DivX Connected Architecture
Hi Folks
Firstly, I'm a big proponent of this open and extensible plugin architecture. I'm doing an internal pitch at my company on Friday about DivX connected to see if I can get them to jump on board and start contributing plugins. Since we're based in the US at present I'm using the simulator as the client (instead of the DSM-330). I have the latest build.
I have some questions about the architecture :
1) I take it that for the plugins, the DivX Connected Server uses Gecko to render the content and then send it down to the client. The client then takes interaction events from the client remote (or keys) and sends them to the server where Gecko interprets and processes them, re-renders the response/screen and sends it back down to the client.
I tried an HTML plugin where I iframed a youtube url (flash player) and all I got was a white space where the flash player real estate was (but got the rest of the youtube page). Thus, I take it flash or streaming media in plugins doesnt work. I've heard it said on these forums that it does but I dont think it works (and have yet to see a plugin that uses it). FYI - I can access the same youtube url on a browser on the DivX server itself and have an up to date flash plugin installed on it.
2) What about WMV content with DRM in it ? i.e. a WMV URL or File that will pop up a login when its launched. Any way to get this working ? I'd imagine for the plugins to be really useful, users will want to start accessing niche content that they pay for. http://www.mediazone.com/rugby is one example.
3) I think we need to see a remote device more like the Wii-mote for the plugins to truly hit primetime. A mouse is a big part of mashups/gadget interactions. Since your plugin architecture is HTML, JS and GFX based I think it would be very useful to see this sometime soon. Any comments on this ? (and yes - I know you're not a device manufacturer).
4) Is there any way to access personal content (music, videos, pics) on the DivX server from a plugin ? An example of this is a plugin mashup that lets the user browse their repository of videos on the DivX server, but as they move over each video it shows the IMDB info for that video. To do this the plugin needs to be able to access the content on the server, get the title from the metadata and then go out to IMDB to pull the information down.
Lastly, I love this stuff. Great job DivX team.
Steve
Seems to be kind of an issue with iFrames... if you embed that flash movie using the EMBED code provided on the right of its page, the flash player shows up just fine (even though we have no way of controlling it), but when I use the iFrame, it shows up as white where the player should be. YouTube is also an interesting animal, because it does the best it can to keep you from getting direct access to the FLV content (passing it through it's player, etc...).
I am glad to here you are interested in supporting DivX Connected in your product. If you send us an email at ConnectedFeedback [at] divxcorp [dot] com I will get you in contact with the right person for ongoing support.
1) For your flash issue, you must have a flash plug-in installed in a Firefox browser for it to work. In this case you will get video and SWF support, but audio is not yet supported. This behavior is function of the openness of the system and how it leverages the gecko browser, it is not an officially supported feature, but we are looking at ways to add formal support for Flash in the future.
2) DivX Connected is open and will support any decoders that device makers want to add to their devices. Some are currently working on adding WMV with DRM to the device. Not all devices will be able to support the more difficult decoders.
3) We do want to support pointer based remotes in the future, but do not yet. It will really depend on when a device maker adds the capability to the remote.
4) We do not have a way to access personal content (music, videos, pics) on the DivX server from a plugin , but we want to open that part up in the future.
Hi Dan
When I examine the GFX code for some of the plugins I was wondering if when the MSX object is launched to play a file, architecturally speaking, its a handoff from the plugin container to the transcoding container ?
What I mean is this... If you look at the National Geographic plugin, its using a GFX plugin to browse the videos and select one, but when the panel pops up and you click on the Play button, the event is passed to the MSX object which handles the playing of the file... Since the plugin rendering is all done in Gecko rendering on the server (I think), it then would stand to reason that Gecko would need to pass the file to some other container/runtime to encode/transcode the content and get it to actually play the file with sound on the client device (the TV). Firstly, is this a correct summation ?
Secondly, I presume this is the work DivX still needs to do with flash ? i.e. updating your transcoding engine/container to support flash, so that plugins can hand off the .swf file to the transcoding container so they can be played on the tv just like an .divx file or .wmv.
This follows the chain of thought in the rest of the thread... Having Hulu (flash) as a Connected plugin would be THE killer Connected app/plugin.
Steve
http://labs.divx.com/forum/103
I'll ask our plug in gurus to have a look at your post.
Hi DSalmonsen
Thanks for the quick response ! I am going to post this here instead of an email because I am sure there are other users having the same problem. I added this line of text inside the body of the skeleton.html file.
iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fubKugita0" width="100%" height="100%"
(Your code commenter isn't working btw - I had to remove the <> around the above line of code
Check it out - all you get is a white space where the flash player should be.
We're running Firefox on our DivX Server and its got the latest flash plugin installed. The URL works just fine when accessed using the local firefox.
Steve
Here's a workaround to getting the videos to play without us having a mouse:
Add the &autoplay=1 to the end of the src and the video will start... I'm watching your ruby clip through Connected right now! :-)
Here is another way to do it easily
Put this in the HEAD of the HTM page (I had to remove the <> too)
META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="0;http://www.youtube.com/v/_fubKugita0&rel=1&autoplay=1"
You'll notice the left and right directional arrows give you FF and RW... pretty cool!
Many thanks to Langcornu and Porfitron for figuring this out !
Do you realize that if the Connected platform could do sound for Flash we could write a gadget for Hulu and be done with our Cable/Dish TV subscriptions for good ? I think this would have a HUGE impact on the marketplace. I personally think this would be THE Connected killer app. Personally I dont think sites like Stage6 and Veoh are very compelling because its way too hard to find quality content on there. Hulu is ALL quality content and if we can tie what people want to an awesome way of delivering it (Connected) we will have arrived.
Check out Paul Yanez's hulu flash player as one thing that could be gadgetified :
http://www.paulyanez.com/labs/hulu/hulu_media_player.html
Thanks again folks
Steve
Sound support for flash is vital! Please get that up and running ASAP. In my opinion it's probably the most important features that has not been implemented because this is restricting MANY plugin capabilities.
Yeah, I actually went right to work on trying to get the Hulu player to autoplay after I got YouTube to work yesterday, but then I got sidetracked... but you're right, until we get sound, it's not going to be as valued, but if we get this stuff figured out now, that means when/if sound support comes, we'll be ready ;-)
Great work porfitron... This platform and device is SO close to utopia... Flash with sound and we'll be set... To be honest though, all we've heard from the DivX team on these forums is that "we're working on it"... Which as the English would say is a bit "there and thereabouts"... it would be nice to see some press release or something a little more concrete stating DivX's intent to solve this problem and also what features they are working on for the next release.
Divx, please dont perceive me as being pushy but companies need these types of assurances before they make investments in technology.
Let me know if that will work for you.
Hi Dan
Thanks, I appreciate the offer but its not necessary at this time. I demo'd Connected to my group and they thought it was interesting but didnt want to pursue it at this time. However, I have the latitude to keep working on this space so I will keep watching to see where things go with Connected and will bring it up again in the future.
Steve
What kind of plugins is your company looking into making? I'm eager to get to use more new plugins.