Archive for July, 2010
How to Integrate Skype and MythTV
One of the things I am really confident will happen in the near future is an integration between our TV and phones. In the past years Skype and VoIP improved significantly but yet we have to see an example of seamless integration between those technologies.
In my living room I have a big flat screen TV connected to Linux MythTV server, which I use for recording and watching TV and DVDs.
Thanks to the long weekend I had some time to attach a webcam (VF0415 Live! Cam Vid. IM Ultra) to that computer, mount it over the TV, and make it work (nothing to do, really) with Skype.
It works great, but I still needed to get out of MythTV and use mouse/keyboard to access Skype and make calls. I am sure it would not be that hard to create a proper plugin to make MythTV work with the client-side Skype API, but it probably makes little sense now that they are about to release their SkypeKit platform and I am sure someone will just convert the good SIP plugin for that.
Here is how you can add an entry in the Main Menu of MythTV to start Skype:
- Find and save somewhere on your disk a reasonably sized Skype logo in PNG format
- Add to “/usr/share/mythtv/themes/<your_theme>/menu-ui.xml” an entry like the following
<state name="SKYPE"> <imagetype name="watermark"> <filename>watermark/skype.png</filename> </imagetype> </state>
- Add to “/usr/share/mythtv/themes/defaultmenu/mainmenu.xml” an entry like the following
<button> <type>SKYPE</type> <text>Skype</text> <description>Launch Skype</description> <action>EXEC /usr/bin/skype</action> </button>
Clearly you will have to change <your_theme> with the name of the theme you use (I use “Retro”), “watermark/skype.png” with the real location of your Skype logo and “/usr/bin/skype” with the location of your Skype executable (try with the command “which skype” if you do not know it), but everything else should work.
Restart MythTV and your new shiny Skype entry should appear at the bottom of the main menu. Clicking on it will stop MythTV and launch Skype. At first launch, maximize the Skype window with the mouse, then it will do it automatically. When you close Skype (for real, right-click on the systray icon and click close) it will go back to MythTV.
I am also fiddling with Lirc to allow to completely control Skype with the remote. It should not be too hard. I will update this post when/if I manage to do it.
