xnpvrcli - linux/unix client for NPVR

[tmrt]

With some help from Martin Vallevand I am developing a linux/unix client for NPVR. I wanted it for a thin ION/atom based client. It is almost in (I would say) an alpha stage and I post it here to see whether it is any interest to develop it further and to maybe get some testers.

Current prealpha version provides the basic functionality beeing also able to play music and video with some features still missing. It has only been tested on Ubuntu 9.10 based XBMC live installation so I do not know how it will behave on other distributions.

For playback it uses mplayer, so anything mplayer plays well on your system should play well with xnpvrcli. (On my ION only SD material plays OK with mplayer while I still have problems with HD, especially when interlaced.)

It is unfortunately not possible to seek the media files with the stock mplayer due to NPVR http server bug. I can provide a workaround patch for mplayer to resolve this issue temporarily. I hope however that sub will soon fix NPVR to enable seeking with the stock mplayer.

Sources (prealpha stage) can be found from http://xnpvrcli.git.sourceforge.net/git/...-index.cgi. Only experienced linux users will be able to compile it, mainly due to lack of any detailed documentation. (Any help with documentation would be appreciated.)

[sub]

Sounds great. I didnt know you were that far along. I'll be interested to hear how people get on.

[pBS]

any chance of getting a precompiled one?
screenshots?
interested, but no way i could compile it..
i have some ubuntu based mini dists that play media well, and would make for a nice complete solution if can get it working..

[tmrt]

any chance of getting a precompiled one?
screenshots?
interested, but no way i could compile it..
i have some ubuntu based mini dists that play media well, and would make for a nice complete solution if can get it working..

It looks like NPVR on MVP or windows.

Here are the precompiled binaries. I do not know how compatible are across different linux distributions. Extract xnpvrcli to /usr/local/bin and libplayer files in /usr/local/lib and run sudo ldconfig. You can check if some libs are still missing by "ldd /usr/local/bin/xnpvrcli" and "ldd /usr/local/lib/libplayer.so" and install them the standard ubuntu way.

P.S. Adding cache=8192 to mplayer configuration file significantly improved playback quality of HD material on my ION/atom platform.

[kram_0]

That's fantastic tmrt!
I have a couple of rather low-end machines running (k)ubuntu 10.04 and Fedora 13 so I'll see if I can organise some testing. I was going to test out Ubuntu 10.10 in the next week as well.

[martint123]

Well done!
By coincidence I should be taking delivery any day now of an end-of-line Asus atom/ion and look forward to trying this out - initially in a VM under the supplied W7 o/s.

[mvallevand]

Yesterday when I read this I was a little ticked because in saying "some" help you have overlooked many hours of work that I spend with the GBPVR users reverse engineering "emulation mode" in the first place, however this is an important initiative and I will still be glad to help.

I would offer these suggestions to make this a success.

- This should be considered an alternative to the NMT's not MVP's it will be fully HD capable.

- It should be considered a quality client (ION's with VDPAU will be fine) and not a way to use old junk computers.

- Don't distribute generic binaries. Let users know which XBMC Live CD you are using and they can get it and run the same binary

- When it is finalized, work out the source so that it runs on many distro's using in typical linux. Most users will be able to compile with these steps.

./configure
make
make install

Gook Luck,

Martin

[toboR]

I'll give it a try. I had been slowly moving to XBMC for playback, but I would prefer to keep using a total NPVR system, if possible. I work with several different distributions, all Debian-based, so I'll report back with my experiences.

(...but you have got to get a catchier name )

tobor

[Dan the man]

Have tried using your precompiled binaries on Ubuntu 10.10 and get the following error message when I run sudo ldconfig

/sbin/ldconfig.real: /usr/local/lib/libplayer.so.2 is not a symbolic link

"ldd /usr/local/bin/xnpvrcli" and "ldd /usr/local/lib/libplayer.so" do not seem to show any missing libraries.

Any ideas?

[tmrt]

Yesterday when I read this I was a little ticked because in saying "some" help you have overlooked many hours of work that I spend with the GBPVR users reverse engineering "emulation mode" in the first place, however this is an important initiative and I will still be glad to help.Martin

Sorry, "some" help was not ment this way. Actually, without emulation mode and your input I would be nowhere at the moment.

- This should be considered an alternative to the NMT's not MVP's it will be fully HD capable.

I agree.

- It should be considered a quality client (ION's with VDPAU will be fine) and not a way to use old junk computers.

Old junk computers would not play HD content at all and usually they are noisy.
For HD content even ION with VDPAU is a bit on the lower edge when it comes to deinterlacing. This is my experience with asus AT3IONT and do not know whether it depends on variety of the motherboard and version of mplayer.

- Don't distribute generic binaries. Let users know which XBMC Live CD you are using and they can get it and run the same binary

- When it is finalized, work out the source so that it runs on many distro's using in typical linux. Most users will be able to compile with these steps.

./configure
make
make install
Gook Luck,

Martin

I am trying to avoid this. At the moment ./configure, make, make install work if all necessary development libraries are installed. Getting all the libraries might be a bit tricky for an average user.