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[portal-xtra1] Custom TV Portal Alternative

Welcome Ian, from what i remember, there is a test app on the MIT page that changes channel. I would go looking there for the code.

Regarding positioning, its a difficult one to judge as different screens have different overscan levels (that sometimes cannot be adjusted). Thats why a lot of the apps have massive borders to compensate for all possibilities.
If its possible, maybe think about allowing the position to be a setting, but default to one that everyone will be able to see obviously! lol
 
ChrisDaniels said:
hbbtv test suite: http://itv.mit-xperts.com/hbbtvtest/index.php

Load this page on the box http://itv.mit-xperts.com/hbbtvtest/channels/
Click to expand...
Yeah - I have the German MIT code,
It's somewhart convoluted
Working on it - as I have the time

Just added a selection of 9 RSS Feeds, from the BBC & CNN
This will be sent out tomorrow as I still have one bug in there - daytime tomorrow before work in the evening.

Will probably have to have a selection of sub-menus to include more feeds to choose from or a custom option - which means me working on my software keyboard for the remote control.

Going to cinema now to watch Star Wars 3D...
 
Hi Spayz, I was just a little surprised that somebody had been hacking around with the HDR unaware of the stuff going on here. If you are the one that brings us ITV Player, 4OD, and 5 catch-up (whatever that's called) you will certainly get a welcome!
 
Black Hole said:
Hi Spayz, I was just a little surprised that somebody had been hacking around with the HDR unaware of the stuff going on here. If you are the one that brings us ITV Player, 4OD, and 5 catch-up (whatever that's called) you will certainly get a welcome!
Click to expand...
Not unaware,
But really impressed with the stuff you guys are doing with it,

My stuff is based on top of all your good work,
We're all standing on the shoulders of giants...

Wanted to mess with the web browser in the Hummy

So did stuff, and thought I would share
And the community also gives me an incentive to progress it beyond where I would probably take it just for myself.

As for getting 4OD iTV player etc to run,
Well that's a MUCH bigger job tying into their current code for other devices and working round the limitations/quirks of the Hummy browser.

But, as I like all the clever stuff, I think a look-see will be in order at some point. --grin--
 
Changing Channels & RSS Feeds

OK, I can't put the project down now,
And I trawled through the MIT site code

Latest update sent to af123, - portal-xtra1_0.12.041.181
(Yes its 04:00 in the morning, but as I work silly shifts my body clock is all screwed up anyway)

portal-xtra1_0.12.041.181
  • Channel Up/Down now work
    • Channels broadcasting MHEG instead of video (including radio channels) display a blank screen
    • Radio channels are audio only, off-air & data channels blank screen
  • Select from a choice of 9 different RSS feeds from the BBC & CNN
    pressing a number 1-9 while the news ticker is on screen changes to that news feed as indicated in the MENU
    pressing the number of the feed you are currently already on will reload the feed
Next Features
  • Software 'keypad' keyboard - like built-in the box and on old phones is next
    this will allow users to enter a custom RSS feed, and then also be used for the planned TV Chat
  • the spec for the hbbtv (I found the PDF docs online) show that the video object - running in the background and used to change the channels has access to time-shift recording - so if the Hummy has implemented the required parts of the spec then it may be possible to do time-shift playback within the portal too?
  • TV Chat -- still a bit way off on the horizon
  • I have already tried instantiating a second video object (after all the HDR has two tuners) which would allow PIP - a feature which I do miss from my PVR-9200.
    It didn't work - but there are still have a couple of other things to try on that front, so I may still be able to get it working??
 
Nice work Ian.
Any idea how we can fake the user agent when loading certain sites?
Do you want me to dig out the Humax portal links to iPlayer etc for you over the weekend so you can make them active?

Also, I had a thought about the RSS app. What about maybe having the option of it displaying only new stories rather than constantly cycling?
That way, you could just have it sat in the background while watching TV :)
 
ChrisDaniels said:
Nice work Ian.
Any idea how we can fake the user agent when loading certain sites?
Click to expand...
In order to do cross-domain, I tried several approaches, only the JQuery $.getScript() with JSONP worked.
So I used Yahoo Query Language, to get the RSS feeds and parse them into JSONP.

So this aproach cannot be used to fake the user agent string, this would need some further Linux/Jim hacking, maybe writing a complete http client in Jim. (I have read the Jim socket documentation, as that was going to be my next method for cross domain, then I got $.getScript() to work - but only by manually specifiying a callback function).

ChrisDaniels said:
Do you want me to dig out the Humax portal links to iPlayer etc for you over the weekend so you can make them active?
Click to expand...
Yes, that would be a help if you have them to hand. Now I know the hummy portal comes up in firefox I can dig them out myself - I had never tried the humax portal in firefox as I presumed they would just block it if it were called from anything but a hummy box.

ChrisDaniels said:
Also, I had a thought about the RSS app. What about maybe having the option of it displaying only new stories rather than constantly cycling?
Click to expand...
Well we would have to define what we mean by NEW and OLD.
Turn away for a few seconds and you've missed a news story.

The Stories also have their .descriptions, which I am working on next - press iNfo while in the RSS feed to display the stories.

I have just fixed the menus so they drop-down when the controls are in the upper half of the screen.
Next release - over the weekend - will include the menu fix.
Also starting to tidy up my code - as I'm a bit slap dash in places - I'm an old school - back of fag packet programmer sometimes.
 
portal-xtra1_0.12.042.755

Another update,
Fixed most of the issues raised on the forum
  • Fixed sub-menus when menu is at the top of the screen.
  • Humax links added to Humax menu.
  • Other Humax links added to custom menu.
  • TV Chat now links to my webserver, a holding page for the next hummy project - but don't hold your breath - needs a lot of thought and planning.
 
This is all way over my head, but from the gist im getting, it sounds like you are adding more features and services to the custom portal. I have a suggestion..Can you make skyplayer work like Skygo does on a laptop... ie, with all the channels ESPN & Sky1 amoungst others? What about a Skype option? :frantic: Good luck with it all... I look forward to seeing the results. Cheers guys, keep up the good work.
 
...and perhaps Netflix as well pleeaseeee, if possible? :D

Unfortunately this is all over and above my simple coding skills as well, so thanks for all the effort being put in...

If it helps in any way, I have found this developer info ~ I do hope that it might be possible to get Netflix onto the Custom Portal, one day...

http://developer.netflix.com

Cheers
 
Jimbotron said:
This is all way over my head, but from the gist im getting, it sounds like you are adding more features and services to the custom portal. I have a suggestion..Can you make skyplayer work like Skygo does on a laptop... ie, with all the channels ESPN & Sky1 amoungst others? What about a Skype option? :frantic: Good luck with it all... I look forward to seeing the results. Cheers guys, keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
The core functionality of the on-demand services from broadcasters is up to them to program, our only hope is if Humax have tied up with the broadcaster and have something written, that is on test or unreleased, or if the broadcaster has something generic written that works on the hummy.

Anything more complex would involve much deeper talks with each broadcaster, or at least their provision of a format and web programming interface (an api) that is available publicly.

These 'requirements' are true for all web video streaming services - Apps in the sense of small programs that run on your phone or tablet are the real area of expansion, or functions directly related tothe Hummy itself are the realistic achievable goals.

Write to Channel 4, Five TV etc and ask them to support 'hbbtv' - then we could link to that. As an emerging standard this may well be where TV companies in Europe start to head anyway.

Skype? No webcam, no microphone - but Skype chat maybe if you want to text with your remote, or plug in a USB keyboard.
TV Chat is a potential App/Project that I have in mind - but that is another can of worms that has to be boiled before we open it.
 
Wow ! haven't been around the forum for a while but it looks like things are cooking up a storm here on the custom portal front, all thanks to the new input from Ian. Chris has done some sterling work getting this project started and I'm sure he's glad to have some help at last. Welcome aboard Ian, looking forward to seeing how far this is going to go. :)
 
Update portal-xtra1_0.12.052.890

Main Feature Change
App menu now includes other portal plugins, such as the foscsam one, if you have any installed.
Plug-In Developer Info:
The plugin system uses the same structure as the custom-portal, except it also looks for an index.html file as a validator for the existence of a plugin.
So an app with index.jim OR index.html will be detected, if both exist it will launch the html file. It ignores itself - as the xtra1 is a plugin.
If an app has no index.jim (just an index.html file) the main custom portal will not display it, but xtra1 will (the beta dummy for tvChat is set up this way).

Functionality Change
iNfo menu removed, it now exists under the Menu menu as 9. About...
This is so that the Info key is available for other functions within the app in the future (ie display the epg info - when i can get it to work).

Developer Test Functions
The developer function to display keycodes is no longer started with the record key, it is now in the hidden Developer Menu under the about screen.

Accesing the Developer Menu
Press: MENU, 9.About, 9...
1. Test App - does nothing
2. Enter test URL - pops up an alert, use a USB keyboard enter any URL to test a website - beware this can crash the box
3. Scancode Test Mode ON - displays the keycodes of any keys pressed, press BACK to exit
7. Load the xtra1 portal from my website (for testing)
8. Load the xtra1 portal from my Intranet Server (for testing)
9. Reload the portal (again used for development)

Enjoy... More soon...
 
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