PHP Version of Player

Hi

It's not something we had considered because the client depends heavily on being able to leverage the os to play video, render web pages etc.

I would still be interested to see your code. Can you put it somewhere i can get to?

Thanks, Alex

Sure...I can send it to your email id. Can you let me know your email id

We can use browser to render web pages and browser plugins to play video right?!

Do you see any issues with playing video on desktop vs in browser?!

Look forward to hear your thoughts

Thanks
Charan.

You could, but the client is far more complex than that. In the background, it is busy downloading new media to play, checking what is scheduled and making decisions about what to show next.

There was a version of Xibo that was broadly based on what you suggest, but it didn't work that well because you have relatively little control over the environment in a browser (eg opening a powerpoint item caused a brief flash of a file download dialogue to show). We also found that most browsers aren't up to running 24/7 in this way (they tend to leak memory, or the browser plugins do).

Also the client caches all the content it plays - so for example, if your internet connection were to drop, you'll still see cached versions of RSS feeds etc.

If you want to send over the code you've written, feel free to send it to <email address hidden>

Thanks

Alex

Hi Alex,

Nice discussing with you all these details.

Some of the assumptions made while we started building a PHP based version are as follows:

1. There will be a seperate downloader in Java- which silently downloads the files and pings back the server for status notification.
2. Yes we did notice some memory leaks but there are marked improvements in VLC and Flash plugins. Also allowing short rest periods for the client should not be an issue, unless it is a very highly available environment in which case most people may opt for rugged systems that have been tested for a long time. By that time, we may have marked improvements in browser and plugins too.
3. No support for Powerpoint in Phase I.

The PHP client is primarily driven by Playlist file. Also there is going to be an added requirement of light httpd server running.

I shall be sending you the code today. All the best for the development work. We are already rolling out a small network with our version of code and can assist the development in terms of requirements and testing.

I shall keep following the stuff and really look forward to the Java client code.

Just noticed, Flash can't be supported using JClient.

In terms of Digital Signage usage most of the signage companies would require support for Flash after Video files.
And flash development is becoming so easy that any person with little knowledge can start building them. (See Toufee, sproutbuilder and other template based flash tools)

Hi

The JClient isn't finished yet. It's still under development. It gets worked on when I have time - which at the moment isn't as often as I'd like. We're also waiting for a couple of developments from Sun - JWebPane for example - which will make the code alot cleaner and more portable.

Currently, there's lots of things that it can't do - including playing a flash file, however the intension has always been to support everything the current .net client supports, and potentially more.

It's been written to be highly threaded and modular - such that each playing media has its own thread, so more complex things can be done, such as moving things around on the page (like Powerpoint animations etc). It also maintains each layout in its own frame so it should be possible to add support for transitions from layout to layout (fades, spinning cubes etc).

Cheers

Alex