Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Though it is nice to always make use of the newest features available, having a version based on stable XBMC is useful as well. If it is possible to have a feature on Eden, why do you want to make it depend on the unstable Frodo. If the remote is not stable, that's fine, but as for the main component of my media world I like to stick to stable.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

As I said, we didn't really come to a conclusion on how to add Frodo support and didn't pick a date to release a Frodo only version. So it may as well be long after the Frodo release until the remote gets a Frodo release. And about dropping support for some things in Eden (buttons on gesturepad and keyboard), (some of) those are still using legacy commands, and in Frodo there are new JSON RPC based commands, so it gives the advantage of dropping the legacy command support. But here also, maybe we will built in a switch for Eden and Frodo support so it will still use the legacy commands for Eden.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Yes, *at some point*, but when is that? There will always be people that follow the bleeding edge, but I also know many that have installed XBMC-Live and when it works they don't upgrade or touch it, because it works reliably. IMO Eden will be used in the wild for months, or even years after Frodo is marked stable.

My fear is that xbmcremote then might be perceived by 'regular users' as unfinished and buggy. Besides, the moment Frodo's RPC API stops being backwards compatible, xbmcremote will degrade even more for Eden users.

On the other hand, not including support for Frodo's new features for a long time is also unwanted of course.

One solution could be to have 2 versions of xbmcremote in the repositories (hence having the 2 branches I mentioned before), but runtime detection is IMO very possible, and by internally using a simple API abstraction layer/delegate this should extend into Frodo+1 as well..

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Very high IMHO value. If a user is using Eden months after Frodo is released he should also just stick to the old Eden compatible remote. And I also don't think there won't be any new features which are still compatible with Eden.

I think it may be possible to make some of the API differences compatible with both versions (most buttons on the keypad are just a single line of code, both for Eden and Frodo). But at least I don't want to clutter the UI code with "if it is Frodo, than display this extra button" code. If it are only a few extra lines of code in the C++ code I will add them. But if both for Eden and Frodo it requires more then, say 10, 20 lines of code, I probably aren't gonna make the change for both versions.

And about the "when to break Eden compatibility?". When we had the discussion a couple of weeks ago mzanetti said he was thinking about "the next version" (after the version we are currently working on) I think. But I also think that would be to soon (as I guess that would still be before the end of the year, when Frodo isn't even final). I would at least like to have a full Eden compatible version till Frodo gets released, without for examples buttons only working in Frodo. Although there may be some nice extras for Frodo users (automatically open keyboard, for one). But these changes shouldn't hinder the Eden users.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

For most that is easier said than done. How would users downgrade after they get the Frodo version through the updates?

But yeah, it is of course a possibility, if there will be two packages (hence my suggestion for 2 stable branches)..

I guess most can be done through a variable binding on the visible QML property.

Yes it's hard to say. I guess breaking Eden compatibility happens when it's too much work to maintain the difference in 1 codebase. My point is that we should try.

But actions are louder than words, so maybe I should invest some time and help out coding ;)

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

I want to help you on Turkish translation.More language , more usable software :)

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

IMHO two separate packages/versions aren't going to happen. When we're going to support Frodo (and possibly break Eden), normal users should still be able to just update (Software Update notification). Two different branches would also be a burden to maintain, so the Eden one wouldn't be developed anymore. The only sensible solution would be to rebrand the latest Eden compatible version to "xbmcremote-legacy" or something along those lines, and it probably wouldn't be maintained anymore afterwards.

The "visible" QML property also isn't an ideal solution. As the elements are still in the QML and it's sometimes screwed up. For example in the homescreen (music, videos, pictures) long press music or video, notice how the first item ("Show files") has a rounded corner, and click it. Then you long press the item again, and notice the "Show library" item (which is now the first one), it doesn't have the rounded corners. This is due to the first item, "Show files", being invisible, but QML still recognizing it as the first item and thus giving it the rounded corners (instead of giving the first visible item the rounded corners). When adding more and more (in)visible switches I think it would also add more of these minor glitches.

And in case you want to contribute, just join #xbmcremote on Freenode (it's hidden so you need to enter the name manually and can't search it). I'm mostly there between 4PM and 8PM UTC (which is 6PM till 10PM in western europe timezone). Don't really know about mzanetti as he has some kind of server which keeps him logged on.

I think you're best of asking mzanetti about it. But in case you're already familiar with Qt development you may download the source code from gitorious and run lupdate to generate a xbmcremote_tr.ts file (I guess it would be tr for Turkish) in the i18n folder. When you've got this file generated you can use Qt Linguist to fill in all the translations and you can send the file to mzanetti afterwards (using a merge request on gitorious, and I guess you could also send him an email to the address which is listed in the about screen of the app).

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi,

there's no need to speculate about the future releasing... First of all, Xbmcremotes git master is still 100% compatible to Eden and there is no feature in the queue yet that would change that. Sure, at some point it might happen but then I'll release a last Eden-only version to the store and the new incompatible ones through another download until Frodo is out. But at that point most of the new features will be for Frodo only so you won't miss much on Eden.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi, please contact me via email so I can send you the latest translation files and release candidate packages. You can find my mail address in the about dialog of Xbmcremote. If you feel comfortable with it, feel free to join #xbmcremote on freenode as RobertMe already pointed out. We are happy to help you getting started if you never did translations before.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi

Just wanted to report a small bug that happened to me.

The pause video/audio if incoming call enters is great, but If I'm watching something and pause before the call comes in, after the call, the remote resumes playback. IMHO this should be done only if the pausing was caused by an incoming call, not if the user does so. I hope it's easy to fix.

Also, when can we expect a new release?

Thanks,

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

The last one is an easy question "soon". Mzanetti is waiting for the last translations to come in (which will probably be tomorrow evening), and afterwards it will (probably) be send in for store approval.

So I can't promise anything about you're bug. Maybe it will already be fixed in the currently going to be released version, maybe not.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Here you go: http://notyetthere.org/?p=140

Edit: Xbmcremote 1.2 released ^^

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

FIR... :p

I thought the URL was some kind of joke :D Which would lead to a countdown when it would be released.

So, onwards to the 1.3 release.
Which features do you, the users, want next? Which must still be Eden compatible of course.

Edit:
It's a shame I will not use this release, all those changes sound great. Improved battery life, who doesn't want that?

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

I'd really like the ability to browse folders, like in the android xbmc program... I have too many things that aren't catalogued (camcorder videos, etc.)

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

You can enable the file browser by pressing the Music/Video "button" on the main screen for a while. This opens a menu where you can select "Show files". This will put the that section (Music/Video) in the file browser mode. So when you click it afterwards it shows the folders and files.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi

thanks for the update. Testing it now.
I think I would like to have is the ability to hide media now available, for instance I don't have music videos, so that section always shows empty. It would be cool if no media was found, just hide that section in the browser.

thanks!

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi,

Hiding menu items is kind of impossible. To hide the items the app would first need to query XBMC, which then returns all items in the category, only to see if the 'category' is empty. Another thing is that an item could be hidden automatically, but you run a library scan afterwards and items get added but because the category is hidden you can't open it again.

I'm also wondering why you would need the empty categories to be hidden. As it are maximal 3 items, which always fit on the screen, so there is already no need to scroll.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Xbmcremote is really awesome. An XBMC app that goes beyong the usual control interface and implements things like muting on phone call, etc. Brilliant! I have been happily using it for months... thanks for this.

The main thing for which I still have to turn on the TV and/or use AWXi (a web interface) and I do this very often: start playing (music) playlists, in order or even more in party mode. Also because one has to use music playlists to be able to tune in to webradio (i.e. a playlist that contains an URL), playlists are important to me.

I've been helping out with AWXi development to enable playing/party mode of playlists, but I recall that the API is a bit unsufficient or requires some hacks. I am not completely sure as AWXi uses a mix of the HTTP and JSON API still. Maybe in pre-frodo things are looking better.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi

I understand it's complicated. It's no big deal, as you said just one more category, but since it's empty for me I was wondering if it was easy to remove.

thanks,

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Thanks for the input :) I just had a quick look at the wiki page which describes the JSON API of Eden and I think it might be possible. But will need to run some tests later on to see if Playlist.GetPlaylists actually does what I think it does. As playlists are a bit "strange" implemented IMHO. I also never used playlists (and I think mzanetti also didn't use them, as I guess otherwise he would already have implemented it), so I need to investigate how they work in XBMC and of couse how the API works.

This might also be a nice chance to do some other "playlist related" changes. As some might have noticed a "feature" has been removed in the 1.2 version. Previously you could add some items to the playlist, stop the playlist, go back to "now playing" and open the playlist again to select an item to play. When I disabled the "now playing" page when nothing was playing mzanetti already noted it would remove that feature and we had some discussion about maybe implementing a shortcut to the last playlist (skipping the now playing page). So if we're going to create a list of saved playlists which you can select from we could just as well reenable the old feature. And my bet would be the unsaved music and video playlists will already be part of Playlist.GetPlaylists.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Ok, good to hear that the JSON API has something at least. I agree, playlists are a bit weird, as they seem to be considered as some virtual directory. Being able to have a playlist of albums instead of tracks seem to complicate things even more.
Also, I still feel web streams shouldn't be such a second class citizen in XBMC, but that is not a discussion for here. However, the result is that it's still implemented in a strange way. I have put my web radio stuff under ~/.xbmc/userdata/playlists/music/Webradio to be able to discern them; there seems to be no other way.

I mostly only use smart playlist as they filter my music collection so I can play some random music based on moods (energetic, chillout/relax, etc.). I find that managing normal playlists is a lot of work, even more so with a mobile device.
But! A nice use case for Xbmcremote is if you have visitors over and party mode playing. It would be awesome if you could use Xbmcremote to queue up some specific track or album. It's a feature I have seen many iPhone/iTunes users use for years already.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi everybody,

because the current way of handling translations via email was a bit cumbersome, we decided to give transifex a go. If you are a translator of xbmcremote or want to become one, create an account at transifex and jump on the translation files:

https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/xbmcremote/

Even if there is already a translator for your language, you can still join the team and proof-read or help with difficult words.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Anyone else having problem with tap n hold on a video file? If I tap and hold on video in a middle of a list in Movies, the outcome is blank space and buttons for Download, etc.. are hidden below it and I cant scroll up either.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Thanks for the report. I just released a minor bugfix release which should fix this and a few other things. Should appear on your device in a few days.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Has anybody an idea why the episodes are not show up on my xbmcremote on the N9? I can browse to the show and its seasons,

If I access the webinterface I can see all episodes and play them.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Which version of xbmc are you using?

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

I'm using a Raspberry Pi with Raspbmc (RC4) and I tried searching for the version but I can't find it (its not even shown in the system information).

I guess its the version.. From what version of xbmc should this feature work?

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

If your installation is build from git master of xbmc, you might already have the protocol changes which break xbmcremote.

It should work with the current stable release, Eden (version 11)

EDIT: You could also compile xbmcremotes git master which is already fixed to work with pre-Frodo (version 12).

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Thanks alot for the fix!! :) I will compile it as soon as I can, because I really like this feature.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi there

I have a small feature request. Not sure if possible, but could you add an option to take a screenshot of xbmc? Since I don't have a keyboard hooked on my htpc I would like to take screenshots from remote.

thanks,

Performance issues with 1.2.x?
 

Not sure where to report bugs or performance issues, all roads seemed to point to here...

Loving xbmcremote! But is it just me, or is anyone else seeing performance issues with the 1.2 branch, specifically under "TV Shows"?

1.1.0 worked great, but when I upgraded to 1.2.0, TV shows was so sluggish it was frustratingly unusable. I've tried 1.2.1 as well (from http://repo.pub.meego.com) -- same problem.

I've downgraded back to 1.1.0 (Nokia N9 PR1.3) for the moment. Running XBMC 11.0 Git:a6df109.

Re: Performance issues with 1.2.x?
 

Well, I agree that 1.2 is a little slower in the beginning. The reason for that is that I added an imagecache which downloads all the images, resizes and stores them. Once xbmcremote has downloaded all the pictures, it actually should be a little faster than previous versions. In version 1.2.1 I have moved the downloading and resizing to a separate low-priority thread which should improve things a little.

Doesn't it get faster for you again once all the images are cached?

However, if you really think its unusable, you can turn off all the images completely in the settings which really should speed things up again.

Re: Performance issues with 1.2.x?
 

....
Yeah, I gave it a good bash, a few days in a row. It appeared to download all the thumbnails on the first scroll-through, then they were all preloaded each subsequent load. However, scrolling the TV Show list is painfully slow. I don't recall if the Movies section had the same issue, I'll reinstall 1.2.1 tomorrow and give it a try.

Re: Performance issues with 1.2.x?
 

OK, I've given it as thorough a test as I can:

I've opened TV Shows section, scrolled slowly to the bottom, slowly to the top, repeated three times. Closed app and redid. Scrolling TV shows is still almost unusable (50 shows listed).

Did the same thing for Movies. Scrolling usable after about the second load, but still jerky/laggy compared to 1.1. But it's definitely usable.

Turned thumbnails off. Surprisingly, TV shows is still unusable. While TV shows, `top` shows the process is using around 80-90% CPU. Scrolling Movies at around the same "pace" uses around 45-50% CPU. (130 Movies listed).

Reinstalled 1.1.0. Scrolling TV shows, even while it's loading the thumbs, uses around 60% CPU.

One thing that could be causing the issue is one of the TV shows has no thumb? (in all versions).

Any more tests you want me to run?

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hi

I found an issue. When I use the keyboard to type something (for instance, while searching) when I hit 'e' the cursor goes back 1 chracter. This is probably because of xbmc's keyboard mapping, so I was wondering if there's a workaround or something that can be done. For now I write all in caps, so maybe that could work, to pop-up the keypad with default all caps?

thanks,

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

some things are broken on xbmc 12 frodo, album list doesnt show up when artist is selected, actually movies and tv shows dont show up either.

should've read, looks like its fixed on the master, when will this pushed to our n9? or does it have to be manual update?

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hey Michael,

it seems xbmcremote's version 1.2 didn't make it to the extras-devel repo of maemo: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d.../x/xbmcremote/

Any chance to get a deb from somewhere or are you about to upload the package to the repository still?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Performance issues with 1.2.x?
 

Hey,

sorry for the late reply. Somehow I didn't get emails from this thread any more. Anyways, thanks for this great report. It helped me to find that the issue is with .tbn files. My xbmc was using mostly .jpg files for large images and .tbn only for small thumbnails. Because of that I only downscaled jpg files in the cache but newer instances of xbmc store huge images in tbn files too.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

You can compile git master for now if you want to use Frodo Beta. I can't release the first Frodo compatible version right now because there is a problem with image downloading. I still need to see if I'm using an outdated API or if its a bug in xbmc. I will release the Frodo compatible version when I think the API has stabilized enough.

Re: [Announce] [N900,N950,N9] Xbmcremote
 

Hey,

here's an update to 1.2.2. It contains the thumbnail fix which really should boost performance for everyone affected by the bug.

Unfortunately I won't publish xbmcremote through the Nokia store any more. You guys have to download it from my website. If you want to know why, you can find that on the blog too.

http://notyetthere.org

As I really don't use my N900 any more I gave up in maintaining the fremantle branch. The code should work fine though and also got all the beugfixes for harmattan, except the UI ones of course. If someone wants to pick up the packaging/testing, it'll probably motivation enough for me to keep the code working with future changes.