New and improved UbuStream web tv/radio "tuner" - now released as a plugin

[ubu]

Thanks for mentioning it. It needs both GbpvrUiElements.dll and CommonGBPVRUtilities.dll to run. I'll add that to the wiki page.

[MixMan]

Cool plugins. Thanks.
Skinned it for BaseSkins next release. XBOX theme sample below.
Hope someone will make a good UBUradio.xml

[McBainUK]

Thanks for mentioning it. It needs both GbpvrUiElements.dll and CommonGBPVRUtilities.dll to run. I'll add that to the wiki page.

I think you're the first to use this, was it useful? I find it cuts my development time in half.

Mark

[ubu]

MixMan - your XBOX theme pic looks awesome. Thanks for adding UbuStream to BaseSkins. I'm not too swift at this skinning business. If you need more radio station urls to add to your xml file, email/PM me. I've got a long list.

I think you're the first to use this, was it useful? I find it cuts my development time in half

Hi Mark,
I should have included in this announcement "and many thanks to McBainUK for his excellent UI library". Cuts development time in half? I don't think I'd have even got a plugin to work by now without it. More used to a database oriented, back-end kind of world, I'm a bit daunted by the GUI part. I can knock stuff together with standard widgets, but all this talk of "canvasses" and "brushes" is somewhat alien to me.

The GbpvrUiElements .chm documentation and the example plugin are really helpful to anyone getting started. The library itself really has everything needed for building a standard plugin. I think it would be really worthwhile to expand its capabilities further (as per your tantalizing Todo section on the wiki). It seems crazy for developers to continously reinvent the wheel when we could all be using a standard library for all UI interactions. If widely used, it would tend to give a consistent look and feel across plugins too. I've got a few suggestions, but I should probably post them on the Developers forum or PM you, so I don't clog up this thread.

[MixMan]

MixMan - your XBOX theme pic looks awesome. Thanks for adding UbuStream to BaseSkins. I'm not too swift at this skinning business. If you need more radio station urls to add to your xml file, email/PM me. I've got a long list.

Thanks for the offer Ubu, but I am to "lazy" to add channels manually.
I would like to have a Macro in an Excel sheet that generates the XML file....like the Macro in the GBPVR translations.xls. It is easier to maintain and make "selections" then.
But I'm no programmer, so I can't create a macro.
I hope that someone can create a Macro that can be use for UbuStream and also the Newsfeeds plugin. It would be neat to have acoise of XML files to select from......included in the BaseSkin. (Language.xmls are in there now)

[ubu]

Can't promise you a macro, MixMan, but I'm about to write a small utility to convert the XML file to CSV format (and vice versa). I need to do this to provide data interchange between UbuStream and my other (non-GBPVR) application UbuRemote.

This would allow you to maintain lists of stations/urls in Excel which you would then save in CSV format so that the utility could read the CSV file and merge the stations into the UbuStream.xml file. Going the other way, you could export the UbuStream.xml file to CSV so Excel could read it. Would this, at least partially, satisfy your wish?

[Spartan]

...and will it work through the MVP extender ?.

* Spartan would like to know too before I download it and get my hopes up.

[LilY0da]

Anyone knows if there is a repository somewhere of WebTVs (that we could use with such a plugin) ?

[ydekmekji]

Diddo LilYoda's request...

Also, there is no way to watch the streams via gbpvr? It has to go to one of the external viewers?

[ubu]

..and will it work through the MVP extender ?

I don't have an MVP so I can't give a definite answer (I use a 5.8ghz RF A/V link instead, which doesn't suffer from the same restictions). My guess would be that UbuStream would not work in list mode (since the MVP requires an mpeg and the external player is rendering it directly) but would probably work in channel mode if you are using a player that is capable of recording the stream (ie. VLC, mplayer). If you set up the recording parameters correctly, the ExternalRecorder plugin should allow you to watch the recorded stream in timeshift mode. I haven't tried this myself but, in principle, it should work (famous last words ). Also, a lot of the most popular streams require RealPlayer or WMP which don't have recording capability (third party recorders are available, but that's a whole different ball of wax).

Aso, there is no way to watch the streams via gbpvr? It has to go to one of the external viewers?

Same issue, I think. In list mode, Ubustream is simply invoking the external player from within GBPVR. In channel mode, it is using the ExternalRecorder plugin to inoke the player so this is more a question for those who have experience with using ExternalRecorder. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation available for this plugin.