Netzflocken

Over the last days I worked on the GStreamer  UPnP A(/V) MediaRenderer backend for Coherence.

The current objective is to obtain a certain base functionality that will allow us to test the renderer in more real-life scenarios and detect the points of contact between the MediaRenderer backend stub and the real media ‘device’, like the GStreamer playbin here or a MediaCenter like Elisa.

So far we can

• access an audio file on an UPnP MediaServer
• start, stop and pause playback
• mute/unmute and change the volume

Controlling with the Intel AV Media Controller works reasonably well, although there is some issue with the volume control, it seems that the allowedValueRange for the volume is not respected by the controller.

I’ll  add the seek functions and the SetNextAVTransportURI action next, and then it is back to the MediaServer, trying to add media upload functionality (CreateObject/ImportResource) to it.

As one of my last computer related acts this year I want to set Coherence free.

Coherence is a framework, written in Python and based on Twisted, enabling your application to participate in digital living networks. At the moment it is focused on the UPnP universe, but others will follow.

It is not (yet) for instance an UPnP MediaServer with all bells and whistles, although the enclosed device implementation is already quite functional.

But I see its utility in any case more as a bridging tool to connect something so far isolated straightforward e.g. to other UPnP devices. It is somehow part of a concept I’ve worked on in the home-automation area over the last years - a thing I called ‘Weltenkoppler’, building bridges between the (digital) islands.

Thus Coherence will in some future allow us to

• let Elisa act as a MediaServer, a MediaRenderer and a ControlPoint for other devices
• allow a Nokia 770 with Canola or MediaStreamer to control playback on Elisa, or VDR, Freevo or MythTV
• expose the content of an iTunes DAAP share to UPnP devices and maybe even vice versa
• let Amarok, Totem or insert your favorite media player here operate as a MediaRenderer or as a MediaServer
• listen to your voice messages on an Asterisk or some other VoIP system with an UPnP MediaRenderer
• …

But for now I wish all of you out there a truly Happy New Year and cu again in 2007!