ExternalRecorder problems

[pBS]

i actualkly had vlc playing the stream in gbpvr using timeshift last night..
[the nasa feed] by upping the output time delay...but i noticed vlc's odd behavior that it doesn't really correct the timestamps in the stream so it's total time/etc. are way off.. [known vlc problem] and ff/rw are pretty much unusable...
so i decided to pipe vlc into mencoder to just fix the timestamps and it worked! didn't even use over 10%cpu either!
ff/rw worked great! [no seekeing from start of file] then i tried to pipe into ffmpeg [which can do same thing] and it wouldn't work..
i'll have to check the line to make sure it's still working but i had it there for a while..tried mencoder straight for encode but it sometimes can't open web streams..
the vlc->mencoder trick does get 29fps with almost no cpu usage..
but the startup times are sometimes long so may have to try more than once to get it to stream/transcode successfully..
will put up the command-line i used later..i wanna recheck it..

basically just use "-" [no quotes]for output filename from vlc and for input to mencoder with a | in the middle and copy streams but add the -idx option to re-index...will post example later

[pz1]

basically just use "-" [no quotes]for output filename from vlc and for input to mencoder with a | in the middle and copy streams but add the -idx option to re-index...will post example later

Looks interesting. I'll wait for that example.

[ubu]

i actualkly had vlc playing the stream in gbpvr using timeshift last night..

Wow! I'm impressed.

...but i noticed vlc's odd behavior that it doesn't really correct the timestamps in the stream so it's total time/etc. are way off.. [known vlc problem] and ff/rw are pretty much unusable...

Would that be why it seems to take a random length of time before the recording dies? Sometimes it happens immediately and I get a 0byte mpeg file; sometimes it records a few seconds of mpeg before dying. The NASA stream seems a bit flaky anyway, even for regular playback. That's why I suggest Research TV for testing plugin configuration since its stream seems really consistent.

..tried mencoder straight for encode but it sometimes can't open web streams..

Maybe mplayer piped into mencoder? VLC uses its own internal proprietary codecs, I guess, whereas mplayer uses standard external codecs.

[pz1]

Sometimes it happens immediately and I get a 0byte mpeg file; sometimes it records a few seconds of mpeg before dying.

I had that too a couple of times. A 0byte mpg in the Manual recordings directory. Later I did find a couple of larger mpg files in the GBPVR instalaltion directory. So it may be worthwhile for you to look around there. I have not bene able yet to reproduce this behaviour consistently

P

[pBS]

here's a working example..seems to drop the framerate even tho it doesn't use hardly any cpu power...not sure why it's so slow..
yea,i WISH vlc would fix the dang timestamp code...both ffmpeg and moencoder have no problem with it but vlc seems to have forgotten it alltogether!!
it makes files that have outrageous time totals and don't skip properly..
[skips often have to seek from the beginning of the movie!]
i looked everywhere for the options for the timestamps or related settings and they don't seem to exist...seems they aren't using all of the libav codecs or have modded them somehow..
i think a lot of this would be fixed if we tried some older versions...the last several just aren't quite right...and i used to do all sorts of cool stuff with it...used to be able to capture with it,but now it's very unstable in that regard..[even tho they added new cap options! i suspect they broke it]
so try some older versions and let everyone know if you find a version that handles the timestamps corretly..i know there is one and it ain't the new ones!
here's my code to pipe vlc into mencoder..mencoder is just copying and re-muxing with corrected timestamps...you'll notice all the errors vlc generates....but mencoder fixes it perfectly!
this solution isn't very usable...too slow to start..it works on occasion with timeshifting and UBU...

Code:

vlc.exe --no-sout-ffmpeg-interlace-me  "mms://media-wm.cac.washington.edu/ResearchTV Live (HIGH)" --avi-index --sout-ffmpeg-hurry-up --sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=1500,scale=1,acodec=mp2a,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ps,url=-}} | mencoder  - -vf harddup -noskip  -of mpeg   -ovc copy -oac copy -idx -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vmax_b_frames=2:keyint=15:acodec=mp2:abitrate=128:autoaspect -ofps 30  -o k:\mpg\test4.mpg

[ubu]

here's my code to pipe vlc into mencoder..mencoder is just copying and re-muxing with corrected timestamps...you'll notice all the errors vlc generates....but mencoder fixes it perfectly!

Wow! That's some parameter list!

But I'm confused now. I don't have any problem recording (and using timeshift) with the Research TV url. That's always worked for me. It's the NASA TV stream (the one that pz1 would like to watch) that seems to be causing VLC to crash.

this solution isn't very usable...too slow to start..it works on occasion with timeshifting and UBU...

Have you tried using mplayer instad of VLC? Since mencoder is part of the mplayer project, I wondered if it would do a better job than VLC.

[pBS]

will try that...i figured since it was related,that it would produce same results as mencoder...tho on second thought...mplayer probably does read web streams better...will also try the nasa stream too...that one always played well for me..
[maybe it's cuz i'm down the street from nasa!..lol]
was hoping they'd put ina little bit longer delay in the external plugin cuz while for some streams it does allow timeshifting,some are slow to startup...

am looking into a directshow alternative that should be faster to start and hopefully wil allow any stream directshow can play to be transcoded..
[not sure if Real media is even playable with directshow]
will let ya know what i find if it's usefull...

[pBS]

interesting...the nasa feed did lockup vlc for me first time tried it...then i went and reset the vlc options and it played fine...
can't get it to break now...lol
not sure what was kicking it off...
[i'm using vlc alpha ver.]
do you know what the native frame rate of that feed is? i still get crazy bitrates..i think that's what's wrong with the timelines...104857Kbps is so out of bounds i bet the players are choking on that large a number..
[normally even high-bitrate dvd is only 9800k]
i will see if constraining the max-bitrate fixes the timelines and seeking...that would be awesome!

[pBS]

seems that windows is trying to open the video using the WMV9 DMO first...and that's what's probably crashing for you..after that fails it uses its own code to read the stream and that works for me..
i also have the WMV9 VCM codecs installed so that may also be why i can play them...[like WMV9 codecs for VFW interfaces]
hope that helps a bit..
still can't get the max bitrate to go down..i really believe that is the answer to the skip problem...just no ffmpeg options to restrain it..still looking..
[makes output file invalid...mpeg can't have bitrates that high..out of spec]

[pz1]

will try that...i figured since it was related,that it would produce same results as mencoder...tho on second thought...mplayer probably does read web streams better...will also try the nasa stream too...that one always played well for me..

Did you have a look into the Mplayer in the meantime? I haven't had much time for experimenting lately. In principle Mplayer seems a better solution, because it does not rely on it's own codecs. Also the Mplayer community seems to be more active than the VLC group.

pz