SageTV Media Player Plugin

[Narflex]

We've just released the spec publicly for writing a MediaPlayer plugin for SageTV. This information can be found at:

http://www.sagetv.com/2_papers/MediaPlayerPlugins.txt

Here's the general information about it; more details (such as the Java interface description) can be found by following the above link:

As of SageTV 3.0 there's a MediaPlayer plugin interface that allows a user to use alternate implementations for playing back media files.

This plugin can be used to integrate things such as the following into SageTV:

* a FLAC/Ogg/AAC/etc. audio media player
* alternate video player (MPlayer, WindowsMediaPlayer, etc.)
* a music player with alternate music visualizations
* hardware decoders (XCard, PVR350, etc.)
* media adapters (MediaMVP, Roku, etc.)

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The full SageTV UI can be exported to remote locations or devices by using this plugin along with the SageTV Input plugin and the SageTV OSD Rendering plugin. These 3 interfaces provide all that is needed to get the SageTV UI running on a Media Adapter or Media Extender or simillar device. An example of this can be seen in the Hauppauge MediaMVP plugin available here: http://www.streams.ch/

There are already 2 implementations of this available. One for the Hauppauge Media MVP (Thanks Matt) and the other for the Sigma Designs XCard (Thanks Tom).

[AndyS]

This is really great news. Thanks Jeff!

Andy.

[KJake]

yeah, I know there is/was some interest in getting the Roku devices working with Sage as they could be used as Media Extenders or streaming Music players with Sage managing the music. Too bad I don't have access to those devices

[insomniac]

thx for sharing!

[geogecko]

I may be confused here, but...

Does this mean that you can setup ZoomPlayer or Theater Tek to play inside of SageTV?

Secondly, on the music player, would one be able to run iTunes inside of Sage with this?

I'm thinking the answers are no, but I'm a bit confused on what this plug-in is for, otherwise.

Thank you.

[JUC]

This is huge. I for one will not be able to help out in the cause due to my inaptitude, BUT--we should hopefully be approaching import heaven very soon with the help of some great developers on this forum!!!!!!
Thanks
JUC

[dvd_maniac]

Is this similair to Cayar's External Video/Music/DVD Player? If so that is great news indeed. Can it work like Cayar's where it only plays the alternate media player for non-native file types? Or can it send LiveTV to the media player?

[ErsatzTom]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

Is this similair to Cayar's External Video/Music/DVD Player? If so that is great news indeed. Can it work like Cayar's where it only plays the alternate media player for non-native file types? Or can it send LiveTV to the media player?

When you configure the media player in the properties file you can set the default media player and/or a media player for a specific file extension. If you wanted more fine grained control over which media player is used in any particular situation, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to write a media player "switch" that is configured as the default and then, when load (or fastLoad) is called it decides which media player to use (and then, of course, it passes on each subsequent method call to the same player).

t

[silkshadow]

I go away and this happens. I should go away more often . Thanks Frey!

[briands]

This has been quet for a few weeks. Hopefully that means there are some skilled developers hiding away churning out code for a great HD capable client device.

[JasonJoel]

Personally, I doubt it.


Not sure why end users would spend hundreds of hours making a custom plugin for Sage for free. But that is just me.

Sure would like to see the Sage interface on a fiew more set top devices though (Pinnacle Showcenter, Buffalo LinkTheater, SOMETHING that can play more than MPG).

Jason

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by JasonJoel

Not sure why end users would spend hundreds of hours making a custom plugin for Sage for free.

I think you'd get some interesting answers to this question if you posed it directly to those who have done so.

Personally, I am a recovering capitalist. I majored in economics n college, and I was enthralled with the free market -- sort of a modified libertarian -- don't get the government involved unless there is a market failure. At the time, I didn't perceive market failures all over the place.

These days, I see market failures in my sleep.

So... all of that is to say that I have come to appreciate non-capitalistic behavior as interesting and sometimes noble, and certainly worthy of contribution.

Giving away one's work and having it appreciated can provide a sense of accomplishment and gratification.

Also, if you want something badly enough, you sometimes have to do it yourself!



P.S. I rarely even use Weather Report Suite myself, probably twice a week. But I don't regret doing it or sharing it!

P.P.S. Another reason for me was a desire to learn Java. I'm a .Net guy in real life, but because of growing dissatisfaction with Microsoft and capitalism (particularly monopoly), I wanted to cross over. Developing WRS was a good tutorial for myself.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by JasonJoel

Personally, I doubt it.


Not sure why end users would spend hundreds of hours making a custom plugin for Sage for free. But that is just me.

Wouldn't that be exactly what most plugins are?
WRS
Custom STVs
MVP plugin
Xcard plugin
Most Meedio Plugins
MyMovies for MCE
etc.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by JasonJoel

Not sure why end users would spend hundreds of hours making a custom plugin for Sage for free.

• RSS news: learn java/Studio
• Dynamic menus: learn java/XML/Studio; but mainly because I wanted the functionality to allow Sage to be my HTPC front-end.
• Webserver: learn servlets, learn CSS/XHTML, because I wanted the functionality
• IMDB search: had an itch to scratch, and most of my EPG data is not in my native English, so I wanted a decent movie review site, (and how often have you watched a movie and thought: where have I seen that actor recently!)
• xmltv tv_grab_be: because I needed it!
• Modules: because I didn't want to support an STV!

Now I didn't have to make them public, but I am a generous spritied kind of person, and I was fed up with not *delivering* something in my current job.

Why for free? because I don't want to create the expectation of support that payment creates.

I am sure Matt (MVP), ErstatzTom (Xcard), Cayars (STV), Mlbdude (STV), KJake (DVD burner), Crashless (STV), AndersNolberger (no end of network encoders!), Malore (comskip, STV), JereJones (comskip, SA, Dirmon) and all the others each have their own reasons!

[mogrinz]

Now if we could just get Studio

Still, this is an exciting and most-welcome step in adding more open-ness to Sage

[sleonard]

So, are any of the wonderful, generous, and kind spirited STV and plugin developers w/ Studio actually working on any media player plugins with this API?

I know that there was project started to integrate J.River's Media Center last year that ran into difficulties. I was hoping that this API would get it going again but maybe the problems were on the J.River side of the equation and not Sage.

OTOH, if Sage 3 gets going on the WMA support and improves the music player interface I'll be happy with that.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sleonard

So, are any of the wonderful, generous, and kind spirited STV and plugin developers w/ Studio actually working on any media player plugins with this API?

Matt's MVP plugin and ErzatzTom's Xcard plugin both use this interface.

I know that there was project started to integrate J.River's Media Center last year that ran into difficulties. I was hoping that this API would get it going again but maybe the problems were on the J.River side of the equation and not Sage.

This doesn't really do much for that. The issues we (more like salsbst) ran into, were bridging the Java/COM gap.

[JasonJoel]

Yeah, yeah... You're right.

I guess I was in too pessimistic of a mood. But you have to admit the comment generated a lot of discussion.

Jason

Originally Posted by stanger89

Wouldn't that be exactly what most plugins are?
WRS
Custom STVs
MVP plugin
Xcard plugin
Most Meedio Plugins
MyMovies for MCE
etc.

[Jason]

I'm going to resurrect this to see if anyone (other than Matt or Tom) has/have utilized this in any way?

It would seem to me that by calling Windows Media Player ( or anyother player...) in lieu of the internal media player (at least for audio files... mp3's) two of the 'most' requested features for Sage could be done in one fell swoop... visualizations and internet radio.

With the G-Force visualization add-on (http://www.soundspectrum.com/) there are even album covers shown for playback visualizations. Cheap folks like me, could opt for the free version of WhiteCap as well. Both G-Force and WhiteCap integrate with WMP (any various other players...).

I'm no java programmer so much of this is gibberish to me... Outside of cracking open a java book/tutorial, am I simply missing something here, or am I over thinking the whole issue?

-Jason

[deria]

This is an interesting thread. I don't like the built-in media player as it pertains to music, so I was planning to replace it. The method I was planning on was to use Winamp and just drive it through windows messaging. That would have allowed for all the usual music player goodness, including full screen visualizations -- but this seems like a more elegant and integrated approach. I'll have to read over the documentation provided in more detail to see if its feasible (because the odds of my writing it in java are... slim) but it would be nice to use a different media player for my music/playlists. Then the only problem I would have is cover art. Thanks for resurecting this thread -- I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise.