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DS development > Slingbox player - DS

#114313 - magicmarc - Sat Jan 06, 2007 3:59 pm

Hey guys,

Recently got myself a Slingbox - http://www.slingmedia.com/slingbox/

These are becoming very popular, and have also released a client for mobile phones/PDAs to receive the TV stream from anywhere with a 3G/GPRS or Wi-Fi signal.

I'm using this thread to request development on a client for the DS.

This, would totally ROCK. Being able to watch TV on my DS from anywhere, or set something to record while im out and on the move.

Marc
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#114322 - simonjhall - Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:49 pm

It's doable, but there might be a few problems:
- is the data that is transmitted encryted/DRM-ed? How is it compressed? Does it use some proprietary protocol?
- is the DS wifi transfer speed high enough? It says it'll work with 256kbps but I always get terrible transfer speeds with my wifi code (I've gotta be doing something wrong...)
- does the DS have the processing power to decode the data? Probably not...

What you could do (I did this for my previous job) is to get a TV card and vlc (www.videolan.org) and do the streaming - then you'd be able to properly choose the bitrate/codec etc.

It would be pretty cool to watch TV on the DS though :-)
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#114330 - tepples - Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:48 pm

Wasn't there some GBA TV tuner?
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#114345 - Lynx - Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:06 pm

Quote:
and have also released a client for mobile phones/PDAs to receive

Quote:
- does the DS have the processing power to decode the data? Probably not...


So, your saying a mobile phone has more processing power than the DS? Somehow I doubt that.
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#114346 - josath - Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:35 pm

Lynx wrote:
Quote:
and have also released a client for mobile phones/PDAs to receive

Quote:
- does the DS have the processing power to decode the data? Probably not...


So, your saying a mobile phone has more processing power than the DS? Somehow I doubt that.


My phone has a 133MHz ARM in it. Also they probably use super optimized decoders, which are non-free. (Though I didn't actually look on their website, maybe they give out sourcecode)

#114347 - simonjhall - Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:53 pm

Yeah I missed the bit about pdas :-)
But I still stand by my comment - to be low on bandwidth I'd expect the video data to be compressed with some variant of MPEG and I'm doubtful that an FPU-and-SIMD-less ARM has enough juice to decode video at a killer framerate. I am actually interested in this project though, so I may have a go at an MPEG decoder on Monday when I get my replacement CF card.
Oh and don't forget that some portable electronics devices have computational accelerators in them - for example the video iPods have a video decoding chip in them IIRC.
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#114349 - magicmarc - Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:23 am

Lynx wrote:


So, your saying a mobile phone has more processing power than the DS? Somehow I doubt that.


I didn't mean that, however good point. At least that way its more likely for this project to go ahead.

If anyone has the chance to purchase a Slingbox or use the client, you will realize how awesome this would be.

The amount of times I have been away from home, and connected my phone to my SlingBox over Wi-Fi to record a program, or even watch my TV, with the on screen remote. This would be very good.

I'm thinking, the top screen for the actual video stream, the bottom screen for the on screen remote. (Slingbox comes with an IR blaster, which connects to the slingbox, allowing you to control the device you are watching, eg, tivo, SKY, etc.)
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#114365 - Ant6n - Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:02 am

maybe it'd be a better idea to get a more open video streaming standard. i.e. running with a server that runs off the video capture driver (is it called twain?) and could therefore use a pci tv card or something like that.
then one could focus more on sending and decoding video on ds

#114371 - Lynx - Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:30 am

Agreed, or at least a technology/protocal that is open. I doubt Slingbox has source available or even tech notes for the codecs, etc they use.

There are a few open source projects out there (like MythTV) that would be nice if you could stream the video to the DS.

But, again, the question is.. how "bad" would the video have to be to support a 2Mb WiFi connection and would it be worth watching? My current MythTV setup lags with a 11Mb WiFi connection.. Of course, that is at 704x480 at 30fps (I believe) which the DS wouldn't need. But, I'm the type of person that doesn't really think any video looks good on the DS. :/ Probably just because it is 256x192 on a 3" display.. Hopefully someone can change my mind..
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