Adding third-party services

Hi, all

Please excuse me if I posted in the wrong topic. I thought this one was the most appropriate.

Anyway, WD Live supports bunch on Internet media, such as YouTube, etc…  I would like to add another module there. Let’s say, I want to add service that streams video and supports Apple Http Live Streaming.  I can use this particular service through the browser on my PC, there are multiple channels i can select, etc… Now I want it on WD Live.

I understand that someone has to write an application to support this service and I am happy to try. Is there any information on:

  1. Development on the WD Live? (details of kernel, bootloader, compiling, debugging the fw) for developers? Yes, I can go and reverse engineer the box, but having info available will save time. I did see GPLed version of code and intend to try it soon.

  2. Does WD has any internal APIs to add third-party services?

I do understand that i am voiding the warranty, but happy to play with it.

Any relevant info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rudolf

It’s only snippets of the firmware that is actual (or is based on) GPL code… most of the firmware is proprietary and signed by WD… this is why b-rad can play with filesystems that the WDTV’s see, but can’t change the playback code (such as with the Matroska header issue).

I’d bet that you would not be able to add the servises you wish to.

Your best bet would just post an Idea over in the idea section (if one doesn’t already exist), and hope others vote for it and WD considers adding it.

…It’s also not too bright to openly post on WD’s own site that you plan to break your legal obligations.

http://www.wdc.com/WDProducts/Legal/EULA/ENG/wdfWDTV_Live.pdf

IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: This End User License Agreement (“Agreement”) is a legal contract between you, either as an individual or a single entity (“you”), and Western Digital Technologies, Inc. (“WDT”), governing your use of the software included in the WD TV ® Live product (“Product”) and related online or electronic documentation (such software and the documentation are collectively referred to herein as the “Software”).


3. RESTRICTIONS
You acknowledge and agree that you will not:

(d) attempt to decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software;


That EULA part applies to the closed-source parts.  They do not apply to anything that’s under GPL, and for which the source code is already available, from WD themselves.  In this case there’s no decompiling or reverse-engineering involved - the source code is already there.

This being said, you can legally add new media content providers (up to a point) by relying on uPNP or DLNA.  Tversity is one way.  UMSP is another way when going homebrew.

I am not in breach of agreement.

I aonly plan to work with GPL parts (and release relevant source code in accordance with GPL agreement). I did not say I want to hack the unit, but i want to enchance it by adding stuff.

And this is why I ask on official forum – so I do not have to go and reverse-engineer.

I am in hope there is some sort of SDK/API available I can use.

As for posting it in ideas – no point. Market is limited to few thouthand units at best, WD will not be interested.

Rudolf

rudolfl wrote:

I am not in breach of agreement.

I aonly plan to work with GPL parts (and release relevant source code in accordance with GPL agreement). I did not say I want to hack the unit, but i want to enchance it by adding stuff.

 

And this is why I ask on official forum – so I do not have to go and reverse-engineer.

 

I am in hope there is some sort of SDK/API available I can use.

 

As for posting it in ideas – no point. Market is limited to few thouthand units at best, WD will not be interested.

 

Rudolf

Yes there is an SDK/API available. You license it from Sigma Designs for many thousands of dollars. But of course you don’t get any changes WD have made.

You might want to go over to the hacking forum here http://forum.wdlxtv.com/ to find out what you want to do is difficult and probably impossible.

I’m pretty sure everything you need to get at is in the signed proprietary code, and not the GPL code, or else B-Rad would have easily added such services to WDLXTV already.  That was why I’d made my comment in the first place.

He’s added UMSP support to WDLXTV (i.e. with a properly written plugin, you can have other things, like Shoutcast, show up in the Media Server section).

You could write a plug-in for his firmware (if one doesn’t already exist), but there’s no way (as far as I know) that you’d be able to add it to the general “Internet Media” section, where YouTube and Facebook and everything else is.