I have recently implemented a plug-in to access the Rhapsody paid
subscription streaming service from within Freevo. It's a bit of a hack,
since it calls out to Firefox with the embedded Rhapsody Player plugin to
play the content, but I hope to make that smoother in the future. The
content navigation part is already working quite well and browsing on the
couch is a real pleasure ;)
As the add-on page seems closed to new registrants, what is the current
procedure for submitting such a thing?
The full README of the plug-in is below.
Freevo Rhapsody Plugin
======================
(c) 2006 Michael Droettboom
Released under the GNU General Public License. See COPYING for details.
This plug-in adds support for the Rhapsody subscription streaming
music service to Freevo. Unlike some existing devices that have
Rhapsody support, it does not use UPnP to navigate your local
content stored on a Windows PC. Instead, it uses Rhapsody Web
Services to navigates the enormous Rhapsody library without requiring
a separate Windows PC.
Features include:
- Artist, album, track and keyword searching
- Display of album covers
Playback is handled by calling out to a Mozilla-based web browser with
the Rhapsody Player plug-in installed. This approach was easy to
implement, but has the following major shortcomings:
- the text is way too small for a SD television.
- the Rhapsody player can not be controlled from the keyboard
or IR remote
- it doesn't integrate well with the Freevo interface.
However, for simple use, such as playing Rhapsody Channels, or entire
albums in one go, this works well enough for now. See future plans below.
INSTALLATION
============
This plugin has been tested with Freevo 1.6.0 and 1.6.1. YMMV with
other versions.
Install the package using the following command:
sudo python setup.py install
Insert the following into your freevo local_conf.py:
plugin.activate('rhapsody')
Using a keyboard and mouse, or a remote X or VNC session, install the
Rhapsody Player plug-in in a Mozilla-based browser, such as
Firefox/Iceweasel. Open the browser, go to rhapsody.com, log in, and
select a track to play. Follow the prompts to install the Rhapsody
Player plug-in. Enter your login and password and be sure to check
the "Remember me" box. This plug-in for Freevo does not allow you to
enter the password.
The Freevo Rhapsody plug-in will use "firefox" as the browser by
default. If you want to use another Mozilla-based browser, add the
following line to your ~/.freevo/local_conf.py:
RHAPSODY_PLUGIN_BROWSER = /path/to/browser
HINT
====
When music is being played in the web browser, press Ctrl+W to close
the browser and return to Freevo.
FUTURE PLANS
============
Provide two-way communication between Freevo and the Rhapsody Player
plug-in, either by using AJAX techniques, or find a way to host the
Player plug-in in something other than a full-fledged browser
(xulrunner, perhaps).
Add the ability to create playlists and/or favorites lists from within
Freevo.
--
Michael Droettboom
http://www.droettboom.com/
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