Webcam viewing on screen, while playing video? PIP?

[madcat]

Ok, here is the story, you tell me if the solution is out there...

I want to sit with the WIFE and watch DVD/Video on GBPVR in the basement (where the main HT is going to be).

Now, we have young kids, and they will be sleeping two floors above. WIFE will not sit down there, HT booming around, without knowing what's going on up there... and with our little precious having to stumble down two stories...

So, what I want is two things:

1. Voice Activated alarm (I saw RoboNanny - but it can't seem to trigger external apps)
   
2. Webcam

We have already two webcams upstairs, on two different PCs.
I can try Orb (but it won't run with same user on two streaming PCs...)

I need to be able in GBPVR to either quickly pause video and switch to the webcam(s) view OR (even better) to be able to have PIP for the webcam!! (tada!).

Am I totally crazy, or can I glue few apps and plugins to get to what I want?
All ideas are welcome

P.S When my remote plugin will be ready, I will be able to use it to pause and display a message on the TV from a remote PC (i.e. the one detecting highr level of sound). Nice, eh?

[dinki]

I don't have the answer for you, but I do have a somewhat similar situation. I use the UBU stream plugin to monitor my infant daughter's crib. I have the stream tied to mplayer which opens full screen. The webcam is attached to a pc in the nursery and is running Windows Media Encoder.

A possible solution would be to bind a key on your remote to fire up the stream using mplayer. You can also bind another key to alt-tab. If you turn off GBPvr always on top, I think you should be able to switch between the two apps. Not ideal, but may get you by until PIP is an option. I'd like to see PIP too

[madcat]

Ok, so let me get down the details - Windows media encoder for making a stream out of the webcam?
and, mplayer to tune to a URL to that stream - so, where does the UBU steps in?

[dinki]

I use UBU stream to be able to watch the stream full screen from within GBPvr gui. This ties up the box though. It is only showing the web cam. That's okay with me as we only really use it at night when we are not watching tv programs.

You should be (at least I am able to) bind a button on your remote to launch an mplayer pointed at your stream in fullscreen. If you don't have GBPvr set for always on top, then mplayer should pop up above GBPvr. Then, if you bind the 'alt-tab' key presses to another key, you should be able to go between the two applications at will. This results in an 'always on' situation that it seems you are looking for. Otherwise, you would have to exit the program you are viewing, go to UBU stream, and then launch the stream. Not ideal for your situation.

Good luck.

[madcat]

Ok, thanks for the info. I will play with that (no problem setting the remote - I did it for other things. But running out of "free" buttons...).
Yet, a PIP would be awsome...

- What about the WebCam plugin? I never managed to get it up and working
- And how difficult would it be to write a plugin to do PIP?

Thanks