[snip]
> So skype, mythtv, sound in browsers just work? They don't. So this is the
> reason for my thoughts ...
I need to chime in here. ESD isn't the greatest solution, however it's
has
been the most effective way I've found so far. I have had audio in browsers
working pretty well *, there's some lag, but overall not bad. Skype should be
workable *IF* it supports esd. MythTV will never work well running remotely,
so you have to run it as a local app.
In your browser, basicly the problem is you have to set *EVERYTHING* to
use
ESD by default(force it if you can). Flash-player has a strange bug, it
appears that they are in violation of the LGPL in linking to ESD, and are
attempting to hide that fact. I used MPlayer for most videos, etc and that's
easy enough to set ESD globally(you'll have to read the manpage for the
specific option and where the config file is).
FMV(Full Motion Video) suffers from one major problem: bandwidth, or
specificly lack thereof. This problem affects MythTV, MPlayer, XINE, Flash,
Shockwave, really any application which makes use of FMV. To display a
320x240x16 video @ 30fps takes roughly... ( 320 * 240 * 16 * 30 ) or
36,864,000 bits/second to display. Once you include audio(at this point audio
is a raw uncompressed stream) and network overhead, Your dinky little video
eats up 50mbps. Xdamage should help immensely, but I don't know of any distro
which enables it by default. Another option would be to stream the video file
over the network, but then the terminals have to have a lot of power, *AND*
the infrastructure isn't there. Terminals work really well for a lot of
things, unfortunately multimedia isn't currently one of them, especially if
video is concerned.
It would probably be workable to write a plugin for
nautilus/konq/firefox
that would replace the regular ones and stream the files themselves over the
network to mplayer on the terminal, this adds complexity to the terminals,
but would be a lot more workable then what's currently happening.* - http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Sound <--- if you haven't already, read that. it explains how to resolve a few common problems. [snip] > > 3) Any closed source programs (*cough* Java *cough*) that are still > > writing to /dev/dsp should get a nice, friendly email, explaining to > > them that you deploy their products on a thin client environment, and > > explaining to them that by utilizing one of the multimedia stacks out > > there, their program will now magically work on BOTH thick AND thin > > clients, and how this would be a win for everyone. > > And eg skype totally ignore you. This is a possibility, I've had mixed results when talking to proprietary software companies about linux support in their products. I've been told tough luck that's the way it is, and had them drop everything and make it a top priority. [snip taglines and sigs and such] -- Chuck Norris is a hack. MacGyver could build a gun from a paperclip and shoot Chuck Norris, then build a Stargate from a toaster and hide the body on some planet with no food whatsoever for when Chuck Norris wakes up. Public Key available Here: http://www.bravegnuworld.com/~rjune/pubkey.asc Did I make your life better? http://home.bravegnuworld.com/~rjune/appreciation.html
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