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st3000
User

Posts: 2

How it work? - 2007/05/12 11:12 Hi...

Looking for the quick answer (maybe)...

What I want:
I have a MythTV box w/ many recordings. I can offer them up to a HD capable thin client - but the UPnP interface is limited. I would prefer a full MythTV front end - but don't want a large noisy computer next to all my TVs.

On the other hand there are Syabas / Sigma Designs HD capable thin clients. And, there are servers like WizD and Swisscenter. So,...
1) Are WizD and Swisscenter similar in the clients they support and the protocols they use?
2) Is Swisscenter using something like UPnP-Remote-User-Interface?
3) Or, is Swisscenter, like WizD, using (I think) a proprietary protocol that Syabas / Sigma Designs came up with?
4) What are the chances that Swisscenter can harvest information from MythTV's mysql data base and offer up MythTV media?

...thanks

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admin

Admin

Posts: 1568

Re: How it work? - 2007/05/12 11:25 1) Are WizD and Swisscenter similar in the clients they support and the protocols they use?

Yes.

2) Is Swisscenter using something like UPnP-Remote-User-Interface?

No.

3) Or, is Swisscenter, like WizD, using (I think) a proprietary protocol that Syabas / Sigma Designs came up with?

Yes. Basically, the Sigma Designs solution is that the hardware player basically has a (very limited) web browser and therefore all wizd and Swisscenter have to do is send webpages to it. There are a couple of extra HTML attributes used to bind remote control keys to a link, or to indicate that a link is in fact a playlist.

Most of the difficulty in presenting a nice interface to the player comes from the limitations of the hardware and/or browser.

4) What are the chances that Swisscenter can harvest information from MythTV's mysql data base and offer up MythTV media?

This should be quite trivial. In the Swisscenter interface, you define media locations where your moves/music/etc are located. These locations are then searched and added to the internal database. All that would need to be done is to connect to the MythTV database and pick out the information that SwissCenter needs to become aware of the media.

If you can provide a mysqldump of the MythTV file then I'll be able to tell you how much work it would take.

The only requirement that I could foresee (for initial integration) would be that SwissCenter would need to be running on the same server that Myth is running on (and saving it's video files to).

Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet)
Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).

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st3000
User

Posts: 2

Re: How it work? - 2007/05/12 12:39 Wow, that was quick, thank!

Interesting - so the interface isn't all that difficult to understand. Just some unique HTML extensions and keeping the pages simple so the client browsers can understand them? Is the information available somewhere - or is this mostly based on what people have seen when using the supplied server?

Question: How does the server initially make the client aware of the server? Somehow the server magically shows up on the client's main menu. That can't be ordinary HTML.

It dose sound like swissclient can offer up mythtv recordings autonomously from mythtv. However it may not be trivial. First mythtv stores it's recordings w/cryptic names (date+channel stuff). That way they are all unique. Second, the mythtv data base is huge. I have dumped mine several times for backing up and it is nearly 30 Meg. And I don't consider myself a heavy user. I don't think you want to wade through 30 Megs of data

.

I am not an mysql expert and not familiar with common mythtv queries. Let me ask around to see how to distill the type of information we may want to present swisscenter.

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admin

Admin

Posts: 1568

Re: How it work? - 2007/05/12 13:03 Is the information available somewhere - or is this mostly based on what people have seen when using the supplied server?

That's based on reverse engineering the PHP supplied with the Pinnacle server/media manager application.

Question: How does the server initially make the client aware of the server? Somehow the server magically shows up on the client's main menu. That can't be ordinary HTML.

That's done by a network broadcast (see the details in this post.). However, on most of the hardware players you can manually enter the server details.

It dose sound like swissclient can offer up mythtv recordings autonomously from mythtv. However it may not be trivial. First mythtv stores it's recordings w/cryptic names (date+channel stuff). That way they are all unique.

That doesn't sound like a problem. All I'd need to do is fine the table that stores the mapping between the filenames+locations and the actual programme name that is displayed on the Myth UI. Pulling this back from the MythDB and then inserting the relevant entries into my own swisscenter database should actually be easy.

Second, the mythtv data base is huge. I have dumped mine several times for backing up and it is nearly 30 Meg. And I don't consider myself a heavy user. I don't think you want to wade through 30 Megs of data

30Mb...Eek!

Is it a bit smaller if you zip it up? I would imagine that most of the data is to do with programme schedules and the like.

I am not an mysql expert and not familiar with common mythtv queries. Let me ask around to see how to distill the type of information we may want to present swisscenter.

Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet)
Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).

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