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XBMC / Boxee and custom C4 Phython Plugin - Media Bliss

dan.swift.ut

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dan.swift.ut Newbie

dan.swift.ut

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I have been working on a little project for the past couple of weeks and I am wondering if anyone was interested in my project. I need to get this checked into the BOXEE project and then you can pull from the SVN source and have fun.

C4 has a serious hole in its media center capability. So, let’s fix that on the cheap.

I am a current developer for the XBMC project and switched over to the BOXEE project last December after I got laid off from C4. So, of course, I started to work on a side project to integrate my C4 system into a real media center application and replace the tired looking Navigator and slow media indexing that is currently offered. I have a MacMini that this is all run off of. This also works on low end PC’s and Modified Xbox’s from Microsoft. I like the Mac Mini as I can decode HD H.264 content. Tasty

XBMC Project = http://xbmc.org/

Boxee Project = http://www.boxee.tv/

So what does it do?

Well, I wrote a XBMC Python plug-in that talks directly to “director” on the HC-XXX or HTC. Currently, this works with Ember and ZigBee Pro. As the TCP stream to Director is pretty simple to duplicate as it is simple text formatted as XML. In the next version – I am going to not even use Director and talk directly to the Zserver (this is only in the PRO version because the new zserver is muti-threaded)

Currently I have working:

-- Pulls current project from HTC/HCXXX and parses it

-- Light control per room

-- Execute Light Groups – (Scenes)

-- Polling has been removed so faster response times from nodes

-- Basic Action Scripts (turn on amp when music starts)

Things I am working on:

-- Audio – Volumes for the 16/4 Channel amps

-- Change source matrix on 16/4 amps

-- Audio Presets for music types

-- Project changes back to director (adding new devices)

-- Timed events

-- Action Scripts – Programming actions based on what you are doing in XBMC/Boxee

-- 3rd party support (X10)

Things I am replacing:

-- Navigator – on screen

-- Touch screens – I can’t get mine to work with Wifi out of box so that was the main reason for this project

-- C4 Music daemon (MP3 decoder/encoder – use XBMC to index and encode and decode)

-- C4 Video index daemon (Use XBMC to index and DECODE videos)

-- C4 Pictures server (Use XBMC to index and display slideshow)

-- C4 Streaming Music - as that costs money per month

-- C4 Remotes – use a Logitech Harmony (better battery life)

Other things you can do:

--Stream HULU.com

--Stream Netflix Movies

--Stream Free Radio (Pandora / Last.fm)

--Stream CNN / Comedy Central

--Torrent Server

Any other wish list items?

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dan.swift.ut Newbie

dan.swift.ut

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Its all in the XML...

Just set up a TCP sniff between Composer and Director. I recorded each action I did in Composer and saved the snip of text from the TCP stream. Then I can mimic that same action within Python. Pretty simple once you realize it is all plain text. The hard part was pulling the current project and finding the unique ID for each device. And a dumb EOF character that is hidden.

After that - cake and ice cream...

I have a macmini for my HDTV in the main family room and Modified XBOX's in the other rooms. They are connected via ethernet to my home network. I have a teraserver in the basement that holds all of my media so I can stream any content anywhere in the house at any time. Plus an extra XBOX that streams audio directly into the 16 Channel Amp. I don't even pay for cable or SAT at the moment. But I watch most TV shows the day after - and now that Disney is part of HULU this is even better. Why reinvent the wheel when an open source solution does it better for free... And I put the HTC in the basement next to my server rack...

You have to be cheap during these times :)

would love to see this in action. we may be able to bring your solution in on projects. am very curious to see the c4 integration.

dan

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bog Enthusiast

bog

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Dan,

Can you email me? I've been active in the Boxee community for almost a year now (lately been more focused on my new C4 system). I've always had the plan to integrate the two.

Bog

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RyanE Veteran

RyanE

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I don't speak officially for Control4 on this, and they haven't given any official guidance on this AFAIK, but...

As far as it being encouraged by Control4, it is used by Control4 and Control4 partners, but there is no guarantee by Control4 that it won't at some point in the future be only available through official channels for Control4's own and official partner applications (i.e. some sort of authentication, etc.).

At which point, this application would cease to work unless it was a partner app.

IMHO, the best way to cause Control4 to lock it down would be to implement ComposerPro functionality into the plugin...

RyanE

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  • 2 months later...
bigdaddyo811 Enthusiast

bigdaddyo811

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Has there been any progress on this?

I have been working on a little project for the past couple of weeks and I am wondering if anyone was interested in my project. I need to get this checked into the BOXEE project and then you can pull from the SVN source and have fun.

C4 has a serious hole in its media center capability. So, let’s fix that on the cheap.

I am a current developer for the XBMC project and switched over to the BOXEE project last December after I got laid off from C4. So, of course, I started to work on a side project to integrate my C4 system into a real media center application and replace the tired looking Navigator and slow media indexing that is currently offered. I have a MacMini that this is all run off of. This also works on low end PC’s and Modified Xbox’s from Microsoft. I like the Mac Mini as I can decode HD H.264 content. Tasty

XBMC Project = http://xbmc.org/

Boxee Project = http://www.boxee.tv/

So what does it do?

Well, I wrote a XBMC Python plug-in that talks directly to “director” on the HC-XXX or HTC. Currently, this works with Ember and ZigBee Pro. As the TCP stream to Director is pretty simple to duplicate as it is simple text formatted as XML. In the next version – I am going to not even use Director and talk directly to the Zserver (this is only in the PRO version because the new zserver is muti-threaded)

Currently I have working:

-- Pulls current project from HTC/HCXXX and parses it

-- Light control per room

-- Execute Light Groups – (Scenes)

-- Polling has been removed so faster response times from nodes

-- Basic Action Scripts (turn on amp when music starts)

Things I am working on:

-- Audio – Volumes for the 16/4 Channel amps

-- Change source matrix on 16/4 amps

-- Audio Presets for music types

-- Project changes back to director (adding new devices)

-- Timed events

-- Action Scripts – Programming actions based on what you are doing in XBMC/Boxee

-- 3rd party support (X10)

Things I am replacing:

-- Navigator – on screen

-- Touch screens – I can’t get mine to work with Wifi out of box so that was the main reason for this project

-- C4 Music daemon (MP3 decoder/encoder – use XBMC to index and encode and decode)

-- C4 Video index daemon (Use XBMC to index and DECODE videos)

-- C4 Pictures server (Use XBMC to index and display slideshow)

-- C4 Streaming Music - as that costs money per month

-- C4 Remotes – use a Logitech Harmony (better battery life)

Other things you can do:

--Stream HULU.com

--Stream Netflix Movies

--Stream Free Radio (Pandora / Last.fm)

--Stream CNN / Comedy Central

--Torrent Server

Any other wish list items?

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