SoC 2008 projects

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Here is a list of the accepted projects for Google Summer of Code 2OO8.

List of current VLC projects

Panorama Viewing

The goal of this project is to make VLC a one-stop solution for viewing panoramas of various formats. Currently, FreePV is the best/only cross-platform, non-proprietary solution for viewing QuickTimeVR and plain image panoramas. However it suffers from a few drawbacks, which include difficult installation, browser plug-in conflicts and low popularity. The intent is to integrate the FreePV rendering code with VLC. This should not only automatically alleviate installation difficulty and plug-in conflicts, but also bring panorama viewing to a much larger audience. This project will initially focus on basic support for QTVR files and equirectangular images.

Qt improvements

In my project I should do fullscreen controller, backend for Phonon and playlist improvements. FS controller have to be clickable, dragable with all VLC functionality. Phonon backend will help spread VLC and support its using by other developers. And finally I will upgrade playlist, fix and update DragAndDrop and other bugs.

Enhance PVR capabilities of VLC

VLC has fast become one of the most common video players available for 'non-technical' users. The ability to watch streams easily and efficiently is a huge advantage for VLC. The ability to timeshift streams has been added to the latest unstable builds, however it is vastly underfeatured and not nearly ready for release. The features would enhance VLC to a new level which would allow a new set of users to use it.
I propose to extend & improve the PVR capabilities of VLC. The current version is severely lacking in functionality and performance. There is a very basic timeshift capability already. To this I will add the ability to randomly seek through the buffer (fast forward, rewind, etc ). The ability to save buffers and continue recording to the new file will be added. These recordings will be in any chosen format. These features will help anyone who uses VLC to watch TV shows to easily turn their client into a MythTV/Media Centre style client.
I will tie the module in with the user interface properly so that the state of the buffer and the current position can be easily seen.
I then plan to begin work on a framework that combines all of these features into a simple interface easily accessible with a remote control. The interface will combine VLM and the media library into a single easily accesible place. The interface will have the ability to 'talk' to the server sending commands such as changing tv channel or switching input source.
With this and the completion of VLM and the playlist managing system VLC will have the capabilities to become a fully featured PVR system with the massive advantage of it being run off a streaming server if need be.


WinCE Port

The VLC media player has been port to many different platforms, but it lacks Windows CE support since some versions. This project aims at making VLC work on a Windows CE platform, with a few features:
  • RTSP
  • H264
  • Snapshots
  • Playlist
  • Rebuild of interface to adapt it to small screens

Create a new VLC interface for Maemo (internet tablet)

The goal is to create a new interface for VLC with Maemo, a Debian-based development platform for handheld devices used by Nokia N800 and N810 devices and to package VLC for this platform.
The main constraint are the small size of the screen which means the GUI must be thought specifically for this platform and the fact that the devices is not very powerful.

DLNA UPnP A/V integration

 Even if it is controverted, UPnP A/V Is a widely used standard set of protocols for networked digital 
 audio and video equipment interoperability, thus making it almost a requirement digital media software 
 that aim to become real part of the average multimedia home network. This project aims to implement 
 at least the Media Server part in VLC media player, which will enable it to advertise and stream media 
 to DNLA UPnP A/V enabled devices, such as the PlayStation 3.

MTP Devices Support

As MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices become more and more popular, and the protocol itself is about to become a standard, using them is still a problem for some people, since they cannot be mounted or opened as disks, but can be natively used only on Vista and Windows XP with WMP10, or using other programs.
Adding the MTP support to VLC would not only give the opportunity to use these device on almost every platform, but also allow to have a free, open source and largely diffuse program to manage them.
My work on the MTP support will enable VLC not only to play music from the device, but also to add new music, manage the content of the device, edit tags, playlists and anything else that would be needed by an Mp3 player user.

Mac OS X (Leopard) Integration

Unlike Windows and Linux, Mac OS X does not offer much in terms of alternatives to its built-in QuickTime media player. VLC media player represents the only Mac media player with significant support for various media formats and a tight integration with the OS, including a "Mac-like" user interface. As it is the only full, viable alternative to QuickTime on the Mac OS X platform, it is important that it stay current with various Mac technologies to offer users a comprehensive option for media playback.
Aspects of tighter Mac OS X integration:
  • Quick Look Generator for Leopard (to generate thumbnails and full media previews from the Finder)
  • Making most common preferences accessible in a Mac-style preference window organized with icon tabs across the top such as in Safari and Mail.
  • Moving the Readme document and other help resources into a HelpViewer HTML document to allow better help searching in Leopard.
  • Improvements in steaming server wizard to be more in-line with other Mac wizards and easier to use for personal streaming between Macs.
  • Add better support for package files that contain media VLC can play, such as iMovie Projects and EyeTV recordings.
  • Update the VLC file icons to the 512 by 512 size for Leopard.


Vista Enhanced Video Renderer output module

EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer) is new video renderer that came with Windows Vista. Goal of this project is to implement EVR video output module for VLC media player. EVR will hopefully be default video output module for Windows Vista but it might also work with Windows XP if the .NET Framework 3.0 is installed. EVR should guarantee tearing free output that also works with Aero. It should also be more compatible with different display adapters (or driver versions) and that way hopefully end problems that certain people have with their video watching.
If there will be some extra time (EVR finishes early), I will try to add some features to Direct3D output module (shaders, rotating video etc.)

List of current x264 projects

Panorama Viewing

The basic idea of a "macroblock tree" is to keep track of macroblock references to try to figure out which macroblocks are the most important. This information can be used for deciding the quantizers for frames or even individual macroblocks.
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