Stream Media From Pc, Tethering, Flash/divx, Songbird, Information App

[Raz]

So, I've been lurking for a while and I have all these questions bottled up...

I've migrated over from the iDevice community and their are a few privileges I don't want to give up...

OrbLive has the ability to stream videos, music, photos and documents. Perhaps something similar can be implemented for the Pandora.
Although... on OrbLive.com. You can login via the site and stream the media from any PC: https://mycast.orb.c...html/login.html
Maybe that'll work?

As for tethering. Would it be possible (just asking for the possibility) to access
an iPhone's Edge/3G Network on the Pandora.

And flash, how about playing Shockwave games? What kind of Flash options/alternatives (to Adobe) are available? How's DivX going to work on the Pandora?

And it would be nice to have software to monitor the Pandora's temperature, clock speed, OS version, memory usage, performance, attached devices, other important stuff

 

[rabidpoobear]

I've migrated over from the iDevice community and their are a few privileges I don't want to give up...

OrbLive has the ability to stream videos, music, photos and documents. Perhaps something similar can be implemented for the Pandora.
Although... on OrbLive.com. You can login via the site and stream the media from any PC: https://mycast.orb.c...html/login.html
Maybe that'll work?

isn't Orb the crap that Winamp Remote uses? Has it gotten better? it used to be absolutely awful. Crashing, hanging my PC, etc, etc.

As for tethering. Would it be possible (just asking for the possibility) to access an iPhone's Edge/3G Network on the Pandora.

doesn't the iPhone have something like JoikuSpot, where it broadcasts itself as a WiFi hotspot, and any wifi devices can connect to it to access the internet? If so, just run that app and use the Pandora WiFi to connect to it. Otherwise you're going to have to probably write a custom software solution (you could potentially use bluetooth, since both devices support it.)

And flash, how about playing Shockwave games?

no.

What kind of Flash options are available?

none, basically. Only flash video is likely to work at launch. Blame Adobe.

How's DivX going to work on the Pandora?

Depends if there's divx support on ARM. this link makes me think that it's at least possible, if not supported already.

SurfTheChannel uses a weird form of flash to link to websites with videos. It's a bit of protection, but can it be accessible by the Pandora?

Surf the channel is illegal, let's not talk about it here, kthx?

Also, any Songbird fans in here?: http://getsongbird.com/
Awesome Media Player/Internet Browser.

search archives for songbird. We've gone over this before.

And it would be nice to have software to monitor the Pandora's temperature, clock speed, OS version, memory usage, performance, attached devices, other important stuff

Yes, it would be nice.

 

[borgqueenx]

And flash, how about playing Shockwave games?

no.

What kind of Flash options are available?

none, basically. Only flash video is likely to work at launch. Blame Adobe.

why...? doesnt linux support flash? :I

 

[kaprikawn]

why...? doesnt linux support flash?

Flash is a closed source technology. Adobe (the owners) have only ported it to x86 processors, the Pandora has an ARM processor. They are talking about porting it due to pressure from other technologies, but until they do you won't get full Flash support on the Pandora. There are wrappers to make certain things work, so you'll probably be able to watch Youtube after a certain amount of messing about. But full compatibility is out of the question for the time being.

Don't worry though. Flash is crap, you don't need it for anything useful. Do yourself a favour and forget about it. The sooner it dies a horrible death, the better.

 

[WizardStan]

And flash, how about playing Shockwave games?

no.

What kind of Flash options are available?

none, basically. Only flash video is likely to work at launch. Blame Adobe.

why...? doesnt linux support flash? :I

The official linux build from Adobe is x86 only. They do have an ARM build, but acquiring it is questionable, and whether it will work even more so.
We will have the open source solution Gnash, which does pretty good, but isn't 100% compatible. I've played a lot of flash games with it: many work flawlessly, some have graphical glitches, and others don't work at all. You'll just have to try and see.
That being said, I've got a fair amount of confidence that either Adobe will release an ARM based linux port, or someone will find a way to cram the existing ARM modules into something the Pandora can use. Eventually.

 

[borgqueenx]

And flash, how about playing Shockwave games?

no.

What kind of Flash options are available?

none, basically. Only flash video is likely to work at launch. Blame Adobe.

why...? doesnt linux support flash? :I

The official linux build from Adobe is x86 only. They do have an ARM build, but acquiring it is questionable, and whether it will work even more so.
We will have the open source solution Gnash, which does pretty good, but isn't 100% compatible. I've played a lot of flash games with it: many work flawlessly, some have graphical glitches, and others don't work at all. You'll just have to try and see.
That being said, I've got a fair amount of confidence that either Adobe will release an ARM based linux port, or someone will find a way to cram the existing ARM modules into something the Pandora can use. Eventually.

so flash vids will work? megavideo and youtube and sites like that?

 

[sterling976]

OrbLive has the ability to stream videos, music, photos and documents. Perhaps something similar can be implemented for the Pandora.
Although... on OrbLive.com. You can login via the site and stream the media from any PC: https://mycast.orb.c...html/login.html
Maybe that'll work?

I'm not sure about orblive, but I used orb quite successfully a couple years ago. I was able to stream to a windows mobile handheld, Mac, Linux, and Windows boxes. I'll say this -- if VLC gets ported to Pandora in all its full-featured glory, you should have no trouble with Orb.

That said, it was kind of limiting in a few ways (mainly that it only ran on Windows, and most of the PVR software I could find sucked), and once I switched to MythTV, Orb had to go. I found a suitable replacement in Jinzora, the only downside to which is it won't transcode video on the fly, so your HD video files will clog up your intertubez unless you do the research and transcode yourself (both to resize the image so it's small-screen-friendly and to reduce the bitrate so you don't run into bandwidth/buffering issues). Of course, if you're looking to stream media solely on your home network, this is less of a concern, but you don't need Orb for that. Also, you may have to hack into the PHP source to get it to play nice with whatever container format your media player expects, although that's less of a problem with VLC.

Looks like the Jinzora team has been hard at work since I first installed it. Might be worth updating to the newest version just to see what's new.

 

[mindlord]

I'll say this -- if VLC gets ported to Pandora in all its full-featured glory, you should have no trouble with Orb.

VLC (DaVinci Edition? Anyone know anything about this?) Is in the Ångström repos, so VLC will be available.

 

[borgqueenx]

I'll say this -- if VLC gets ported to Pandora in all its full-featured glory, you should have no trouble with Orb.

VLC (DaVinci Edition? Anyone know anything about this?) Is in the Ångström repos, so VLC will be available.

VLC? vlc supports everything right? that would be so awesome!

 

[Enverex]

Pandora -will- be able to support Flash, it'll be via "Gnash" though which isn't all that great (I think it's Flash 9 compatible now, but it's rather slow). Tethering would be the same as it is via any other Linux distro assuming Network Manager and the standard Bluetooth utils are available.

Also there is a Firefox plugin that allows apps like MPlayer to play the Megavideo/YouTube videos, not sure what it's named though.

 

[HaCo]

I hope somebody writes some software so tethering (over bluetooth) gets supported on the pandora. That was actually one (if not the) reason I bought a pandora. I need to be able to acces the internet 'in the field'...

 

[HaCo]

Will Java applications work on the Pandora?

 

[borgqueenx]

Will Java applications work on the Pandora?

not all, but many will i guess. the psp can handle some with a emulator, so the pandora can do it as well. that means if a dev tries to port the emulator.

But i dont think it will work in firefox quickly.

 

[dflemstr]

Will Java applications work on the Pandora?

not all, but many will i guess. the psp can handle some with a emulator, so the pandora can do it as well. that means if a dev tries to port the emulator.

But i dont think it will work in firefox quickly.

1. Why not all of them?
2. Why would it work slowly?

Firefox has nothing to do with it; it's the JRE that it depends on. If it's fast and compatible, Java will be fast and compatible. If it isn't, it isn't.

 

[rumsey]

so flash vids will work? megavideo and youtube and sites like that?

Before too many people read this and get the same idea as you, no neither of those will work at launch.

 

[mindlord]

so flash vids will work? megavideo and youtube and sites like that?

Before too many people read this and get the same idea as you, no neither of those will work at launch.

What gives you this impression? All required components get the X.
[X] Internet Connection - Wifi does work, just needs some tweaking
[X] Web Browser - Firefox
[X] Flash Video Support - Thanks to Gnash

 

[Vorporeal]

I think he might mean that they won't work out-of-the-box. Depends on whether Gnash is installed as part of the firmware. IMHO, it should, but that doesn't mean that it will be. There might be some legal issues with packaging it in with the Pandora. Either way, downloading it won't be a problem, and I'm sure someone will package it up ASAP.

 

[Raz]

As for tethering. Would it be possible (just asking for the possibility) to access an iPhone's Edge/3G Network on the Pandora.

doesn't the iPhone have something like JoikuSpot, where it broadcasts itself as a WiFi hotspot, and any wifi devices can connect to it to access the internet? If so, just run that app and use the Pandora WiFi to connect to it. Otherwise you're going to have to probably write a custom software solution (you could potentially use bluetooth, since both devices support it.)

I wish there was something like Joikuspot, but nothing that could work with it. At least using a 3G connection AFAIK. Maybe 3proxy

Can the Pandora create an ad-hoc connection? Perhaps their might be a way through that. and terminal.

The 3.0 software also enables tethering via bluetooth but I wonder if they would charge if I have unlimited internet.

 

[mindlord]

I think he might mean that they won't work out-of-the-box. Depends on whether Gnash is installed as part of the firmware. IMHO, it should, but that doesn't mean that it will be. There might be some legal issues with packaging it in with the Pandora. Either way, downloading it won't be a problem, and I'm sure someone will package it up ASAP.

Gnash is GPL'd so there is no restrictions or legal issues I can see by reading their site.

It's in the Ubuntu universe repos, so it's not installed by default there. I see no reason why it couldn't be included by default on the Pandora though. It would be nice to see a video of a Pandora firing up Firefox over a wifi connection and playing a youtube video though, just to prove me right.

 

[Prometheus]

It would be nice to see a video of a Pandora firing up Firefox over a wifi connection and playing a youtube video though, just to prove me right.

I'd like to see that, too, I must admit. Extra points if it's a video like this one. :lol: