Should Subsonic have a better Embedded Audio/Video Player?

[mistaox]

Over the weekend I started writing a lil VB app to facilitate Stream videos over a LAN. My app used the Windows Media Player control. It was working well, but as you know, VLC is by far the best when it comes to handling all the various formats of Audio and Video out there.

So I hopped over to the VLC wiki: http://wiki.videolan.org/ActiveX_Controls

There I was elated to find an OCX for the famed player.
There is even a HTML demo of the control in action: http://people.videolan.org/~damienf/plugin-0.8.6.html

As you can see that demo has most, if not all the features of the standalone VLC player.

So If we could embed the VLC player in Subsonic this would be awesome. Futhermore, VLC has a well documented and easily implemented method of handling Playlists for both Audio and video.

[sindre_mehus]

I voted 'Yes'. Actually, I'm planning to make a completely Flash-based Subsonic interface, with an integrated, customized audio player.

I'll have a look at the VLC OCX. The major drawback is, I guess, that it's Windows only.

Thanks,
Sindre

[mistaox]

yeah..well there is a Delphi Implementation as well...

[linuxman]

http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/

Not sure if this helps but has some interesting information about sound flash and java which all three are present in the flash player.

[linuxman]

This is a very interesting article as it shows how to use the shuffle feature within the existing player you're using Sindre.

http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/randomsongs.html

And this is has info on how to place it on myspace and customize it so might be the radio option that can append to the playlist.

http://www.e162s.com/programs/xspf_player.htm

[matthew]

I voted 'Yes'. Actually, I'm planning to make a completely Flash-based Subsonic interface, with an integrated, customized audio player.

I'll have a look at the VLC OCX. The major drawback is, I guess, that it's Windows only.

Thanks,
Sindre

OOOooOo. Im excited.. Thanks!

[ghjames]

If a new player is embeded in Subsonic it need to support a proxy server. The current version of VLC has issues with this.

[mgrant]

For me the most value that could be added would be to have a modular plug-in architecture for embedded players.

Ideally this would include several examples but be extensible so that the subsonic admin could plugin whatever player is wanted.

Personally I want an embedded flash player (for the wii). The flash player currently being used has a number of limitations that make it less usefull on a wii. For example:

1. the controls are so small that it's very difficult to click them with the wiimote.

2. the volume control is non-intuitive (and way too small)

3. there is no way to seek (ff / frw)

4. the playlist scroll is non-intuitive. Clicking in the scroll area below (or above) the scroll button does nothing. It should scroll one page down (or up).

Please don't take this to mean that I don't love subsonic. So far it seems the best solution for what I want. Just offering my suggestions.

-mg

[wally.nl]

Voted yes also.

Before subsonic I used jinzora with the (free) flv player from http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Media_Player (even though it was a bit of a pain to get it working). It does look a lot like the player subsonic is using (probably a forked project). I guess replacing the current flash player with this one shouldn't give sindre to much of a headache.

This player also allowed me to stream video (although I didn't _really_ use that a lot, mostly to impress friends ). The 2 major things I miss in subsonic (coming from jinzora) are the nicer flv player (although this is not the standard jinzora player) and the 'play random' button(s).

[sindre_mehus]

FYI, for Subsonic 3.6 I'm planning to evalute the JW player. Hopefully it will support dynamic updating of the playlist thru javascript.

Sindre

[zeekay]

Exciting news! Now just add drag and drop sorting of the playlist & adding albums/songs to the playlist, and you'll have created a better web-based media player than any stand alone media app I've used!

[beef_doughnut]

Just tried out subsonic for the first time last night, and I love it. Fantastic work so far.

I do have a suggestion for future video players though. I'd like to see more emphasis put on the mobile player. Ideally, whatever the audio/video player is replaced with should be able to stream to a mobile device. That way you could get your music and your video wherever you are, be it through a browser on your desktop or through your mobile phone.