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Hello guys,
Yesterday I have reinstalled my system because I had to get a new HDD and as a side note I have installed Kodi Helix RC 3. I haven't looked at this thread and on the github log, code and all the related stuff for a while. I just have quickly skimmed through latest tree pages to refresh my memories and I do have several points...
NVDA is opensource. They are using scons for managing the build enviromment. If adding binary files as a part of the addon is not allowed perhaps we can try building NVDA support as a git submodule. I know it'll might include a bit more work than plainly copying a binary they are providing but still if it makes life easier for the Kodi team why not to do it. Removing NVDA support is something I would like to avoid if you can accept my reasoning. NVDA is the only decent free screen reading application for windows, it's really getting (if not overcoming) the commercial rival products with the feature set and performance, so removing support for it would be kind of strange and inappropriate. It's really all that simple. Plugin your media with content be it NAS, external drive whatever, turn up your machine, install NVDA, install Kodi and enjoy. If this kind of reasoning does not look valid then look at it from another perspective. This is a community. Kodi is a part of open-source community. This addon is a part of community eventhough besides Ruuk doing awesome work there are verry verry little contributions to it. NVDA is also a community project with a non profit organization leading the development. I think we all can get the idea.
I am also one of those who would like to have more specific handling for lists. The most critical is what has already been said that after updating to helix tv channel names are no longer reported when EPG is provided for the TV / radio channel in question.
However I would also like to see enhancements to the other views. For example while browsing music library by default only song title is reported by the Kodi Screen reader. When browsing albums this is fine but while in party mode or when playing a custom playlist reporting Artist and album would be usefull too.
And now something I am not sure about so I'll rather ask. Is there a way to query what's currently being played? I mean when full screen video is shown or when audio is playing with visualization on top? I would expect to have a keyboard command which when pressed would cause Kodi screen reader to report what's currently being played. It would be even cooler if it might present current EPG entry along with the channel name when TV or Radio is playing. Is something like this already available or is this good candidate for a feature request? The idea behind this is that we keep Kodi running on the our HTPC all day long and everyone is free to play whatever he / she likes. As I listen to something I would like to also play in future or I would rather like not to hear it in the future I would use this to quickly see what's currently playing.
Sorry for a long post full of questions and demands.
Thanks Ruuk.
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ruuk
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NVDA is not preventing the addon from going into the official repo, only delaying it. It's just a matter of deciding on policy regarding binary addons and binaries in addons that was already being worked out at the time this came into the picture.
Getting what's playing on a keypress should be easy to add.
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ruuk
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Getting PVR info may be possible as well. I'll try to look at it when I get home from work.
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Most of the people that I know use NVDA primarily. I do as well, and will never install jaws on a system unless I have no other choice.
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The latest version reads the titles of what is being played correctly, nice job again Ruuk. We are thankful to your promptness and dedication.
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ruuk
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I had a short chat with one of the team members responsible for addon submissions and it became clear that we wouldn't be able to sort out the binary addon issue until after Helix release, mostly because things are quite busy with the team right now. He suggested that we could put it into the official repository now with the NVDA binary library removed so that it wouldn't have to wait until the issue was settled.
I wanted to ask what you guys thought about that.
The NVDA backend could still be enabled by downloading the library and adding it to the addon. I would have to make a trivial code change to allow it to be put with the settings data so it doesn't get erased on version updates. I would probably make a windows installer to simplify installing the library. After Helix release, we can get this sorted out and get it back in after it's decided how to handle it.
Also, here's a little explanation about the basics behind the issue:
One of the policies that ensures that we can all trust Kodi to work as expected is that all the source code available for review. For addons this means that either they are python sources, or as in the case of PVR addons, compiled internally. Even though the NVDA binary is open source, it was not compiled by us, so it could technically have different code from the published source. No one here is worried that this is the case for the NVDA library, but we can't just ignore the policy, because we (the Team) are responsible to the users. So basically this just means either an adjustment to the policy needs to be made or the allowance of exceptions to it. In either case how it affects future such instances has to be considered.
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I have used a display with nvda, but not with kodi, but I don't see hwy it wouldn't work, as all it does is put what speech would say to the display. Jaws is still there for professional environments, but if NVDA keeps going the way it is, it will overtake them.
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Yes, it seems that the reader becomes silent once the video starts in the external player and does not comeback at all even if the external player is closed.