Quote:Yeah that is the point. Python Scripting is fine and all - but why not have an an .rss video/audio/image feed capability build straight into XBMC itself?
I haven't used Apple TV - but I imagine if it does it it would do it via some kind of web browser, which would allow you to look for and add RSS feeds from a specific domain directly to the interface.
This is basically the ideal of IPTV. You build your own channels and watch/listen to what you want to watch/listen to when and wherever you want to watch or listen to it.
It seems that this would be a pretty natural evolution for a direction in which XBMC could go.
OK I'm quoting myself here. (Well actually I am just making some sneaky corrections to my text). However I read the developers thoughts on all kinds of things about XBMC - and one of the things that they have consistently said is that they won't do stuff that is not media player related.
Well hopefully .rss video/image and audio podcasts are, or can be classified as media player related - since a number of media players already offer the ability to add .rss type feeds to them. (Moreover this is likely to continue to increasingly be the trend for much of the foreseeable future).
It isn't just Google which will allow you to build your own personalised .rss feeds from their video/audio searches. Yahoo will allow this too, via their own native search api.
For example these are some personalised streams I have made from both Yahoo and Google:
http://video.google.co.uk/videofeed?type...output=rss
http://video.google.com/videofeed?type=s...output=rss
http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?so...um&start=0
http://video.google.co.uk/videofeed?type...output=rss
http://today.reuters.com/tv/rss/default....804b8abd47
http://today.reuters.com/tv/rss/default....4fcae3c097
http://today.reuters.com/tv/rss/default....b63d086ef0
http://today.reuters.com/tv/rss/default....7e8a3524df
http://api.search.yahoo.com/VideoSearchS...ocumentary
http://api.search.yahoo.com/VideoSearchS...ery=Comedy
http://api.search.yahoo.com/VideoSearchS...uery=Music
Essentially they amount to TV channels that I made up on my own and which conform to my own predetermined set of criteria.
Again i think this is both the ideal and the future of iPTV. People are underplaying the value of .rss video and audio casting at the moment - but this really is a way that you can make and watch only the television shows that you want to make and watch and which only plays the content that you want them to play.
You could (in theory) add, edit, include and exclude all kinds of criteria in your search results, so that for example you could include a ratings system, with content/feeds that are suitable only for children, or adults, or which included a specific genre of music, or of movies, or of movies staring one specific actor and so on. The sky is virtually the limit (even if the technology still has a little way to catch up).
Anyway I digress. I just find this stuff really interesting and it would be neat if some element of native .rss streaming functionality could be included in XBMC.
I guess one way of doing this would be to allow for some kind of search functionality in XBMC that could use the Google and Yahoo .rss search API's to generate appropriate .rss feeds where you enter a few keywords and a number of other criteria, like duration, genre and so on and it would automatically add a feed to XBMC based on these selections. But again, I don't know how possible it is for a media player to do this.
What's really needed is a search engine that is dedicated to searching and finding .rss video and audio and image feeds and which allows you to define these using a wide range of criteria in the way I indicated above. That may indeed not be in the remit of XBMC - but noneleless I don't see how the ideal of a true IPTV based revolution could exist without it.