MediaMVP and VDR
Introduction
The Hauppauge MediaMVP player
is a small thin client designed to enable the display of computer based
media files on a standard TV set.
The Projects
The software supplied by Hauppauge only runs on Windows, and only a few
specific versions of windows at that. Since I don't have a dedicated
windows machine and the supplied server doesn't support streaming media
from a DVB card it was time to crack out ethereal and do some
experimentation. The servers linked from these pages are the result my
investigations.
All servers are thick and run on a host computer, I have some reasons for doing this.
MediaMVP Plugin
The plugin server tightly
integrates with VDR by sitting inside the VDR process, unfortunately
this does make development a tad tricky since I've only got my main VDR
and no development one.
I've not updated this server in quite a while, if you're using it and
don't have an adversion to running the streamdev plugin then you might
like to try one of the other servers.
MVPServer
MVPServer was born out of desire to make a
prettier UI than that provided by the plugin server. After a lot of
faffing around, the idea of writing the UI in python was hit upon.
Python provides a lot of 3rd party libraries that in theory should cut
development time.
It's a fairly fully featured server, but it's not overly portable, I've
only managed to run it on Linux. I think there may also be issues
running on NTSC systems.
MVPserver is now obsoleted in favour of....
MVPVdr
A 3rd server! I was bored one rainy evening and started playing around
with a few ideas of separating content from presentation and
presentation from fonts and colours, as a result, mvpvdr came to existence.
It's gone back to the idea of using a compiled language and has
regained the portability lost by MVPServer, but hopefully not the
eye-candy factor.
libmvp
libmvp is the library driving these projects,
implementing the Hauppauge protocols and media retrieval methods.
MediaMVP protocols
The MediaMVP uses an extended version of the RFB (VNC) protocol for
display
of the menu system and the Picture component of MVP. A proprietry
protocol is used for the requesting the media files. Thankfully, no
obfuscation is used and the protocol can
be revealed using a tool such
as ethereal.
Alternatives
If you don't like the idea of a thin client and a thick server, then
perhaps VOMP or mvpmc might be more to your
liking.
Links
- Mailing lists and
archives. Archives are for subscribers only due to a technical issue!
- VDR Video Disc Recorder -
why I'm playing around with the MVP in the first place
- SHS forum Discuss
MediaMVP and other Hauppauge products on this forum
Notes
I'm still working on libmvp and mvpvdr from time to time adding new
features when I get an itch, even if some of the features are of dubious
usefulness at times...
16-Dec-2007
Contact dom /at/ suborbital /dot/ org /dot/ uk