Here is my input on ideas how the next major version of Freevo could look like.....
At first the "looks" of freevo: Comparing freevo to competetors: freevo already looks professional and good (actualy after finetuning freevo looks best) tastes may vary but all main ingredients: playing media, viewing metadata, connecting to internet are OK! A finetuning of OSD (by using bmovl(2)) would be fine BUT beware of extra dependencies: with version 1.4 freevo strength was the easy initial installation if mplayer worked freevo provided a fine user interface! with freevo version 1.5 Freevo looked better! but installation was more difficult and may scare new users off The needs of users for a new version how freevo will be used depends on the current usage of freevo: -a computer with a crt(tft) and attached keyboard -a setopbox: a dedicated pc with output to a tv or plasma screen -a computer with a crt(tft) and keyboard WITH tv or plasma screen users with an attached crt,keyboard may benefiet from input features like browsing and renaming mp3 tags etc users with an extra TV attached to their computer may benefiet from a dual screen configuration users using freevo as setopbox want a "simple" user interface and may benefiet from a webinterface allowing them to configure and operate their system with a second computer. IMHO extending the webinterface may serve all users in all configurations........... Extending input like renaming mp3-tages, grouping radio stations, creating playlists is much easyer done by using a webinterface as by using a remote control or an attached keyboard to a setopbox Therefore my question/suggestions would be: -Perl scripts for downloading main dependencies. -Keep the TV interface simple (but as beautifull as possible): It's for displaying and playing playlists,albums, movies and dvd's. Everyone also children and housewife's should be able to operate the "TV interface" of freevo -Usage of buttons like: red,green,yellow,blue would result in a more user friendly programm -Usage of statusbars/screens when streaming could also add functionality -Usage of a sliding controlpannel could add user comfort -Define a plugin interface.... as stated on emails before: the businterface -Extend the webinterface: configuration and modifying things like media tags, playlists, radiostations, xmltv bindings, stationlist,jukebox etc etc. -A second setup step could be by using the webinterface for finetuning the installation. (this serves every user, by using a browser on a second or the main freevo box) -Add a jukebox function not based on using the TV set but by using a webinterface. Personally i use a modified version of coolmp3 database as a seperate jukebox on my freevo box combining them (database features for playing and modifying mp3's) and using them over a webinterface (i don't want my tv on all the time) would certainly add functionality. Users that do not benefit from a webinterface are those users only having ONE computer attached to a TV with no second computer around, or no second crt and keyboard around.Designing a good webinterface with "good" looks would certainly make freevo unique to it's competetors. (the other's all "suck"). A good designed webinterface could also serve as "remote control" for pda users. If all requirements,dependencies,interfaces are known, I would be happy to help implementing/migrating the current web interface to a new one with new functions like remote control, jukebox, configuration etc etc. Just name what program's that will be used and i will get to know them. The requirments/sepcs could be: -a lightwight implementation of a webserver other than apache+php+mysql -Hardware specs (generating graphs on the freevo box?) -at what speed the webserver should work: lanspeed or modemspeed -Graphical design of menu's -by using java clients (i do not prefer them) -dependencies: imagemagick, sqllite,python, businterface ? On the other hand.........just for being complete.... A completly other aproach could be: controling the freevobox by .e.g. tightvnc.............. (if freevo is used with X) Currently I use this aproach and it serves me well, but ofcourse i don't have all input features as described above simple for the fact that freevo doesn't have them. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by BEA Weblogic Workshop FREE Java Enterprise J2EE developer tools! Get your free copy of BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 today. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=5047&alloc_id=10808&op=click _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
