Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released

[Nick Patience]

Hi Jules,

Apologies if this has been asked before but I'm only a Squeezebix owner
of a couple of weeks standing.

I checked out AlienBBC as this is particularly exciting for me as an
exiled Brit.

So the question is, are there any plans to do it for Slimserver on Windows?

Or is dependent on the underlying Xine libraries or something like that?

Cheers,

Nick



> Subject:
> [slim] Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released
> From:
> "Jules Taplin" <slim-discuss (AT) ourhouse (DOT) org.uk>
> Date:
> Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:18:54 +0100
> To:
> "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
>
> To:
> "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
>
>
> Bah. Ok. That's a shame. Sounds like we're going backwards.
>
> There were changes to the Power Button handling as part of the AlienStream
> re-sync - but they looked benign to me... If you get a minute - can you tell
> me if it misbehaves for you when you use SoftSqueeze? That'd take slimp3 out
> of the equation briefly.
>
> As far as extracting more metadata is concerned - yes... that would be
> excellent. However... there really isn't any more metadata available from
> where I'm extracting the source, as far as I'm aware.
>
> Craig is working on a fork which can parse the rather more detailed 'listen
> again' pages for one of the stations (BBC7), and that might provide a
> template for doing this better for some shows (BBC7 provides a complete
> archive of the last 7 days broadcasts, with descriptions). We'll try to
> merge the forks when it's stabilised a little.
>
> -- Jules
>
>

[Jules Taplin]

Hi Nick.

Really... this is all the price being paid by the BBC choosing to stream
only in proprietry formats (on a totally separate point... I have issues
with a publically funded organisation choosing to only supply content based
on closed technologies when there are perfectly good options available which
are rather less encumbered), but I digress somewhat.

My current understanding is that it should be technically possible for a
Windows port to work... but there are a few hurdles:


Firstly... you're right that it depends entirely on the Xine libraries
underlying it. Xine can be compiled on Microsoft platforms, I believe, but
I've never tried.

Secondly... the named-pipe implementation that moves data between the xine
wrapper, lame (to transcode to mp3) and SlimServer doesn't look very
portable to me. However... named pipes do exist on Windows (I seem to
recall), so it's probably doable - just not in the same way.

I'd be delighted if anybody wanted to take on this piece of work... I'm
afraid to say that I'm highly unlikely to do it myself (I quite happily use
Windows Desktops, but if I want a server... Linux seems the way to go.
Equally... however good ActiveState perl is nowadays - I've never enjoyed
perl on windows - somehow it just seems philosophically wrong to me). Right
now... the only reason I'd consider running SlimServer on Windows is for DAB
support - and that's only because nobody seems to make a DAB tuner with
Linux support


Best Regards,


Jules


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Patience" <nick.patience (AT) the451group (DOT) com>
To: <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 7:51 PM
Subject: [slim] Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released


> Hi Jules,
>
> Apologies if this has been asked before but I'm only a Squeezebix owner
> of a couple of weeks standing.
>
> I checked out AlienBBC as this is particularly exciting for me as an
> exiled Brit.
>
> So the question is, are there any plans to do it for Slimserver on
Windows?
>
> Or is dependent on the underlying Xine libraries or something like that?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> > Subject:
> > [slim] Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released
> > From:
> > "Jules Taplin" <slim-discuss (AT) ourhouse (DOT) org.uk>
> > Date:
> > Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:18:54 +0100
> > To:
> > "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
> >
> > To:
> > "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
> >
> >
> > Bah. Ok. That's a shame. Sounds like we're going backwards.
> >
> > There were changes to the Power Button handling as part of the
AlienStream
> > re-sync - but they looked benign to me... If you get a minute - can you
tell
> > me if it misbehaves for you when you use SoftSqueeze? That'd take slimp3
out
> > of the equation briefly.
> >
> > As far as extracting more metadata is concerned - yes... that would be
> > excellent. However... there really isn't any more metadata available
from
> > where I'm extracting the source, as far as I'm aware.
> >
> > Craig is working on a fork which can parse the rather more detailed
'listen
> > again' pages for one of the stations (BBC7), and that might provide a
> > template for doing this better for some shows (BBC7 provides a complete
> > archive of the last 7 days broadcasts, with descriptions). We'll try to
> > merge the forks when it's stabilised a little.
> >
> > -- Jules
> >
> >
>
>
>

[Robin Bowes]

On Fri, July 16, 2004 21:45, Jules Taplin said:
> Right now... the only reason I'd consider running SlimServer on Windows is for DAB
> support - and that's only because nobody seems to make a DAB tuner with Linux
> support

I totally agree. I'd really like to add a DAB tuner to my Linux box and stream it via my slimserver.

If any DAB tuner manufacturers are listening, PRODUCE SOMETHING WITH LINUX SUPPORT!!


R.
--
http://robinbowes.com

[Peter Heslin]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 09:45:52PM +0100, Jules Taplin wrote:
> Secondly... the named-pipe implementation that moves data between the xine
> wrapper, lame (to transcode to mp3) and SlimServer doesn't look very
> portable to me. However... named pipes do exist on Windows (I seem to
> recall), so it's probably doable - just not in the same way.

I tried to use POSIX functions, so there is a chance that the
invocation of

use POSIX qw(mkfifo);

might induce AlienStream to do the right thing under ActiveState Perl
(as it's supposed to), but that's purely hypothetical and untested.

Peter

[Jules Taplin]

Hehe. Well... you never know.

I've not tried it either... just call my cynical for not having faith in the
portability of some of these functions *grin*.

Incidentally, Peter... have you ever tried to stream different alienstreams
to different players at the same time? I think I've got AlienBBC fixed to
the point where it _TRIES_ to keep stuff separate, and from what I can see,
two alienstreams are launched, and they both read & write to different named
pipes. Somehow, however, they both still fall over. At this point... I'm
considering blaming Xine or similar.

Any ideas?


-- Jules


----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Heslin" <slimp3 (AT) heslin (DOT) eclipse.co.uk>
To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 3:57 PM
Subject: [slim] Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released


> On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 09:45:52PM +0100, Jules Taplin wrote:
> > Secondly... the named-pipe implementation that moves data between the
xine
> > wrapper, lame (to transcode to mp3) and SlimServer doesn't look very
> > portable to me. However... named pipes do exist on Windows (I seem to
> > recall), so it's probably doable - just not in the same way.
>
> I tried to use POSIX functions, so there is a chance that the
> invocation of
>
> use POSIX qw(mkfifo);
>
> might induce AlienStream to do the right thing under ActiveState Perl
> (as it's supposed to), but that's purely hypothetical and untested.
>
> Peter
>

[Peter Heslin]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2004 at 04:16:07PM +0100, Jules Taplin wrote:
> Incidentally, Peter... have you ever tried to stream different alienstreams
> to different players at the same time?

No, never.

> I think I've got AlienBBC fixed to the point where it _TRIES_ to
> keep stuff separate, and from what I can see, two alienstreams are
> launched, and they both read & write to different named
> pipes. Somehow, however, they both still fall over. At this
> point... I'm considering blaming Xine or similar.
>
> Any ideas?

It could well be the fault of my code, since I never tested this.
I've put it on my to do list, but I won't have time to get to it for
quite a while ... so if you make any progress, do post it to the list.

Best,

Peter

[Jules Taplin]

Righto Peter.

Knowing my luck, it's glaringly simple, and I've just missed it somewhere


-- Jules

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Heslin" <slimp3 (AT) heslin (DOT) eclipse.co.uk>
To: "Slim Devices Discussion" <discuss (AT) lists (DOT) slimdevices.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 6:21 PM
Subject: [slim] Version 0.6 of AlienBBC released


> On Sat, Jul 17, 2004 at 04:16:07PM +0100, Jules Taplin wrote:
> > Incidentally, Peter... have you ever tried to stream different
alienstreams
> > to different players at the same time?
>
> No, never.
>
> > I think I've got AlienBBC fixed to the point where it _TRIES_ to
> > keep stuff separate, and from what I can see, two alienstreams are
> > launched, and they both read & write to different named
> > pipes. Somehow, however, they both still fall over. At this
> > point... I'm considering blaming Xine or similar.
> >
> > Any ideas?
>
> It could well be the fault of my code, since I never tested this.
> I've put it on my to do list, but I won't have time to get to it for
> quite a while ... so if you make any progress, do post it to the list.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter
>
>