November Plugin Update Demo

This video is a demo of the scheduler, and the second plugin style which I call 'startup' plugins. Startup plugins start with Dynaframe and run alongside Dynaframe, whereas the content plugins are only  called when new content is requested (playlist updates essentially).  

This video is an end to end video as far as it shows how you'll be able to use the store to get a plugin, and then how to configure and use it.  The install, setup, etc. is all handled for you....my goal for users is that they can easily brows the store, get plugins, and use them with as little hassel as possible. For developers it should be fairly simple as well, you can use the UNC path and copy a folder with a plugin in it an things should 'just work' for your development.

We had to take some fixes to do this, so the ongoing beta will get refreshed and then we're pushing to release this month in a week or so.  Once that's out I'll be returning to focus on bugfixes and outsanding features while developers start taking the plugin engine for a spin, and I suspect we'll both have something to show for December's release in the form of bugfixes, features, and now..plugins!

There is one outstanding issue that I'm working through, which may not be an issue for everyone.  For the scheduler plugin, when you hit 'turn off' on some TVs/screens, the pi stops sending a signal.  After that SOME TVs will power all the way down....and not power back up if a signal is restored. In these cases, the 'screen on' button in the UI will not wake the TV up...and this becomes a bad problem.  For those TVs (which I own two of and use as Dynaframes), the scheduler only works to turn the frame off at night, and then the frame needs to be rebooted the next morning.  I'm working on a CEC solution for this, but I may not get it out in time for this release.

The good thing is I don't have to delay the release...we can ship this as a plugin update via the store and fix it that way.  That's just another benefit of the last few months work that we're working on delivering soon!

Thankyou as always for your support!  Standby, hopefully the next post is the release!