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Posts: 161 | Thanked: 75 times | Joined on Feb 2008
#31
Originally Posted by stooo View Post
Problem 1:
after playing music from one folder, I can no longer see any media contents of any other folder. It still works fine in "MediaStreamer".
I get that in fuppes and Orb using the Canola UPnP plugin too. In fuppes, I could see the music while the db was updating, but after it was done I saw nothing. Also, the directories show up but there are no files.
 
Bundyo's Avatar
Posts: 4,708 | Thanked: 4,649 times | Joined on Oct 2007 @ Bulgaria
#32
Originally Posted by stooo View Post
Re: UPnP
I'm using "ushare" on my linux Mandriva box as my server. I can see the server in canola and browse the folders.

Problem 1:
after playing music from one folder, I can no longer see any media contents of any other folder. It still works fine in "MediaStreamer".

Problem 2:
I can browse my video folder (providing I haven't just played music from another folder... see above), but it plays any video file (encoded for the n800... MP4) as music instead of video. Have I missed a setting somewhere ?
I guess you use this server with other hardware/software, is it working okay there? Also probably you're aware ushare can't do transcoding.
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Bundyo's Avatar
Posts: 4,708 | Thanked: 4,649 times | Joined on Oct 2007 @ Bulgaria
#33
@Navi: my Orb is completely empty, but that's probably due to a specific implementation.
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handful's Avatar
Posts: 1,412 | Thanked: 594 times | Joined on Aug 2005 @ Recife, Brazil
#34
Hey guys, We don't support ushare by now, but if needed we will include it on the list. But be aware that due to a main difference, if the server has some particular details in the implementation it may be difficult to support it correctly (we don't use gnomeVFS to download-play the media like mediastreamer)

BR

MArcelo
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briand's Avatar
Posts: 566 | Thanked: 145 times | Joined on Feb 2008 @ Tallahassee, FL
#35
Okay... I did read (above) what you said regarding MythTV, but I installed the UPNP plugin and tried it out, anyway.

...and, I don't totally agree with what you said about MythTV -- some (mostly older) installations use non-standardized (at least outside of the MythTV community) video containers, but for the most part the video file on the disk is directly from the encoder, meaning it's most likely to be either an MPEG2 or an MPEG4 file. I would hardly call either of them non-standard

okay... so, I fired up Canola after installing the plugin, and saw the Media Servers option on the main menu. clicked it, and got a list of media servers. In my case, the sole entry on the list was my MythTV (0.21/svn) AV Media Server. I clicked on that item, and was presented with three choices: Music, Recordings, and Videos.

I tried Music first.

I was given the option of looking at the music by Album or All. What? Where are my "published" playlists? (No, I'm not expecting support for the MythMusic "Smart Playlists", but I do think I should be able to pick from my static playlists). I don't have my mp3 files organized by album, so I chose to view all.

You need to put feedback on these screens, Marcelo. I stared at a non-responsive Canola screen with no indication that anything was going on while my MythTV box (apparently) sent over a list of songs. I kept staring, with nothing (apparent) happening for about 20 minutes. The only reason I didn't power-cycle the N800 was that I saw a periodic blinking of the "wireless status" LED on my WAP across the room; so I waited. and waited. and waited.

Eventually, I was shown a list of music. Each and every one of the 22,429 [an increase of 55 since last week!] mp3 files currently on my MythTV system are painstakingly tagged with Title, Artist, and Year (but not 'Album', since.. well.. these are not albums, they are released singles [and, in some cases, were never even on an album!]), and this information was slurped up by the import process in MythTV when the songs were added to the system. Certainly not for lack of data, all that is displayed in Canola is the Song Title. No artist, no year, no genre.

...and, then Canola started playing the first song on the list. It continued to play through the list, and I could go back to the list and click on a different song, and it would start from there and sequence forward. No, I didn't listen to all 22,000+ songs!

Summary:

Feedback. You definitely need to tell the user what's going on, lest they start believing nothing is going on!

Don't assume that music collections are grouped by "albums"; they're not. Further, an "album" doesn't necessarily contain only songs by a given artist. It'd be nice to be able to pick an artist, and get a list of all the songs (regardless of "album") by that artist.

I don't know what order the huge list of songs is in... it's not alphabetical by title, artist, or chronological by year. Perhaps it's unsorted? ...in whatever order they were added to my MythTV box?


Next, I tried video:
 
briand's Avatar
Posts: 566 | Thanked: 145 times | Joined on Feb 2008 @ Tallahassee, FL
#36
...and here's where the [short] fun began.

I clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I restarted Canola and tried again; clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I rebooted the N800, restarted Canola, and tried again; clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. No pause, no hesitation, no list of available titles, just bye-bye!.

I rebooted the tablet again.

In Canola again, I tried the Videos option in the Media Server plugin. The videos on my system are of varying lengths, mostly .avi or .mp4 files; funny commercials, music videos, or full-length television shows (minus commercials, of course!) and movies that I've transcoded and saved. They vary in length from a few minutes to a couple hours, and are sufficiently compressed and at a low enough bitrate so they play nicely on the N800 when copied to an SD card and sneaker-netted to the tablet.

I clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I restarted Canola and tried again; clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I rebooted the N800, restarted Canola, and tried again; clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. No pause, no hesitation, no list of available titles, just bye-bye!.

Summary:

It didn't work.
 
handful's Avatar
Posts: 1,412 | Thanked: 594 times | Joined on Aug 2005 @ Recife, Brazil
#37
Okay... I did read (above) what you said regarding MythTV, but I installed the UPNP plugin and tried it out, anyway.
ok, so you know what's coming next we have almost 3 years of maemo-mythTV experience so we would do if we believe in it. Anyhow I will answer some of your points..

...an
d, I don't totally agree with what you said about MythTV -- some (mostly older) installations use non-standardized (at least outside of the MythTV community) video containers, but for the most part the video file on the disk is directly from the encoder, meaning it's most likely to be either an MPEG2 or an MPEG4 file. I would hardly call either of them non-standard
No, they aren't but (I think was direct my critics on the wrong direction) but the playback of the mpeg2 files was always problematic even more on the streaming part.Also we cannot guarantee if the user has customized in any point it's settings.

I was given the option of looking at the music by Album or All. What? Where are my "published" playlists? (No, I'm not expecting support for the MythMusic "Smart Playlists", but I do think I should be able to pick from my static playlists). I don't have my mp3 files organized by album, so I chose to view all.
[quote]
If they are not appearing, they are not published as they should be in the UPNP protocol, so sorry, we will not support particular implementations of mythTV.

You need to put feedback on these screens, Marcelo. I stared at a non-responsive Canola screen with no indication that anything was going on while my MythTV box (apparently) sent over a list of songs. I kept staring, with nothing (apparent) happening for about 20 minutes. The only reason I didn't power-cycle the N800 was that I saw a periodic blinking of the "wireless status" LED on my WAP across the room; so I waited. and waited. and waited.
In this point I agree with you. I have a list of at least 30 spots where feedback is missing. But developers don't think like me, they want bug free stuff first, tested then we added the "plus". But anyhow:

We do not support mythTV. In a default upnp server, the little loading ball is rotating, and even on HUGE lists we do lazy loadings (thanks to chenca) that starts to show you songs as they appear, so we have (with more than 6 different softwares as servers, in windows linux e macs with more than 15k songs) faced a 5 min wait without items on the screen. I would say even more, we didn't wait 1 minute at all.

So probably you are already figuring out that MythTV is "screwing" up the protocol sending what it thinks it should send. (ok, I will be more careful because we maybe the problem... but this is my guess)

...e not albums, they are released singles [and, in some cases, were never even on an album!]), and this information was slurped up by the import process in MythTV when the songs were added to the system. Certainly not for lack of data, all that is displayed in Canola is the Song Title. No artist, no year, no genre...
Now my question: so the other servers do show it and they are using standard(almost) upnp. who do you think is messing up with stuff here?
Dude, we receive items from the network. Dictionaries with values. If there's not a value, mythTV is sending in a different way.

...and, then Canola started playing the first song on the list. It continued to play through the list, and I could go back to the list and click on a different song, and it would start from there and sequence forward. No, I didn't listen to all 22,000+ songs!
At least the URI for the file was correct.

Summary:

Feedback. You definitely need to tell the user what's going on, lest they start believing nothing is going on!
Don't get me wrong. But don't think after all this months of defending the user, and being the lead designer, and talking about that HERE, in my site and in the Canola channel this was not thought of? Of course it is, and we are adding them, changing text trying to come up with improved feedback in the speed that we can. Still more than 30 spots needing it? Still! but it's not magic to add everything when you don't have the man power. I know it's a difficult choice, but either to place the features that were delayed (like UPNP) or to add feeedback to everything and release a non-incremental beta just (this beta is all about feedback).
I did my home work, got a new team to keep canola going, and they are being trained etc etc. so this improvements are not on the polish phase (beta10). Upnp was the last feature and now we can do the improvements on the details.

Don't assume that music collections are grouped by "albums"; they're not. Further, an "album" doesn't necessarily contain only songs by a given artist. It'd be nice to be able to pick an artist, and get a list of all the songs (regardless of "album") by that artist.
I don't assume, and on UPNP I can do nothing. We don't do nothing on upnp. It's the media server that indexes organizes and sends a list. We show the list. that's it.

on the media library, I will tell you something about the users also: Don't assume that you know what they do. My real users even don't know about this forum, they send emails on the website. They do use albums as organization methods, but even with that I do not assume that. That's why in the music collection (where we have control) we pick from artists, then album. But I agree with you, one thing present in canola 1 is missing since the beta1 in canola2: "all songs". When you have groups of the same " artists " - the albums - you have this option of seeing all the items.

But in the UPNP? we don't have nothing to do with that. The server must have it.
So, if you have a standard upnp server, and your collection is there, just enable it that if you provide artists-album or all song it will appear.

I don't know what order the huge list of songs is in... it's not alphabetical by title, artist, or chronological by year. Perhaps it's unsorted? ...in whatever order they were added to my MythTV box?
ask MythTV dude.

Marcelo
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www.marceloeduardo.com
----------------------------
OpenBossa Labs @ INdT, Recife Brazil
http://openbossa.indt.org
 
handful's Avatar
Posts: 1,412 | Thanked: 594 times | Joined on Aug 2005 @ Recife, Brazil
#38
...and here's where the [short] fun began.
I clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I restarted Canola and tried again; clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I rebooted the N800, restarted Canola, and tried again; clicked on Recordings, and Canola crashed and disappeared. No pause, no hesitation, no list of available titles, just bye-bye!.
so you probably have noticed by now how good mythTV is in the standards and why we don't support it.

I rebooted the tablet again.

In Canola again, I tried the Videos option in the Media Server plugin. The videos on my system are of varying lengths, mostly .avi or .mp4 files; funny commercials, music videos, or full-length television shows (minus commercials, of course!) and movies that I've transcoded and saved. They vary in length from a few minutes to a couple hours, and are sufficiently compressed and at a low enough bitrate so they play nicely on the N800 when copied to an SD card and sneaker-netted to the tablet.



I clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I restarted Canola and tried again; clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. I rebooted the N800, restarted Canola, and tried again; clicked on Videos, and Canola crashed and disappeared. No pause, no hesitation, no list of available titles, just bye-bye!.
again: if this happens with the mythTV, what do you think it's the reason
Not following the protocol.

Summary:

It didn't work.
My Summary: it will not Work. and with the community that mythTV has (if you knew how unpolite the lead developers of mythTV can be) we are the ones who are never going to try to help them. As we did with several upnp servers with problems in the past.

BR
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www.marceloeduardo.com
----------------------------
OpenBossa Labs @ INdT, Recife Brazil
http://openbossa.indt.org
 
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on May 2008
#39
Resumption of a paused podcast restarts the podcast :-(
Not running multiple applications.
 
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Posts: 566 | Thanked: 145 times | Joined on Feb 2008 @ Tallahassee, FL
#40
Originally Posted by handful
My Summary: it will not Work. and with the community that mythTV has (if you knew how unpolite the lead developers of mythTV can be) we are the ones who are never going to try to help them.
Hmm. Okay, then. You don't wish to support MythTV - one of the largest, most heavily developed, open source multimedia applications on Linux, and choose instead to place any faults solely with that application rather than consider that your fledgling plug-in may need some work. I'm sorry you feel this way. I don't plan on building up a Microsoft-based Media Center or buy some commercial off-the-shelf multimedia solution with UPNP support, just to test these issues in your plug-in and determine where the problem(s) may be.

PS: I've been running a MythTV system, continuously, since version 0.13, and I do, in fact, know several of the developers (lead and otherwise) on the MythTV team... in fact, there's bits of my own code in there.
 
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