Popcorn Hour Envy

[mvallevand]

For those of you following the Popcorn Hour / GBPVR thread I decided to implement sub's new HTTP interface in mvpmc so that you can give it a try.

Step 1. Download GBPVR patches from

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=2...stcount=65

Step 2. Download and load the test dongle from

http://www.mvpmc.org/~mvallevand/dongle-pch.zip

3. Select the new menu option GB-PVR PCH Demo

It is slower than emulation mode but since the interface is faster on the PCH if you are happy with this, I think you will be really happy with GBPVR on the PCH.

Tips

- The first time you start PCH mode if the screen is blank hit Play
- Don't be surprised that it remembers your state
- mp3's are working (you will notice the native mvpmc play) but mpeg is not.
- Stop returns you to mvpmc main menu.
- This will not work with --emulate ? so you either need to be running a config file or restart from telnet to get it to work.

I'm going to continue playing with this and see if I can get videos to work and maybe even try to interface it to vlc as the media server. Comments are welcome, some of them might even apply to the new PCH users.

Happy New Year!

Martin

[mvallevand]

OK I updated the dongle because I woke up with an idea and video is working now too. I enabled the screensaver too so don't be alarmed if you see it.

The http protocol for video seems does seem very efficient, it might be interesting for those of you who are have video stuttering problems to try this.

Martin

[jksmurf]

The post count 44 above can now be updated to

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=2...stcount=65

as sub just posted a new PVRX2 and PCHServer. Maybe just refer to the thread and tell folks to look for latest post from sub with attachments ... :-) ,,, bit of chasing the tail going on otherwise...

k.

[jksmurf]

Well I tried it out ... it was fun!

1. Works right out of the box. Replaced PVRX2.exe in GBPVR, started a PVRX2.exe -pch instance, then a PCHServe.exe server instance, then dropped your PCH dongle in gbpvr/dongle, then chose your PCH dongle in the Config and restarted GBPVR, then pulled MVP plug which loaded the dongle on the MVP.
   
2. At first I thought "hey there's no change" as it went straight to MVP emulation mode via my config startup, but a "Go-Back" got me into the menu, so I could choose GBPVR-PCH mode.
   
3. Wow... menu is considerably uglier ("pretty rough" describes it well) compared to GBPVR standard one on the MVP.
   
4. Yup, you are right, the menu is considerably slower than emulation. here's hoping the PCH is faster than that! (Would a faster PC improve this?)
   
5. Go-Back doesn't get you out of PCH mode into mvpmc menu.
   
6. Obviously it's new, so no Comskip etc yet, that I could see. FFW worked well though, amazing. Seems to run the video quite well.

Some Q's:

1. Can I leave it setup like this, i.e. as long as my MVP is working with the patched PVRX2, can I just go with your PCH Dongle for now?
   
2. Presumably your PCH Dongle is based on the 28 Dec MVP alpha model?
   
3. How can I hide those two ugly screens from the PVRX2.exe -pch and PCHServe.exe server instances?

k.

[mvallevand]

The post count 44 above can now be updated to

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=2...stcount=65

as sub just posted a new PVRX2 and PCHServer. Maybe just refer to the thread and tell folks to look for latest post from sub with attachments ... :-) ,,, bit of chasing the tail going on otherwise...

k.

I will update that when I add sub's new features. I don't support the colour keys or live tv just yet. It's not chasing my tail, I'm chasing a perpetual motion, but I have to live with the 1st law of thermodynamics.

Martin

[mvallevand]

Well I tried it out ... it was fun!

Hopefully sub or Brainstormer can add to this.

[*]Wow... menu is considerably uglier ("pretty rough" describes it well) compared to GBPVR standard one on the MVP.

I hate to say this on my SD NTSC tv the jpeg look better from the mvp. Maybe on PAL or upconverted toe HD it is better. I will post some screen shots if I can show the difference.

[*]Yup, you are right, the menu is considerably slower than emulation. here's hoping the PCH is faster than that!

The PCH is faster but this speed is closer to this mode than emulation mode

(Would a faster PC improve this?)

I will post some times from the pvrx2 logs for comparison, I haven't done this yet

[*]Go-Back doesn't get you out of PCH mode into mvpmc menu.

No Stop does.

[*]Obviously it's new, so no Comskip etc yet, that I could see. FFW worked well though, amazing. Seems to run the video quite well.

Most GBPVR functions don't work when media start because you are just seeing the native mode, so those are comments on mvpmc. The FF mode should be the Go FF mode in emulation. Until I add the interface to the vlc streamer most media control functions in mvpmc won't work on http streams.

If you like this FF you will really like the PCH's choices.

[*]Can I leave it setup like this, i.e. as long as my MVP is working with the patched PVRX2, can I just go with your PCH Dongle for now?

There should be no problem here.

[*]Presumably your PCH Dongle is based on the 28 Dec MVP alpha model?

Yes and I will keep this with the alpha code, but I probably won't release it to the mvpmc repo.

Martin

[sub]

Wow... menu is considerably uglier ("pretty rough" describes it well) compared to GBPVR standard one on the MVP.

On my CRT test tv the PCH menu quality is similar to the MVP. The PCH composite/svideo might be marginally worse due to jpeg compression, but definitely doesnt qualify for "considerably uglier".

It should look pretty similar to the menu you'd see with the regular MVP client given the same overscan size etc.

Yup, you are right, the menu is considerably slower than emulation. here's hoping the PCH is faster than that! (Would a faster PC improve this?)

Yes, the PCH is definitely faster. For a realistic feel of the speed you can see a (new) short video of me navigating around with the PH here: http://www.gbpvr.com/pch2.avi (5.5MB file)

Obviously it's new, so no Comskip etc yet, that I could see. FFW worked well though, amazing. Seems to run the video quite well.

GB-PVR doesnt do the file playback itself. Instead the PCH does the playback itself, so there is no scope for doing comskip etc. If they add the ability to run user apps in the future, and myself or martin get native client working, then this sort of thing may be added.

[sub]

You could try the attached patch to see if helps with any roughness of the menu images. You'd also need to add the following setting in config.xml and experiment with different values (0-100): <PCHImageQuality>75</PCHImageQuality>

[mvallevand]

You could try the attached patch to see if helps with any roughness of the menu images. You'd also need to add the following setting in config.xml and experiment with different values (0-100): <PCHImageQuality>75</PCHImageQuality>

There doesn't seem to be anything attached.

Martin

[sub]

Ah sorry, here is that attachment.