Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Freevo
Freevo (
http://freevo.sourceforge.net
) is a play on the name of the infamous hardware PVR called TiVo.
8
It consists of an all-in-one approach, with video capture, recording, and playback existing within the same piece of
software. (But under the hood it has a separate TV server section.) This makes it a closer relative to the Xtreamer type
of device and especially suited more controlled installations.
Like MythTV (and most software PVRs, if I'm being honest), it can also support skinned interfaces and plug-ins,
although most have been folded into
freevo1
, the stable version of the software, so any changes will require a bigger
recompile than usual. This can make it more difficult for casual developers to make changes. These plug-ins include
the usual array of weather reports, X10 control (through
heyu
), Skype, and Flickr.
It also has images for LiveCD versions (again, like most software PVRs, if we're honest) so you can test it without
installation on your hardware.
Xbox Media Center
This is to remind those of you who skipped Chapter 2 to go back and read it! XBMC supports and runs on more
non-Xbox platforms than it does on Xbox. It supports the usual array of plug-ins and has a LiveCD version.
The Video Disk Recorder Project
The project at
http://www.tvdr.de
is for the most hands-on developers, because it also includes a suggested
hardware component. It is this hardware that is the main draw to this project because it is based on a DVB-S satellite
receiver (its primary concern, because analog and digital TV are provided by plug-ins) and a custom-made remote-control
unit using a PIC chip. Although this level of custom hardware is largely unnecessary in today's world, it works well and
gives the users an extra reason to feel passionate about their VDR. It also uses a lower spec than most current systems.
Software-wise, it has a decent (if slightly too small) interface that looks like the
Star Trek: The Next Generation
LCARS
system and a much wider range of plug-ins than most PVRs, including games, e-mail, and web browsing.
Remote Control and UPnP
For the most part, media streamers and their ilk are very localized services. You might stream data across a network,
but the controller and display are physically close. Even when you have an app to control the device (such as the
WDRemote app, or one of the many VLC variants) it is only taking the place of the IR remote control you'd normally
use. And you're still tying the streamer to its remote control. The evolutionary next step is to formally separate these
units, and build open protocols that allow them to communicate, and for individual components that can be replaced
at will. As you might guess, from the heading to this section, this is available with UPnP.
A Brief History of UPnP
Universal Plug 'n' Play (UPnP) began formally in December 2008 with the publication of the ISO/IEC 29341 standard
covering networked appliance. The leading principle was that an UpnP-enabled device could be connected—and,
importantly, configured—without any human intervention. This is made possible by removing the need for device
drivers, moving the logic into protocols, and then having these protocols considered as stages, each having rules
around the limits of each stage. The basic stack breaks down into six areas.
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