potts.mike
Active Member
There is an extremely good driver for the sagetv system of media players.
CQC and HouseBot Queries
- Thread starter brathnach
- Start date
Like most others replying here, I only have experience with one of the systems you're considering. I come from the CQC camp and I decided to pipe in related to your CML questions. I have written several drivers and I can say there's a large learning curve to get started but I can suggest the same route I took to get through it. I grabbed one of the other CML authors on of the Users Group conference calls and he spent time to show me how the tools and language worked. I've done a good deal since. Additionally, while I hadn't gone this route, there are several well known CML authors that will readily write your driver, most for a fee.I now see why this is such an excellent resource!!
I have to say I do like Housebot but I like CQC alot too and see the benefits both systems would bring! The only thing that is offputting for me about CQC (and this more because of me that CQC) is the drivers that I dont have. Such as the Yamaha DVDS1700 DVD Player (RS232). I have looked at the driver manifests for the RX-V1700 (Yamaha Receiver) and am still trying to get my head around how the CML implements drivers. I have all the documentation and I know pretty much everything re comms and quirks on both yamaha devices.
I know it would be alot easier for me to do this in Housebot (albeit taking alot longer due to replication in tasks etc) but I would end up with a lot more bloated and a harder driver to work with. I can see how CQC just makes it alot easier once the driver is written.
Have any of you guys written any of your own drivers for CQC in either CML or PDL - or do you seek out people to write them for you. Its probably the only limitiation I have with CQC - limitation being with me not CQC but a limitation nonetheless! I havent looked too far into it yet but have a fair dose of C prog under my belt so its all a matter of time!
Two futher queries. If I was looking to replace the DVD players (which just put out the same video over and over every 20 mins) is there a media player device that could pull the media off some LAN storage and put it out over HDMI. The critical thing here is that is would have to be controllable by CQC? Any ideas on how/if this can be done? I may try this query on the CQC forums too.
I know ive more questions about CQC than housebot but thats just the way it is. Housebot is a bit more easy to figure out but Im seeing how the CQC offering offers it its unique edge.
Thanks a million guys for taking the time to wise me up!!
Rob
As to your query about the DVD players, if I had a loop video I wanted to play, I'd move it to the server and skip the hardware completely. I'd put all of the videos on the hard drive of the Master Server and use ZoomPlayer (or another supported software player) and then you have more flexibility long term. There's even a solution floating around that folks have used to allow display of ISOs.
Good luck with your choice.
Russ...
I would also recommend looking at SageTV. It is much more than a simple media player, but you can use it for that if you want. They have a HD Hardware extender (or media player) called the HD Theater (many people also call it the HD-200). It certainly can play back videos, music, pictures, etc for a central server. It also can act as a full featured DVR device so you can record TV as well.
You would need to use buy and use the SageTV software (called the SageTV Media Center) in order to be able to control it from CQC. CQC uses the Sage software as the basis of its communication. But you can control both the server functions (such as seeing future recording schedule, or you video collection, etc) as well as control of any extenders you might have connected. I personally have two extenders and controll each independantly within CQC. It's very nice!
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