{"id":26232567,"url":"https://github.com/bulletmark/topfield-launcher","last_synced_at":"2026-04-26T19:32:08.044Z","repository":{"id":833561,"uuid":"552253","full_name":"bulletmark/Topfield-Launcher","owner":"bulletmark","description":"Launches VLC or other media player to stream recorded files from your Topfield PVR.","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2020-05-29T05:49:20.000Z","size":16,"stargazers_count":1,"open_issues_count":0,"forks_count":0,"subscribers_count":3,"default_branch":"master","last_synced_at":"2024-05-09T08:17:26.213Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":"","language":"Python","has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/bulletmark.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null}},"created_at":"2010-03-08T09:56:46.000Z","updated_at":"2021-04-29T06:16:25.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2022-08-16T11:05:16.106Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/bulletmark/Topfield-Launcher","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bulletmark%2FTopfield-Launcher","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bulletmark%2FTopfield-Launcher/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bulletmark%2FTopfield-Launcher/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bulletmark%2FTopfield-Launcher/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/bulletmark","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/bulletmark/Topfield-Launcher/tar.gz/refs/heads/master","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":243318778,"owners_count":20272136,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2025-03-13T00:37:31.001Z","updated_at":"2025-12-24T19:05:37.167Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/bulletmark.png","language":"Python","funding_links":[],"categories":[],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"## Topfield-Launcher\n\nTopfield-Launcher connects to a specified ftpd-topfield host and lists recorded\nfiles available on the connected Topfield TF5000 series PVR. The user can\nnavigate about the PVR directories and select a file to play to his PC. The\nTopfield-Launcher will start the specified media player (VLC is recommended) to\nstream the requested file from the remote PVR, to the user's screen.\n\nTopfield-Launcher also provides the user with the ability to delete or\nrename recorded files.\n\nSee screenshots at\n\u003chttp://wiki.github.com/bulletmark/Topfield-Launcher/\u003e.\n\n### License\n\nCopyright (C) 2010 Mark Blakeney. This program is distributed under the\nterms of the GNU General Public License.\n\nThis program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it\nunder the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the\nFree Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later\nversion.\n\nThis program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but\nWITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of\nMERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General\nPublic License at \u003chttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License\u003e for more details.\n\n### Prerequisites\n\nYou need a Topfield PVR with a USB connection to a computer or\n[NSLU2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2)\nor similar device running\n[ftpd-topfield](http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Puppy/FtpdTopfield).\nThat instance of\n[ftpd-topfield](http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Puppy/FtpdTopfield)\nmay be running on your own user-end PC, or on another remote PC/server\nsuch as a NSLU2 to which you have a network connection from your user\nPC. You install Topfield-Launcher and any necessary software as\ndescribed below, on your user PC.\n\nYou will find that VLC will not stream recorded files at real-time speed\nunless you have installed the USB accelerator TAP or firmware patch on\nyour Topfield. Get the USB accelerator TAP or patch from\n\u003chttp://www.tapworld.net/\u003e. Note that you don't need to use\nftpd-topfield turbo mode. Performance is excellent. I find that scrolling\nthrough a program is much faster using VLC than on the toppy itself.\n\nI developed and tested Topfield-Launcher on Linux Ubuntu with\nftpd-topfield versions 0.7.6 and 0.7.7 running on my NSLU2 running\nDebian. See \u003chttp://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/\u003e for instructions on\ninstalling Debian. My wife uses Topfield-Launcher on Windows XP where it\nlooks and runs as well as on linux.\n\n### Installation on Linux\n\n1. Ensure you have at least python version 2.4 or later (not python 3).\n\n2. Install wxpython 2.8+ and dependent packages. Also install the\n   python-dateutil 3rd party package and VLC. (e.g. on ubuntu):\n\n        sudo apt-get update\n        sudo apt-get install python-wxgtk2.8 python-dateutil vlc\n\n3. Click/run Topfield-Launcher.py and ensure player path and Topfield\n   host are appropriate for your setup. If you run ftpd-topfield on your\n   local PC then the Topfield-Launcher host must be set to \"localhost\".\n\n### Installation on Windows\n\n1. Download and install python 2.6.x or later (not python 3) Windows\n   installer from \u003chttp://python.org/download/\u003e.\n   Do a default install. I have not tested with 3rd party python\n   distributions, e.g. ActivePython, but it should work.\n\n2. Download and install wxpython 2.8+ runtime for python 2.6\n   (win32/64-unicode) from \u003chttp://www.wxpython.org/download.php#binaries\u003e.\n   Do a default install.\n\n3. Download the python dateutil library from \u003chttp://labix.org/python-dateutil\u003e.\n\n   Unpack the archived file. Winrar is a good small windows archiver\n   which will unpack .bz2 files. Get it from\n   \u003chttp://www.rarsoft.com/download.htm\u003e. A recent\n   version of Winzip will also unpack bz2 files.\n   Copy the dateutil\\dateutil folder to C:\\Python2X\\Lib\\site-packages\\.\n   Make sure you copy the \"\\dateutil\" sub-folder only! You can then\n   delete the dateutil stuff you downloaded.\n\n4. Download and install VLC from \u003chttp://www.videolan.org/vlc/\u003e.\n   Do default install.\n\n5. The Topfield-Launcher.py file requires a \".pyw\" extension on Windows\n   to avoid a secondary console window appearing. So rename it manually.\n\n6. Click/run Topfield-Launcher.py and ensure player path and Topfield\n   host are appropriate for your setup.\n\n### Installation on Mac\n\nI haven't tried installing this on a Mac yet but it will probably run fine\nthere and the procedure will be similar to the Linux instructions above.\nMac OS includes python by default so you just need WX python 2.8+,\ndateutil, and vlc.\n\n### Other Notes\n\nThe specified host name can be an alphanumeric name or a numeric IP\naddress. If for some reason you are running ftpd-topfield on a\nnon-standard port then you can specify the host as host:port.\n\nYou can add startup options to the specified player if you like. E.g.\nAdd '-f' if you prefer VLC start in full screen.\n\nThe player and host settings are stored permanently (in the usual\nplatform dependent locations) and so are remembered between invocations.\n\nYou can start a file playing, or enter a directory, either by selecting\nit and then clicking the select button; or simply by double clicking on\nthe entry.\n\nYou can delete a file by selecting it and clicking the delete button.\nDeletes are only actioned after a confirm dialog is presented. Directory\ndeletion is not allowed. You can also rename files.\n\nThe refresh button forces the display to update from the Topfield PVR\ndisk.\n\nSteve Bennett, the author of ftpd-topfield, has created a patch for vlc\nwhich fixes the skip forwards/backwards hotkeys for streamed media. It\nalso corrects the total time length displayed. This patch is superb and\nprovides easy ad-skipping functionality. For some odd reason the patch\nhas not yet been integrated into the vlc source tree. If you can build\nvlc from source then get the patch from\n\u003chttp://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/2985\u003e.\n\nThat should be it. Email me if you have any questions.\n\n### Author\n\nMark Blakeney, markb@berlios.de. I was user \"markb\" on the Topfield\nAustralia forums before they disappeared.\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fbulletmark%2Ftopfield-launcher","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fbulletmark%2Ftopfield-launcher","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fbulletmark%2Ftopfield-launcher/lists"}