Media Setup
For a guide to actually using the setup we have, see Media Box
This is a project page for coming up with ideas for setting up the media in the space. We have a ton of ideas, including ambient sound, music controlled around the space, automated music, etc. Lets put them all down and see what we can work together on.
Right now we have
- Mythbox for Video
Ideas
MPD
I'd like to reinstall on the media box, a music player called MPD. It's basically a music player with no user interface of its own, it's controlled through remote control programs. You don't stream music to it remotely, you just control it remotely. If you're on our network, you can control it with any number of clients, including some available on phones.
Here's the instructions I had from when it was installed before; we should copy it back to Media Box when it's back up.
Settings
HOST: 192.168.1.112 (unless we move it) PORT: 6600 (default)
That's all you need to set, as long as you're on our network. No authentication at this point, and I don't see why we'd want any down the line either.
Clients
Click here to see a list of clients. There's tons of them.
Here are some quick recommendations though:
Ubuntu
GMPC
sudo apt-get install gmpc
It's a GUI based client, just go to preferences to set it up.
Windows
You brave Windows users will have to figure out which is the best one, and report back.
Mac
You brave Mac users will have to figure out which is the best one, and report back.
iPhone
Install MPoD. It's a free download from the app store. (iTunes link)
Android
Install PMix. Not sure if it's in the app store, but you can get it here: http://code.google.com/p/pmix/
Web Client
Once The Imperious is up, we should have a web client up, which will allow control without having to install anything if you don't want to.
Adding Music
Add Music
All music lives on the media box. Log in with the username and password (not going to post it on the public wiki), and add your music with sftp or scp or something. Or just go up to the box with a USB storage device or whatever, and put it on. Here's where:
/home/serialsniffer/Audio/
And file it as you deem fit.
Update Database
Next, update MPD's database. If you forget to do this, a cron job I can made should do it for you. So if you're on the box, you can just run Gmpc (added a shortcut to the top bar). From the menu, Server->Update Database. Update the database. If you're over SSH or just prefer the cmdline, run:
mpc update
One thing to note: Make sure that all files and directories have group read. This seems to happen by default, but if your music doesn't show up for some reason, check the permissions on the files and dirs.
Ampache
Web interface for MPD, stream music to computers, other features. Josh can elaborate.
Audio Streaming
A system for streaming audio from laptops to the media box, if they don't want to upload stuff.
VLC Remote Control
Um, I was going to say we should make this in Python, but it looks like VLC already ships with an HTTP interface. Holy carp: http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/ch04.html#id310608
Somebody do that, make an easy way to start it, and we'll add it to Media Box. Remember that there's a firewall, there's a GUI to allow new things, talk to Eric.
Or for a dollar for iPhone: http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/11/the-1-vlc-remote-control-app-for-the-iphone-or-you-could-just-use-the-web-interface-for-free/ (move this to Media Box with instructions once it's confirmed working.
Easy media upload - Web interface?
Lets make a web interface for uploading music and video.
Control speaker sets remotely
So we don't have to get up to turn speakers on and off, or set volume, either.
Ambient Sound
Eric, elaborate on this.
One Web Interface to rule them all
If we have a bunch of stuff going on, let's prevent a clusterfark by trying to have one interface to somehow manage it all.