HouseBot

Did anyone write a XBMC plugin?

Thought about it a lot but Meedio still handles all my needs. But XBMC is most definately the way to go forward and would be a nice project to integrate.

I've been seriously considering moving off of Windows Media Center, since I'm unsure of it's future. I'm looking for a media center that can allow content to be managed across multiple extenders (like WMC can). I'm curious to know how well their UPnP interface works. I might check it out.

Scott, why use the UPNP interface and not write a layer based on the internal message structure. I have not looked into the XBMC message structure yet but from what I can see by using iDevice apps controlling XBMC, it goes way beyond UPNP. I suppose it works much like the Meedio message structure does. I wrote an interface that scans all Meedio messages and set properties in HouseBot as well as send messages to Meedio in the correct format to be able to control Meedio. It even made the HouseBot Connector obsolete. While Meedio is dead, MeediOS is very much alive. They adopted much of the same message structure but went from SQLite2 to SQLite3 and for all I know MeediOS still lacks an internal player. XBMC should be much alike and it seems open. I don't want all the nice OSD's because that only clutters the actual output but I do like a media player that can be fully controlled and be able to provide status so HouseBot can be used as the GUI.
With the right codecs, Meedio will remain future proof even after we stepped into the 4K world but Meedio will never get an update on its internal player to be able to play 3D stereoscopic content. Not that it is a big problem because it plays Side by Side and Top and Bottom 3D content but it simply means that it will not adapt to future (new) technologies whereas XBMC will do so.
I have seen XBMC play streaming content from a DreamBox and I cannot get that to work on Meedio anymore. So there really are some pro's converting from WMC or Meedio to XBMC. Maybe even do what the Meedio team was supposed to do back in 2005

XBMC or Kodi (since latest 14.0 release) would certainly be a great addition.

I use housebot in my campervan as a front end. Behind this is a number of applications including Kodi 14.0

Housebot adds some touch screen buttons (getting away from the requirement to skin)- these send commands to Girder 5. Girder 5 then controls Kodi 14 using JSON RPC.

Any solution that works in a similar way to Oslers Housebot solution for Sonos (exposing the app via uPNP or JSON ) would be fantastic. Displaying "now playing" track/artist information at the top of a housebot screen whilst running other menus and apps etc.

So, +1 for XBMC / Kodi...

more info on the JSON RPC:

http://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/Examples

Richard Naninck wrote:Scott, why use the UPNP interface and not write a layer based on the internal message structure. ...

Richard, My comment about upnp was referring to how well remote XBMC instances would be able to stream the live tuner data and any other info like WMC extenders do now. My initial curiosity is just finding a media center that is at least as good as WMC and can remote to multiple TV's throughout the house.

I've been playing around with Kodi just enough to see that it has some potential as a WMC replacement for me.

I may have some time in a few weeks to look into a plugin to interface HB to it. I wasn't that involved with the Meedio Connector, and I don't even remember many specifics of the functionality. From what I've read here, it sounds like HB controlling/monitoring Kodi is more important than Kodi being able to control/monitor HB. If anyone wants to list any specifics on features (I realize that a few have already been mentioned in this thread), that might be helpful.

I'm glad that a few of us are interested in such a plugin.
I would love HB to control Kodi. It should be exciting.
I'd like to have:
- Song list by artist, by genre or by name, including the disk cover
- Movie list by genre, name, or year, including the photo.
- Be able to select, play, pause, stop and move forward and backward.
- Also, I would like to the device to be attached to a Kodi device (by IP address or name), and to be able to have more than one device (in the case when there's more than one Kodi device).

Very excited about a plugin for KODI

I have been using XBMC (now Kodi) for a very long time. My older HTPC would switch between a HB remote (FULL Screen) and XBMC (FULL Screen) using Eventghost to glue them together. HB would call a macro and I wrote simple python scripts for XBMC.

I have used the Eventghost plugin XBMC2 to control XBMC with Housebot too. This worked ok but the plugin support seemed to die off. So a plugin for KODI would be amazing!

HB to KODI control request list:
-Basic control commands to select the various menus and controls
-As mentioned IP addressable would be super cool as KODI is used in my house on few things (I would be happy with one though)
-Get Now Playing with Album cover support
-Playlists
++-------Be able to send a popup message and or graphic to KODI (would be a great feature for incoming phone calls or notifications from HB!)

Going from KODI to HB is not as big a need I don't think. If folks use an HTPC they still need something (Like Eventghost) to switch windows to display a Software remote for Home Automation (I don't think anyone would want to even try to put a SW remote into KODI).

my .02

Kevin

If any of you (or anyone else viewing this thread) want to help test the new XBMC/Kodi plugin, PM me. Being part of the testing not only helps to ensure a quality plugin, but it also helps you get your feature requests implemented .