mb-desktop-xine README - Matthew Allum - <mallum@handhelds.org>


Introduction
===

mb-desktop-xine is a matchbox-desktop plugin that allows you to browse
and play movies and music. Its in pretty early stages and should
probably be considered alpha software - its rough around edges. 

It grew out of a need to urge to run matchbox on my TV ( via mini-itx
box ) and make it do something useful. Its alot more basic than
something like MythTV but has less dependencies.

Install
===

Make sure you have a recent matchbox-desktop ( 0.8+ ) and libxine installed.

Then do the usual; 

% ./configure 
% make
% make install 


Configuring
===

To get matchbox-desktop to load the module you need to add a line for
the module to you mbdesktop_modules file ( from matchbox-desktop install ).

The line should contain the location of your installed module ( prefix/share/matchbox/desktop/modules/xinebrowser.so ) and then a full path to a comfiguration file. I have for example;

% cat ~/.matchbox/mbdesktop_modules

/usr/local/share/matchbox/desktop/modules/imgbrowser.so /home/mallum/Desktop/Media/pictures
/usr/local/share/matchbox/desktop/modules/xinebrowser.so /home/mallum/.matchbox/mbxine.desktop


The conference file referenced is a .desktop file and should look
something like;


[Desktop Entry]
MoviePath=/mnt/media/movies
MusicPath=/mnt/media/music
PlaylistsPath=/mnt/media/playlists
VideoDriver=xv
VizPlugin=goom
RadioPath=/home/mallum/.matchbox/radio

This is needed to tell the module where to find your various media
files and to tweak various settings.

Note, you probably only need to change the various path keys, the
defaults for everything else should be fine.

Heres a list of know keys;

- 'MoviePath'     
   Set it to a full path where all your music files are. 
   defualts to '/movies'. 

- 'MovieFolderName'
   Sets the name of the 'Movie' folder. 
   defualts to 'Movies'.

- 'MusicPath'
   Set it to a full path where all your music files are. 
   defualts to '/music'. 

- 'MusicFolderName'
  What to name the Music folder

- 'RadioFolderName'
  What to name the Radio folder

- 'DrivePath'
   Where you dvd/cdrom os.
   defaults "/dev/dvd";

- 'VizPlugin'

  Xine visualisation plugin to use.
  defaults to 'goom' 

- 'VideoDriver'

  Xine video driver to use.
  defualts to 'auto'

- 'AudioDriver'

  Xine audio driver to use.
  defaults to 'auto'

- 'RadioPath'

  Path to radio .desktop files ( see below )
  defaults to '/radio'

- 'PlaylistsPath'

  Path to playlists
  defaults to '/playlists'

- 'ThumbnailVideo'

  Thumbnailing videos is call, but can cause crashes :( so you may want to
  set this to false.
  
  defaults to 'true'

- 'ForceXShmForVisuals'

  I had some problems with xine and goom playing under Xv on my box, So
  I added this. 

  defaults to 'false' 


Once this is setup, start the matchbox-desktop and you should be all set 
togo. Check the main matchbox manual and themeing howto for further 
tweaking of things like icon sizes, theme etc. 


Adding Radio stations
===

Radio stations are just .desktop files added to your Radio
directory containing a Mrl ( or url ) for the radio stream. 

Heres an example;

[Desktop Entry]
Mrl=mmsh://ms2.capitalinteractive.co.uk/xfm_high
Name=XFM
Icon=xfm.png

The Icon entry is optional.


Adding Playlists
===

You can add these with the extension .txt or .m3u to your Playlist directory.

The expected format is simple text files with one entrys per line
containing a path to a music file ( This is basically .m3u format ).
Make sure the paths are either full absolute or relative to you Music
root.


Remote Control/Keys Setup
===

mb-desktop-xine uses the following keys for control;

( NOTE: there is a program included with lirc which you can use to make
        your remote send x key envents - this is what I use. Alternatively
        if the keys dont match what you want use xmodmap or patch 
        mb-desktop-xine source. I hope to make th ekeys configurable in the 
        future. )


Home:
        DVD - goto menu.
i:
            - Show infomation on current playing media. 

m:
	    - toggle volume mute

+:
	    - volume up

-:
	    - volume down

Arrow Up:
   Browsing - naviagtion
   playback - volume down
        DVD - menu operation.

Arrow Down:
   Browsing - naviagtion
   playback - volume up
        DVD - menu operation.
     

Arrow Right:
   Browsing - naviagtion
      Music - play next track ( except radion )
      Movie - advance forward
        DVD - menu operation.


Arrow Left:
   Browsing - naviagtion
      Music - play prev track ( except radion )
      Movie - advance backward
        DVD - menu operation.
	  
space:
            - pause

f:
	    - Fast forward ( if possible )

Return / Enter: 
   Browsing - activate selected item ( eg play ) 
        Dvd - menu selection.    
   playback - exit