Twizzle
May 17th, 2008, 12:16 PM
I have a simple home network setup. One of the computers is connected to a TV and I use it to play video stored on my server (a ubuntu box). I do also use it for music and photos but the main use is video.
At the moment I use MediaPortal on XP Pro. I have tried Mediabuntu and like it but I have no interest in the TV side of it all (I have sky +) and just want the capability to view my media. I feel that the current system is overkill but not quite flexible enough.
I would like a simple UI for the TV so my wife can use it. I have been thinking of a browser based UI (running in kiosk mode?), which would let me modify the page for a simple output. This would also then allow me to view the content on my Palm, at work etc without having any extra software installed on the host machine. I have visions of it being a website that I could allow certain people access to parts of it I guess. Ie friends can see the photos but not the video / music.
I am happy designing a simple webpage for the basic lay out but would need to look into the database aspect of it more if I were to design it all.
My question, I guess, is is this possible / feasible. I have looked briefly at MediaTomb and Gnump3d but do not really like the UI (to be fair I did not look too deeply into if I could alter it much or not). Do either of these allow streaming video to a user designed web page.
I am not sure I fully understand 'streaming video', as I am assuming that it does not matter what codecs etc are on the host machine, it is the server 'sending' it that matters - am I right?
Any suggestions / points in the right direction will be helpful and appreciated. I am going to try to achieve this and will update this thread with my results (if I get any where!)
At the moment I use MediaPortal on XP Pro. I have tried Mediabuntu and like it but I have no interest in the TV side of it all (I have sky +) and just want the capability to view my media. I feel that the current system is overkill but not quite flexible enough.
I would like a simple UI for the TV so my wife can use it. I have been thinking of a browser based UI (running in kiosk mode?), which would let me modify the page for a simple output. This would also then allow me to view the content on my Palm, at work etc without having any extra software installed on the host machine. I have visions of it being a website that I could allow certain people access to parts of it I guess. Ie friends can see the photos but not the video / music.
I am happy designing a simple webpage for the basic lay out but would need to look into the database aspect of it more if I were to design it all.
My question, I guess, is is this possible / feasible. I have looked briefly at MediaTomb and Gnump3d but do not really like the UI (to be fair I did not look too deeply into if I could alter it much or not). Do either of these allow streaming video to a user designed web page.
I am not sure I fully understand 'streaming video', as I am assuming that it does not matter what codecs etc are on the host machine, it is the server 'sending' it that matters - am I right?
Any suggestions / points in the right direction will be helpful and appreciated. I am going to try to achieve this and will update this thread with my results (if I get any where!)