WDTV MediaPlayers Remote (Android)

[juliojs]

I upgraded to a FW version that no longer has WDTVExt and I miss my my Media Navigation. Could you please please add the navigating functions to your app using the UPNP read and write seek times commands? Skip forward and back large chunks of times is really missed. Seeking to an absolute time is also nice. Did I say please?

Consider it done.

The uPnP control is one of the main request and also it's the best way to give support to official firmware users.
I started developing that feature some time ago but I reached some dead ends on the process (almost solved now). The worst case is the buggy/unimplemented uPnP control support on the official firmware. The seek control works pretty well, but the play/pause/stop... controls only works if the current media has been selected thought uPnP, not from the OSD.
I managed a (not pretty) fix for this, that is catch the current media URL, stop it and continue playing from the same point using uPnP... As I said, not pretty...

In my opinion this is the way to go for MediaNavigation for future firmwares. The chances of having wdtvext ported to the newer firmwares is slim because of the large amount of skilled work needed.

However, it could be a challenge, because MN had some interesting features (I like the subtitle downloader part of it).

Maybe this should be discussed in a different thread.
The way I see this is the following:
* build an app.bin that has a "server" component that does the actual processing/jumping around in the current movie
* build a web interface (on the wdtv) that interacts with the server component and has the controls to jump around (and the visual feedback that you would normally get on screen).
* optionally, build a better GUI for an Android/iPhone app that interacts directly with the server using the same API the web interface is using.
* the subtitle downloader part can be done the same way - the server part does the downloading and re-converting if necessary, but the UI provides the file name/file path and the subtitle selection screen.

The standalone web interface allows any smartphone/tablet/pc to use this feature (even my old WinMobile PDA). Any IPhone/Android Apps can build their own UIs (for uniformity) and use standard http to make requests to the wdtv. There's a question of security and privacy (how to authorize the requests), but it would simplify access (no telnet required).

Totally agree here.

In fact, I'm deprecating Telnet in favour of HTTP using the webend remote control but I found that it's laggy in comparison, maybe because the digest authentication? Because on the Live Hub web interface remote it's really fast.

So a redesign of this to work as an API and as a standard web based remote control would be great.
As I said to PaulF, my efforts are centred on give support to all WDTV users, that comes with the use of the standard uPnP and cifs/samba services but the low official firmware support makes really hard to create a good user experience.
For example, the official firmware samba share works well and is easy to browse content, but it's really hard to play that files on the WDTV using uPnP because each drive has the USB ID and unique drive ID is mounted on "/tmp/media/usb/USBX/XXXXXXX" and that ID is only stored on the databases created on "/.wdtv" folder from each drive, so it is not really an easy job when you only see "\\WDTV_Live_IP\diskX\" on the samba share... Any idea?
Also the Twonky server is not available on the official firmware, only for Live Hub and Live Streaming...

I have not much free time now but I'll continue working on this version (it's almost reworked from the ground), also it would be great to help on the development of that web-based control if necessary

[PaulF]

In my opinion this is the way to go for MediaNavigation for future firmwares. The chances of having wdtvext ported to the newer firmwares is slim because of the large amount of skilled work needed.

However, it could be a challenge, because MN had some interesting features (I like the subtitle downloader part of it).

Maybe this should be discussed in a different thread.
The way I see this is the following:
* build an app.bin that has a "server" component that does the actual processing/jumping around in the current movie
* build a web interface (on the wdtv) that interacts with the server component and has the controls to jump around (and the visual feedback that you would normally get on screen).
* optionally, build a better GUI for an Android/iPhone app that interacts directly with the server using the same API the web interface is using.
* the subtitle downloader part can be done the same way - the server part does the downloading and re-converting if necessary, but the UI provides the file name/file path and the subtitle selection screen.

The standalone web interface allows any smartphone/tablet/pc to use this feature (even my old WinMobile PDA). Any IPhone/Android Apps can build their own UIs (for uniformity) and use standard http to make requests to the wdtv. There's a question of security and privacy (how to authorize the requests), but it would simplify access (no telnet required).

Media Navigation started out as a way to navigate to different playback times. I am not too concerned about additions. Can't you just download the source for WEC Remote, modify it and then make it a WEC app.bin add-on? http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5775

@juliojs Thanks.

[mad_ady]

I'm not sure what causes the lagginess in the web-end remote, but I doubt it's the authentication. The authentication code just does a bad job of hashing (actually converts user:realm:password to base64 encoding) and sends this "hash" to to server in a authentication header. This header is sent in all requests, but it shouldn't have any noticeable impact on performance.

I don't know if you can/should support the official firmware as well. Sure, if it's feasible you should do it, but if it raises the complexity level too high, you should stick to wdlxtv instead.

I always thought you could get details about the currently playing media (including full path) by getting the metadata from upnp-cmd. This should be enough, but it's only visible on wdlxtv, not stock... I think we can define a simple HTTP API to get and set this data in a reliable way, but if we go the http way, we should keep authentication in. Otherwise all sorts of people can exploit the wdtv and sniff what's being played and control it.

Here's some example info I can get:

Code: Select all

# upnp-cmd GetMEdiaInfo
[NrTracks] => 1
[MediaDuration] => 00:09:59
[CurrentURI] => file:///tmp/media/usb/USB2/6c67aa8a-e447-4f27-be88-150f6f42fceb/TheFireplaceVideo.mp4
[CurrentURIMetaData] => <DIDL-Lite xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:metadata-1-0/DIDL-Lite/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:upnp="urn:schemas-upnp-org:metadata-1-0/upnp/"><item id="3/tmp/media/usb/USB2/6c67aa8a-e447-4f27-be88-150f6f42fceb/TheFireplaceVideo.mp4" parentID="3/tmp/media/usb/USB2/" restricted="0"><dc:title>TheFireplaceVideo.mp4</dc:title><dc:date></dc:date><upnp:class>object.item.videoItem</upnp:class><dc:creator></dc:creator><upnp:genre></upnp:genre><upnp:album></upnp:album><upnp:album_art>/tmp/08467bd9f0a2844c93a821074a8ec556dfddd903</upnp:album_art><res bitrate="23998"  protocolInfo="file-get:*:video/mp4::DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=00000000001000000000000000000000" protection="" tokenType="0" duration="" size="47662672" colorDepth="0" ifoFileURI="" resolution="480X270">file:///tmp/media/usb/USB2/6c67aa8a-e447-4f27-be88-150f6f42fceb/TheFireplaceVideo.mp4</res></item></DIDL-Lite>
[NextURI] =>
[NextURIMetaData] =>
[PlayMedium] => NETWORK
[RecordMedium] => NOT_IMPLEMENTED
[WriteStatus] => UNKNOWN


I would like to get the inputs of the other devs as well (recliq, RMerlin), since they've designed the Webend and can contribute some ideas.

Shall we open a new thread for brainstorming this in order not to "pollute" this thread?

[mad_ady]

Let's take this discussion elsewhere: http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=5839
It's in the Area 51/Beta section of the forum. If you want to contribute and don't have access, I'll tell a forum admin to move it someplace readable.

[wenxianren]

Hi juliojs,

Firstly thanks for your WDTV MediaPlayers Remote (Android) .

I have a old wdtv gen1 with wdlxtv firmware and one USB2Ethernet adaptor, the telnet and ssh all works fine. I install your software in Android 2.3 tablet. From the interface of your software, I input the ip address of wdtv and root password, connect succeed.
But when I push any button like up, down, home, etc, no response.

What may cause that? Can you give me some suggestion? Thanks.

Kevin

[juliojs]

Hi juliojs,

Firstly thanks for your WDTV MediaPlayers Remote (Android) .

I have a old wdtv gen1 with wdlxtv firmware and one USB2Ethernet adaptor, the telnet and ssh all works fine. I install your software in Android 2.3 tablet. From the interface of your software, I input the ip address of wdtv and root password, connect succeed.
But when I push any button like up, down, home, etc, no response.

What may cause that? Can you give me some suggestion? Thanks.

Kevin

The gen1 needs also this app.bin: http://www.mediafire.com/?upcv2c3ki4dmr58
(Put it on a USB and reboot the mediaplayer)

Hope this helps!

[wenxianren]

The gen1 needs also this app.bin: http://www.mediafire.com/?upcv2c3ki4dmr58
(Put it on a USB and reboot the mediaplayer)

Hope this helps!

Thanks, it works!

[tvniklas]

Bump...

I solved the problem, my bad...

I had to choose the right WD box on startup in the app, since i had autologin i missed it the first time, and it didnt show that option later...

Sorry for the bad post, my first also here as a member... Feel stupid.

It works great your app by the way

I will buy the add free version.

[dadom110]

Hi together,

is there any chance to run a specified playlist or Web Radio with the app/telnet? Some kind of script which can be run maybe?

thanks
dom

[juliojs]

Hi together,

is there any chance to run a specified playlist or Web Radio with the app/telnet? Some kind of script which can be run maybe?

thanks
dom

Hi,

You can use zoster's upnp-cmd script (it's integrated on WDlxTV) but I will definitely consider adding this to the app


PS: Thank you all for the +100.000 downloads, you're awesome!!!!!!