Client Server Support :)

[pocketmoon]

Hi,

Client/ Server support would be great. I have an HTPC setup with the PVR250 on a server tucked away in my study.

It would be cool to stream live TV (with PVR type functionality) from the server to the (mini itx) client.

Cheers

Rob J
UK

[sub]

They easiest solution I can think of would also involve having a common drive mapped between the two machines? Would this be an acceptable part of the solution?

[AndyCherry]

Does this method stream so that the file can be played instantaneously, or does it require the whole file to be downloaded to the mini-itx PC first before it can be viewed?

Cheers,
Andy

[sub]

Using a shared drive I cause easily change the application to connect to a recording service on another machine. Playback of LiveTV stream would be done exactly as it is now.

In fact the GB-PVR frontend already connects via TCP/IP to the "remote" recording service to perform recordings, but it just happens to be hardcoded to connect to the service on the localhost.

[colin]

I think a mini-file server might be an idea to investigate. It could use TCP transport between it and a client. The client can then choose something from the server, then the mini-file server could serve this up. For live-tv it could be possible for the mini-file server to talk to invoke the recording daemon, meaning the live-tv?.mpg files could be served to the client.

This could all be used from the same interface, giving the user the same experience without caring where the PVR card is and from what machine is actually being used for playback.

Port setting would be good as my firewall goes nuts when i try and link two machines over ports it denies because of known virus/trojan/worm/etc.


Eg:

LIVE-TV ---> live-tv0.mpg ---> File Server <-----Recordings
^ | |
|--------Change Channel-----| |
|
|
|
GB-PVR

So in theory if all communication paths are over TCP then GB-PVR could be anywhere in relation to the recoding service,

Colin.

[gpupurs]

Check out how DVArchive does this (it's a java app on sourceforge). DVArchive.org

It's for interfacing with a ReplayTV, and emulates another ReplayTV. RTV's communicate via HTTP on port 80, simple stuff, and gets thru firewalls. You can also use VideoLan to view a video stream from DVArchive. How cool would it be to watch a show recorded at home from work or elsewhere? You couldn't do that unless you use a TCP/IP protocol, mapped drive won;t work.

In fact, the VideoLAN Project might have some useful code or ideas for you too. I dont think mapping a drive is the way to go, although that might be a quick and dirty pre-release way to get sharing functionality going initially.

Interop with both ReplayTVs and DVArchive might not only be a cool way to go, it may also make you're job of figuring out how to do it easier...

(RTV expects somewhat non-standard MPGs though, although there's now a set of command line "RTVTools" available that will customize the MPGs to the format Replay likes, and convert to/from)