Prevue Guide Forums

Hey Guys,

Now that I've patched Atari800 to be able to read serial data from the UDP network port, I'm starting to work on the data feed server, which will be what broadcasts the data (that would really be in the VBI) to any emulated or real EPG/Prevue machines that are listening (and have their select codes registered with me). swest77 had some interesting ideas on a different way to do this (see viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22&start=40#p117), however I have opted to go a different route. Instead of having three programs (a server, a feeder, and a grabber), I will have just a server and a feeder/listener (built-in if running in an emulator).

Now, the main reason swest had originally recommended his idea was so that in a few years, if these forums are gone and I don't have my server running anymore, people won't be stuck having to reverse engineer this stuff all over again. He didn't want it so centralized that I was the only one operating the server that no one else had, which is a good point I hadn't considered. However, I came up with what I think is a better idea: open source both the listener and the server, so that people can build and run their own servers (pointing to localhost, or anywhere they want) if they want to in the future if/when my main one disappears. It will be much cooler this way, as we can set everything up to work as a clone of the UVSG satellite feed: one-way communication where every machine receives every message from a centralized server over UDP, which is probably about as unreliable as the satellite data feed (actually, likely more reliable).

Thoughts?

I agree that a centralised server sending out UDP in this way is definitely a good way to start. As long as we document and put our info in the public domain, then there's nothing stopping anyone else building their own that works in the way they prefer. Open sourcing whatever you come up with is even better.

Ari - Sounds good. And I reckon this open source idea satisfies my "criteria." Really, I didn't mean to seem rude bringing up your eventual disappearance. It wasn't so much a prognostication that you're doomed to being run over by a bus. Just, everyone's hobbies change, people find themselves lacking the free time they once enjoyed, and so on. There's gigabytes of software out there nobody (or few) can use today because its support has vanished, and taking the opportunity to suggest, before it was too late, architecting this project to make obsolescence very unlikely seemed very prudent.

So are you planning to write the server (feeder) and client (TCP/IP-to-serial relay receiver) applications in some cross-platform language that complies everywhere, like C? Will the server application support optionally doing its data stream output to a real hardware serial port (instead of to clients via TCP/IP) for those wanting to run it on a dedicated PC that feeds a real Amiga/Atari via serial cable? And from where will the server application obtain its TV listings data? Do you know some commercial source with a TCP/IP API?

swest77 wrote:Ari - Sounds good. And I reckon this open source idea satisfies my "criteria." Really, I didn't mean to seem rude bringing up your eventual disappearance. It wasn't so much a prognostication that you're doomed to being run over by a bus. Just, everyone's hobbies change, people find themselves lacking the free time they once enjoyed, and so on. There's gigabytes of software out there nobody (or few) can use today because its support has vanished, and taking the opportunity to suggest, before it was too late, architecting this project to make obsolescence very unlikely seemed very prudent.

No, I'm not offended at all. It's a very good point that I hadn't considered.

swest77 wrote:So are you planning to write the server (feeder) and client (TCP/IP-to-serial relay receiver) applications in some cross-platform language that complies everywhere, like C? Will the server application support optionally doing its data stream output to a real hardware serial port (instead of to clients via TCP/IP) for those wanting to run it on a dedicated PC that feeds a real Amiga/Atari via serial cable? And from where will the server application obtain its TV listings data? Do you know some commercial source with a TCP/IP API?

I already wrote most of it (in C), actually, or at least the part that generates messages, computes checksums, and sends messages across UDP (and a listener)... And yeah, I'll surely implement that feature once I get my Atari hardware in the next few days

AriX wrote:

swest77 wrote:So are you planning to write the server (feeder) and client (TCP/IP-to-serial relay receiver) applications in some cross-platform language that complies everywhere, like C? Will the server application support optionally doing its data stream output to a real hardware serial port (instead of to clients via TCP/IP) for those wanting to run it on a dedicated PC that feeds a real Amiga/Atari via serial cable? And from where will the server application obtain its TV listings data? Do you know some commercial source with a TCP/IP API?

I already wrote most of it (in C), actually, or at least the part that generates messages, computes checksums, and sends messages across UDP (and a listener)... And yeah, I'll surely implement that feature once I get my Atari hardware in the next few days

Nice.

I'd like to see this as stand alone code too, also since you are planning to get a EPGjr yourself why not code it so if at some point you can get a VBI encoder you can send it to the unit in native mode?

joeventura

PrevueAddict wrote:I'd like to see this as stand alone code too, also since you are planning to get a EPGjr yourself why not code it so if at some point you can get a VBI encoder you can send it to the unit in native mode?

joeventura

Well, VBI encoders are expensive... We'll see, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

Thanks for joining! By the way, I've been wondering, where did you find that Prevue First promo video?

VBI encoders can be had (if you know where to look) for less than $200.

I will be purchasing one soon and would like to help if you would provide a way to output the data to a serial port (or to a text file) from your server software.

Dont know what you mean on the promo video, you may be thinking of someone else!??!!

PrevueAddict wrote:VBI encoders can be had (if you know where to look) for less than $200.

I will be purchasing one soon and would like to help if you would provide a way to output the data to a serial port (or to a text file) from your server software.

Sounds good. We can start working on that once you've got it

PrevueAddict wrote:Dont know what you mean on the promo video, you may be thinking of someone else!??!!

The video I'm referring to is "Prevue Channel (1998) - Prevue First! Promo.wmv", which you uploaded to the Prevue Guide group on Yahoo!. I was just wondering how you got it/where you found it.

That was not me. I didn't upload that.