STV Import: Send to Extender

[skiingwiz]

Download Link

This STVImport for SageMC adds a "Send To..." menu to the stop dialog (shown in screenshot below). This menu will allow the currently playing media to be sent to another running media extender. The media file is loaded on the remote extender and paused. The media file is stopped on the local extender.

The MAC address of the extender is show in the menu by default. This can be over-ridden with any chosen name by creating a properties file that maps MAC addresses to names in <Sage Install Dir>/SageTv/clients/clientmap.properties

My general use case for this is watching something in the living room, I stop it, send it to the bedroom, walk to the bedroom, and unpause it.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by skiingwiz

Download Link

This STVImport for SageMC adds a "Send To..." menu to the stop dialog (shown in screenshot below). This menu will allow the currently playing media to be sent to another running media extender. The media file is loaded on the remote extender and paused. The media file is stopped on the local extender.

The MAC address of the extender is show in the menu by default. This can be over-ridden with any chosen name by creating a properties file that maps MAC addresses to names in <Sage Install Dir>/SageTv/clients/clientmap.properties

My general use case for this is watching something in the living room, I stop it, send it to the bedroom, walk to the bedroom, and unpause it.

I like it. If I only used extenders... I will someday though.

[PLUCKYHD]

Wow very nice addition I will have to give it a go. Sounds great and even greater idea not sure how you accomplished this but impressed...

Question does the extender you are sending too have to be on?

[joenobody33]

This is a really cool idea. Can you please provide a sample of what the mapping config file should look like?

[skiingwiz]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Wow very nice addition I will have to give it a go. Sounds great and even greater idea not sure how you accomplished this but impressed...

Question does the extender you are sending too have to be on?

Yes, the extender does have to be on. I use the GetUIContextNames() call to determine the runing extenders.
As for how I accomplished it, it wasn't that hard. I use apiUI calls to start the media file, pause it, etc.

Originally Posted by joenobody33

This is a really cool idea. Can you please provide a sample of what the mapping config file should look like?

It is a standard properties file as created by java.util.Properties. Basically MACADDRESS=name or MACADDRESS:name.

An example would be:

001122334455=Living Room
001122334466=Bedroom
001122334477=Laptop
001122334488=Exercise Room

[Clift]

You have Laptop listed... does that mean you can send to a SageTV Client?

[kmp14]

VERY cool idea. I will check it out tonight.

[briands]

It would be great if you could do this from any screen (guide, music, etc) with a "Play on" button similar to the webui.

[skiingwiz]

Originally Posted by Clift

You have Laptop listed... does that mean you can send to a SageTV Client?

No, but you can send to a placeshifter. I am looking into the possibility of sending to clients, but it's not something that I've figured out how to do yet. The API makes it very easy for things running from the server (i.e. extenders and placeshifters), but less so among clients.

Originally Posted by briands

It would be great if you could do this from any screen (guide, music, etc) with a "Play on" button similar to the webui.

On my list of things to do with this STVi is to add the functionality to more places. This was the first place, because this is where I use it.

[pedz25]

Nice addition! I can definitely see myself using this regularly. Can't wait to try this out later.

[deanm]

Wow you beat me to it. Been trying to work something out like this myself.

It would be nice if you could add this to the SEND TO button with in SageMC. That is how I was going to add it.

Thanks for you hard work. Can't wait to test it

[skiingwiz]

Originally Posted by deanm

It would be nice if you could add this to the SEND TO button with in SageMC. That is how I was going to add it.

That's next on my todo list. As soon as I find some free time for it.

[deanm]

Originally Posted by skiingwiz

That's next on my todo list. As soon as I find some free time for it.

Thanks for that.

One other thing I would like to see is the Extender names picked up form Webserver extenders.properties think that would be much easier.

Dean

[toricred]

For now both the extenders.properties and clientmap.properties use the same format so I just copied my extenders file to the right location and name and it worked like a champ.

[skiingwiz]

I thought about using the extenders.properties (of couse, after I was done). I wasn't sure about piggybacking on that file. Since then I've thought about it more and I don't see any problems. (after all, who doesn't have the webserver installed?)

The next release will probably have this change in it. (If you wanted to change it now, it's just a single replacement in studio.)

[mickp]

Cool. Do you think that this would work for music playlists, albums and individual tracks (probably without the pause)?

Mick.

[scm]

Originally Posted by mickp

....Do you think that this would work for music ......

I second the music request! Even more, if you could send the music to another extender while the current one kept playing and somehow sync them we could have whole house media integrations!!

Infact, is it possible with what you are doing to have a TV show playing synced in both locations at the same time?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by scm

I second the music request! Even more, if you could send the music to another extender while the current one kept playing and somehow sync them we could have whole house media integrations!!

Infact, is it possible with what you are doing to have a TV show playing synced in both locations at the same time?

Just fyi when you talk synching songs/tv shows it is a whole new ball game and would require a major coding challenge imho.

[skiingwiz]

Originally Posted by scm

I second the music request! Even more, if you could send the music to another extender while the current one kept playing and somehow sync them we could have whole house media integrations!!

Infact, is it possible with what you are doing to have a TV show playing synced in both locations at the same time?

I have no idea if this would work for music (as I haven't tried it). I can try it, but (like Plucky said) I think there is no way that it would sync. I doubt there is anything an STVi could even do about this. Even if I tell each extender to play the song and send the notifications at the same time, there is virtually no chance that they will sync. I suspect there would have to be something done in the core to support this (like scheduled execution of commands and a real-time scheduler. I doubt we'll see that anytime soon.)

I will look at adding music support to this (just know that it won't sync).

[toricred]

If possible it would also be nice if the Send To menu in the Program Information screen had this ability as well. I'm using this to set up my kids shows without having to go all the way to the other end of the house and doing it manually. Yeah I know I'm lazy, but that's what having 3 very active kids is all about.