Rusty,

this is exactly what I am doing currently )

But the problem is, that Jlink only allows a view on the physical file structure.

MM allows logical views like grouping by Artist, Title, Year, automated and manually created playlists... and this is that what would be the great benefit of a MM / DP-500 integration.

I would appriciate to walk thru the left hand navigation of MM by using the DP-500. This would be a great.

Regards,

Bodo

bodo, I just had a quick look at the forum and some of the software such as pclink and jlink, and it appears to me that the software in question simply shares directories with the main KISS unit.

If that's the case, wouldn't it be easy to simply:
-use jlink to configure a directory to share containing all your audio
-use MM to store all your audio in that directory and appropriate subdirectories

Does this make sense?

-Rusty

Jiri,

me again. On think I forgot: the missing video integration of MM?

I think, there could be two solution:

a) the MM / DP-500 interface proxies the incomiung requests for video / pictures to a second server.

b) MM allows to include JPGs and avi/mpg, etc. in its database..

Regards,

Bodo

Jiri,


a) DP-500 protocol

as I know there is currently no documentation of the interface/protocol the DP-500 uses.

But, there are already some backend application (Jlink, EZLink, etc.), which have been created by the community and which interface to the filesystem (Jlink) or an Access/Jet database (EZLink).

I am far away of beeing a programmer, but as I know (from DP-500 backend programmers), the DP-500 protocol is very easy. It has only a few commands.

JLink is written in Java, Open Source and published under GNU. I took a short look into the source (clienthander.java) and found the part, where the client (DP500) communication is made.

I assume, this is currently the best protocol documentation and maybe some code from Albert Seward (author of JLink) can be reused for a MM plugin.

If you want to take a look at it: http://user.it.uu.se/~alse7905/JLink/


b) Functionality of DP-500
To get a better understanding, what the DP-500 does, here some explaination:

- The DP-500 is DVD player with ethernet interface. Together with a server application, it is possible to retreive and play MP3, video (DivX, xvid and more) and JPEGs from the server.

- For this the Kiss has a menu, where you select if you want to play audio, video or pictures.

- When you choosed one of the menu items, the DP-500 presents a list of files and folders, which are in the related directory of the server. You can then navigate thru the foler structure.

- When you press PLAY on the remote control, while the cursor of the DP-500 is over a MP3-file, it plays this file and subsequently all others in the same folder.

Thats all...

Fundamentally the DP-500 server application/interface does only two things:

- Present the content of a folder to the player.
- Stream files to the player.

The navigation tru the folders is all done by the player itself.

What do you think?

Lowlander,

I posted already in the DP500 forum. I am still waiting for replies

Bodo,

have you seen anywhere a description of DP500 interface (how an application can communicate to it)? If there is any, then generally it would be possible to use MM for such purpose.

Jiri

You could also post the reverse of your request here on the Kiss DP500 forum and see if someone can write a plugin to make MM interface with the player.

MediaMonkey is a great application! I love it.

I would even love it much more, if there could be an interface to the KISS DP500 Ethernet MP3 Player (hardware player).

Link to the player specification:
http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=dp500&v=users

The DP500 is able to stream MP3, OGG, and much more more. For this it is communicating with a Windows based server application (called PC-Link), which is delivered togehter with the player but which is crap.

There are currently some Windows and Java based application arround, but far away of beeing in the class of MediaMonkey.

Link to the DP500 forum:

http://www.gooddvdstuff.com/kissdvd/index.php

I assume, if MediaMonkey could act as a server backend for the DP500 the growing KISS community would appreciate this.

Tell me, what do you think about this?

Best regards,

Bodo Menke