[MPlayer-dev-eng] Mplayer use on set-top box...

[hayward at slothmud.org]

Hello,

I am in the process of designing a set-top box, that will have the ability
to do many things, including:

(A) Play VCD's, (B) Play DVD's, (C) Record/playback television
shows/movies (either from HD or CD-ROM either VCD or DiVX format. (D) Play
emulator games such as MAME, Nintendo, etc. (using joystick). (E) Play
MP3's. (F) Internet messaging/email (not a primary use)

I have already built the set-top box, (Matrox G400 w/TV-out) I have
successfully got MPlayer compiled and Installed and it works great!

Now I need to design a user interface and be able to control it with my
X10 serial-connected remote-control.

I have three things I need to figure out regarding MPlayer, the first is
most important, the other two are "nice" features:

1) X10 Mouse Input:  My plan is to have a controlling process (perl
script or something similar) that runs the different programs and
listens on the serial port for commands.  This must be able to receive
commands and communicate to MPlayer - e.g. FF, Rewind, Pause, Exit, etc.
I know MPlayer receives input through X instead of STDIN, does mplayer
provide the ability to receive commands through STDIN or a socket, or will
I need to develop that feature?  A standard controlling interface might be
nice to use, so that any "remote control" program can implmeent it's API.

2) Overlay a menu on-top of the running movie with an interface (still
controlled by the running process).  From what I've read, I believe this
may be possible using SDL, but again I'm not sure how to tell MPlayer what
to put on the screen - or if it is fully supported.

3) The ability to stop MPlayer, exit it all together, then come back in
at the exact spot we left off - this would require mplayer to save it's
current position in the movie and resume on next "play".  This is the
least important feature, but would definitely be nice.

Thanks for all of your suggestions,
-- 
Brian Hayward