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Daniel Scheller edited this page Jun 20, 2013 · 38 revisions

Table of Contents

Introduction

Starting with XBMC 13.0, LCDproc support will be completely removed from XBMC core. This Python addon provides a drop-in replacement for this functionality, while additionally improving things:

  • New in 1.3.0/2.3.0: TV-Show mode to display related information when playing items from the TV-show library
  • New in 1.3.0/2.3.0: Support for using alternate char mappings for improved character display of non-ISO8859-1 languages
  • New in 1.2.0/2.2.0: Support for extra information display (icons, bars) on SoundGraph iMON LCD and Targa/Futaba mdm166a displays (icons will get lit according to currently playing media's codecs, etc.)
  • New in 1.2.0/2.2.0: Option to align each line either left (default), centered or right via additional Labels
  • Cleaner communication with LCDd: All command replies are read back and reacted upon. Only things that are actually changed are written to the display, lowering socket communication and Bus/Serial communication load.
  • Special chars (icons, progress bars, big numbers) no longer are written directly to LCDd. Icons, progress bars and big numbers are handled by their respective widget equivalents. This removes the need for character translation tables and enables these features for all (even character-based) displays supported by LCDd's drivers. Matching InfoLabels are intercepted by the addon and no longer be passed to GUIInfoManager.
  • Changes to LCD.xml or configuration parameters at most require only a reload of the addon. It is no longer required to restart XBMC.
  • More customizable (e.g. scroll separators)

Version changes

Note: 1.x.x versions are version numbers maintained for XBMC-Eden, 2.x.x versions are Frodo-variants. Both versions are identical functionality-wise.

1.3.0 / 2.3.0 / current (master)

  • Alternate charmap selection, support for HD44780/iMON ROM (A00 and A02 variants) charsets
  • New "tvshow" mode, active when playing media from the TV-shows database
  • Refactored backlight dimming handling and configuration via GUI settings
  • Cleaned up and improved TCP/Telnet socket handling
  • Indicate internet stream on extraicon-supported displays
  • Use XBMC's time for daytime display on BigDigit-mode and thus properly display 12/24h clocks, improve bigdigit handling
  • Additional "finetuning"-options for extraicon/bar-support
  • Option to entirely disable extra stuff support
  • Always load defaults so LCD.xml in the masterprofile acts as user override, makes additions like new modes or wrong spelling in XML tags not result in empty displays
  • Bugfixes and friends, of course

1.2.1 / 2.2.1

  • Bugfixes, Credits, slightly more convenient configuration option bools

1.2.0 / 2.2.0

  • Maintain versions for Eden (1.x.x) and Frodo+ (2.x.x)
  • Support for extra stuff (icons, bars) on supporting displays
  • Extra stuff handling for SoundGraph iMON LCD and Futaba/Targa mdm166a VFD devices (presence will be autodetected)
  • Align each line either left (default), centered or right
  • Fixed connection problem popup annoyance
  • GUI settings cleanup and some more LCD.xml configurables
  • Take care of providing a default LCD.xml in the master profile

1.1.0

  • greatly improved client/server communication
  • native widgets for bars, icons and bignumbers
  • character conversion left to be done by LCDproc
  • additional configuration options

1.0.0

  • initial addon release

Requirements

A working XBMC installation. Linux tested and supported, MacOS/Darwin, Windows reported working, others should also work but is untested. Feedback welcome.

The addon is designed for Frodo (12.0) and up, but also works fine with Eden (11.0) - PVR variant highly recommended. A properly configured and working LCDproc setup is obligatory. Getting LCDproc to work is not covered by this document.

Installation

Preface

Important note: Please make sure to disable XBMC's core LCD/VFD support (on Frodo, this option can be found at "Settings - System - Video output - Enable LCD/VFD") to not cause any conflicts! (Hint for the brave compiling themselves: Try the Frodo-12.0-removecorelcd branch from https://github.com/herrnst/xbmc/tree/Frodo-12.0-removecorelcd - Frodo 12.0 release - or the Frodo-removecorelcd branch from https://github.com/herrnst/xbmc/tree/Frodo-removecorelcd - Frodo 12.x backports - for a LCD-less XBMC core. XBMC-13 is LCD-less since https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/156eb79c25d66c5336816ed5bdfe5908adca514c :)

Real Easy install

As of Feb 05, 2013, stable release versions (beginning with 1.2.0/2.2.0) are available to be installed through XBMC's official addon repository, so no more need to manually download tar/zipballs and care about putting things to the correct location! ;)

Manual install

GIT clone method 

 $ git clone git://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc.git

If updates (new commits - WARNING! May cause addon breakage! :) ) are available, you can simply do 

 $ git pull

inside the clone destination directory.

Optional:

If you like to use a specific version (e.g. when something in master rendered your desired function unusable or causes breakage/python errors), checkout a release tag.

Use 

 $ git tag -l

to see available (release) tags. Then do 

 $ git checkout <tagname>

to switch to the desired release-tag.

Then copy the repository contents to ~/.xbmc/addons/ or your XBMC installation system addon directory (e.g. /usr/share/xbmc/addons/), or create a symlink to the cloned GIT repo.

ZIP/Tarball method

Download an archive with the contents of the master branch from 

 https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/zipball/master

or 

 https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/tarball/master

Then unpack and move the contents to your preferred addon install location.

Optional downloads: 

 Version 2.2.x+ - Frodo:
   Version 2.2.1:
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/2.2.1.zip
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/2.2.1.tar.gz
   Version 2.2.0:
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/2.2.0.zip
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/2.2.0.tar.gz
 Version 1.2.x+ - Eden:
   Version 1.2.1:
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.2.1.zip
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.2.1.tar.gz
   Version 1.2.0:
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.2.0.zip
     https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.2.0.tar.gz
 Version 1.1.0:
   https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.1.0.zip
   https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.1.0.tar.gz
 Version 1.0.0:
   https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.0.0.zip
   https://github.com/herrnst/script.xbmc.lcdproc/archive/release/1.0.0.tar.gz

After installation, don't forget to enable the addon using XBMC's addon manager if it's not automatically enabled.

Configuration

Configuring version 1.3.x and 2.3.x.

Configuring version 1.2.x and 2.2.x.

Caveats

See the dedicated page for more info.

Credits

This addon was originally started by XBMC team member Memphiz (thanks!), and then taken as a base for further improvements, up to the state it's now at. Original core implementation (C++) of the iMON/mdm166a support was done by Christian Leuschen - thanks for making the iMON's fly ;)

License

The addon is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2. See LICENSE.txt or http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html for more information.

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