Phil,
Glad you enjoyed it. It was pretty simple, really. Tivo provides a java library to write your own "HME" apps. The fact that it was java, and that I already had my whole piano interface written in java made it pretty simple to paste the two together. It works exceptionally well. All of the normal commands work right from the remote...pause, play, fast forward, etc. Unfortunately, the Tivo remote's volume commands actually never hit the Tivo, they go to the TV instead...because of this, I had to map some of the number keys (otherwise unused for the piano) to the volume controls. Either way, this started out as me only wanting to see what song was playing...having the complete ability to browse the library and select a new song just came along as I developed it.
I'm fairly certain that I could do the same thing to an xbox 360. In fact, I've got a Series 3 tivo on both TVs, as well as an xbox 360 on both TVs. The primary reason I went with the Tivo is that it is always on, and always being used...The Xbox would have to go through a rather lenthy boot up before you could get to the piano...so, the Tivo won. :-)
There are two ways that I can think of to make this work on the 360. (Neither as simple as the Tivo)
#1) I use pyTivo to stream videos, etc. to my 360 (I agree, it's easier to stay away from the media extender stuff). I think I could go in there and convince the Tivo that the Piano's "groups" (user, pianosoft, etc.) were folders, and allow you to select songs in albums that way. It would get tricky, though, when starting to acually play a song since nothing would really be streaming to the 360...I'd have to fake that somehow...maybe this is trivial, but I'd have to investigate. I'd also have to learn more python than I currently know (approximately zero).
#2) The 360 provides the whole XNA framework for developing your own apps (whatever they may be). This would allow me to do whatever I wanted on the 360, so it would certainly be possible...But I think people would be forced to "buy" it from xbox live, and I would have to pay ($99?) for the right to publish it. This would have to be done in C#.net, but I already know enough of that to get the job done...
Really, it comes down to the fact that the 360 takes too long to boot up...It's easier to just get up and go get the remote. :-)
-Kevin
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From: Phil Blah <phil.blah@...>
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 12:56:25 AM
Subject: Re: [disklavier] New control mechanism for the Mark IV
Hey Kevin,
That's excellent, I have been thinking of a way to do that but using another PC and a remote, but that's all too clunky and not worth the bother lol.
What sort of protocol does that TiVo box use? In Australia we have a weird poor mans version as we only have 5 FTA channels (so why bother etc) and the paytv mobs have their own closed system etc... so not sure if it will work etc..
I wonder if an Xbox 360 can use the same sort of thing, it has the option to connect to a pc running Tervisity and other programs (I try and not use the normal media centre crap)...
Cheers
Philip
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From: Kevin Goroway <kgoroway@yahoo. com>
To: disklavier@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 3:59:14 AM
Subject: [disklavier] New control mechanism for the Mark IV
I often leave the piano playing random songs. My wife and I find ourselves sitting on the couch trying to figure out what song it is that we are hearing... I've left the PRC-100 remote on the piano, and we don't have a laptop running DKVBrowser around...so I needed something else to control the piano from the comfort of my couch...So, I came up with this:
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=be_v8bT4Fok
It almost took as long to make the video and upload it as it did to write the code for this (although heavily re-using the code from DKVBrowser). ..
-Kevin