YouTube Plugin

[whurlston]

1. I keep getting a "Connection closed unexpectedly" error from the servers.
   
2. Only every other download works because the second gets the above error almost instantly.
   
3. Video timelines are a bit messed up.
   

1. Solved. I had a "while (...)" statement instead of "if (...)" that was causing the it to attempt to read the download stream after it had completed.
   
2. Solved. The "every other download" was a red herring. I was not giving HD streams enough time to buffer before playback. Increasing the preplay buffer to 256KB seems to be enough to buffer even 1080 streams.
   
3. Unsolved. Have to live with this one for now.
   

I need to try to get some things done before I have to pick up my son so I'll package it up later tonight.

[mvallevand]

#3 Unsolved. Have to live with this one for now.

Excellent progress. For this one I suspect sub would need to now more about the expected duration or length so that he could approximate a work-in progress recording.

Martin

[whurlston]

That's what I was thinking. I'll get him to take a look when he has a chance after I package it up.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I am remuxing the video and audio into an MPEGTS container on the fly (including AAC audio) so the NMT does not even drop out to Mono to play them.

This sounds brilliant! When I'm watching youtube I usually watch a lot of short videos. Not having to leave the npvr gui for mono would be great. Can't wait to try it out.

Chris

[mvallevand]

Not having to leave the npvr gui for mono would be great.

Because that is six seconds per file that you will never get back!

Martin

[whurlston]

I won't call this a release until I can implement the new settings in the settings screen, but if anyone wants to play with the new buffering technique, here it is.

You will need to open the plugin and exit (or save from the settings screen) for the new values to be written to youtube.xml.

This includes a new build of ffmpeg that is needed for the buffering to work. You only need the executable but I need to include the licenses with the download. Do not overwrite the existing ffmpeg in the NextPVR program folder. I don't know if the new build will affect anything with NextPVR or the web interface.

Code:

<General hqThumbs="true" [B][color=#FF0000]useBufferForNMT[/color][/B]="false" [B][color=#FF0000]useBufferForPC[/color][/B]="false" sticky="true">
    <[color=#FF0000][B]FFmpegPath[/B][/color]>C:\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe</[color=#FF0000][B]FFmpegPath[/B][/color]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]FFmpegCommandLine[/color][/B]>-f mpegts -vcodec copy -acodec copy -vbsf h264_mp4toannexb</[B][color=#FF0000]FFmpegCommandLine[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]BufferLocation[/color][/B]>D:\YouTube</[B][color=#FF0000]BufferLocation[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]NMTBufferKB[/color][/B]>1024</[B][color=#FF0000]NMTBufferKB[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]PCBufferKB[/color][/B]>256</[B][color=#FF0000]PCBufferKB[/color][/B]>

Explanation of new settings (you need to at least set the FFmpegPath):

• useBufferForNMT/useBufferForPC: Download the video to the hard drive before playing. There is no cleanup yet on the downloaded files.
  
• FFmpegPath: The location where the included build of ffmpeg is stored. You must include the executable name ("ffmpeg.exe").
  
• FFmpegCommandLine: The commandline used for remuxing to mpegts. Play with it if you want but the output will be in a .ts file. If you mess it up, delete the line from youtube.xml and it will revert to the default. Do not include the input/output file options, they will be supplied automatically.
  
• BufferLocation: Where the downloaded videos will be stored. By default, it is "[LiveTV]\YouTube" (I may change this to the recordings location.)
  
• NMTBufferKB/PCBufferKB: Wait for the downloaded file to reach this size before asking NextPVR to play it. Note that this is in KB. The default value for the NMT is 1MB and the default value for the PC is 256KB.
  

If you set useBufferForPC to "true", it will always download an MP4 stream. These can easily be remuxed to mpegts and the NMT can play the same buffered file.

If a video has been downloaded already, the existing file will be played.

Download: http://www.oshinetworks.com/NPVR/youtube-ffmpeg.zip

[mvallevand]

Thanks I am about to give it a try (I had to use .zip for the above URL)

Martin

[whurlston]

Right you are. Fixed.

No changes the the API by the way. I haven't tested but it should still function as normal.

[UncleJohnsBand]

I won't call this a release until I can implement the new settings in the settings screen, but if anyone wants to play with the new buffering technique, here it is.

You will need to open the plugin and exit (or save from the settings screen) for the new values to be written to youtube.xml.

This includes a new build of ffmpeg that is needed for the buffering to work. You only need the executable but I need to include the licenses with the download. Do not overwrite the existing ffmpeg in the NextPVR program folder. I don't know if the new build will affect anything with NextPVR or the web interface.

Code:

<General hqThumbs="true" [B][color=#FF0000]useBufferForNMT[/color][/B]="false" [B][color=#FF0000]useBufferForPC[/color][/B]="false" sticky="true">
    <[color=#FF0000][B]FFmpegPath[/B][/color]>C:\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe</[color=#FF0000][B]FFmpegPath[/B][/color]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]FFmpegCommandLine[/color][/B]>-f mpegts -vcodec copy -acodec copy -vbsf h264_mp4toannexb</[B][color=#FF0000]FFmpegCommandLine[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]BufferLocation[/color][/B]>D:\YouTube</[B][color=#FF0000]BufferLocation[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]NMTBufferKB[/color][/B]>1024</[B][color=#FF0000]NMTBufferKB[/color][/B]>
    <[B][color=#FF0000]PCBufferKB[/color][/B]>256</[B][color=#FF0000]PCBufferKB[/color][/B]>

Explanation of new settings (you need to at least set the FFmpegPath):

• useBufferForNMT/useBufferForPC: Download the video to the hard drive before playing. There is no cleanup yet on the downloaded files.
  
• FFmpegPath: The location where the included build of ffmpeg is stored. You must include the executable name ("ffmpeg.exe").
  
• FFmpegCommandLine: The commandline used for remuxing to mpegts. Play with it if you want but the output will be in a .ts file. If you mess it up, delete the line from youtube.xml and it will revert to the default. Do not include the input/output file options, they will be supplied automatically.
  
• BufferLocation: Where the downloaded videos will be stored. By default, it is "[LiveTV]\YouTube" (I may change this to the recordings location.)
  
• NMTBufferKB/PCBufferKB: Wait for the downloaded file to reach this size before asking NextPVR to play it. Note that this is in KB. The default value for the NMT is 1MB and the default value for the PC is 256KB.
  

If you set useBufferForPC to "true", it will always download an MP4 stream. These can easily be remuxed to mpegts and the NMT can play the same buffered file.

If a video has been downloaded already, the existing file will be played.

Download: http://www.oshinetworks.com/NPVR/youtube-ffmpeg.zip

All excited....but I am at the in-laws......I am going to log on remote and set things up for when I get home..... :-)

[mvallevand]

No changes the the API by the way. I haven't tested but it should still function as normal.

It is superb whurlston, and the speed is great. I did have trouble after I got a callback error from SearchLite, I got several in a row, but it could be momentary connectivity. On other advantage over the NMT player is being able to display the OSD on top, definitely a cleaner interface.

If the intent is to keep them for later play, perhaps the name should be youtube-title-id.ts, just a thought.

Martin.