Sagetv UPNP Server

[fyodor]

Hi

There has been a lot of talk in the "media extender" forums about trying to adapt one of the HD media streamers (the D-link DSM-520, Linksys AVLP2, etc) to work as a sage client by hacking or otherwise modifying it.

I was thinking that it might make sense to make some sort of UPNP AV server since there are already more resources (libraries, existing applications, etc) to work with and it could be made to work with any UPNP compliant media streaming device.

However, I am a complete neophyte with UPNP server software. Does anybody know of any good resources? Are any of the UPNP server software packages open source? I

I notice that a lot of the functionality is available in the sagetv web ui. Does anybody have any thoughts about I might be able to adapt it?

I'd be happy if I could put together the following:

1.Some vaguely attractive skin/menu-hopefully can be adapted relatively easily.
2.Access through the menus for recordings, video, movies. I think that some of the UPNP server software supports logical folders and extension filtering.
3.Access to recording metadata. This is trickier. I know that someone has created an XML generator for sage recordings-presumably the server software could be made to parse it.
4. Access to EPG:Not sure how to approach this. I could use the Sagetv web ui, but most of these streamers have very limited web browsers.
5.Recording scheduling:same as 4

Any thoughts? Ideas?

F

[nielm]

(Picking one of the posts at random...)
There is a Java UPNP lib which is already included with Sage (and used as a UPNP client for opening ports on home routers)... No idea whether it supports UPNP as a server...

[fyodor]

Thanks-looking at it quickly, it doesn't look like it supports the UPNP AV functions, just messaging, discovery, etc.

[erik]

One of the best free UPnP servers for windows is TVersity
www.tversity.com
It can do on-the-fly transcoding to the upnp player supported formats which implies you can play anything on your UPnP madia player.

Set up TVertsity to serve you folders where the recordings are stored.
It will autorefresh (settable time interval) so it is real run and forget.

[jvl711]

I think this would be a worth while project. I think it would be better if Sage would add this support into the core of the product. There are many sage users that have XBOX 360's and other DLNA compliant devices lying around. For the devices that it might be imposible to ever have a full Sage UI on it would be nice if sage could atleast support the UPNP AV part of the device.

I know there are free products out there that work well like tversity. I have used a few of them myself. But it is a pain to have to keep multiple applications running to support the same media collection. Plus sage seems to have a good grasp on the "on the fly transcoding". I was not that impressed with the transcoding in tversity.

[kiddm60]

Making SageTV be a decent upnp av media server would make my day. I recently purchased an AVLP2 because my XBOX 360 is too restrictive on what types of media it will allow to be streamed to it without transcoding. And it is too noisy.

If I could control SageTV from the AVLP2 over wired network and stream data to it from SageTV, I would move my computer away from my home entertainment system and use the AVLP2 to access SageTV and I would really be a happy camper.

Wizd is a good upnp av media server, and source code is available.
http://wizd.sourceforge.net/

Voluminous documentation is available at www.upnp.org and at intel. Google "upnp av" for many links.

I have not used Wizd a lot, but it looks quite good compared to the servers that usually come packaged with players like the AVLP2 that are based on the Sigma Designs EM8620 chipset. In theory, if we stuck close to the published protocol (and can understand it), then it should work with any upnp av media renderer that has similar capabilities.

I have captured network traffic of the handshaking between the AVLP2 and Wizd and can share that at a later time if there is enough interest in pursuing this.

I have also tried to access nielm's Webserver page from the AVLP2, but it's webbrowser is very basic and I could not get it to open the page. I am not sure if this was a password problem or if there is too much relatively complex stuff going on in the webserver for the simple browser to be able to work with the page. The webserver actually strikes me as a more straightforward solution, and nielm is already an expert if we could get him onboard to help us with a stripped down way to represent SageTV ui in a networked media renderer.

I think it would take me forever to figure out all the ins and outs of the sage ui that nielm appears to have a firm grasp of. It would be nice to be able to leverage that to come up with a solution sooner. Then a whole family of HD media extenders could be used with SageTV, either via a web interface or via a media server connection.

Let me know if there are enough people who want to work on this to make it worthwhile. I won't have lot's of spare time for a few months, but can test and capture network traffic to get the upnp av stuff ironed out.

regards

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by kiddm60

Making SageTV be a decent upnp av media server would make my day. I

Personally I would rather have a full client like what is talked about here. Maybe it will available for your AVLP2 some day.

[kiddm60]

Thanks for the link. If it is actually based on the Buffalo Linktheater, then I may already be compatible with the Sage implementation when it becomes available. It will be interesting to see what unfolds.

[fyodor]

Maybe, but it seems to me that the UPNP server would be easier to implement(create some menu graphics, access to metadata, and access to scheduling vs.porting a full client ) Also, this would be usable by any UPNP compliant player.

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Personally I would rather have a full client like what is talked about here. Maybe it will available for your AVLP2 some day.

[dotheDVDeed]

Well as it looks like the HD Extender is pipe dream. (No announcement by the end of the 2nd quarter)

Maybe we could revive the idea of at least having UPnP support for Network Media Players.

[tmiranda]

I still have hope for the HD extender soon. After all, in tech-land we all know the quarter isn't over until Friday June 36th.

[Eckwell]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I still have hope for the HD extender soon. After all, in tech-land we all know the quarter isn't over until Friday June 36th.

LOL!!!!

THat is damn funny...

[jquinlan]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I still have hope for the HD extender soon. After all, in tech-land we all know the quarter isn't over until Friday June 36th.

Are you missing some Microsoft updates on your system?

[dotheDVDeed]

Well June 36th came and went.