WebsUpTV

Reddit Community

A Node.js application that displays various web widgets over any Android TV OS application.

State of development - the application is in early development and is not yet suggested for daily use, currently working through PlexUp integration

Requirements

• Windows PC - Tested with Windows 10, should work on other OSs running PMS, but not yet tested
  • Install Node.js
  • Install Node NPM
  • Download and configure WebsUpTV
• Android TV - Tested with NVIDIA Shield TV (v2015)
  • Mouse higly recommended to access all features
  • Install PiPupTransparent - allow permission to 'Display over other apps'.

Features

• PlexUp - shows actors/roles from your now-playing Plex media, either on-demand, or automatically when you pause.
• Coming Next - Song Id, Sports, Weather, News, Security Cameras...what else should we add?

Feature Requirements

• PlexUp - PlexPass ($$), Plex Media Server, TMDB api key (free)

Setup

I'll try to get a better guide here soon, but here's the quick setup guide. If you get stuck, post in the subreddit and I'll try to help get you going.

• Configure Plex

  • Plex Settings > Settings > Network - Check 'Enable Webhooks' (bottom of page), and set Secure connections to "Preferred" (top of page) - hoping we can find a way around this, but it's a must for now. You can add your TV (and any PCs you are dev'ing on) to the "List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth" whitelist on the same page. I also disabled "Allow media deletion" when I set this, but those are optional.
  • Plex Settings > Webhooks - create a webhook in the format http://:8400/plex. Eg. http://192.168.1.209:8400/plex

• Configure WebsUpTV

  • Pull this repo, or download and unzip. Open the config/config.json file in Notepad or another editor, complete the config file and save. There is a sample config file in the config folder, this includes some additional notes on how to set this up and what the end result should look like.
  • From the root directory of WebsUpTV, Open a PowerShell window (shift + right click), and run "npm install". If everything installs correctly, run "npm start" next. If this doesn't work, be sure you have NPM installed correctly.

FAQ

There's a list of FAQs here. This covers general questions and some setup troubleshooting. Don't see your answer here? Just ask!

Misc Notes - odd bugs, how to use, troubleshoot, etc.

• Please check back for updates often, there is no auto update feature currently in place. To update, you can save your config.json file for reference, but note the changelog as the config.json file will expand in future releases.
• The overlay is currently triggered when you're playing media from YOUR library. This will not work with 'Plex Movies & TV', trailers, Live TV, etc.
• The overlay will also trigger on your config'd TV if someone else is playing media on your server - you can stop the application to prevent this. It's a simple fix, but I wanted to get the working version in place for now. Player IP (your TV IP in the config file) is sent in the plex payload.
• When actors are visible, use your mouse to hover over a card, click the button on the card back to display movie/TV credits for that actor.
• If the overlay is 'stuck' on your TV, move the cursor to the top-left corner of your screen and click the red triange that appears.
• If the overlay stops displaying, 1) you can stop the application in PowerShell by typing Ctrl+C a few times - run 'npm start' to restart.
• It might be helpful to disable any power/battery saving on the PiPup Android application - done in Android settings.
• You can view the overlay data on any other local browser - the urls are displayed in PowerShell when the application starts or restarts.
• You can manually trigger the overlay by sending a http request to PiPup directly, totally optional - this can be done in apps like Button Mapper or Tasker. You can set the duration value to whatever you'd like, if you need to remove the overlay before the duration timer expires, use the red triangle (top-left corner) or send another request with duration set to 0. The first step of displaying the overlay is to clear any existing overlays.
• The app uses no highly complex code - feel free to play around, make it look different, add more info. Show me what you've done and we can merge in anything cool that maintains existing functionality!! I wrote the application in Sublime Text, you don't need any fancy IDEs to play with these files. If you're trying to do something and can't figure it out, drop me a line and I can try to help or learn with you.
• Bug reporting - if you have a reoccuring issue, and want to collect helpful information for debugging, please copy/paste your PowerShell output to a .txt file, then find/replace Plex and TMDB tokens and include that file with your report. Please do not share your Plex or other tokens, it's putting yourself at risk.
• Want to help? https://github.com/my-ugly-code/WebsUpTV/issues there's stuff in there for all skill levels, even if you've never coded before :)