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tmorten
October 14th, 2006, 05:20 AM
I'm getting ready to abandon my HD-DirectTivo for MediaCenter (with MCE's CableCard support on the horizon). I'm curious about a few things...

1. Multi-Zone Support

Does MCE support playing different tracks on multiple sound cards the way JRMC does, to accomplish a multi-zone system? If not, can I run MCE and JRMC simultaneously? Is MediaBridge be able to handle controlling both at the same time (MCE for video, JRMC for audio)?

Alternately, does MCE support pushing content to MediaCenter Extenders? It'd be interesting if they faciliated a centrally controlled multi-zone system that way.

2. Browsing Video Recordings

Does MediaBridge already facilitate browsing recorded shows? I'm guessing this already works, but I wanted to make sure.

3. Scheduling New Recordings

Are there already hooks to create a NetRemote interface for scheduling new recordings? It seems like this would require some new functionality, but maybe this has already been tackled.

4. Channel Guide

Has anyone implemented an MCE channel guide (that doesn't rely on seperately downloaded XML content)? I suppose I could stick with the current TV-Guide plug-in, but it would be nice to have the guide better integrated with recording... at present, it takes quite a bit of code to get the currently selected show recorded, and the user has to wait while the macro advances through the on-screen guide.


Worst-case, I suppose I could use the web plug-in to run a package like this one, but I'd much prefer to do it all with a proper NetRemote interface...

http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/

Cheers,
Tim
Promixis
October 14th, 2006, 07:32 AM
Tim,

MCE does not do multizone ala JRMC.

Webguide looks very cool.
jwilson56
October 14th, 2006, 11:19 AM
That is why we would like a NR plugin for MCE soon... so we could drop a CCF into a MCE screen and use JRMC... and all the other nice features of NR. I would die for this.... lol

My new HDTV and MCE are going to be the center for my home theatre... as soon as I can figure out how to get this DD playing out my TOS link and into my receiver.... arrgggg

John
tmorten
October 14th, 2006, 04:17 PM
Actually, I'm looking to facilitate PDA control of MCE rather MCE control of NetRemote. I use a projector, so 99% of the time, I would prefer not to turn on a screen.

I can see the cool factor of what you're describing for your setup though :).

Best,
Tim
tmorten
October 15th, 2006, 09:06 AM
It occurs to me that a function to record at a specific time/channel would take care of #3 and #4 (if we just stick to the current TV-Guide plug-in).

I guess it would also be helpful to be able to see the "To Do" list of scheduled recordings, so maybe a function to enumerate those.

Two function calls, and we'd be able to do pretty much everything that WebGuide does!

Just thinking out loud... no pressure :).

Cheers,
Tim
Ben S
October 15th, 2006, 05:58 PM
Does MCE support playing different tracks on multiple sound cards the way JRMC does, to accomplish a multi-zone system? If not, can I run MCE and JRMC simultaneously? Is MediaBridge be able to handle controlling both at the same time (MCE for video, JRMC for audio)?

Unfortunately no to both, for now.

In terms of running both, NetRemote 2.0 won't support this, but a feature we've added to MediaBridge will make this possible (theoretically) for 2.1.



Alternately, does MCE support pushing content to MediaCenter Extenders? It'd be interesting if they faciliated a centrally controlled multi-zone system that way.

Unfortunately no, I don't think you can push from one to an extender.



Does MediaBridge already facilitate browsing recorded shows? I'm guessing this already works, but I wanted to make sure.

The version I'm about to publish does, as long as they're recorded in MS-DVR format.



Just thinking out loud... no pressure :).

No problem. Some stuff we intend to have working soon. We've been putting a lot of time into stability and some usability quirks with NR 2, the next release (2.1) will allow us to continue adding this functionality.
tmorten
October 16th, 2006, 06:35 PM
I started perusing the MediaCenter SDK for Vista... a few interesting points:

(1) There's an API to connect to MCE extenders and control them, effectively giving you the ability to create a centrall controlled multi-zone setup as long as the extenders are actually on. No ability to sync music between zones like JRMC, but still, it's a start!

(2) There's a fairly straight-forward mechanism for external apps to specify a channel/time/duration to record new shows.

(3) They haven't yet documented how to retrieve the list of currently scheduled recordings, but there is an entry in the documentation that implies that this will be accessible.

It all sounds promising...

Cheers,
Tim
Promixis
October 17th, 2006, 05:20 AM
Tim, don't most extenders function as upnp devices?
tmorten
October 17th, 2006, 08:36 AM
I've been primarily investigating the XBox360 MCE extender functionality, since it will stream 720p hi-def (albeit with component being the only output choice at present).

It sounds like there is limited UPnP ability for music, but that video is only do-able via a MediaCenter, which implies that MediaCenter uses its own transmission and control protocol.

Cheers,
Tim
Promixis
October 17th, 2006, 10:47 AM
I've been primarily investigating the XBox360 MCE extender functionality, since it will stream 720p hi-def (albeit with component being the only output choice at present).

It sounds like there is limited UPnP ability for music, but that video is only do-able via a MediaCenter, which implies that MediaCenter uses its own transmission and control protocol.

Cheers,
Tim


Why am I not surprised :D