Notices

LOL!

If I promise to get the Astro's to lose tonite's game, can you fix the video so I can see the game replay?

It's so close I can almost see it. I messed with the parameters that you now display in the config dialog box, but I don't know enough to know how to 'improve' it. I changed the numbers up and down with no effect What does the -quiet attribute do? Just curious.

Right. I mean, I didn't get the first config dialog, so I created the .mlb directory in home/user (as root).

Apparently. Once I created the directory, the app created the file on first run. All worked after that.

I will try this shortly...it's worth a shot. I found somewhere (was it in tinkering with Orb?) that 'lowering' the bitrate might be the solution. Again, worth an experiment.

Edit: Nope, adjusting the numbers didn't work. In fact, it didn't load unless it was set at 400...

As a software developer myself, I'm used to hearing "fix this bug' & "where's this feature". The lack of positive feedback can make it hard sometimes. So here's some good news. I can only watch the game recaps/highlight videos on the NIT. I can't get them to play decently on my PC. Even after they appear to be cached in the browser, they still won't play fully. This mlbviewer program is awesome! I have no problems with the audio or the highlight videos. Thanks.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. Really, this port could be re-ported to straight up gtk, and then work on most other OS's, if it weren't so convinent to keep the game on the tablet. But I'm not up for doing it

Muah ha ha ha ha ha! [Imagine that being maniacal laughter ]
I've been waiting for some poor sap to ask me what the parameters mean...
This link may or may not be helpful... but it will certainly give you room to play...

OK, time for another update:
After Greyhost asked about the condensed games, I did a bit of checking. It turns out that the "download" version off of source forge is from the begining of May. But the SVN (work in progress) version has had a number of upgrades, including the condensed game support. So I've updated the package with the new version of the MLBviewer backend. Unfortunatly, these condensed games seem limited to the paid video subscribers. Which means (yup, you guessed it) I haven't tested it! I got far enough to get a URL error. Looking at the page data, it looks like it could be a page asking me to log in...

So Greyhost, if you're testing that feature, I suggest going to Tuesday's game, and not today's. Maybe yesterday's, atleast there was a lot of excitement (Cooper is such a fun coach!). Atleast your team didn't walk in the winning run for the cubs by hitting Jim Edmands...

I also fixed the "/home/home/.mlb" error that was reported in the last version. I uninstalled, deleted .mlb and then reinstalled, and every thing went smoothly, so here's hoping.

I'm going to incorporate a little smarter determination of what items require authentication and which items don't in the next cycle. Mostly for the sake of the Home Run contest and the All star game, since I recall atleast one of them being a free broadcast for mlb.tv. And I definatly need to get some documentation into the gui!!!!!

Oh, and does any one know if it is possible to commit blasphemy and install an Apt repository on a windows 2k3 server?

hvacengi, check your PM

Bravo!! O I can't wait to test! Thanks very very much! I'll go install and test and report back to this thread. Thanks again, for doing this. Soon it may be time to set up one of those paypal accounts like Penguinbait or Gnuite...this is worth paying for, imho

UPDATE: OMFG! This is simply awesome. It works!

Not just yesterday, but today and every game going back as far as I bothered...two weeks?

The 'Condensed Game' Feed is right there in the list with top plays and the game recap.

Now, even if this feature is functional only with the video subscription service, I think I may pay for a month or so and see how much I use it. I don't know how many users out there will be like me and manage afford it just for the fun of it. Nonetheless, if you can get the top plays for free, it sounds like a good deal, both for mlb, because it attracts customers who will, in the end, pay for the services, and for us.

As for the app itself, I give you very high marks, especially from a usability standpoint. To me, usability is of the highest importance since it defines how much we will use a particular thing, it is something that engineers and software designers miss quite often.

For example, how often have we pushed on a door that should be pulled or vice versa, then blamed ourselves for being stupid? Yet, if the designer of a door cannot make it so that we, the users can always tell whether or not we are expected to push or pull that door, then it is the designer that is stupid, or, to be fair, shortsighted. In the case of your little app, modest though you are, it is what you haven't done that makes this so neat as much as what you have done, if that makes any sense...

Speaking of sense, I must also commend you on your interest in feedback and your willingness to work to improve the app. Your responses the rapid-fire feature requests that I peppered you with were not only prompt and polite, but gracious and patient with someone who is not actually paying (yet) for your time or efforts.

As to that, may I suggest that you consider adding this to the Maemo Extras Repo? I have no idea how, exactly, this is done, but I've seen threads and posts by those I respect that seem to think this is the place for neat little apps like this.

Other, more experienced members of the forum can likely guide you here if you are so inclined. I'll suggest some if you like, or even start a post and take the flames! I suggest it because I think i's a way of preserving your work if, heaven forbid, you should decide to work on other, perhaps more important things!

So, again, hvancengi, my thanks. and keep up the good work. Now, other than the same-day video feed (still garbled; but I'll continue to tinker with mplayer 'cause I like to, there's nothing I would add immediately to improve this wonderful app!

I am happy to report that the condensed games work perfectly through the 2nd inning of Mil vs. Hou
Sorry Greyghost...

It's ok...the season is long. I shall be watching!

OK. I'm a bit confused through the thread.

1. do people get playback without the fuzziness? Which features (live? highlights? condensed games?)

2. for people with the less-fussiness issues, what version of MPlayer are you running? From reading another thread, the newest version doesn't seem to render DIVX as well as an earlier version so obviously there can be some major issues version to version. I'm wondering if another, earlier, version of MPlayer may be a better option.

3. Is there another media player better suited to mlbviewer than MPlayer?

4. How dated is MPlayer, anyway? From the maemo.garage page updates, there doesn't seem that much change, aside from being ported to OS 2008, since early 2007.

5. How can the casual user of an N8xx device figure out how well would a video transfer rate over wireless actually be? Is it low enough (on average) to *always* bea problem or should should the 400 level choice of mlbviewer be well within the range of wireless devices (which brings us right back to MPlayer being a problem).

6. The VLC media player? How could/would this fit into this area?

Betty, I think you're spying on my browser history, I was looking into most of that before I went to dinner...

1) I know of no one reporting the live video working. Both the highlights and the condensed games work great for me, and from what I've seen it looks like the highlights are at least working for others as well.

2) An earlier version of mplayer actuall may work better (after a fashion). Bunyo ported mplayer rc2 to the .26 version of mplayer. rc2 is suposed to be much better on wmv9 (which the video streams use). It doesn't work with the current .27 though, and I can't install the older version, dependencies are missing.

3)as far as I'm aware, mplayer is pretty much the best video player available for any OS it runs on. It runs with low overhead, and plays a large number of formats. It is originally designed for desktop linux and the x86 chip architecture, so much optimization had/has to be done to have it run well on the tablet with its ARM architecture.

4)The current version of mplayer is from april I believe, so not that old, but not that new. From comments I've read, they are waiting for rc3 to do the next major jump in porting from the desktop.

5)Video transfer rates should be no problem. I've see file transfer's at 1.2Mbps, and the highlights and condensed games both stream at 400kbps without much issue.

6)VLC isn't very optimized for ARM either. From what I've read, it is just a straight cross compile, so while I haven't had the chance to try it, I wouldn't expect it to play wmv well. wmv is one of the less supported codecs on linux since it is closed and MS.