Absolute newbie trying to realize an idea - where to start?

[Oopsjoppe]

First of all I think that NPVR is a fantastic software and has supplied me with livetv and entertainment in a very stasifying way!

I am using a NPVR backend server with softcam etc providing livetv to all my RaspberryPI, laptops etc but I dont have it on my ipad or my iphone. I would like this to work both on the local network and through VPN in any other place basically.

My idea from the beginning is very simple. I want to have a responsive site (iOS adapted) just parsing xml from http api (method=channel.list). That is the easy part. But what I also want to do is to have 2-3 different "view live" transcoding options mapped to each channel found. I would like to have them preset so I can just choose depending on the speed of the network I am currently on. Then I would just make a link to the iOS VLC player with vlc://http://host:port etc etc which then opens the stream in the VLC app.

I have already tried the first option which is to use NPVR native output, like "view live" in NEWA, which is very simple with the live?channel=x option but how can I proceed with transcoding options? I guess there is no way to send transcoding arguments in the url? How does the channel=x stuff work? How does VLC understand what to stream and how can I adapt it?

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As a sidenote I would very much like to start understand the code in NPVR in order to do more advanced stuff in the future but I have no application programming experience, except for web, at all. So what developing environments are you using? What is the software I need to start digging in the code? I have looked through most of the code with some simple text/web editor but I dont understand how it is working together. I can't even see any http API calls in any of the plugins? And yes, I have read the sticky thread about "where to start with plugins" but I didn't get any brighter unfortunately I'm sure you think I'm a lost cause but I would appreciate any help very much! Thanks

[sub]

First of all I think that NPVR is a fantastic software and has supplied me with livetv and entertainment in a very stasifying way!

Great - glad you like it.

I am using a NPVR backend server with softcam etc providing livetv to all my RaspberryPI, laptops etc but I dont have it on my ipad or my iphone. I would like this to work both on the local network and through VPN in any other place basically.

My idea from the beginning is very simple. I want to have a responsive site (iOS adapted) just parsing xml from http api (method=channel.list). That is the easy part. But what I also want to do is to have 2-3 different "view live" transcoding options mapped to each channel found. I would like to have them preset so I can just choose depending on the speed of the network I am currently on. Then I would just make a link to the iOS VLC player with vlc://http://host:port etc etc which then opens the stream in the VLC app.

I have already tried the first option which is to use NPVR native output, like "view live" in NEWA, which is very simple with the live?channel=x option but how can I proceed with transcoding options? I guess there is no way to send transcoding arguments in the url? How does the channel=x stuff work? How does VLC understand what to stream and how can I adapt it?

There is some experimental transcoding support, but I never found it reliable, so it's never really been a publicised features. You can use it, but I probably wont be able to fix anything if you have problems getting it to work the way you want.

In the same way you use /live?channel=x, you can use /transcode?channel=x&resolution=720x406&bitrate=900k

As a sidenote I would very much like to start understand the code in NPVR in order to do more advanced stuff in the future but I have no application programming experience, except for web, at all. So what developing environments are you using?

NextPVR uses .NET 4.0, and was built using Visual Studio 2012, so these are the best tools to use for creating plugins etc.

What is the software I need to start digging in the code? I have looked through most of the code with some simple text/web editor but I dont understand how it is working together. I can't even see any http API calls in any of the plugins? And yes, I have read the sticky thread about "where to start with plugins" but I didn't get any brighter unfortunately I'm sure you think I'm a lost cause but I would appreciate any help very much!

NextPVR isn't an open source project, so the source code to the core application is not available. The NEWA web app code is included, and does much of the same things, so may provide you some insight. The particular calls you refer to though, like method=channel.list etc, are handled by the core application, so you won't find the code in NEWA.

[Oopsjoppe]

There is some experimental transcoding support, but I never found it reliable, so it's never really been a publicised features. You can use it, but I probably wont be able to fix anything if you have problems getting it to work the way you want.

In the same way you use /live?channel=x, you can use /transcode?channel=x&resolution=720x406&bitrate=900k

That is great but how does it work, I guess I can't make any development on it myself if its on the NPVR side of things? If I would like to use the settings attached (UJB's favourite) what would the URL look like?

NextPVR uses .NET 4.0, and was built using Visual Studio 2012, so these are the best tools to use for creating plugins etc.

Ok perfect. Thanks!

NextPVR isn't an open source project, so the source code to the core application is not available. The NEWA web app code is included, and does much of the same things, so may provide you some insight. The particular calls you refer to though, like method=channel.list etc, are handled by the core application, so you won't find the code in NEWA.

Alright I see. Do you have any other suggestions on how to solve it if it doesn't work out (with the url solution). I was thinking to just let get VLC access to the stream (dont know how though) and then just edit the VLC stream settings and give 2-3 static transcoding choices frontend, is that possible? I guess this is what NEWA does with the stream application so it should be doable but I don't understand how.
So clearly:
Is NEWA changing transcode settigns directly in VLC backend? If yes, how?
And how does the streamer get access to the .ts from NPVR?

Thank you for all your help

[sub]

I haven't used the VLC-based transcoding stuff in NEWA, so can't provide much help on that front.

The /transcode stuff works by running ffmpeg to transcode the /live url, then delivers you the output. In theory you use some other command line executable like VLC, but changing the <TranscodeExe> setting in the <WebServer> section of config.xml. You can also tweak the command line parameters used for transcoding by editing the <TranscodeArgs> setting.

Whatever command line you use in <TranscodeArgs> will have the following substitutions made:
[SOURCE] will be updated to point to the appropriate /live url
[RESOLUTION] will be updated to the resolution you supplied on the /transcode url
[BITRATE] will be updated to the bitrate you supplied on the /transcode url
[TARGET] will be updated to the temporary file that the webserver wants to transcode to

[Oopsjoppe]

Ok thanks. So what is the arguments for choosing video / audio codec in the url?
like /transcode?channel=x&videocodec=H264&audiocodec=MPEG-3&MUX=TS&audiochannels=2 etc etc?
Where can I find all the arguments that can be set?

[sub]

There is no other arguments supplied by the app from the url. Other parameters you want in the command line would need to supply via the <TranscodeArgs> config.xml setting.

In recent weeks there has been a request to extend things to allow for multiple profiles, with different parameters, to be stored in the config.xml, and the url to accept a profile=xxxxx parameter. I haven't implemented support for it yet though.

[Oopsjoppe]

Ok I understand! Thank you very much for your info.
I'll keep my eyes open if you would support it later

Meanwhile i'll try some other solution! Let me know if think of any

[mvallevand]

Ok I understand! Thank you very much for your info.
I'll keep my eyes open if you would support it later

Meanwhile i'll try some other solution! Let me know if think of any

The vlc transcoding option available through NEWA's JSON interface are shown using

http://io:8866/public/VLCService/

Martin

[Oopsjoppe]

The vlc transcoding option available through NEWA's JSON interface are shown using

http://io:8866/public/VLCService/

Martin

Alright - sounds great except I cant get it to work? http://localhost:8866/public/VLCService/ renders 404 http error

Thanks

[mvallevand]

Alright - sounds great except I cant get it to work? http://localhost:8866/public/VLCService/ renders 404 http error

Thanks

Are you running 3.1.1?

Martin