OT: VOMP HD Device

[Harry]

hi all,

has anyone made experiences with this device?
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=735

who knows.. maybe the next VOMP HD device?
it's around 150 dollars.

cheers
Harry

[stu-e]

Thanks for bringing this to everybody's attention. I was not aware of it.

Googling 'wdtv hack' gives lots of results. It looks like there is already a well established modding community for this device.

These sites give a good overview of what has been achieved:
http://www.wdtvc.com/2009/04/02/wdlxtv-04-enhanced-wdtv-firmware
http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv
http://wiki.wdtv.org/doku.php

It appears similar to the mvp if only in the respect that the Linux kernel is accessible but the video+audio output is closed source.

Just how feasible would it be to port Vompclient to this platform?

BTW the media device is a Sigma SMP8635LF

Stu-e

[Edit] There appears to be 2 different models. Anybody know the difference between them?:
WDAVP00BE (Amazon £70)
WDBAAP0000NBK-EESN (Amazon £105)

[carsten]

Hi,

the first model mentioned is the "old" version w/o network. You need to plug in a USB LAN adapter.
The "new" version hat build-in network, a better chip, and a slightly improved firmware.

BR,
Carsten.

[stu-e]

Developer toolset here:
http://wdtv.elmarweber.org/index.php/2009/wdtv-tools-development-vmware-image

I have utterly no experience of this kind of development but I'm guessing that a starting point would be to extract the application code from the vompclient source and compile it for the wdtv. The painful bit is working out how to interface with the closed source video/audio drivers.

Stu-e

[MartenR]

well, it is nearly similar hardware like the popcorn hour.
The bad point is that the sdk for audio video is not availiable for open source.
There exist only approaches to use existing players on their firmware.

Marten

[stu-e]

Isn't that the same situation with the MediaMVP?
If I remember correctly someone on this forum mentioned the audio/video was closed source for the MediaMVP also.

Stu-e

[carsten]

Hi,

another idea, which is a bit offside using this devices with a ported vompclient could be that there is someone currently building a dlna/upnp pluging
for vdr that eventually could look pretty well on some of the devices of that class, means popcorns, wd tvs, etc.

But as I really love vomp, even if it's interface couldn't be called sexy, I hope someone with the right know how could find out how to play streams
on that box. It's small, it's quiet, it has enough power.

On the other hand I have an eye on boxes with Atom/ION, e.g. Revo 3600. There should be a box with Atom 330 just out...

BR,
Carsten.

[Harry]

wow! what an avalanche

glad this topic is of interest.
i've read some harsh critics about the sigma chip though

[MartenR]

Isn't that the same situation with the MediaMVP?
If I remember correctly someone on this forum mentioned the audio/video was closed source for the MediaMVP also.

Not really, on the mediamvp exist some relatively easy to use devices files for audio and video input, which are the starting point for the development of mvpmc, which than was used for vomp.
The sigma interface is not that easy to use and there exists no freely availiable description of the interface. The only way would be to feed it into some playback apps availiable on the pch, this is quite not ideal.
Nevertheless I am watching the developments of the hd clients to see, if a port of vomp will be doable.

Nevertheless a good UPNP/DLNA will be really an alternative, but this will be really hard to implement and I do not know if the efforts currently going on will lead to a success.

Marten

[muellerph]

Some info from my side, as I have one of the WD HD TVs and contacted Elmar already for some info and had a look into the existing code:
a) There is currently no way to code directly with the device. All what was done so far, was a custom XML page setup. So you can make custom menus based on dynamic XML pages. Not quite fast but usable.
b) Saldy the custom XML pages can only provide files as the current firmware cannot hanble streams. The new version of the WDHDTV will have a built in network device, so this should have the possibility to access streams, but who knows in detail if we can use it
c) The device can play the current TS containers directly, so playing live-tv will work (I used a sample of my TS recordings from qtvomp development). The current PES containers cannot be played (our recordings). But as the next VDR version will anyway only record in TS this is not an issue. As of b) you cannot play current recordings and as of different VOMP protocoll you cannot play live-tv

Summary:
Currently the device is as easy to get it running with VOMP as it would be with the PCH - I don't have hope here.
If someone wants to start hacking the hard way, you could also have a look into the http://www.t-hack.com/forum/ pages. The T-COM and other boxes also uses the Sigma chip and they are quite far with hacking.

[a1bert]

I am looking forward tegra t250 based Boxee Box (http://www.dlink.com/boxeebox ) it looks promising....

[carsten]

Hi,

just to bring you upt to date on my VOMP HD alternative box: I build a mini PC based on POV 330 (without -1) Atom board with
ION chipset, which includes a CUDA/VDPAU capable graphics chip. It runs under Ubuntu Karmic with XBMC on top and last weekend
I was the first time able to use it for viewing - timeshifted - a thriller in HD broadcasted in German television, which was recorded on
my headless server based on vdr 1.7.14 and patches to the streamdev-server plugin.

Before that, I used media viweing and mp3 playing already without major promblems. VDR addon implementation is still a bit fragile,
I have to admit. It plays back H.264 in 1080p@25 and 720p@50 without drops. It uses roughly 35W and is pretty quite, as the only
fan I use is a 1000rpm Skythe 100mm fan on top to the CPU/GPU heatspread.

So I am narrowing my functional requirements. I even thought of using Windos on that box and Marten's new HD version of VfW.

There is a tradeoff which I am still uncertain of. Well, VOMP is so easy to use that my 10-year ol, even when he was 9 was able to
hangle it. On the other hand, XBMC looks really, really sexy.

If you are interested in more information about this little project, let me know. I have some experience written in German e.g. in
the vdr forum, but could eventually translate that.

Those, who don't want to do much Hardware could probably also use an Asrock box based on the same chips, Acer Revo and ZOTAC
Mag could be alternatives, but especially on the Revo, there could be overheating probs, as these boxes are fanless, when I remember
right.

BR,
Carsten.

[Harry]

hi,

i wonder what DVB cards you have in your headless server?

a link to your article on the vdr forum would be nice.
(den les' ich mir gerne mal durch)

cheers
Harry

[carsten]

Sure: http://www.vdr-portal.de/board/thread.php?threadid=92227&hilightuser=11270.

You will not find a lot on my server, though, for that you need to look into http://www.ctserver.org/ftopic2484.html, as it's virtual.
See the signature for details of the system. I use three different cards: Technisat Cablestar2, Technotrent C-1500, and Satelco Easywatch.
Drivers are budget-core, budget-av, and b2c2-flexcop-pci. I use a certain, older status of v4l drivers, as after that, there will be compile problems
with the ir receiver component on one of the cards.

My main work here is on using powernow with K8 AMD CPUs in Xen, which is a bit tricky.

BR,
Carsten.