New utility - adds web stream TV channels to GBPVR

[turkey]

Is this utility only for "streaming" web channels, or will it work with "on demand" video such as AOL's In2TV, or the newly anounced ABC on demand video.

If not, i would like to make a formal request for this feature to be added.

[ubu]

Basically, UbuStream will play any valid audio/video URL on any media player capable of playing it. This is true of the current version and the new version I'm about to release (still chasing one last bug ). So it will work for on-demand video URLs just like it works for live streams. Similarly, if you download a video, you can use the file name of the downloaded file instead of a URL. Anthing that will play on a given media player should work with UbuStream. You just need to define the URL/file to UbuStream using the config app (or, if you know what you are doing, by directly cutting and pasting to the UbuStream XML file).

The devil is in the details, however. If the on-demand URL is static (does not change) you can define them to UbuStream and watch them from GBPVR at your leisure (PBS documentaries such as Nova and Frontline are examples of this kind of URL). If the URL is dynamic (changes frequently) you have to keep updating the UbuStream definition. I like to watch Amy Goodman's DemocracyNow show which uses the current date as part of the URL for each day's show so I have to change the UbuStream definition every time I want to watch it.

Sites that offer short clips, each with a different URL or sites that use Flash to display the video (Reuters news site is an example of both) are not good candidates for use with UbuStream. Similarly, sites that require a proprietary player to enforce some copy protection scheme may not work.

The two sites you mention appear to offer pay-per-view material which is not an area I've focussed on much. If you are paying for a download, the downloaded file should work with UbuStream. If a proprietary player is required, it may work. Try it. Let me know.

To solve the dynamic URL problem, I've played around with replaceable parameters such as a date parm which would be replaced by the current date at run time, and looked at real-time editing of the URL. The ability to use an on-screen keyboard to edit the URL would be nice but I'm still struggling with the details of implementing this. I'm also thinking about a more elegant way to grab URLs from a web page to create an UbuStream definition (cut and paste works OK but...) Any suggestions would be welcome.

[turkey]

Well, I tried it out to see if it would work for me. And yes, ubustreamcommand will play streaming video from aol's ip2tv. I opened up "URL Helper" (which grabs the url of streaming media), went to the IP2TV page, clicked on the pilot of "Kung Fu", and found the url of the stream. Then, i went to ubustreamconfig, and typed in the url (which I have attached below if anyone else wants to watch this episode), then added the channel in the gbpvr config. I then opened up GBPVR, and went to the newly added channel, and watched an amazing episode of Kung Fu.

While this did work, I now have a channel and a stream set up that I will never watch again. I guess this is the problem I see with this utility and on demand video. When you watch the video once, you probably won't want to watch it again.

Here is my suggestion: Add an interface for on demand videos. This interface can be set up on one channel in GBPVR, and allow you to select from a list of on demand videos, from numerous sources. AOL's IP2TV (which is free, by the way) Comedy Central's Videos, Frontline Video's, and ABC's on demand video (which will also be free, and will have Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias, etc one day after they air on US tv), can all be included in this list.

How would this be implemented? I don't know. It could be a list that is compiled by users, and hosted on a central site that can be accessed by Ubu once a week. Even better, they could be scraped from the websites that offer these videos, and all you would have to do is set up the scraper, and host the urls.

Just my $.02, but I would love to see this utility expanded, as I see more and more on demand video available.

[ubu]

I would love to see this utility expanded, as I see more and more on demand video available.

Totally agree. I see the same trend. Sad in a way because I love the unpredictability and quirky content of some of the live streaming stations, but it's costly to host and on-demand is probably a more practical business model.

It could be a list that is compiled by users, and hosted on a central site that can be accessed by Ubu once a week.

Volunteering? You host it, I'll access it

Add an interface for on demand videos. This interface can be set up on one channel in GBPVR, and allow you to select from a list of on demand videos, from numerous sources.

The new, soon to be released, version of UbuStream has an alternate interface which displays the stations as a list accessible from the GBPVR main menu (along the lines of Video Library). This lends itself better to on-demand streams than the original ExternalRecorder approach. So, for now, this can be used by cutting and pasting on-demand URLs into the UbuStream config dialog or directly into the XML file. BTW - you shouldn't need to type in URLs. I just grab them from my browser by looking at the HTML source, or from the target player by looking at the stream's properties, or from a network sniffer such as "URL Helper" (I use "URL Snooper", does the job and it's free) by highlighting the URL and Ctrl-C to cut it and then Ctrl-V to paste it into the UbuStream URL text field. Then I just delete the on-demand "station" when I've watched it. Not perfect but adequate if you plan ahead a bit.

Even better, they could be scraped from the websites that offer these videos, and all you would have to do is set up the scraper, and host the urls.

Aha! This is the key to the benefits program, IMHO. Not sure about the "all you would have to do" part, though. I'm working on trying to add this capability in a future release. I've already got code that scrapes URL's from a web page but the tricky part is figuring out the user interface for indicating which URL you want and determining the mechanism for transferring it to the UbuStream XML file.

Thoughts so far:
- URL's should be added dynamically (no need to restart GBPVR for them to show up in the on-screen station list).
- Some kind of helper window that would display all the URL's on the current page and allow you to select the ones you want to define to UbuStream.
- Even better, figure out how to add an item such as "Add to UbuStream" on the right-click menu when the mouse is positioned over the on-demand "target" on the page. I currently don't know how to do this but, with some research (and maybe some help from my GBPVR friends ) it's probably do-able.
- I'm assuming that this process would happen outside of GBPVR (on the Windows desktop) since trying to get all this to work with a remote control using the current Web Browser plugin would probably be a nightmare.

[shamusharper]

Waiting with baited breathe. This will be an awesome plugin! Keep up the good work.

[superduper1969]

Any support for PC-Zapper containers? (palmbutler)

http://www.pczapper.tv (check the free version to see containers in action)
http://www.pczapper.tv/cgi-bin/index.cgi

[ubu]

Any support for PC-Zapper containers?

Don't really understand the question. PC-Zapper uses XML to store URLs. UbuStream uses XML to store URLs. Why would I support their format? If you want to interchange URL data between the two, it should be fairly straightforward to write a simple conversion utility since both use standard XML.

Looking at their website, PC-Zapper appears to be yet another commercial PVR wannabe with no particular distinguishing features. I can't see what it offers that GBPVR doesn't already provide. GBPVR is a mature, feature-rich, highly extensible application and it's free.