Solution: Media info on 2nd screen
#1
I have spent much time searching for a solution for bringing the information of the currently playing media to the embedded lcd screen of my HTPC, which offers a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, while watching tv shows, movies or listening to music on the "bigscreen".

I now have coded a small webpage for the built-in XBMC webserver, that does exactly what I need. I just have to start Firefox (IE doesnt work ATM) in fullscreen mode on the small embedded screen and all the relevant information is on screen.

The solution is easily adaptable to other screen resolutions via the variables found in the .asp file.

Installation:
Extract the contents of the .zip to your web folder inside your XBMC installation and open the url "http://yourxbmcip/multimediascreen.asp" in your firefox.
Be sure to first open the .asp file in a text editor and change at least "xbox_web_path" to your needs, since that is the path of the webserver, where the thumbnails are copied to to be available via HTTP. You can change other aspects there as well, eg. screen size or font size.

Here is the Version 1.1

Since I'm not a skilled coder, please feel free to add your changes to my code! :-)

Screenshots:
Movies:
Image
TV shows:
Image
Music:
Image
Reply
#2
Great Work, triumvirrr!!

A question, though:

The Next and Prev shows the complete pathname of the upcoming or previous Track, resulting in a truncated line.
On your screenshot I can see "Metisse - Pray", without a pathname. I only see something like a truncated line saying "E:\News\Prog 1\Darwin's Radio - Eyes of...."

Is this a setting in XBMC or in your code?

If developed a bit more (don't know if this is your intention). it could be a great Web interface for a little touchscreen like the MIMO UM-740 (800x480) http://www.terracode.com/MIMO_UM740_Revi...ew_P1.html.

Instead of powering up a power consuming LCD/Plasma, you could use the external/internal extra display for choosing/playing music content. For video content the primarily screen would be needed obviously.

Of course there need to be some controls and lists on a sub or previous page chosen from your existing "Now playing" page, where the user can choose his media.

Anyway, great work!
Reply
#3
Thanks for your feedback!

The truncated line of the next/prev item was caused by an error in my script when accessing local discs - it originally worked only with remote shares. Now it should only show the filename, without the whole path and without extension, no matter where the file is located.

I have updated the downloadlink in my original post.

I will eventually also implement some control buttons, since the little screen built into my HTPC has touch capabilities which I would like to use besides my remote.
So what will come is at least the possibility to pause - next - prev via the interface, probably even a full browsing mode for music.
I don't think, that this makes much sense for movies, since when watching movies you will most definitely have the big screen lit ;-)
Reply
#4
this looks realy great... I'll try this immediately.
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#5
I've tried it, but get an error message in my browser:
Webpage error details

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0)
Timestamp: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 15:43:20 UTC


Message: Expected hexadecimal digit
Line: 8
Char: 41
Code: 0
URI: http://192.168.1.100/multimediascreen.asp


Message: 'status_position' is undefined
Line: 129
Char: 2
Code: 0
URI: http://192.168.1.100/multimediascreen.asp


Message: 'document.getElementById(...)' is null or not an object
Line: 464
Char: 2
Code: 0
URI: http://192.168.1.100/multimediascreen.js

Any idea ?
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#6
Please try using Firefox, as stated in my first post, IE isn't supported ATM.

I will post a newer version in the near future with support for fanart etc., since there seems to be some interest in the project.
Reply
#7
triumvirrr Wrote:Please try using Firefox, as stated in my first post, IE isn't supported ATM.

I will post a newer version in the near future with support for fanart etc., since there seems to be some interest in the project.

Wow, this looks realy promising. Thanks !!
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#8
Is it easy to stop switching between date and time (bigtime) ?
I would like to see constantely the time.
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#9
triumvirrr Wrote:Please try using Firefox, as stated in my first post, IE isn't supported ATM.

I will post a newer version in the near future with support for fanart etc., since there seems to be some interest in the project.

Just curious: any idea of a possible date/periode ?
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#10
The newer version is already running on my system - just have to do some minor cosmetical changes before putting it online.
I think it will be ready and online until next weekend.
Reply
#11
triumvirrr Wrote:The newer version is already running on my system - just have to do some minor cosmetical changes before putting it online.
I think it will be ready and online until next weekend.

Many thx !!
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#12
New version is online, some tweaks in the HTML code and fanart support are the most notable changes.

You need Firefox 3.5 or newer for this interface to work. Older firefox versions are not supported since there was a change in opacity handling introduced with 3.5 and I wrote no code to check which version is in use.

Please report back if everything is working fine.
I just tested on my own system with all files on a remote storgae and with fanart for nearly every movie in the movie's folder (it's copied directly from there), but for example no music fanart, so I don't know how the interface behaves when confronted with music fanart.

The download link is edited into the first post.
Reply
#13
First, thank you for the update.
I've tested it. Here's some feedback:
1st thing: I needed to change the resolution to 800x600 but the big clock and date aren't visible. They are also a bit too large (almost visible when not playing any media).
2nd thing: fanart isn't appearing. I just get a black transparant overlay over my background.
3th: the thumbs aren't visible. I just get a very very very small square in the upper right corner.
Greetz,
P
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply
#14
The font sizes can be configured within the styles-section of the .asp page. ATM the sizes are set for decent size with 1280x800 pixel displays and need to be reduced for lower resolutions.

Regarding points 2 and 3:
You are sure that you have modified "xbox_web_path" to your system path? If you don't use a German windows system, the path will most likely have to be adapted! If you do have adapted this value, please PM me 1) your modified *.asp 2) the path of your XBMC installation 3) example paths of media you are using.

I have disabled the clock/time when playing content in the current release, since I think, that a display jammed with too many information is not really stylish. Please refer to the new screenshots in the first posts to see, how it _should_ look like ATM.
If you however want it to be visible, just open the *.js file, search for
Quote://document.getElementById('bigtime').innerHTML=(Math.round
and uncomment it, therefore set a comment (two slashes) before the following line
Quote:document.getElementById('bigtime').innerHTML="";
. That should be it.

Cheers
triumvirrr
Reply
#15
triumvirrr Wrote:The font sizes can be configured within the styles-section of the .asp page. ATM the sizes are set for decent size with 1280x800 pixel displays and need to be reduced for lower resolutions.

Regarding points 2 and 3:
You are sure that you have modified "xbox_web_path" to your system path? If you don't use a German windows system, the path will most likely have to be adapted! If you do have adapted this value, please PM me 1) your modified *.asp 2) the path of your XBMC installation 3) example paths of media you are using.

I have disabled the clock/time when playing content in the current release, since I think, that a display jammed with too many information is not really stylish. Please refer to the new screenshots in the first posts to see, how it _should_ look like ATM.
If you however want it to be visible, just open the *.js file, search for and uncomment it, therefore set a comment (two slashes) before the following line . That should be it.

Cheers
triumvirrr

Hi,

I adapted the styles (it was h5).
Path is sent via PM.

Greetz,
P
Intel NUC BOXD34010WYK2 / Intel mSata 525 30GB / Kingston 8 GB / Intel 7260hmw
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Solution: Media info on 2nd screen2