.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | groku 0.1 | `-----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
So if you're reading this, you've either got way too much time on your hands, or you're actually curios as to what groku is, or you actually need some help with it.
WHAT IS GROKU ?
Groku is a Gnome Application for controlling your Roku Soundbridge (tm) device. Groku can control many aspects of your Roku Soundbridge over a network connection.
Why You Ask? Yes, yes I know your Roku came with a remote control, but let's face it, it's much quicker to manage a your play-list and select servers/songs/folders from the computer.
And oh yeah, they didn't have this for Linux, only Winblows. So in my true revolutionary open-source spirit, I made one for Linux.
DEVELOPMENT STATE
Groku is at a quasi-beta.
I personally use Groku ever day. But it has yet to be tested out in the wild. Please send me updates as to which platforms you are successfully running Groku on.
!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!
There is a small memory leak in Groku!
It's related to the Remote Display code. If you plan on using Groku for
an extended period of time, please turn this feature off, by clicking
"View" -> "Show Roku Display"
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Currently, Groku can control your Soundbridge, and make it do the following things:
- Connect to a media server
- Connect and play Internet Radio Stations
- List Containers(Folders)/Songs on the media server
- Manage the Soundbridge's Now Playing Play-list
- Add to Play-list
- Remove from Play-list
- Full transport Capabilities (In near-real-time)
- Play, Pause, Stop, Previous, Next
- Shuffle
- Repeat (Repeat One, Repeat All)
- Volume Control
- Time Display
- Remote Soundbridge Display Shows you what's currently being displayed on your Soundbridge in near-real-time
Near-Real-time you ask?
Yes. Roku's firmware doesn't support constant streams, or any kind
of push to a client, so we must poll the Soundbridge for information.
WHAT IT WILL DO
Plans in the next few versions include:
- Search Capabilities So that you can search the currently connected media server
- Remote Display Scaling Currently it's scaled to twice as big, I'm just lazy and didn't put a little code in to do this yet, even though I did write the scaling routines.
- Extended Song Information Again this is laziness on my part, I it's easy to do, I just haven't decided where to put it on the GUI yet.
- Soundbridge Configuration Roku's Soundbridge supports full configuration via it's firmware over the network, so I plan to put this in.
- Display Editing I plan to put code in to push an image from Groku to your Roku Soundbridge and have it display on the Interface of the Soundbridge.
Basically, I plan on putting in every last bit of functionality that Roku's API will allow, and add a few tricks not listed in the API by communicating with it's Shell Port (4444) interface.
WHAT IT DOES NOT DO
Groku IS NOT A MEDIA SERVER!
Don't expect to be able to push mp3's from Groku to your Soundbridge, and don't expect to serve mp3's from Groku either.
Your Soundbridge needs a Media Server on your network which hosts the files, Groku simply controls the Soundbridge.
If you need an Open-Source Media Server, check out:
Ushare: http://ushare.geexbox.org/
GmediaServer: http://www.gnu.org/software/gmediaserver/
WARRANTY
Groku is released "AS IS".
If Groku eats your homework, kills your dog, steals your money, formats your hard-drive, convinces you to run Windows, tells you to kill the neighbors, makes you late for a job interview, causes nausea, appetite loss, or dizziness I (and Groku) are not responsible. Run it at your own risk!
CONTACT
If you feel compelled to send hate mail, beer, whiskey, smokes, pizza, words of wisdom, code patches, or thanks, direct them to me at the following location:
Jess Mahan <jess@digitalssg.net>
http://groku.digitalssg.net