Description
You have:
- a desktop upstairs, with some movies on it - it runs an agent
- a laptop, hooked up to the TV - it also runs the agent
- a tablet/iPod that can do WiFi and has a browser
You can connect, with the tablet, to the laptop and tell it to play a movie from the desktop upstairs. While the movie is playing, you can control the player (pause/play/etc).
This use case is simple. You just have to put together a set of objects in a certain way: find a player, hook it up with a movie and then just keep talking to the player…
The player can be controled via a number of protocols, including an IR remote or via an http plugin (i.e. VLC) or UPnP etc
Does it work?
We implemented it in the razmedia package. Because the entire interface is web-based, you can control everything from any web browser, including an iPod or a blackberry.
Searching the movies can be done by either browsing directly to the folders on the desktop OR by asking it to "find all movies of a certain category" and it will go through all the agents and find all movies of that type in the entire home.
Configuration
You have to configure the agent.xml so the laptop and desktop know eachother. Then the media.xml specifies where the movies are (the config/storage section) as well as any custom players per platforms (config/players/player).
Screens - browsing
First, you browse to a computer and a folder:
Then, when the list of movies is displayed, click the first play button:
Then, control playing:
Finding by category rather than browsing
TODO - add description
