UbuStream v2.1 Beta finally available

[jksmurf]

Does the popping sound happen all the time or only after using UbuRadio (or UbuStream)?

As far as I can make out, only after using UbuRadio. It goes away if I reboot....

... it be that the RealPlayer activex control leaves something still "connected" to XP's Wave In channel?

Also after using Windows Media Player. I don't think I'm qualified to say what is happening :-) But maybe?

... You could try muting the Wave volume slider but keep the master Volume slider normal to test this theory.

OK, will try it!

.Also, does the popping sound stop after you play something else on the speakers (an mp3 with Media Player Classic, for instance)?

Will try that too.

btw, Choosing Ubustream from within WebRadio shows Err: Object .......

[EDIT1]I ran the MVP at 12500, 10000 was not enough for me btw. Something running on the PC (mail checker or something else, but CPU usage basically), kicked it off after about 45 mins btw. Will increasing that number help? I remember of you go too far it doesn't start :-)

[EDIT2]Realaudio Preview Play works btw (and on the PC the RP Window comes up fine), as I said yesterday, but stutters a bit. So I thought I'd try timeshift play. But (in RA only) that says "Stream not available" to my surprise???

[ubu]

btw, Choosing Ubustream from within WebRadio shows Err: Object .......

I can't reproduce that error on my system. Can you attach your gbpvr.exe.log so I can see what's happening?

[EDIT1]I ran the MVP at 12500, 10000 was not enough for me btw. Something running on the PC (mail checker or something else, but CPU usage basically), kicked it off after about 45 mins btw. Will increasing that number help? I remember of you go too far it doesn't start :-)

My MVP seems to be affected by any other "claims" on the CPU or the network. I notice that using the MVP and heavy network use (bittorrent, ftp, etc.) don't mix too well. So receiving a web stream, transcoding it and playing it on the MVP all at the same time is, to say the least, a delicate balancing act. UbuRadio only gives you a "one size fits all" for the wait time, whereas UbuStream lets you fine tune the wait time for each station. Ultimately, everybody's setup is different so I guess you just have to use trial and error to get the optimum settings for your system.

[EDIT2]Realaudio Preview Play works btw (and on the PC the RP Window comes up fine), as I said yesterday, but stutters a bit. So I thought I'd try timeshift play. But (in RA only) that says "Stream not available" to my surprise???

Looks like you're trying to use Timeshift play with NDR2's RA stream. VLC doesn't officially support RealMedia (although some RA streams will, confusingly, work with it) so I'm not surprised you get the "Stream not available" (which is a generic message I'm using for any condition where the stream won't play). On the other hand, the Windows Media NDR2 stream works fine using Timeshift play. VLC will play most WM audio streams (and, of course, any MP3 stream) so those are the best candidates for using with Timeshift.

[jksmurf]

I can't reproduce that error on my system. Can you attach your gbpvr.exe.log so I can see what's happening?

Cheers for the rest :-)

k.

[idkpmiller]

Hi Ubu,

Great work on your plugin, I actually have started to look at it as I was thinking about an RSS feed type of video plugin, you seem to have most of it done so I thought I would save myself some hassle and use what you have so kindly provided.

Ok, I am trying to get my head around how to set up the DynamicSynSources.

I am either finding loads of issues or a complete idiot and doing things totally wrong. I was at this point going to just struggle through and work it all out but then I thought that it would probably be better for the community if I described and documented my experiences for the benefit of others.

I have a picture below (ubu1.jpg that shows a number of things I would like to ask about:

1. You will see in the bottom status bar that it is updating youtube, this never appears to stop if I leave this window open I see no change, is this correct?

2. I dont have a Test Import button as shown and described in the wiki I have an Execute, next a press the execute button as this seems to be the logical thing to do.

The next image ubu2.jpg shows after pressing the Execute button in 2 above:

3. Okay, I have already admitted I am an idiot so, what do I do here? I couldnt seem to find anythin in the wiki or this thread about this that made it clear to me.

4. Having scratched my head I end up pressing the finish button, I then receive the error attached as ubu3.zip array out of bounds!

5. just in case something has actually happened I go into GBPVR and select the "My Youtube Clips" group here I see in the right hand pane a message saying "No stations matching type/group to displa" notice the lack of the 'Y' at the end of the sentence.

6. Again I'm stupid, I select (enter key pressed) the message and get "error object not set to a blah blah.

I am obviously doing something completely wrong but in doing so I have stumbled upon a few errors that you can trap and resolve so hopefully out of this you will advise me what I should be doing and you can trap the errors.

Cheers

[ubu]

Cheers for the rest :-)

No "smoking gun" in your log file. Looks like UbuRadio is finding your UbuStream xml file OK but that there's something it doesn't like while it's reading it. If you attach your UbuStream.xml file, I'll try to reproduce the problem.

[jksmurf]

No "smoking gun" in your log file. Looks like UbuRadio is finding your UbuStream xml file OK but that there's something it doesn't like while it's reading it. If you attach your UbuStream.xml file, I'll try to reproduce the problem.

Cheers

Could it be the way I installed UbuRadio first, then ran the Ubustreaminstaller?

k.

[ubu]

Great work on your plugin, I actually have started to look at it as I was thinking about an RSS feed type of video plugin, you seem to have most of it done so I thought I would save myself some hassle and use what you have so kindly provided.

Ok, I am trying to get my head around how to set up the DynamicSynSources.

So you're thinking of maybe writing a DynSource app to support RSS feeds. Interesting. Any particular feeds in mind?

I am either finding loads of issues or a complete idiot and doing things totally wrong. I was at this point going to just struggle through and work it all out but then I thought that it would probably be better for the community if I described and documented my experiences for the benefit of others.

The fact that you're asking these questions (in a well thought-out, structured fashion) shows you are by no means a "complete idiot". I really welcome these kinds of questions because they force me to explain things that are not adequately documented.

1. You will see in the bottom status bar that it is updating youtube, this never appears to stop if I leave this window open I see no change, is this correct?

This is a bug I apparently introduced into v.2.1 fairly recently. If you just click the Finish button without adding any new URLs, you should get the message "0 stations imported from DynSource". I've attached a patch containing a version of UbuStreamPlugin.dll that fixes this.

2. I dont have a Test Import button as shown and described in the wiki I have an Execute, next a press the execute button as this seems to be the logical thing to do.

The wiki describes UbuStream v2.0. Looks like you are using the v2.1 Beta release. A lot changed since v2.0 (including the name of this button). I'll get around to updating the wiki whenever I make the new release "official".

The next image ubu2.jpg shows after pressing the Execute button in 2 above:

3. Okay, I have already admitted I am an idiot so, what do I do here? I couldnt seem to find anythin in the wiki or this thread about this that made it clear to me.

The idea is that you have your browser open and that you are looking at a YouTube video you want to add to UbuStream. Highlight the page URL (in the address field at the top of the browser) and press Ctrl-C to copy it. Then switch to the DynSource form (the PLX Generator window in your jpg) and click the Paste button (or press Ctrl-V). The URL will show up in the URL field. Now press the Add button. The DynSource app will scrape the YouTube page and extract the "real" URL of the video (along with it's name, description, etc.) and add the video clip name to the list box. Repeat this for as many clips as you want to capture and, when you are done, press Finish. The DynSource app will then create a PLX file and UbuStream will import it. If you now look in the "My YouTube Clips" group, you'll find the clips listed as new stations.

btw - the Google Videos DynSource app works in exactly the same way but with page URL's from the Google Videos site. I find I use the Google one more than the YouTube one, not just because the choice of available videos is richer (which it is) but also because the downloaded station links point to proper video files (avi, etc.) which can be used with any of UbuStream's playback scenarios. I haven't figured out how to find the actual underlying files on YouTube so I had to write a mickey mouse flash video player so you can watch the videos with UbuStream. Not as good, I think you'll find.

sub has this figured out in his YouTube plugin (which he released a few days after I released my YouTube offering - darn it!). He is transcoding the video clips to mpeg files before starting playback which is fine for short clips but not so good for long ones. His plugin is infinitely superior in terms of packaging and integration with GB-PVR. However you are restricted to the pre-defined groups of clips it provides. My DynSource app is great for just grabbing a clip on the fly (eg. if someone emails you the URL of a YouTube clip they think you'd like) and watching it on the TV.

4. Having scratched my head I end up pressing the finish button, I then receive the error attached as ubu3.zip array out of bounds!

I can't reproduce this one on my test system. You should just get a pop-up message box telling you that no PLX file was created and then the "0 stations imported...." message in the status bar.

5. just in case something has actually happened I go into GBPVR and select the "My Youtube Clips" group here I see in the right hand pane a message saying "No stations matching type/group to displa" notice the lack of the 'Y' at the end of the sentence.

The message is correct but appears to be truncating in your environment. Which skin are you using? I test with the Blue and Community skins and the message displays just fine.

6. Again I'm stupid, I select (enter key pressed) the message and get "error object not set to a blah blah.

You found another bug. Again, I probably caused this during v2.1 code mods. (The more you enhance a piece of software, the more bugs you reintroduce into the existing code, I fear.) Fixed now.

I am obviously doing something completely wrong but in doing so I have stumbled upon a few errors that you can trap and resolve so hopefully out of this you will advise me what I should be doing and you can trap the errors.

Thanks for catching some bugs and for asking some good questions. I look forward to seeing an RSS DynSource app. Let me know if you have further questions or need help with the DynSource framework.

If you're interested, here's a little background about the UI DynSource apps:

I originally came up with the DynSource feature as a way of letting people write simple apps to automatically generate content for UbuStream. The cornerstones of the DynSource architecture are a standard interchange format for UbuStream stations and groups - the PLX file (which is basically a PLS file with some additional data - PLX means PLS eXtended) and a shared class library which contains methods that do much of the standard grunt work (connecting to a web site, reading an HTML page, writing the PLX file, etc.). So this means the DynSource author only needs to worry about scraping the HTML (or any other source) and populating the section (group) and site item (station) objects.

So this worked quite well and a number of people have written DynSource apps, providing content from a variety of sources. Most of these apps are non-interactive apps that scrape web content from sites containing reasonably finite numbers of candidate streams. But I wondered if I could extend the architecture to support a) generating content from sources other than web sites and b) capturing content from web sites where the number of available links is too large for automatic scraping so that the user probably wants to manually "cherry pick" streams to import into UbuStream.

To illustrate the first capability, I wrote the Podcasts DynSource app which creates UbuStream stations and groups based on the contents of the directories used by your Podcast receiver (iTunes, Juice, etc.) and keeps them updated.

To enable the second case, I extended the DynSource class library to include a simple generic form that allows the user to paste page URLs into a list and create a PLX file. To demonstrate how this might work, I wrote the two "UI" apps for capturing Google and YouTube clips. I don't really view these as "professional grade" and I realize that the way they're integrated into the UbuStream config app is somewhat hokey. They were really intended as a "trial balloon" to see if there was any interest in taking the DynSource architecture further in that direction. I haven't really had any feedback about them so I've been focussing on other aspects of UbuStream (the new features in the v2.1 Beta, for instance). For the same reason, I didn't bother to add much documentation of these apps to the wiki. Nonetheless, I find that I use the Google one quite a bit myself. There's a lot of good stuff on the Google Videos site, including a large number of full length classic movies.

The shared Dynamic Source library is open source and so are the DynSource apps I've written. Ideally, all DynSource app authors should make their source code available too. Since the target web sites are apt to change their page formats from time to time, its useful to have the source available to the rest of us if the author has disappeared or lost interest.

Anyway, copy this dll into your Plugins directory and see if it fixes the two bugs: [ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND] (You may also notice a few other changes to the config app - I've rearranged the tree view a bit and added child stations under parent group nodes so you can navigate easily from a group to its stations.)

[ubu]

Could it be the way I installed UbuRadio first, then ran the Ubustreaminstaller?

Well, I guess I'd sort of assumed that if someone used the UbuStream button in UbuRadio it would be because they wanted to access a station they had already set up in UbuStream. I must admit it never occurred to me that the UbuStream database would contain no stations at all.

Your UbuStream.xml file revealed that I'm not checking for the "no stations found" case. I've fixed it but I'm holding off on updating the wiki since I'm also working on a proper installer for UbuRadio. I'll include the fix with that.

Meanwhile, you could try actually defining a station or two in UbuStream. Then they should show up in UbuRadio too (just the "audio" ones) and you won't get the error.

As to your question above, in theory it shouldn't matter which plugin is installed first. However, I'm aware of a few potential pitfalls with the current approach to doing the installs so I'm working on two new installers that should, I hope, be bulletproof.

And thanks for finding the bug. I'm pretty sure I'd never have found that one myself.

[jksmurf]

Well, I guess I'd sort of assumed that if someone used the UbuStream button in UbuRadio it would be because they wanted to access a station they had already set up in UbuStream. I must admit it never occurred to me that the UbuStream database would contain no stations at all.

And thanks for finding the bug. I'm pretty sure I'd never have found that one myself.

LOL... you'd never imagine how silly I can be be .... but to be honest, I'm not that interested (at this stage at least) in Ubustream. I just wanted the radiostation ON the MVP, which Uburadio does (well too, I might add). I couldn't see the point of adding a station to Ubustream when I knew I could do it in Ubradio.

Ubustream is a requirement of Uburadio. So I HAD to install it :-). The fact that I just happened to press it while IN uburadio was just one of those curiosity things..you know...what does THIS button do?

btw, just a cosmetic thing. In WebRadio, the text at the bottom of the screen telling you what the button does, does not change when you scroll through the menu. It appears to have been written for the Play button (only), but the same text appears for Stop, etc. (Or is this text intended to be applicable to the WHOLE menu)?

k.

[ubu]

LOL... you'd never imagine how silly I can be be .... but to be honest, I'm not that interested (at this stage at least) in Ubustream. I just wanted the radiostation ON the MVP, which Uburadio does (well too, I might add). I couldn't see the point of adding a station to Ubustream when I knew I could do it in Ubradio.

If you're only interested in audio streams then you have a point. On the other hand, if you want to add stations that aren't available via the Find Stations feature, then editing the UbuRadioFavourites.xml file by hand is a bit of a pain. The UbuStream config app gives you an easy way to add stations to the UbuStream database. Then you can play them directly from UbuRadio or use the Add button to add them to your UbuRadio favourites.

Ubustream is a requirement of Uburadio. So I HAD to install it :-).

UbuStream isn't a requirement for UbuRadio. If you don't have UbuStream installed then the UbuStream button just won't show up on the UbuRadio menu. The two plugins share common components but are designed to be independant of each other.

btw, just a cosmetic thing. In WebRadio, the text at the bottom of the screen telling you what the button does, does not change when you scroll through the menu. It appears to have been written for the Play button (only), but the same text appears for Stop, etc. (Or is this text intended to be applicable to the WHOLE menu)?

The text at the bottom of the screen tells you what you should do with the current panel's list items ("Select a station", "Select a country", etc.) not what the menu buttons do (I hope they're self-explanatory ). I figured that changing that message every time the user moves the focus to a different screen element is more work than I'd signed up for.