Menu Questions

[Micah N Gorrell]

Hi All,

I have been playing with Front Python for the last few days. I'm very
rusty with python, and very new to front row... so the going has been
a bit slow.

I've managed to create a little test app that shows a complex menu and
has options dialogs for the menu items etc.

I have a few questions though. First of all how can I show an image
on the left for each menu item? I can't see anything in Front Python
about this. Secondly there seems to be some alignment issues. The
metadata is displayed properly, but it is right up next to the left
edge of the screen with no padding at all. Lastly, can I show meta
data for a menu, not just a menu item?

I know this is an early project, and I'm guessing that the answer to
some of these will be that Front Python needs work to make that
possible. I'd love to help the project and provide patches for some
of these things, if some one can point me in the right direction.

Micah

[Jon Christopher]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 9:04 PM, Micah N Gorrell <brit...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a few questions though.  First of all how can I show an image
on the left for each menu item?  I can't see anything in Front Python
about this.  Secondly there seems to be some alignment issues.  The
metadata is displayed properly, but it is right up next to the left
edge of the screen with no padding at all.  Lastly, can I show meta
data for a menu, not just a menu item?

This is something I'd love to know as well.  I mostly stopped working on it after I got the initial metadata working.  From MenuController.py:

#  should return a preview controller of some type, perhaps
#  BRMetaDataPreviewController BRMetaDataLayer BRMetaDataControl(seems
#  to work for now, but that is really contained in something I
#  haven't identified yet)
 

I just haven't figured out how to properly implement a BRMetaDataPreviewController which contains an image and the other metadata,.  For PyeTV I just went with BRMetaDataControl, which, as you found, doesn't have any padding.

I don't think it's possible to have metadata for the menu, because at least one menu item is always selected.

I know this is an early project, and I'm guessing that the answer to
some of these will be that Front Python needs work to make that
possible.  I'd love to help the project and provide patches for some
of these things, if some one can point me in the right direction.

If you know objective C, then you've got a leg up on me, so perhaps we can have a bit of the blind leading the lame here. 

The documentation for the original BackRow developer's kit at http://alanquatermain.net/brdevkit/, particularly the tutorials, may be instructive, but bear in mind that this dev kit is for the original AppleTV software, not for what ships with Leopard.  It's similar, but there are enough differences to keep things interesting.

You may also want class-dump http://www.codethecode.com/projects/class-dump/ to generate headers for the BackRow framework and/or FrontRow.app.


Happy hunting.

-Jon

[Micah N Gorrell]

On Apr 7, 11:38 pm, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I just haven't figured out how to properly implement a
> BRMetaDataPreviewController which contains an image and the other
> metadata,.  For PyeTV I just went with BRMetaDataControl, which, as you
> found, doesn't have any padding.

I actually used PyeTV for an example. It helped out a great deal in
getting as far as I have.

> If you know objective C, then you've got a leg up on me, so perhaps we can
> have a bit of the blind leading the lame here.

I do know a little bit of objective C but I'm as rusty there as I am
in python. I actually write good old fashion C for a living, and that
is where I am the most comfortable. I'm having a lot of fun with this
though. It is nice to have a change of pace every now and then.


> The documentation for the original BackRow developer's kit athttp://alanquatermain.net/brdevkit/, particularly the tutorials, may be

> instructive, but bear in mind that this dev kit is for the original AppleTV
> software, not for what ships with Leopard.  It's similar, but there are
> enough differences to keep things interesting.

Yeah I gathered that. I took a look around at the source for Sapphire
as well, and it looks like they had to go to a HUGE effort to make it
work with both. It is very impressive that they did. Sadly it is
also very confusing trying to understand their code.


> You may also want class-dumphttp://www.codethecode.com/projects/class-dump/togenerate headers for

> the BackRow framework and/or FrontRow.app.

I'll give that a shot thanks.



Looks like I have a lot of stuff to play with.

[Jon Christopher]

FWIW, I've just committed a batch of updates to PyeTV.

[Micah N Gorrell]

Cool, I'll go update.

On Apr 8, 3:38 am, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> FWIW, I've just committed a batch of updates to PyeTV.
>

[Micah N Gorrell]

You know, PyeTV makes me wish I had an eyeTV.... Oh well

On Apr 8, 3:38 am, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> FWIW, I've just committed a batch of updates to PyeTV.
>

[Jon Christopher]

Eureka!  After about 10 hours of trial-and-error I have found it!

The latest version of PyeTV in SVN demonstrates how to install a custom media preview factory and media preview.  For PyeTV this allows me to show both screenshot of a television recording and some metadata about it just like the rest of Front Row does.

It involves a horrible abuse of what should be a singleton class in Front Row, but it works....

Check it out.  The new classes are currently named with the PyeTV prefix.

By the way, Michah, what are you working on?


Cheers,
-Jon

[Micah N Gorrell]

Awesome! I'm looking at your code now.

I'm working on an app to download torrents from rss feeds provided by
sites like http://tvrss.net/. The idea being that you can enter a
search string, then subscribe to shows to download, and then to
organize the files nicely when the torrent is complete. Kinda a
torrent based DVR.

So far though, I'm just trying to get front row working as a proof of
concept that it can be done.

On Apr 12, 5:52 pm, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Eureka!  After about 10 hours of trial-and-error I have found it!
>
> The latest version of PyeTV in SVN demonstrates how to install a custom
> media preview factory and media preview.  For PyeTV this allows me to show
> both screenshot of a television recording and some metadata about it just
> like the rest of Front Row does.
>
> It involves a horrible abuse of what should be a singleton class in Front
> Row, but it works....
>
> Check it out.  The new classes are currently named with the PyeTV prefix.
>
> By the way, Michah, what are you working on?
>
> Cheers,
> -Jon
>

[Micah N Gorrell]

WOO! It works!

I just got it to show the menu with cover art! Thanks!

Now I need to try and get text entry and a progress bar going. Not
sure when I'll have the time though. Possibly tomorrow.

On Apr 12, 5:52 pm, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Eureka!  After about 10 hours of trial-and-error I have found it!
>
> The latest version of PyeTV in SVN demonstrates how to install a custom
> media preview factory and media preview.  For PyeTV this allows me to show
> both screenshot of a television recording and some metadata about it just
> like the rest of Front Row does.
>
> It involves a horrible abuse of what should be a singleton class in Front
> Row, but it works....
>
> Check it out.  The new classes are currently named with the PyeTV prefix.
>
> By the way, Michah, what are you working on?
>
> Cheers,
> -Jon
>

[Jon Christopher]

You still didn't tell us what you're writing! :)  Curious minds want to know.

[Micah N Gorrell]

Look up one message - I replied twice :)

I said:

I'm working on an app to download torrents from rss feeds provided by
sites like http://tvrss.net/. The idea being that you can enter a
search string, then subscribe to shows to download, and then to
organize the files nicely when the torrent is complete. Kinda a
torrent based DVR.
So far though, I'm just trying to get front row working as a proof of
concept that it can be done.

On Apr 12, 9:46 pm, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> You still didn't tell us what you're writing! :)  Curious minds want to
> know.
>

[Jon Christopher]

Sounds pretty cool.  Something kind of like miro, but for front row? 

[Micah N Gorrell]

Yeah kinda similar, but a bit more simple.

The idea is that you select my app in front row, and it'll show
something like:

Recent Downloads
Incomplete Downloads (3)

A Show (12)
Some Other Show (1)
Yet Another Show (3)

Manage Subscriptions

If you select "Manage Subscriptions" then you'll see a list of the
show names that you are subscribed to (and the feed URL in the meta
data) and there will be an option to search for shows, which will show
a list of matches that you can subscribe to. If you select one of the
shows that you are subscribed to you'll be able to set preferences,
like how long to keep the shows for before deleting, etc.

The shows in the main list will be in alphabetical order, and if you
select "Recent Downloads" you'll see them in download order with the
most recently completed first. I'd like to have it download
information about the shows from tvrage automatically as well, and
possibly grab a frame from each episode to show as a cover art if none
is available online.

The "Incomplete Downloads" section will show you the progress of each
download and give you the option to pause/resume or cancel a
download. When a download is complete the video file will be renamed
based on the name from tvrage and a consistent naming pattern, and
placed in a specific directory, so that shows are all organized such
as "Show Name/Season 2/Show Name - S02E12 - Episode Title.avi".

As far as playback I'd like to have them play back with the regular
quicktime based front row interface normally, but it would be nice to
support playing through vlc or something as well.

So you end up with a very simple but powerful DVR, but with torrents
instead of a regular tv tuner. Like I said I've got a lot left to
write to make it work though.

The front row portion will just talk to a separate app that will run
in the background and do the actual downloading. My current plan is
to simply have a directory configured that both apps know about, and
all the information for the downloads is stored in files in that
directory. When you add or modify a subscription the front row piece
will just write a file with the details, and the other piece will read
it every x minutes. While a download is going the download piece will
write the status out every x minutes... etc.


Micah


On Apr 12, 10:50 pm, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Sounds pretty cool.  Something kind of like miro, but for front row?
>

> On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 6:26 PM, Micah N Gorrell <britr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Awesome!  I'm looking at your code now.
>
> > I'm working on an app to download torrents from rss feeds provided by

> > sites likehttp://tvrss.net/.  The idea being that you can enter a

[Jon Christopher]

Micah,

If you know how to take a TV show's series name (something like "Grey's Anatomy") and turn it into a URL for a screencap image from TVRage, could you let me know.  BRImage has an imageWithURL_ initializer, and I've love to use this in my series list.

Thanks,
Jon

[Micah N Gorrell]

I haven't looked into tvrage much yet. When I do I'll let you know
what I find.

On Apr 13, 12:21 am, "Jon Christopher" <jon.christop...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Micah,
>
> If you know how to take a TV show's series name (something like "Grey's
> Anatomy") and turn it into a URL for a screencap image from TVRage, could
> you let me know.  BRImage has an imageWithURL_ initializer, and I've love to
> use this in my series list.
>
> Thanks,
> Jon
>

> On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 10:19 PM, Micah N Gorrell <britr...@gmail.com>