Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] adding MTP device support

[Steve Fox <drfickle k-lug org>]

On Tue, 2006-05-23 at 10:38 +1000, James "Doc" Livingston wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-05-22 at 16:50 -0500, Steve Fox wrote:
> I haven't heard anything about adding support for MTP devices (in fact
> I'm not even sure what one is). Adding support for them should be done
> in a similar way to how iPod support is done.

MTP is Multimedia Transport Protocol, which is a perver^w modified
Picture Transfer Protocol that many digital cameras use. I think any
device that carries the Plays For Sure sticker uses MTP.

> There are a couple of questions whose answers affect exactly how you set
> some of it up:
> 
> *  can tracks on the device be accessed with gnome-vfs? (if it's
> mass-storage and mountable, then yes)

There is a gphotofs, which is a FUSE filesystem module. Using that would
limit it to Linux though.

> * does libgphoto have a "device detected" signal or do you want RB to
> tell you about all the devices and decide whether you support them?

I was hoping RB would handle all the device detection stuff via HAL and
then I'd just call libgphoto2 when appropriate.

> Transfer and ripping have been working perfectly for me, and I'm told
> that transcoding works okay. Known issues:
> 
> * The UI needs work, as there is currently no way of cancelling a
> transfer
> * We probably need some minor API changes for transcoding

I'd personally be happy with even just transfer. 

> Also, the full-ipod-support patch has an "ipod manager" object which
> deals with the details of synchronisation and the like. It would be good
> if we can turn this into a generic one, so that each player doesn't have
> to implement it again.

That really goes for any removable media device operation in an ideal
world. Hubert Figuiere wrote up some thoughts on that semi-recently.
http://www.figuiere.net/hub/blog/?q=Digital+Audio

Thanks for the feedback.

-- 

Steve Fox
http://k-lug.org