SoC 2009/Media Center Interface for VLC

This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2009. Student: Barry Wardell Mentor: Ilkka Ollakka

Project Abstract

While it is easy to use and functional, the existing default, Qt based GUI for VLC is quite minimal and basic.I propose to develop a new "Media Center" style GUI. This GUI will be based on Qt and OpenGL and will aim to be aesthetically pleasing, while remaining easy to use and functional. It will draw on many nice features of other popular media center software such as Front Row, Windows Media Center and XBMC.

There was a Summer of Code project last year by Dylan Yudaken to work on PVR improvements. This project included some work on a PVR-style interface using OpenGL. My project could potentially build on this work to develop a fully fledged media center interface.

Projected Timeline

April 20 Accepted for summer of code!

April 20 - May 23 Familiarise myself with the VLC code and the PVR code in the vlc-dylanza git repository. Meet with my mentor and the developers on IRC and the mailing list to discuss plans for the project. Determine a realistic set of goals to aim towards.

May 23 - June 6 Begin planning of the interface. Collect the best ideas from other media centers and determine what will be involved to implement each of these ideas. Start writing code to implement the GUI, either building on top of the existing PVR code or starting anew.

June 7 - June 15 I will aim to have some initial code incorporating VLC into a full screen window. This will allow for basic control of playback of audio and video.

June 15 - June 21 I will be attending the conference "12th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction" and will take a break from Summer of Code.

June 21 - July 6 I will aim to have at least a minimal Qt/OpenGL Media Center GUI fully up and running with at least basic functionality of video playback and playlist support. I will then continue to refine the interface, adding functionality and documentation.

July 6 - July 13 I will prepare for the mid term review and will aim to have completed any tasks my mentor has deemed necessary for me to pass.

July 12 - July 18 I will attend the conference "Twelfth Marcel Grossmann Meeting".

July 20 - Aug 7 I will aim towards a functioning Media Center GUI running on at least one Operating System (ideally, the code will be written in a cross-platform way since it will make use of Qt/OpenGL). It may not be as fully featured as existing media center software, but will provide a good base for future work to build on. It will support browsing for media and playing back of video and audio.

Aug 7 - Aug 17 I will work on tidying up and documenting my code and will prepare for the final evaluation.