Thread: <Dev Question> Android Remote Interface

Yup, basically what I have been thinking. Just need more free time... ugh

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Would this work? https://market.android.com/details?i...play.twoplayer

I am reading about it now. Seems it would be fine for music playback. But I also need video playback, and without having to download the whole file first.

Now, I have found Plex. It has a free server, pay-for clients (iOS, Android) and tested it in home. The functionality is there, but would also mean having yet another app chewing up resources.

---------- Post added at 09:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 AM ----------

Originally Posted by VegasGuy

I've got a 7015 I bought for exactly this type of project. In my case, it was remoting to/from Centrafuse. The 7015 runs android 2.1 (Eclair) and it doesn't look to me like it's likely to get Honeycomb (Android 3.0) anytime soon (if ever). So whatever can be done has to be done with the interface available in Android 2.1. To use any kind of streaming media that wasn't hosted on Youtube or some other web-based service, you'd need to find (or write) your own media player. The point is that it will take some pretty extensive Android development in order to create the necessary UI and apps for a easy-to-use infotainment system for the back seat. Not impossible, or necessarily more difficult than any other platform...just not a lot there "out of the box".

VegasGuy

Yes. The problem is that iOS and Android support MP4/M4V and the files do not support streaming (or so I have read). Transcoding requires some horsepower. Newer Android OS (2.2 +) now supports flash so maybe that means either transcode or convert?

Are we talking about playing the files on the unit it self or remote controlling the OM zone? I know this could be hard for video but for audio a remote playback control would work just fine.

Both. I am doing some android and iPad projects for work so hoping I can apply some of that knowledge to all this once I get better at it.

Originally Posted by Borte

Are we talking about playing the files on the unit it self or remote controlling the OM zone? I know this could be hard for video but for audio a remote playback control would work just fine.

I am talking music and video playback. Which could be done without OM. I am playing around with Plex right now. But the mobile app(s) are pay-for.

The "nice to have" is that the mobile device can be part of the whole OM thing. This just makes it easier for folks that climb in and connect. No need to figure out where the files are, etc.

Anyway, I don't think it's a priority right now. There is more than enough to do getting 0.9 out and moving ever closer to 1.0. Maybe this could be a future plug-in of sorts at a later date. Just my 2c.

Ultimately, I think the multi-zone would be far better suited to a client-server model, than multiple windows in the same app. Obviously, it'd be a bit of a change from the current approach, but it would open up a lot of expandability. If you had, say, OMServer running on a carpc as a service, it would handle the media libraries and such. Then connected clients would work as the UI/Audio/Video rendering part. This client could be an app (or multiple instances of an app) on the same PC, or on locally connected (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc) android/iOS/winPhone devices. Connect the server to client via a standardized TCP/IP protocol, and it could be ultimately expanded to pretty much any platform/cross platform - y'know, like that X-Box you've got embedded in the car..

Originally Posted by CraziFuzzy

.... If you had, say, OMServer running on a carpc as a service, it would handle the media libraries and such. Then connected clients would work as the UI/Audio/Video rendering part. This client could be an app (or multiple instances of an app) on the same PC, or on locally connected (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc) android/iOS/winPhone devices......

Could this client/server model handle things like the server having the audio source (thinking line-in from HD Radio box) and encode/stream it to other zones? I suppose it can but is it feasible? I figure most, like me, have the main computer connected to car speakers anyway so maybe no other zone really needs it anyway. But it could just as well be some other source input. Just tossing thoughts out there.

Cheers,
John

Android/iOS has the codec support to play most things... if you have a good DNLA server like mediatomb running on the server/OM box, you should be able to play it on your tablet device just fine. Also, remote controlling OM should be rather trivial. Have your machine expose the AVRCP bluetooth profile and when you connect up to your smartphone, OM just needs to be smart enough to respond to those input events (usually the same input events you would get from a multimedia keyboard). I'm guessing that's a couple lines of code if OM doesn't already. Finally, sharing things like GPS and Vehicle data is a bit more complicated. If OM were using nobdy like I suggested a while back it may be less complicated because that's what nobdy does, multiplex vehicle data to n number of clients. However, that too can be solved in OM by using a TCP socket or similar.

Finally, there's not too much overhead in running a web server if that's the route you want to go. My router runs one and it's magnitudes slower than a carpc.