RMVOD v0.9.1 is HERE! It's a DOOZIE!

 Hi folks!

So, I've created a new tag on the RIBBBITmedia VideoOnDemand code repo, and this one undoes the whole "feature complete for release 1.0" thing.  Many new features.  Oops!

In this tag you'll find several new features.  Notably:

0) Config file.  I'd planned for some time to implement this, and this seemed a really good time to do it.

1) Recommendations (Recs).  This is a new tab in the RMVOD screen, which provides a "carousel-like" interface for browsing artifacts based on connections to viewing trends on the server.  The Recs interface shows artifact details in a floating box when the artifact's image is clicked.  For TV Series artifacts, options are presented to start playing the series from the beginning or to select a season, and browse episodes to select one to play.  Recommendations are cached on the server and expire after a period of days set in the API's config file.  There is a "Refresh Recs" link on the Settings tab to force a refresh of the recommendations.  Recommendations functionality requires a new table in the database.  See README.txt in the root of the code tree for details on upgrading an existing system to support this feature.  For systems where the DB is hosted on the same box as the API, and the box is really-low resource... like a RasPi 2 something even less capable... Recommendations should be disabled in the API's config file.

2) Quick Search Links.  This is a new set of links on the "List/Search" tab which present the lists of artifacts from the Recs tab in the familiar list format.  This also depends on Recs being enabled on the server.

3) "Last Search" display.  Now, when you execute a search, the "search factors" will be displayed below the artifact list to remind you of what you searched for, whether the search is single factor or multi-factor.

4) "Play fullscreen" option.  This is a checkbox on the Settings tab which asks the player to initiate playback in full-screen mode.  This currently only works for playback initiated by the user clicking the artifact to initiate playback.  When playing a series, the second and later episodes played will not be in full-screen.  This is a known issue related to a security feature in popular browsers.  I'm looking for a work around, but for now, it eludes me.

5) "Populate Episode Details" link. In the Artifact Details box for a TV Series, at the bottom, to the right of the "Edit" and "Associate Episodes" links, there is now a "Populate Episode Details" link which initiates an operation on the server to query IMDbAPI for the details relating to the "series" artifact and each of the episode artifacts.  This requires that the series artifact already has episodes associated with it, and has its "imdbid" value set appropriately.  The use of this feature requires a "key" for the API which can be obtained by visiting here https://www.omdbapi.com/ and setting the key value in the API's config file.

Download the latest "stable" code here:

https://github.com/taobear68/rmvod/releases/tag/v0.9.1

RMVOD, upstream data, and new features

 I don't know if this is permanent or not... but there definitely seems to be a *period* of development arriving, where the big, exciting features of which users would be readily aware are fading out, and it's more... stuff administrators would appreciate.  

I was recently in contact with Brian who maintains the OMDb API (https://www.omdbapi.com/) which allows weirdos like me to have a source of "Movie Database" content available via a simple API.  I've supported him (nominally) on Patreon for a while... you can access the api for free, but you're throttled to some number of requests per day, but if you sign up for his Patron, you can get many more requests per day.  Recently my script that I'd written to scrape "Movie Database" data from the Internet (not using Brian's API) has been throwing errors, and I think it's because the "Movie Database" I'd been hitting for TV Series Episode data didn't like getting scraped by a bot... so, they started sending me 403s.  

That's when I reached out to Brian and asked him if there was a way to get series episode data from his API... and almost immediately, he was like, "You mean *this*?" with a link to  page outlining an as-yet unpublished endpoint on the API which returns the Episodes for a Season of a TV Series.  Well... I was over the moon... I said, yes, that appears to be just the thing.  Then I tried it out, and discovered there appeared to be a bug in the way it linked episodes to the "series" entity.  I tried it out a couple different ways, made some notes, and told Brian I think I found a bug.  He dove right in and within a few days, the "unpublished" series data endpoint was working properly.

So, now, I have a "one button" solution in the RMVOD UI for populating all the data for the Episodes of a TV Series.  The thing is, this feature is not something "normal viewers" are going to care about or use.  From the standpoint of an administrator... the person who has to maintain a local instance of RMVOD, this is a boon.  To someone only concerned with "What is there to watch", this feature doesn't matter.  I think this is the character of features that will be coming down the pipe for the foreseeable future.

There will be a new "tag" coming soon, which will include the feature outlined above.  If you have an existing set-up, the new features will require a DB update (adding a table), which is not automated.  If you're incomfortable running SQL from the command line and you don't have an instance of RMVOD set up, then you might want to wait, as a fresh install will have the new table.  

The current tag/release is here:  https://github.com/taobear68/rmvod/releases/tag/v0.9.0 if you want to give it a try.

RMVOD v0.8.0 is here!

RMVOD v0.8.0 is here!

RIBBBIT media VideoOnDemand is now at v0.8.0, and has been moved to its own GitHub Repo

Do you want to try it out?  You can download it here.

If you don't know what this is all about here are some previous blog posts about it here and here.

...and if you don't have the patience and/or time to read those now, here's a quick recap:

I wanted to be able to have a browser-based video-on-demand system with some search functionality  -- something where I wasn't dependent on wacky changes and release cycles, and having to take onboard features I neither want nor need just to get the bug fixes.  I wasn't interested in sharing my library in or out.  I just wanted to be able to watch my videos on my home network and not have to install an app or be running a particular OS.  

...et voila!  rmvod is here!

The targeted feature set for v1.0 is in place.  Bug fixes and minor tweaks remain.

The  install script should work for Debian, Raspberry Pi OS, and Ubuntu Server.  Other Debian-based distros should at least be close to working if their package names line up.

RIBBBITmedia VOD -- The Beat Goes On

 RIBBBITmedia VOD -- The Beat Goes On

A lot has happened since October.

• There's a GitHub repository
• The "one page" is redesigned to use a tabbed interface
• There are now search links in the artifact details for people involved
• Multi-Factor Search is working now
• "(series)" now in pale yellow to stand out a little more
• Page header has been simplified, and now contains the artifact details when something is playing
• Cookies are now being used to capture the currently playing artifact and play position to permit resuming playback on page reload
• Cookies are capturing the state of "Settings" to allow them to persist across page loads
• Search factors added: year range, major type, SQL WHERE Clause
• Single and Group artifact creation works in the web UI
• Version numbers are gathered from API, CSS, HTML, and DB, passed to the JS UI, and listed in the footer of the page

Fresh load of the "One Page"

The "One Page" is done with a nearly black background and light gray font to aid readability and minimize shock to the eyes when being used in a "home theatre" setting, with low ambient light.

Artifact playback

Artifact details are included in the header during playback.  A clock display is also included in the header.

Add multiple artifacts

"Add Multiple Artifacts" is a new feature (not that you could tell by the lack of visual sense it makes)

Still to do:

• New function: Add Episodes to a Series
• Add some descriptions, directions, and (maybe) tooltips
• Clean up alignment of new forms

RIBBBIT media VOD

 RIBBBIT media Video On Demand!

Well, what is the point of this?!  

As a long-time cord-cutter, I've made some use of streaming services (mostly YouTube, but also Netflix and Amazon Prime), but I've often been frustrated by available solutions for streaming my own media at home.  Part of what frustrates me about the commercial VOD services is that I'm at the mercy of what their library managers decide will be available to me.  Let's say I want to watch "The Towering Inferno".  Well, if none of the services I'm subscribed to currently think that is worth having online, I'm out of luck.  Well, if I own the DVD, why not just watch it on that?  DVDs are great for getting "ownership" of the media into my possession, but once I have it, I'm very restricted in how I can consume it (to say nothing of maintaining and regularly interacting with a library).   Yes, "ripping" DVDs offers some solace, but now there are data storage issues, and how do you catalog and index such a library? For years, I simply hung an NFS share out there, and watched via VLC on a PC or laptop.  That has obvious limitations.  That DID scratch my itch for a time, but I wanted something more library-ish with indexing and searching and so on.  One obvious (but exhausting to maintain) way to achieve this would be a forest of symbolic links on that NFS share... but another way would be to use an RDBMS to maintain all those relationships, and simply query against that to get the filename of interest.  That has the potential to be much easier to maintain (and expand).

What's it made of?

Since HTML5 includes (among other things) handling for video playback, I figured it couldn't be TOO hard to implement a simple video player page.  I was right.

I've been working on re-ripping and/or transcoding my video library from MPEG2 to MPEG4.  As of this writing, I have over 2,500 TV Episodes and 350 movies in MP4 format (all ripped from DVDs I own) and logged in the DB, many with metadata (such as runtime, people and companies involved, synopsis, and so on).

The system consists of:

• a static HTML page, which loads 2 JavaScript files, and sets up the layout of the page, 
• a Python file which serves both as a Flask REST API and a CLI for interacting with the database, and 
• a MariaDB database.  

All told, the HTML, JavaScript, Python, and SQL DDL currently fit in under 6000 lines of code (including comments and whitespace).  Some refactoring will likely bring that down a bit.

As of now, the ability to edit DB info for individual "artifacts" within the web page exists.  The CLI is for doing things like bulk-creation of artifacts from file lists, creating tags, assigning individual "episodes" to a "series", and so on.  On the bright side, the back-end code to achieve these things exists in the Python file, but I haven't gotten around to hanging a web UI on any of it yet.

Also, there is no authentication on the web side... You are J. Random User.  The back end keeps no stats on you, and currently places no restrictions on whether you can update DB information for any particular artifact.  Obviously, this is not intended for public use.  It's intended for a person (or family) to interact with their own video library.

Call to action(?)

Is this something that interests you?  Would you be interested in seeing this go up on a publicly accessible repo?  Comment!

Netgear SSO? That's a hard no. pfSense to the rescue!

 Some time ago... a couple years, now... my trusty old cheap Netgear router breathed its last, and I bought a new one.  The new one had this pain in the ass "Single Sign On" thing that made you set up an account with Netgear in order to log in to the router.  Hard pass on that.  It's possible to log-in locally, but it's extra steps that piss me off.  I've been ruminating on switching to pfSense for my routing/firewall needs, and just getting one or more cheap Wireless Access Points to handle the WiFi.  I have enough hardware just lying around that I could have done pfSense on a dedicated x86 machine, but the power, space, and noise were things I was not crazy about dealing with.  I'd thought about installing it on a VM on my Threadripper VM Host, but the networking would be a problem without additional hardware.  I finally got a 4x1G ethernet card for my VM Host, and stood up and pfSense VM.  

The config process was not bad, per se, but it was a little opaque in spots.  I have a separate Raspberry Pi running dnsmasq, handling local DNS, DHCP, and DNS forwarding, whereas nearly all of these modern router appliances have built-in, and a pretty enthusiastic about acting as your DHCP and DNS server.  Chalk it up to paranoia, if you like, but I prefer the "component stereo" model here, if for nothing else, it allows be to keep at least some of my more complex config stuff up and running if something like a router quits.  Getting DNS forwarding through pfSense was a little bit confusing at first, but I got it worked out.

Port forwarding turned out to be easy once I figured out that refreshing DHCP leases had to be done on target boxes for return traffic to go back through the router.  I'm smart.

OpenVPN server setup on pfSense has not brought me joy, yet, but it could, still.  I remain hopeful.  Part of the problem, I think, is that my network is on another RFC-1918 network -- that is, I need to traverse another "local" network to get to the Internet.

I ran into a couple hiccups when I tried to get one of the WAPs I bought working.  They're TP-Link AC1200 (TL-WA1201) devices, and they were cheap.  I bought 3, because why not.  The "quick setup" didn't seem to stick, entirely... so I had to kind of work through "not quick setup", and it seemed to take a few tries at that, with resets in between for it to really come up and do its job.  So far, an hour into its service life, the first TP-Link TL-WA1201 seems to be doing the right things.

So, now, my private network is fronted by a VM running pfSense through a dedicated 4x1GB ethernet card, and WiFi is running of a TP-Link WAP, and with any luck, I'll never have to deal with Netgear's stupid SSO nonsense again.

The next bit of excitement for the home network is a 48-port switch.  I know, how can I possibly justify a 48-port switch?!  Well... I'm not going to pretend that I have 48 wired Ethernet machines up and running all the time, but I do have 6 machines in my rack, and 20 or so machines strewn about, and I have little "desktop switches" all over the place... I'm hoping to get away from that.  Of course, that will mean doing more home-runs, but I'm hoping it will make for less confusing networking.

The RIBBBITN3RDing BitPump

The RIBBBITN3RDing BitPump

The RIBBBITN3RDing BitPump r0.1

A little bit of background 

I've been trying quite a few new things with my RIBBBIT65 designs, and I'm running into issues which aren't making a lot of sense.  I've also been having some trouble isolating issues (e.g. "known good" components or circuits don't work *here*... and it turns out "known good" wasn't)  I wanted to have a way that I could repeatably, and quickly, put a bunch of R65 Bus signal configurations ... snapshots, if you will... on the bus to confirm the thing is behaving the way I expect.  Rather than coding something up in 6502 Assembly for every different testing scenario - and, in the process, intoroducing the possibilty that the CORE board I'm using has a problem, I thought it would be better to do something like my TTL Busy Boxes, but on steroids.  The Busy Boxes are just boards with switches and/ or lights that let you do some multiple of 8 worth of switching and/or indicating.  The first one I designed has an 8-position DIP switch, 8 mini-tac switches, and a 10-segment LED bar graph.  That's great for, say, the data bus.  There's still the address bus (16 bits) and all the control signals.  Well, controlling 32 (or more) signals via DIP switches and/or Mini-Tac switches through 20 or 30 cycles (to test an ACIA or a VIA) just seemed like a nightmare.  ...if only there was a way to repeatably send out pre-defined bit patterns over regular time intervals...

The BitPump

The RIBBBITN3RDing BitPump is intended to be an easily reconfigurable digital signal generator which can provide the bit patterns necessary for in-circuit testing of subsystems which interface with 8-bit microcomputers.  

The BitPump, configured for use with the RIBBBIT65 provides:

• an 8-bit bidirectional Data Bus
• a 16-bit output-only Address Bus
• 4 jumpered CPU Control signals (VPB, RWB, MLB, SYNC)
• Jumpered Pull-ups for 5 CPU Control Inputs (SOB,RDY,BE,NMIB,IRWB,RSTB)
• 8 bits of completely manual switching, both latching and momentary on each bit, with indicator LEDs
• 1 "bus clock" driven by a separate IO pin from the bit pattern

The BitPump uses a RaspberryPi Pico (or simlar) to drive a set of four serial-to-parallel shift registers.  

The lower 8 bits (which in the original configuration are wired to the data bus) are bidirectional, and the data direction is controlled by the same "control bit" which drives the R65's RWB (Read, Not-Write) line.  In "Read" mode, the data lines from the bus are displayed on the LEDs.

Since the BitPump is driven by a RaspberryPi Pico (or equivalent), the user has the ability to easily re-program the device to send whatever bit patterns are desired at whatever speed is desired (within the confines of 74HCTXX switching speeds and the capabilities of the sytem under test).

Uses of the BitPump

I'm planning to use the BitPump to see what's going on with my Mini-ITX design.  There's definitely something rotten in Denmark.... hopefully I'll be able to use the BitPump's lower speed, and "known good" bit patterns to isolate the problem(s).  Similar story on the "CORE Daugher Support" board, which is basically supposed to provide a serial console, IO selects, pull-ups and a few other things to the CORE Daughter board I designed for the ITX MoBo, to just make it minimally interactive and runnable.  I plan to troubleshoot both these boards using bit pattern sets delivered by the BitPump.

After that , I plan to use the BitPump to test out different ways of running the 40x4 character LCDs I have.

I can also use it for direct testing of IO and memory chips, since the "data bus" is bidirectional.

What can you use it for?  I dunno.  You could build one and try it out.

Possible updates to the BitPump

One thing I think might be nice is a knob to control the "clock speed".  This could be done easily with a pot and one of the PWM inputs on the Pico.

Another thing that might be nice is a manually controlled "RUN/STOP/STEP" thing that could be done with a couple digital inputs on the Pico.

Do you have any ideas?