TV Terminal - IPTV and/or DVB

[Franz Leu]

Hi

I am at the beginning for a new development for a simple MM-Terminal.
For that, I need to be able to display TV, of course. The unit will have
our own app as shell and I actually would like to have the TV picture
shown/controlled on our own app. I now am not so sure where to jump in
and have some basic questions.

- Can I use the Windows Media Player and configure it using SDK - or
even with skins - to show me the naked picture only w/o anything else of
WMP?
- Do I better hook on a 3rd party app that has a cool API to use to get
what I need? What app?

If somebody could point me in the right direction, that would be great
and save me a lot of time in building up the basics before even start
the development - possibly in the wrong direction ;-)

Any hints to good readings about this stuff would be highly appreciated
as well.

Thanks a lot.
Franz

[Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]]

On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:42:59 +0100, Franz Leu

Post by Franz Leu
Hi
I am at the beginning for a new development for a simple MM-Terminal.
For that, I need to be able to display TV, of course. The unit will have
our own app as shell and I actually would like to have the TV picture
shown/controlled on our own app. I now am not so sure where to jump in
and have some basic questions.
- Can I use the Windows Media Player and configure it using SDK - or
even with skins - to show me the naked picture only w/o anything else of
WMP?

Put the player in Fullscreen mode when you start the kiosk.

Edit the shortcut or command line to WMP to terminate in the switch

/fullscreen

That's about all you need to do from the sound of it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562624.aspx

HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2010
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

[Franz Leu]

Post by Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:42:59 +0100, Franz Leu

Post by Franz Leu
Hi
I am at the beginning for a new development for a simple MM-Terminal.
For that, I need to be able to display TV, of course. The unit will have
our own app as shell and I actually would like to have the TV picture
shown/controlled on our own app. I now am not so sure where to jump in
and have some basic questions.
- Can I use the Windows Media Player and configure it using SDK - or
even with skins - to show me the naked picture only w/o anything else of
WMP?

Put the player in Fullscreen mode when you start the kiosk.
Edit the shortcut or command line to WMP to terminate in the switch
/fullscreen
That's about all you need to do from the sound of it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562624.aspx
HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2010
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

Neil

Thanks a lot.
So for simply viewing in full-screen this would be the solution. I don't
want the user to see any of WMP's original GUI. Our shell application
should have its own GUI and completely substitute normal OS/WMP user
controls. We want to hide and lock most everything of the OS/WMP .. as
usual with an 'appliance style' unit.
Can I hide the native WMP GUI even when displaying not in full-screen
mode, to have our GUI (buttons and stuff) on the right side of the
screen i.e.?

Thanks for your help.
Franz

[Tim De Baets]

It sounds like the best approach for this would be to use the WMP
ActiveX control in your own app, see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd564580%28VS.85%29.aspx

The "Remoting the Windows Media Player Control"-subsection looks
interesting too.

Regards

--
Tim De Baets
http://www.bm-productions.tk

Post by Franz Leu

Post by Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:42:59 +0100, Franz Leu

Post by Franz Leu
Hi
I am at the beginning for a new development for a simple MM-Terminal.
For that, I need to be able to display TV, of course. The unit will have
our own app as shell and I actually would like to have the TV picture
shown/controlled on our own app. I now am not so sure where to jump in
and have some basic questions.
- Can I use the Windows Media Player and configure it using SDK - or
even with skins - to show me the naked picture only w/o anything else of
WMP?

Put the player in Fullscreen mode when you start the kiosk.
Edit the shortcut or command line to WMP to terminate in the switch
/fullscreen
That's about all you need to do from the sound of it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562624.aspx
HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2010
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

Neil
Thanks a lot.
So for simply viewing in full-screen this would be the solution. I don't
want the user to see any of WMP's original GUI. Our shell application
should have its own GUI and completely substitute normal OS/WMP user
controls. We want to hide and lock most everything of the OS/WMP .. as
usual with an 'appliance style' unit.
Can I hide the native WMP GUI even when displaying not in full-screen
mode, to have our GUI (buttons and stuff) on the right side of the
screen i.e.?
Thanks for your help.
Franz

[Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:01:07 +0100, Franz Leu

Post by Franz Leu

Post by Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]

Post by Franz Leu
I am at the beginning for a new development for a simple MM-Terminal.
For that, I need to be able to display TV, of course. The unit will have
our own app as shell and I actually would like to have the TV picture
shown/controlled on our own app. I now am not so sure where to jump in
and have some basic questions.
- Can I use the Windows Media Player and configure it using SDK - or
even with skins - to show me the naked picture only w/o anything else of
WMP?

Put the player in Fullscreen mode when you start the kiosk.
That's about all you need to do from the sound of it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562624.aspx

So for simply viewing in full-screen this would be the solution. I don't
want the user to see any of WMP's original GUI. Our shell application
should have its own GUI and completely substitute normal OS/WMP user
controls. We want to hide and lock most everything of the OS/WMP .. as
usual with an 'appliance style' unit.
Can I hide the native WMP GUI even when displaying not in full-screen
mode, to have our GUI (buttons and stuff) on the right side of the
screen i.e.?

It sounds like you might benefit fom a customisable, fullscree UI.

WMP will be quite hard to manage like that (it has a SKINs API, but
it's deprecated). I'd strongly consider running Silverlight as an out
of browser application instead.

You'll benefit from a good range of modern codecs built-in, and a
strong developer community. If you're familiar with C#, then setting
up the XAML and scripting components won't hold any terrors.

XAML is used to create the layout and UI components, then you can
attach various video playback code to those in a moderately simple
manner.

http://silverlight.net/learn/videos/silverlight-videos/out-of-browser-experiences/

HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2010
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

[Neil Smith [MVP Digital Media]]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:01:07 +0100, Franz Leu
Oops, second link didn't paste correctly :

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/interactive/newsletter/08-05/articles/mediatechnologies.aspx

HTH
Cheers - Neil
------------------------------------------------
Digital Media MVP : 2004-2010
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs

[Franz Leu]

Thank you guys.
I will 'read' into both of your suggestions.

Franz