OSD menu to phone?

[dhg]

Hi, I have some questions for the development team (or anyone who can answer):

I enjoy WDLXTV since a few months now, and I love how many things can be done around it, although I haven't tried out many of them yet.

Now I am looking after a nice end of degree project (I study computer science) which allows me to work on this little device. And I would like to fulfill one of my needs: to use the device without turning on the tv, using an android phone as remote control. I know there are already some projects out there like http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2031 and http://www.evgor.com/wdtv/, but I my idea is a bit different.

What I would like to do is to emulate the OSD interface of the WDLXTV, allowing file browsing, media control, settings... in the phone's screen. Of course video and music playback would be still sent to the standard outputs (I mean HDMI, AV cables).

First question: (if true ignore the rest ) Is this a crazy idea? I mean, is it technically possible or would it really be too much overhead (I mean having to dig too deep in the fw) for the result I would obtain? AFAIK the OSD is created by the apache server, is this the way to go to kind of mimic it in the phone screen? Or is it something different I would have to mess around with? For now I just would like to have a rough idea of what developing this project would mean. If i finally choose this project, I will surely ask more questions!!

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Daniel

[KAD]

if I get you right, you want to capture the screen image and display on your phone as well as allow menu navigation
you'll want to take a look at this
http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?PHPSESSID=3c5frc3dv7rc2s0ao8ups9hj00&topic=1626.0
it's really old but should have some usefull info
but now the bad news
this only works on 1.02.21 based firmware with WDTVext
to run on a newer firmware WDTVext, needs a lot of work, and just to make it interesting the part of the firmware it hooks into
is dmaosd a closed source mips asm , if you know mips asm, definetely let us know

other parts of the project, not to difficult, like allowing menu navigation, there's already a remote on the current webend, which I from time to time use on an ipod touch, but no screen images

KAD

[KAD]

here's another project, unfinished, that should provide some interesting info
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2031

[b-rad.cc]

apache has nothing to do with the OSD...

[blachanc]

Now I am looking after a nice end of degree project (I study computer science) which allows me to work on this little device.
Best regards,
Daniel

for your project,
did you ever thought about porting WDTVext to make it work with recent firmware ?

it is probably too much of a task for a end of degree project, but would be a very nice
way to stand outside from the crowd when you apply for a job, if you can put that in your CV.

And it would probably turn you into a star here

-ben

I already gave up hope for any further wdtvext developement...
Thanks!

Regarding porting wdtvext to 1.xxx - I would like that too, but sadly it's beyond my skills. Greater minds are (hopefully) working on something, but I expect progress will be slow because wd radically changed their video server, and a lot has to be reversed engineered (dis-assembly of the binary code and step by step walkthroughs through MIPS assembler code) to figure out how to use wdtvext. Because of this it may never happen, which is a pitty.

if you know you know mips asm you can ask b-rad what he needs help with

KAD

[dhg]

Ok I will also add to my choices the possibility of porting WDTVext to current firmware, will ask my teacher!

[b-rad.cc]

Not going to happen because I'm not releasing the source. Unless this person is a star guru at C, mips asm, & gdb the suggestion is absurd anyways.

[blachanc]

Not going to happen because I'm not releasing the source. Unless this person is a star guru at C, mips asm, & gdb the suggestion is absurd anyways.

B-rad,

What about releasing a small sample to let you or people judge if they would be
qualified for the job ?

Maybe having some metrics on what was involved for the original development
would help understand the level of work this project would require.

Unless you tell me this is so specific to the WDTV, and that outside experience is not applicable,
it might worth a try?

let me know what you think.

the suggestion is absurd anyways.

Humm, I am sure you get this one from your clients all the time:

Ok, you believe my suggestion is absurd (I am sure you are not using this exact wording with you clients),
but why the suggestion is absurd ?

-Ben

[RMerlin]

The first step for anyone willing to tackle this is to decompile dmaosd into mipsel assembly, and show they understand that code. If a programmer cannot do that first step, there's nothing he'll be able to do with the WDTVExt code, since porting wdtvext to newer firmwares mean being able to figure out what and where to patch on top of that decompiled mipsel ASM code.

[dhg]

Thank you for all the replies. So if I understand correctly dmaosd is the part of the firmware which displays the OSD to the tv screen? Is there any other way (without wdtvext or dmaosd) to sniff what the OSD would display (not the image itself but maybe xml code) so I can reproduce the contents of it in the phone app? Just guessing...