Embedded Files
History
In 2009 mediaplayer world changed when Realtek soc (RT1073/1283) based players came on the consumer market. Before that there was KISS DP500 and was running on a SIGMA soc. The Danish firm was later bought by Cisco. Nice history info here.
So my little Xtreamer Mk1 is still running today. Thanks to a bunch of very skilled digital anarchists (myself included) only the hardware is still original. After finding ways to flash other Realtek based firmwares and some IDA reverse engineering a new era began: running highly customized firmware on our little mediaplayers.
For a year or two I am running the MOS AMP firmware. How to flash and install read here.
Edit 26 mar 2018: My Xtreamer Mk1 is still running. This cannot be said for the company. Not a big surprise I guess.
Realtek Firmware
The firmware consists mainly of two components: a Linux OS and a GUI part called dvdplayer. The dvdplayer app handles the decoding in hardware.
Since all the brands used the same RT1073/1283 soc and boards the firmwares had to be interchangeable. The bottleneck was the ir remote control which had different codes per manufacturer. Let us not forget to mention the hardware/brand check that some manufacturers had put into their dvdplayer app. After some time with IDA these problems were solved. Some firmwares were even AES 128 bit encrypted. Luckily these keys were available on the net after a while.
MOS,AMP r9-r11 and Skins (RT1073/1283)
The idea behind the MOS AMP (yes Another Media Player) was to pull the OS and the dvdplayer app apart. On top of that MOS introduced a third element: a web interface using a repository with customized modules to add to the player.
Refer to the dvdplayer part as Skin. The Linux OS part is called AMP. The web GUI and modules are called moServices.
Some heavy Php scripting is done here by FarVoice
This was a brilliant idea and is still running strong today. The OS (and kernel) were updated and perfected. Also the latest drivers (e.g. Wifi) were added.
The dvdplayer part was now called a skin and available through the repository. Thus making it possible to run the GUI/dvdplayer of any manufacturer, the choice is left to the user.
The "split" between OS and the skin is at the /usr/local/etc folder.
The management of the MOS modules is via a php based web interface running on the player.
On the screenshot you see all the modules, grouped in categories.
The main menu moServices has three options: Services (installed), Modules (whole repository on the server) and Settings.
The repository can be updated to check for new versions or modules.
Since the introduction of skins (GUI's) you can choose which interface best suits your taste or functionality needs. The Asus HD2 skin has even Opera/Webkit.
But this needed a solution for the ir remote control. This is were it gets clever. Another guy called Sekator had already created a new configurable daemon called irfake. This clever daemon sits between the ir port and the dvdplayer app. Incoming ir codes are translated via irfake.conf to the proper code for the dvdplayer app. This irfake.conf file is stored with the skin. So you can switch easily and on the fly between skins, all controlling them with your original remote control.
Irfake is one of the modules in MOS. After cliking Settings you get the irfake.conf
file to change the translated ir codes.
Need to know
- Latest MOS kernel: Linux Venus 2.6.12.6-VENUS #323636_r9 Sun Aug 12 18:44:08 MSD 2012 mips GNU/Linux
- There is also a skin/fw that has its GUI in adobe flash
- Opera/Webkit is even implemented on the older RT1073/1283 (you need at least 256 Mb RAM)
- There is a HDMI CEC daemon you can use to control the player with your tv remote
- You can de emergency flash from usb with install.img by pressing HOME 3 POWER on the remote
- Older firmwares used YAFFS nand images that were writable. Later ones used SQUASHFS which is readonly.
- Newer Realtek platform can even run Android 2.x
Best regards to FarVoice, Virtual and Sekator and all the others who made this possible.
Cheers
Right you see the irfake.conf file I use for the PlayOnHD v7.4.6.r7317 skin. This skin designed by the dutch playon division (R.I.P.). It is not the fastest skin but it looks good and has some nice features.
Greetings to Paula Stevenson from Holland :)
Notice that beside simple translate an incoming ir code to another you can also create a script to run on and incoming ir code. I have done that for the power button.
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