Quiet around here

[Ben S]

Hi folks. It's sure quiet around here. Everybody off in their theaters?

Just so you all don't think I'm screwing off, there are some -big- -big- things afoot, as you may have read in some other threads.

1) I've sent Jon the beginnings of the UIRT driver, per Aaron's suggestion.
2) Feedback mechanism has been completely revamped, and will really open the floodgates on 2 way communication.
3) Communication with Media Center has been streamlined for performance and increased stability. Media Center will scale covers down to 100x100 (3k or so) before sending if "small" mode is enabled.
4) Alpha support is now enabled for Win32, as you'll see in the attached sample graphic.

http://www.netremote.org/alpha.jpg.

5) Multiple driver instances are in place. There are a few issues to tweak out, but it's there.
6) Different controls like sliders and "state" buttons, which can get and set feedback variables.
7) Browser now supported in Win32, and controlled via feedback (send a URL from Girder, and the browser updates automatically).

I hope to have a release containing all these things by the end of this weekend. There are a -lot- of changes, so I expect it to not work 100% out of the gate. But once it does, I think we're looking at a possible 1.0 release. Almost a year after I started the project.

Thanks everyone!

[smellywookie]

Sweet. How about refresh capability for the embeded browser? I am still hoping for that for use of my netremote camera application.

[jeroen020]

Wow, that's a great list of improvements, most of which I'm very excited about. Top of my list is the feedback mechanism: I've got it working now, but only experimental. Feedback is the main reason I became interested in Netremote, so enhancement here will definately boost my interest again.

I second smellywookies request, having a browser that can do a refresh is nice for webcam/security applications! I've been looking into ethernet-based webcams to put at my frontdoor, but they're too expensive still...

Looking forward to the release!

[Mastiff]

Looking great, my man! I'm looking forward to it as well! I'm especially interested in the feedback changes and multi-instances. 8)

[QuickCarl]

Awesome list Ben!

Does that mean that multiple image feeback will work with Gavin's DVD LDJ?

Can't wait to get started!

-Carl

[maxtrash]

Sweet. How about refresh capability for the embeded browser? I am still hoping for that for use of my netremote camera application.

well... you could have Girder send the same URL over and over again. Bit of canonshot on a mosquitto but possible.

[mrallen]

Ben,

Sorry I haven't had time to provide feedback on the latest snapshot. I lost the HDD in my development workstation and just got the replacement from Dell. I lost about two weeks worth of work which totally sucks. Once I'm back online, I'll update the java server to handle your latest changes.

[soren]

Hi,

I just starting setting up my HTPC using netremote.

I must say that this little program is amazing when hooked into girder.
You can control EVERYTHING!

I'm really looking forward to more feedback control in the next version.

many thanks for your hard work!

/Sören

[Ben S]

Stewart : No problem. I certainly understand when hardware goes haywire. I hope you can get everything back up and running again, and that it hasn't cause you too much stress.

Soren : Thanks for the comments. As we're nearing the first actual release I think NetRemote is really starting to come together.

Everyone : I have done a -lot- of cleanup in this version, in preparation for a 1.0 release. One thing I did was rename the internal driver names. What was "GirderDriver" now just says "Girder", as it's obvious they are all drivers. This causes an issue in that it uses the internal driver name to get the registry settings. So when you start the new version, you'll need to reconfigure your drivers. I hope that's okay.

Also, initially the new release will -only- work with Media Center 9, not Media Jukebox. I'm targetting a lot of new features in MC, and wanted to focus on that exclusively. If many people are holding firm to Media Jukebox 8, I will work on the WebRemote plugin to support the new protocol.

Thanks,
-Ben

[Mastiff]

Now why on earth would anybody stay with MJB8? It would be like going back to the stone age compared to MC9! Well, at least the bronze age... :D

[Ben S]

Howdy folks.

The good news is I have just uploaded 0.99 for PPC2k2, Win32, and PPC2k. The bad news is that I'm not going to be able to start the "new release thread" until tomorrow, so I'm not going to post links to it yet.

Before you "upgrade" if you are controlling Media Center, you'll need to download at least Media Center 9 build 162. This is the version that rolls in my new protocol.

Also, I have to say I'm not 100% confident in this version. I've recognized 3 bugs so far that I'm going to call "known". A) Sometimes when you have a major problem with NetRemote, Media Center will go absolute monkey-nuts, taking 100% processor. Restarting Media Center will resolve the issue, and Pebbles works great for this, but still. B) Sometimes you'll need to "start" NetRemote repeatedly for it to take. I believe this is due to weird communication initiation with Media Center. And C) On one of my PPC's, it always tries to download the -huge- album cover even if I have it set to Medium, Small, or turned off completely.

The changes to this version are -immense-, and probably shouldn't have been taken on so close to a 1.0 release, but what can you do? I can tell you that I've made several changes to the Media Center protocol, none of which neccessitated a change of NetRemote code. The MC plugin (not driver) changed, and the ccf changed. It was really pretty cool, and shows how extensible the new feedback/variable system is.

Anyway. I'll post the list of changes and links tomorrow. I just wanted to let you all know that it's actually coming. Almost there, in fact. You could even download it tonight if you follow my standard naming convention. But you're on your own if you do. :)

[dkan24]

I downloaded .99 and I love the new look. This program is so great. One thing I have noticed, the Media Library just says "Loading" but nothing comes up. The Playing Now and Playlists work well.

This program rocks!

edit: okay, I got it to work by restarting it a couple of times. Now, I can't get the album cover for library navigation to work. I noticed that if I check all 3 boxes under configuration, if I exit the program and restart it, only the "album cover for active task" remains checked.

[Ben S]

Thank dkan! For right now the library navigation cover art is disabled. It will be reenabled shortly.

Everyone - I've posted a new version announcement thread. The first message is pretty long.

Enjoy!

Regarding my earlier post. I believe B) is resolved, and C) is an issue with Media Center that I've contacted Matt Ashland about. You might want to delay the 0.99rc1 download for PPC, as the thing will take some time to download covers (it looks like the default is Xtra large!)