Adding 3rd party media player to Pluto

[archived]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to add some generic 3rd party media player control to Pluto. I know I need some device be added to Pluto, that will be placed into Audio zone or room, and I also need to have media scenarios on Orbiter screen for that room/Audio zone.

I know all this, but don't know how to add such device (it could be dummy device, so I can start software wrapper with its ID later to intercept all commands to media player) and what do I need to add (Audio zone or new room) and how to setup media player, so it will be part of Orbiter menu for that room/Audio zone and get all needed media scenarios on that screen too.

I'd kindly ask for brief explanation and tutorial. Maybe adding dummy MD would help, but that would certainly eat disk space. Any easier and lighter solution ? Maybe something similar to squeezebox player, but with other player... But how to do it ?

What if I add Audio receiver to setup or some other device that could be easily used to start wrapper under same id as device...

Thanks in advance,

regards,

Rob.

[archived]

Hi,

I just had conversation with Dan.g that explained many things about media players and Pluto.

HTH,

regards,

Rob.

[13:47:12] tiniahouse says: hi, have few minutes ?
[13:48:14] Dan Gheorghiu says: yeap
[13:48:37] tiniahouse says: back to nr 1.
[13:48:49] tiniahouse says: I'd like to add media player to pluto...
[13:49:04] tiniahouse says: create new room (or audio zone - not sure about that)
[13:49:09] Dan Gheorghiu says: that is a software media player?
[13:49:11] tiniahouse says: set that player to be in that room....
[13:49:20] Dan Gheorghiu says: or a hw media player?
[13:50:16] tiniahouse says: it's not important - what counts is that that media player gets ID, media scenarios and its own audio zone or room - then I start some software and receive DCE messages for that player and control it...
[13:53:08] tiniahouse says: it could be denon CD player, or windows Winamp.... the key is in controlling application - whoever registers for that id gets DCE messages for that player...
[13:58:29] tiniahouse says: this is all quite similar what you do, when you detect squeezebox - you create room (or audio zone) , assign ID and create scenarios for that SB. Now I'd jsut like to have more generic way - create generic media player...
[14:02:47] Dan Gheorghiu says: i just had a quick chat with our admin guys ... we don't know for sure if can/can't be done
[14:03:16] Dan Gheorghiu says: for sure aaron knows what you're talking about, but he's unreachable
[14:03:35] Dan Gheorghiu says: and as i said we stoped adding new features anyway
[14:04:08] Dan Gheorghiu says: we have a tight schedule, everyone timeline is full, and we can't get a programmer to help you
[14:04:55] Dan Gheorghiu says: sorry, i know that you strugle to make it work
[14:10:37] tiniahouse says: sorry for bothering - I think that I don't need any aditional programming - you just instruct me, how you get Squeezebox into system - and then I can modify procedure to add generic media player...
[14:11:04] Dan Gheorghiu says: that's simple:
[14:11:08] tiniahouse says: What I don't know is what do I have to do, to create new audio zone, have media scenarios for that zone and how to assign player to that...
[14:11:18] Dan Gheorghiu says: squeeze box is automatically detected after mac address
[14:11:31] Dan Gheorghiu says: and then pluto asiigns ip for deivece
[14:11:35] Dan Gheorghiu says: device
[14:12:11] Dan Gheorghiu says: squeeze box needs it's own entertainment area, it's own room to play
[14:12:26] tiniahouse says: ok, I get that...how is this room created - from script ?
[14:12:49] Dan Gheorghiu says: no, you have a button 'new room' when the device is detected on lan
[14:13:02] Dan Gheorghiu says: or you can create a new one from pluto-admin
[14:14:10] Dan Gheorghiu says: if the device is assign to an entertainment area, then the media scenarios are autogenerated
[14:14:30] tiniahouse says: aha, here we are - how to do this step ?
[14:14:43] Dan Gheorghiu says: it's automatic
[14:14:58] tiniahouse says: who does that - we're getting there ..
[14:15:06] Dan Gheorghiu says: media plug-in
[14:15:09] tiniahouse says: script, plugin ?
[14:15:35] tiniahouse says: what script is started when squeezebox is detected ?
[14:15:56] Dan Gheorghiu says: so, first create device (script) is called then the media plug-in does the rest
[14:16:08] Dan Gheorghiu says: create device
[14:16:22] Dan Gheorghiu says: i think is in /usr/pluto/bin
[14:16:28] tiniahouse says: aha, if I create device with squeezebox player template, then media plugin does the job...
[14:16:49] tiniahouse says: am I right ?
[14:17:33] Dan Gheorghiu says: i'm not very sure, but i think so
[14:18:04] tiniahouse says: ok, so my solution is to tell Media plugin to do the same on Xine_Audio only player or any device that would be of some category....
[14:19:02] tiniahouse says: ok, can I aks you for further explanation (I don't have such devices).... What if you add some real HW CD player or receiver....
[14:19:21] tiniahouse says: does same happens - Media plugin creates new entertainment area, adds scenarios ?
[14:21:30] Dan Gheorghiu says: yes, for a denon dvd, media plug in creates a new media scenario
[14:21:47] tiniahouse says: so pretty same...
[14:22:16] tiniahouse says: do you have any clue where in Media plugin could I find the code that does that (last time I browsed - it was quite huge code)....
[14:22:30] Dan Gheorghiu says: but it's different because, the new device (denon dvd) is assigned to an existing entertainment area
[14:22:43] Dan Gheorghiu says: the device actually plays the dvd, not pluto
[14:23:16] Dan Gheorghiu says: with squueze box player you pluto creates a slim server which sends the medai stream to device
[14:23:34] tiniahouse says: yes I know, the key is that pluto has somekind of driver device - that registers and does whatever needed further - this is what I'm looking for...
[14:23:58] Dan Gheorghiu says: yeah, that's the idea
[14:25:50] tiniahouse says: any clue where I could find code in Media plugin ?
[14:26:23] Dan Gheorghiu says: no, clueless, i'm not a programmer, sorry
[14:26:37] Dan Gheorghiu says: media plug in was wrote by aaron
[14:26:44] tiniahouse says: also it would be wise if Media plugin would react to category of device, not device itself (if I'd like to add some other player - then just I add it to right category and Media plugin will do the job...)
[14:27:10] tiniahouse says: ok, will dig into Media plugin (and become pluto developer (sweat) )
[14:27:09] Dan Gheorghiu says: reacts to category actually, not to device itself
[14:27:39] tiniahouse says: aha, then I have to add new template of right category and problem will be gone...