MediatankController 1.2 for iPhone - browse and control your NMT from your phone

[gfb107]

It's very simple. The YAMJ jukeboxes are basically just a bunch of generated HTML pages with images and text describing the videos in the user's library, much like MediatankController, although MediatankController is dynamic. The HTML pages have links to play the videos, which are just normal URLs (which by definition must be URL encoded) to the video files, with a little additional markup so the NMT knows how to play them (the vod and zcd="2" attributes). The URLs are relative to the NMT browser. My skin changes these play URLs to use MediatankController URLs. If URL encoding is used, it's very easy to convert those play URLs into Mediatank controller file URLs: just concatenate the MediatankController index URL, the "file action" and the video URL.

If the MediatankController index URL is

Code:

http://192.68.1.80:8088/stream/file=/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/controller/index.php

And the Video URL is

Code:

http://192.168.1.90:81/Videos/Die%20Hard.ts

The play URL would be:

Code:

http://192.168.1.80:8088/stream/file=/opt/sybhttps/localhost.driver/HARD_DISK/controller/index.php?action=file&file=http://192.168.1.90.81/Videos/Die%20Hard.ts

If the video URL is

Code:

file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/Video/Bangkok%20Dangerous.mkv

The play URL would be:

Code:

http://192.168.1.80:8088/stream/file=/opt/sybhttps/localhost.driver/HARD_DISK/controller/index.php?action=file&file=file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/Video/Bangkok%20Dangerous.mkv

In addition, I created my own remote control page, which uses MediatankController's action=control&command= action URLs.
The remote page needs some work, but it has every button on the remote.
You can see some screen shots at the iSkin home page.

Those are the only two MediatankController URLs used.

[Niels Leenheer]

I've updated MediatankController for iPhone. There are quite a few changes, just see the list below:

• Custom icon for your home screen
• When started from your home screen it now works full screen
• Network shares are listed on the same page as the rest of the disks
• Disks, usb drives, network shares, folders, playlists, video files and audio files now have their own icon
• Smaller font for more readable filenames
• Natural sorting of files
• Support for playlists
• Completely redid the controls page. Scroll with two fingers to show all buttons (sorry still working on one finger swiping for this one)
• Updated iUI for smoother animations
• Patched iUI to prevent reloading pages after they have been loaded the first time
• Removed base64 encoding from URLs, replacing it with URL encoding
• Proper support for ISO files
• Moved to the Apps directory for better NMT Community Software Installer support
• JukeboxConnector support
• Experimental support for streaming playback of files on the iPhone itself (enable in the index.php file)
  

Thanks to everybody who helped!

Download the controller.zip file, unzip it and place the controller directory in the Apps directory on your hard disk of your NMT. If the Apps directory does not exist, create it first.

Load the following url in Safari on your iPhone:
http://IP-OF-YOUR-NMT:8088/stream/file=/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/HARD_DISK/Apps/controller/index.php

Cheers,

Niels

[dc11ab]

I think the cgi file (possibly the php file too?) needs to be chmodded 775 before launching?

Can't wait to try this out, but for some reasons I have to. This 'patience is a virtue'-thing is annoying... Great stuff Niels!

[gfb107]

Looks great. Everything I tried worked beautifully. I'm especially happy about the URL encoding, which I tried as well. You didn't mention that you also added automatic network share mounting. Very nice indeed. I'll be removing the bundled version of MediatankController from iSkin this weekend.

Excellent work.

[Pablin]

(04-01-2009 10:01 PM)dc11ab Wrote:  Holy rusty island, Batman! It works!


Yes, great work Niels. I have made a simple Jukebox skin for llink but lacked the controls, but now I can finally use them for real! (ehum, with some slight modifications)



I love the possibility to browse media while listening/seeing on something else in play.

The Controls page is slightly weird; is it a "full screen popup"? If I scroll below the buttons (which works fine) the underlying directory list is visible. Hmm, I should browse the code and see for myself.

I would add the 'Standby'/Power On and 'Source' button to the controls. Well, all buttons eventually, but they would clutter the display so I guess one has to be a little smarter about it.
Ah, and browsing any mounted directory shares too.

Hello, I like the skin that you presented. Where I can download it?
regards

[dc11ab]

What you see is an unfinished skin, I never came around to finish it so it will not work as-is. You'll have to use Niels MediaTankController for iPhone and combine it with lundman's llink to get love.

This mockup skin does list the files from my llink media ROOT's and it took me less than an hour to do - and I'm far from being a developer. Yoda would have thrown me out of the academy before I even tried to enter, so to speak

So if you are prepared to develop it further I'll be glad to send you the files. PM me your email address.

[gfb107]

There's one known irkey command that isn't implemented in index.php: 'title' with command code 0x94

There'a few other known IR commands for which I haven't been able to find irkey commands. These are:

• File mode
• Suspend / BT
• Shutdown
• Standby
• Resume from Standby
• Reboot

Does anybody have a clue how to figure out what the irkey codes would be? The two I'd really like to know are Standby and Resume, the others would just be for completeness.

Also, according to http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/i...ing_Telnet you can send text letters using the ASCII codes for each letter, making a full text keyboard possible. Not all that useful for a playback, but still interesting.

[humptybump]

(08-06-2009 09:30 PM)Niels Leenheer Wrote:  I've updated MediatankController for iPhone. There are quite a few changes ...
Cheers,
Niels

A great piece of work ! I am very pleased with the new experience.

I did rearrange the chicklet buttons to get the ones I use most together - and I use fast-forward, rewind, and slow, more often than prev/next so I swapped those keys in the bottom control bar.

Performance is nice too !

[humptybump]

Niels - The new interface seems a lot more efficient. I can't quite figure out how it is functioning relative to the old architecture.

The challenge I am encountering is that If I start watching a video, then when I restart the controller, it reverts to the root and I need to navigate back to where the video is in the directory structure. Is there a way to not revert/restart ?

[David Barr]

Niels, thanks much for this handy web app! I've modified it a bit to include only the controls I want, but don't seem to be able to get Fast reverse/Rewind working.

Here's the what I've tried that I thought should work, but has no effect:

Code:

<li><a href='?action=control&amp;command=rev'><img src='themes/iphone/controls-rev.png' alt='' /></a></li>

I created the button rev.png, and it displays fine, but no action except the button highlighting occurs when it's selected. I also tried "rew", "rewind", "rwd" and "reverse" without success. Anyone know the correct command? Fast Forward works fine.

[popcornmix]

Although I think this controller, and the iPhone YAMJ skin are both great, I do find one problem.

If I watch a video using this controller, and subsequently try to play a video using the normal remote (either though test browser, or using YAMJ) it misbehaves.

Basicially it starts, and I hear the audio, but the display flashes (a flash of correct video, then a few seconds of black). If I try to change the TV Mode on remote
I sometimes end up seeing the previous file listing display that was up before playing the movie (but still with audio playing).
I've found no way of recovering apart from a reboot.

Anyone else seeing this? Anyone found a workaround?

[humptybump]

(08-16-2009 10:09 PM)David Barr Wrote:  I've modified it a bit to include only the controls I want, but don't seem to be able to get Fast reverse/Rewind working.

I was able to add both fast-forward (fwd) and rewind (rew). The control branch of the code already has the commands so it was just an issue of hooking them up to the UI.

the two commands are:

PHP Code:

<li><a href='?action=control&amp;command=rew'><img src='themes/iphone/controls-rew.png' alt='' /></a></li>
<li><a href='?action=control&amp;command=fwd'><img src='themes/iphone/controls-fwd.png' alt='' /></a></li> 


I did have to create the two buttons using the existing "next" and "prev" buttons and cutting off the solid bars on the ends.

[David Barr]

Thanks for the reply! I had already tried this, but your confirmation got me to try once more. It indeed does work.

[Niels Leenheer]

MediatankController 0.4 has just been released.

There have been no functional changes, but this is the first release to be distributed with the Community Software Installer. I've also added support for faster browsing using the option lighttpd package.

Just download CSI from nmtinstaller.com and follow the instructions. The package is called MediatankController. After installing follow the provided instruction for installing it on your iPhone home screen.

[FreddyTex]

Hi guys, I'm new and as a fact have a simple question.
The app via CSI works perfectly (Firefox, Safari) but not on my Iphone 3GS due to the port 9999.

When I do install the controller folder and consequently use port 8088 all works perfectly.

My phone is jailbroken, but does safari on the iphone allow other ports than 8088?

Am I a single case?