The VideoLAN Forums

Hi Peeps,

I'm working on a project in my own time and would like to be advise if this is possible. I am learning php, mysql and apache in the last few months so please excuse me if some parts sounds off.

I am planning to create a network jukebox/Karaoke network system(not for internet) within a local LAN. I want to create a central database using mysql and store the DVD(.mpeg), VCD(.dat), and CD+G(mp3+G) files as BLOBs. The php web interface I was planning to do is a remote control(play, next song, previous song, queue selected song, modify song queue up and down. Another function is to search(Artist (String), genre (String) , duets (Boolean), language (String), album (String), KSUID (Int, Karaoke Song Unique ID) which is ofcourse got nothing to do with VLC, but I need to make sure if i select a song, it can be queued at the bottom of the list. I prefer if the VLC launches its own instance and automatically opens full screen onto another screen(plasma) and all the controls are done on touch screen via firefox web interface. both the plasma and touch screen are connected to the client machine.

The mysql and http server will be centrall located and launches the VLC player on the requested client machine(star topology).

I dont know if i need to set up a VLS, or if i should make it copy a temp song file onto the client machine and automatically run instead.

Any ideas? Advice? or resources you can provide for me to start?


Below is a little Tasks I need to do, can someone confirm if this is possible with VLC?

Tasks:
• Configure systems
o Client:
 Install and configure basic Ubuntu Linux.
 Assign static IP
 Ensure client machines can access database server where the music are stored. Ping server.
 Install Firefox.
 Install and configure VLC player.
 Setup touch screen TFT
 Setup plasma
o DB Server:
 Setup Raid5, cluster and File system for large file database.
 Install and configure basic Ubuntu Linux.
 Assign static IP
 Install Apache2.
 Install PHP5.
• Configure VLC player
o Add selected karaoke songs to queue (playlist).
o Play appropriate karaoke music formats
 VCD(.dat and .mpeg)
 DVD
 CD+G
• Create a web based interface
o Language interface select.
o Song search (Create a structured song table)
 Select song list by artist, genre, duets, language, album, etc
 Picture icon to each song/album.
 Song search engine, onscreen keyboard to search through whole database of music. Advance search filter by Artist, genre, duets, language, album.
o VLC Player Remote Control
 Play song, play next song, play previous song, replay current song.
 Change sound channels (voice or no voice with music)
 New playlist.
o Connection establishment and query to MySQL database.

I didn't put install and configure VLS as I am unsure if it needed....

okay, i've tested the UDP streaming with VLC and it seems to be good... the remote control I know I can redesign easily.... one question... at the moment, if I want to have different clients watching different streams I need to open multiple instances for VLC and set each one individually to each client... are there a way to set up one VLC to stream each clients request instead of multiple instances? and ofcourse, the web remote control can be access via different ports for stream...

how do i queue/add more media to be played when streaming? everytime i drag it into the playlist, it will start playing from the server instead of streaming to the client machine.

change of plans now, going to just have VLC player installed on the client machine and the servers with apache2, php and mysql. Does anyone know if I create a song, artish, genre etc search functions in php with the song directives stored in the mysql DB. and if i select songs that way it can be enqueued in VLC?

someone reply

I'm the new VLC forum troll... someone answer me....!!

I'm the new VLC forum troll... someone answer me....!!

Its hard to say what gets responses in forums, maybe people are put off by long winded posts, I don't know.. but I ussually try to be help when I can.

Why reinvent the wheel, there are at least half a dozen solutions that will work for most of what you want to do.

First some background, there are two ways to create a media server, 1 is to use an application running on a pc some notable examples, windows mce, beyond tv , sage tv , mythtv ... etc. The other is to use a settop media center. Examples are showcenter, baffalo linkstation , dlink 320/520.

Lets focus on the settop box, because as you will see that will be the most useful info to you, and you don't need to buy a settop box.
There are two main category of interface for these settop boxes, those that support univeral plug and play (upnp, an xml protocol) and those that use the older syabas method, which use surprise, an html or php server based ussually coupled with a mysql database).

What should be apparent but isn't (not sure why, because I have been doing this for some time) is that many of these applications, and some are open source (ie. open showcenter, swisscenter ) will work equally well with a pc or mac client.

Since these applications are designed for settop boxes it takes some tweaking to make them work with as a soft client but much less than if you started from scratch. For what your trying to do I would look at swisscenter, It seems to have about 90% of the functionality you want.

It should simply be a matter to write a few lines of javacript to convert the url returned by the server to the network uri that vlc needs.

I have sucessfully done this to stream video to my pc and mac laptops. It works great.

thanks for responding, I will definately look into those existing applications. At the moment I have been looking into NetJukeBox and ripping parts of the codings, mainly the mysql database and search function and tweak it to work the way I want it to. By any chance you willing to share your working application? if you are then I'll give you my email and I'll test it and see how well it could work for the application I want it to... ofcourse I will need to add alot of my own work too

yeah, i am now thinking of storing the videos on BLOBS and upon request of the song/video.. it will be pushed to the requesting client and then be executed once the whole file has been downloaded. This will probably make it easier for me to set up VLC, but apart from i still have to integrate the http remote control to play, skip, arrange playlist(move song up or down) from a web browser.

hey dude, thanks for refering me to swisscenter!! man, this will make my life 10x easier now... and the possibilities looks endless!! I need to install and test it now.. just found some instructions on installing on ubuntu

one question, on the client soft side (say I am using another ubuntu system) does it launch a player (after some tweaking) once i selected my media to play?

another thing, is the showcenter you mentioned the pinnacle showcenter? because when i google "showcenter" swisscenter comes up too ^^

i didn't understand a single word you wrote!! lol...

i think that guy is abusing the google system by adding lots of links to their website ^^

topic closed because of massive spaming (they seem to target one topic and spam it regardless of the fact that i delete the messages everytime)