GNU/Linux Rifftrax Player

[mhoke63]

Dunno if its a possibility, but would it be possible to release the rifftrax player on a free software licence (eg GPLv3) so we can take it and adapt it to our own platforms?  More specifically, GNU/Linux.  Thanks.

[Conor]

One step at at time.

[edlesmann]

Dunno if its a possibility, but would it be possible to release the rifftrax player on a free software licence (eg GPLv3) so we can take it and adapt it to our own platforms?  More specifically, GNU/Linux.  Thanks.

I signed up specifically to second this.

I only got into RiffTrax a couple weeks ago (though I have been a fan of MST3K for years) and I have been reading through the forums on different methods people use to watch RiffTrax. It appears that there are plenty of people who use things like Xbox Media Center (XBMC) and Linux. The only windows system I have is at work, so the closest I have come to the player is watching a few minutes on a friends laptop and looking at the information page on this site. I think it is a fantastic idea and I would love to use it but all of my boxes are Linux based; including my media center which is comprised of MythTV and XBMC. It would be fantastic if either or both of them supported the RiffTrax player and with as many people who use those products it might be a good way to get exposure as well. I am fairly confident that it would open up more testers, bug finders/patchers, and developers to improve the product.

The only thing is that the license would have to be open for those projects to use it. If the decision is made to give it a try I will gladly be among the first in line to volunteer to help out anyway I can. I am sure that there are plenty of people on the forum that would'nt mind helping out and I certainly can test on a variety of systems; XBMC or MythTV or Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, heck I will build a system for whatever distro you choose as it can be adapted to others later). We just need the go ahead

Good luck!

[bsandrew]

What would fellow geeks out there see as advantages of an open API for the Player?

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[edlesmann]

The nice thing about Open Source is that anyone can adapt it to whatever they need. I would certainly use it in multiple area's of my life. From the Living Room XBMC / MythTV to my Debian PC to my Ubuntu Laptop.

Reading through the forums its obvious that there is some demand. Its also obvious that using the Xbox as a media center is a popular method of watching RiffTrax. I am guessing that the RiffTrax team does not want to spend all of their time keeping up with hundreds of variations on the player (and I dont blame them for not wanting to invest that much time and effort). So why not have them support one API that works with everything?

The thing is, to get it to work with everything the RiffTrax team will either need to support everything or they can open the license and just support an official API and let others work to improve the code and support OS versions.

The reason why I applaud an Open Source license is because if the player gets into Debian* (which requires an open source license) then its almost guaranteed to filter down to Ubuntu and all of the other derivatives plus most packages that make it into Debian get cross ported to RPM based distros. Those who want an available plugin for XBMC or MythTV or Open_Source_Project_Fill_In_The_Blank can simply grab the officially supported Open Souce API and port it.

Maybe its just me, but I would be happy to contribute anyway I can. I also think there are enough people in the forums who would also be willing to help out. I really would like to see something like the RiffTrax player available for these Open Source projects.

Anyone else have any thoughts/suggestions?


*I am not saying that they have to do this or anything. I mention it because I have seen it work several times in projects I have been a part of. The group only officially supported the code and the Debian package but the project was in almost every major distro because others jumped in to make RPM's for YUM and the like. It was much easier then trying to support Deb, RPM, and exe files ourselves.

[mhoke63]

I am for a free software license such as the GNU GPL.  You take the step to place no DRM on the files, and applaud you for that.  The rifftrax player would be another step to take.  Offering the option to download in an Ogg Vorbis format as well would be a great thing, imo.  Then again, there may not be demand for all of that.  I would just like to see a GNU/Linux version of the player, since that is the OS I use, and do not have a windows boot.  libdvdcss is the package for viewing dvds, so all that is there right for your taking and implementation.