Zhaan - what is it?
 

Hiya folks!

I read this tidbit of news today:
http://maemobriefs.blogspot.com/2010...rol-point.html

I didn't understand a word said in that post, so I went to the original site here:
http://zachgoldberg.com/2010/04/08/z...s-on-the-n900/

I still didn't understand what the application does, so could anyone please explain a little?

I'm guessing what the purpose of this app might be, and so far my guesses have me interested, but I have no way to tell if I indeed understand what it is! :D

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

May i link to wikipedia
It seems to allow the N900 to control UPnP devices and maybe to be controlled.
I never heard of UPnP being used in anything else than a router (to open ports), so i dont know if its useful.

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

Umm still not quite clear. So does this make your phone a JoikuSpot or something? Or can you stream stuff (music, video?) over a network to your phone by using this?

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

As far as i did understand this, you can control other devices suporting UPnP
e.g. a Stereo / HiFi device or maybe a TV?

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

That is correct. Most people probably already have one or two UPnP devices lying around there houses, and it is very easy to set up new ones.

Zhaan allows you to control media playback on UPnP MediaRenderers, basically any media application which allows itself to be controlled by UPnP.

Zhaan is now in extras-devel, but sadly will not properly install because of an issue with the autobuilder. I expect this to be fixed any day now though :)

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

UPnP doesn't just cover opening ports on a router. Its "Universal Plug and Play".

In my house I have an internet radio that will connect to my pc via upnp and stream media to it, and my N82 used to stream media to my mates Sony Television via UPnP

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

UPnP has a notion of classes. Several of these classes include Servers, Renderers etc. UPnP also has classes for controlling routers, so yes, UPnP can be used to open ports on a router.

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

You must enable the extras-devel repository (http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras#Extras-devel) to get Zhaan for now. With any luck, in a couple of weeks, Zhaan will make it to normal Maemo Extras.

I am about 90% confident that installing Zhaan will be perfectly safe. I will gain the extra 10% when a bunch of people email me saying they have done it and it is working fine :)

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

Got Zhaan running and installed on my N900 with PR1.2 and it's able to see my NAS running Twonky and my HTPC running XBMC

The only issues I have are that I'm not seeing any media information when playing tv/movies from my NAS on XBMC and when I pause then unpause, XBMC starts the video from the start instead of resuming.

I only tried it briefly last night and will try to pay a bit more with it again today.

Re: Zhaan - what is it?
 

Taomyn -- which version of Zhaan are you running? From extras-devel or extras-testing? I have put Zhaan on the backburner a bit lately (things have been busy) but I am expecting that by mid-June or so I'll have my normal amount of time for fun hacking again and I'll try and get some version of Zhaan into extras.

I'm curious about your Pausing problems. You say your media server is Twonky and your using XMBC on a HTPC as a renderer? I havn't tried using the XBMC renderer yet (I didnt even know it could act as a renderer)