Which media player integrates best with OHv2?

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Since I have no preference, as I haven’t tried any of these players, what is being perceived as the best media player for OH integration?

I am simply putting the feelers out, as I haven’t used any of these, and ATM (not knowing anything more or better) envisage to play movies on a TV, or may watch them on a PC from a single storage location.
I reckon the PC option is just noise, as am using VLC to cover all my ‘video and audio’ needs from a PC perspective.

[edit 1] Just thought of another use case: showing photos on some screens, like picture frames. But maybe this is more a slideshow / kiosk functionality than a media player function? [/edit 1]

I like the idea of being able to ‘blend’ OH messages into the TV screen, or pause a movie… to do really useful stuff from an automation perspective rather than needing sophisticated ‘media’ capabilities.

I am looking forward to your experience or pointers to read up on. Thanks.

[edit 2] (After having received three replies) I forgot to say that I do not want to rely on any Internet-based service or cloud. I have my own libraries/folders with music, videos and images, and simply want to watch/listen/look at media files in different rooms and devices. I may read a book on a mobile devices, and listen to music via Bluetooth headset… or watch a movie in a common format on a screen. It’s nothing fancy from what I understand, but a stable functioning OH integration is most important to me. Why? Because I imagine to manage the lighting or pause button, or see who’s calling :slight_smile:

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Hi

I use the Google Chromecast dongles.

The support in OH is really good and I’ve already got simple rules running to reduce the volume when one of our Android OH apps reports that our phones are ringing.

I’m considering putting one into a multi camera live stream setup, so that the client can cast their laptop/s to it and mix it in.
Which has the added benefit that it rolls back to being a photo slideshow, so that they can use the Google Photo app to manage images / information cards being shown.

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Plex and Kodi are both pretty popular. I have Rokus connected to all the TVs (all two of them) and am very happy with the Plex as both a server and the Roku channel for it. There is also a decent openHAB plugin for it, though it’s only a 1.x version binding. Plex supports video, music, and photos. Plex really is more of a media server (hence the Rokus) and not necessarily something you would directly plug into a monitor/TV. It’s UI is primarily through a browser or a “channel” on another device (e.g. Roku, Kodi).

Kodi is another one that is very popular. Plex and Kodi have the same ancestry in XBMC. Kodi is more like a Roku replacement. I’ve much less familiar with it but know it’s well supported in a OH 2.x version binding. I believe it runs well on an RPi and it supports all sorts of different plug-ins/channels to support stuff like Plex, photos, etc.

As Stuart mentions, Chromecasts are also very popular, though to get what you are after I think they would need always on Internet connectivity, especially for the photos.

Ultimately you need to think about this in two parts. What’s your server and what’s your client? For me, the server is Plex and the clients are Roku’s (or the Plex app on mobile devices). I believe Kodi can be both a server and a client, but if you’ve more than one display, you will need to pick one as the server. Chromecasts are really primarily just clients.

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@MDAR, this is a great idea that I am absolutely going to borrow.

@Max_G, I also use Chromecasts extensively, and I’m really happy with them. I don’t know of a way to overlay OH messages, though. Google has a new Chromecast/Android TV device on the horizon, so if you’re not in a hurry I’d be inclined to wait and see what it brings to the table.

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Hi:)

Hope I’m not too late to the party.

I’m asking the same question myself this minute.

I saw there’s an allPlayer binding in PaperUI,so I went to use that, but it really doesn’t look like what I want. Damn, I’d already worked out VLC would run on my Linux Desktop and could do allPlayer stuff :frowning:

So now I’m looking for a plug into VLC. If any media player’s going to be versatile it’ll be VLC, right?

I have LibreElec Kodi running on a Raspberry Pi and OpenHab is working great with it, but I want an extra music option for while I’m watching something on Kodi.

I see there’s an MPD binding too and look forward to playing with that when I get my MPD machine up and running again, but was just looking for something I can slap together now.

Given MPD’s versatility, I imagine that would be the smartest way to go at this point for a permanent answer. And if it turns out the binding isn’t what you’d want it to be, I for one would be extending it.

—Edit - the next day —

So there was enough stuffing around that I figured it would be easier to set up MPD on my laptop and just go with that.

Even after the Toshiba Laptop giving me sound card issues and instead going with a different one, its the best solution so far.

The MPD binding is terrible. It doesn’t seem to update, ever, so I know what the first song I played was. Volume is fine. Play and pause work. Track info (title, artist, album) are fine, except they never ever update.

Looks like I’m going to have a crash course in binding development :slight_smile: