down and just by an airport.

consider the offer revoked and the bounty cancelled. if anyone is interested in doing this still, then contact me, i'll probably still be game for funding you, but don't do any work expecting to be paid without checking with me first.

Butcher
2005-01-25, 02:20
this shouldn't be terrifically hard to do (although having not written a winamp plugin i'm not sure how hard that is).

bitblaster
2005-01-25, 02:22
why not create a ms dos batch file, that tells shoutcast to start, and play the platlist.

batch file then tells the pc to connect to the xbox web interface and tell it a command.

if you ask me, this seems useless, considering you have smb shares... and... you could just go to your xbox using the web interface, select the stream to your laptop, and just use your laptop to play the playlist like usual.