New utility - adds web stream TV channels to GBPVR

[ubu]

This utility has now been replaced by the UbuStream plugin which is discussed in this thread. Some of the discussions in this thread may still be relevant, but don't count on it.

As a GBPVR newbie I continue to be amazed by its capabilities but I found one feature, that I really wanted, to be absent. I like to watch streaming web TV stations as an alternative to the often bland programming to be found on broadcast and cable. So I've written a small utility that lets me do this, fairly seamlessly, with GBPVR. I thought that maybe some other folks might find it handy so I hereby "publish" it.

UbuStreamCmd is an "add-in" to the ExternalRecorder plugin which lets you watch web TV and radio streams as if they were regular GBPVR tuner channels. It provides a simple way to use a single GBPVR capture source to support multiple web streams (TV or radio) as channels within that source. Each channel can be configured with its own, separate url, media player executable and command line parameters. It works fine with Windows Media, RealPlayer and VLC. (Winamp and Quicktime work but not in full screen mode - like on a TV. Blame Steve Jobs, not me.)

You can download it here.

Make sure to download UbuStreamCmd, not Ubu Remote, my other software offering. (Although you are welcome to try that too ) The zip file includes a readme file which gives installation/usage details. I've also included a sample xml file with some stations and player configs preloaded for instant gratification. (If you don't use it, an empty xml file will be created in the gbpvr directory the first time you run the UbuStream config app.) The "addin" consists of two exe files: UbuStreamCmd, which is the runtime component executed from ExternalRecorder, and UbuStreamConfig, a tabbed dialog which lets you enter information about your streaming stations and the media players you want to use to play them with.

Since this is not really a plugin as such, I've implemented it as an "addin" to a plugin. It might make sense to bundle it in with ExternalRecorder at some point. Or not. Greater integration would mean the UbuStreamConfig window could be launched from within the ExternalRecorder config window (currently it's a separate app) and automatic population of GBPVR capture source channels from the UbuStreamCmd xml file (currently you have to enter your channels in both places). I'd appreciate advice and guidance on this.

Notes:

* It's compiled with .Net 1.1 not 2.0 (yet). Don't know if this will cause issues for anyone.

* I'd like to store separate recording/live tv parameters for each station. Currently you have to define a different external source if you want different recording parameters for different players, for instance. Since I primarily use it in live TV mode and since VLC is the only player I use for recording, this hasn't been an issue for me yet.

* For internet radio, this does not replace the excellent Net Radio plugin however it does let you move beyond the fairly limited choice offered by Shoutcast. As an ex-pat Brit, I like to listen to BBC stations (which use RealMedia and Windows Media streams). Now I switch to channel 300 and I'm listening to Radio 4. Set up a nice Visualization graphic on your player and you're set

I can't be the only GBPVR user who thinks this is a useful option. Last time I raised this issue (perhaps unwisely, on the Plugin Support forum) the number of replies I got was, well, a number that will produce a fatal error if you try to divide by it .

If you a)like to watch tv, b)like to watch tv using a computer, c)have an internet connection (most people on this forum presumably) UbuStreamCmd might be of interest. Take a look. Any feedback/suggestions would be very welcome.

[stefan]

This seems like a useful plugin. I have to check out which stations are available =) To me it sounds that as long as you can find an xmltv source, you can set up the EPG with these channels, like with any "normal" channel? Is my assumption correct?

[reven]

my hats off to you, i would use on a regular basis, going to go off and try it, well done

[ubu]

reven:
As a "delighted" user of your plugins (except MyPictures which consistently hoses my system for some reason :confused: ) and admirer of your many and varied (and extremely helpful) posts, I'm extremely chuffed by your encouragement. Thanks. Do you see any problems with my using .Net 1.1 instead of 2.0?

stefan:
Yes, I'd thought about the EPG interface too. Many of these stations do publish a schedule on their web site (or are even listed on Titan TV in a few cases). In my other software product, Ubu Remote (which is a web TV/radio organizer, player front end with client server features) I solve this by having a button on the main window that will bring up the current station's web page with the schedule displayed in whatever format it happens to use. Crude but effective. For GBPVR a little more finesse would be needed, I suspect. Right now, you could set up xmltv to scrape each station's schedule page I imagine (haven't actually tried it yet). But it's a bit labor intensive.

Stations available? More than you'd think, of varying quality (both technically and content-wise) but mostly streaming 24x7 and certainly many worth watching. For instance, the sample UbuStreamConfig.xml in the zip file contains entries for BBC World TV (news and current affairs), two of the three Web Ranger stations (old movies, classic TV, cartoons), NASA TV (space related educational plus great archive footage of launches, spacewalks, etc.), Research TV (high quality original programming and recorded lectures from University of Washington), Independant Music Network (for those who find MTV hard to take), Kulak's Woodshed TV (for people who find MTV "really" hard to take) and Daytona Beach Live TV (a great station run by one guy in Florida who walks around with his video camera and makes shows "on the fly" - he shows old movies when he's at his night job ) On the radio front it includes BBC Radio 4 and BBC7 and a couple of my local Public Radio stations here in the San Francisco Bay Area (most of the NPR stations stream their content on the web).

Many of the issues with watching web TV are the same as those encountered with watching broadcast TV on a capture card (video card, RAM, TV set, cable connections, drivers, codecs, et al.). Throw in the speed of your internet connection, the speed of the streaming server, the different streaming technologies being used and general internet snafus and it can get quite interesting!

[reven]

Do you see any problems with my using .Net 1.1 instead of 2.0?

nope, it would be the other way around gbpvr is compiled with .net 1.1 and i would say every plugin is aswell.

[pBS]

cool idea dude, wish i knew where more stations were..will look for a repository if there is one..
soon as i saw your post it came to mind using this on an MVP...which brought to mind, why not just have VLC just transcode the stream and let GBPVR play it? [this would also make it MVP compatible!]
it works great from the command line but i can't get gbpvr to wait long enough for the file to be created before it starts trying to play it... asked normanr for a fix for external recorder, so we'll see... would be nicer integration with gbpvr and would enable playing streams you didn't even have codecs for cuz vlc has them built in...
i'm watching it on my mvp now...
[started from batch file manually unfortunately for now]

would be great for people who don't have capture card yet to show off GBPVR..

look into creating a sample guide .xml to go with the default channels cuz otherwise it's just blank and hard to tell which channel you're on..

i don't have much experience with the xmltv data like some here... but i was thinking a simple blank'ish xml guide file with regular intervals of say 30 mins blocked off in the grid and maybe the channel name as the showname so we could schedule recordings if no actual show data available..this would also help people with composite inputs who want to use them to record from say a camcorder when no guide data will be available as it's not really a channel..
any thoughts?

[sota]

I'm having problems getting this to work. I set it up as you describe, but selecting the channel in live TV brings up a DOS box with "Processing request from GBPVR.........." and a window stating that the "Application has generated an exception that could not be handled". Another DOS box appears but vanishes to quickly to read its contents.

If I run it from the command line, it seems to work OK, so I guess the wrong parameters are being passed somewhere.

Any ideas?

Pat Rooney

[ubu]

If I run it from the command line, it seems to work OK, so I guess the wrong parameters are being passed somewhere.

Are you running UbuStreamCmd from the command line or the player itself? If you can run something like - UbuStreamCmd 200 "{fullscreen}" - and it works then it should work OK from within GBPVR. If not, you'll see the full error message (which you can post here so I can see it). The channels in the sample xml file work for me - try ch 200 (BBC World) which is a pretty reliable stream. Check that the path to your player installation is the same as the one defined in the xml file. You may find the following reply to tipstir helpful background info.

Would it be possible you could post a screen image or (capture) of what this would look on the PC or TV?

The actual run time output is just a standard GBPVR tv screen, just as you would get if you used ExternalRecorder to, say, play a stream using VLC as the player. When you select the channel in GBPVR, UbuStreamCmd just reads the data for the channel from the xml file, builds a command (eg: C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe mms://mplay.donga.com/bbc /fullscreen) and spawns a new process to run the command. While it is executing, UbuStreamCmd also writes progress messages to a console window (if an abend occurs, the console should remain on the screen so you can see what it was doing before it died).

So what you should see when you select the channel is the console window flash by (blink and you'll miss it), the player loading and connecting to the stream (you'll see bars at the top and bottom of the screen while it does this) and then, when the player starts playing the stream, a normal TV picture.

For my own evil ends, I display the messages on the console because it makes debugging easier. A more elegant approach (which I plan to implement) is to write them to a log, eliminating the console. Question is, where to write them? I'm nervous about polluting the gbpvr.exe.log with my idle chatter. On the other hand, does the gbpvr directory need yet another log file to confuse us all?

The UbuStreamConfig app does have a user interface. Here's what it looks like:

These channels must also be entered in the GBPVR config Edit Recording Source dialog window.

Here's the player tab. It would be nice to have a browse button on the Player App Path column cells but, as I'm sure you know, the M$ datagrid sucks. Short of extending the control itself, I can't figure out how to do it. Alternate approach: make the grid read only and pop up a dialog (including browse button) for editing each row. But that's so "five minutes ago" if you know what I mean.

[ubu]

wish i knew where more stations were..will look for a repository if there is one..

There's a lot of them. Varying quality. Just google "web tv" and you'll find everyone and his auntie has a listing site out there. Reasonably helpful starting points: TVFORUS, 247 Streamz, Beeline TV, wwiTV and SquidTV. A lot of duplication, a lot of stations in languages you may not speak, a lot of local goverment streams (live coverage of Minneapolis City Council really keeps you on the edge of your seat ) but some good stuff to be found nonetheless.

why not just have VLC just transcode the stream and let GBPVR play it?

Many stations only stream proprietory streams so I wanted this to support a variety of players (case in point: VLC does not and, according to its authors, will never support RealMedia. Some of the best stations transmit .rm streams). But your MVP point is well taken. Seems like I've seen some discussion about ExternalRecorder's ability to do this. Not quite sure why it doesn't work. You are right though, it would be cool. VLC is awesome (except for the .rm thing). It beats, it sweeps, it cleans......

would be great for people who don't have capture card yet to show off GBPVR

Indeed. I have another box with no capture card running GBPVR and I can watch web TV, listen to web radio, play videos and MP3s. Great for people who hate mainstream corporate broadcasting, too . I also have Ubu Remote (my own small creation which, though I say it myself, is also pretty cool) running on that box as a web tv server with a 5.8ghz wireless link to my living room TV where I control it from the couch with the Ubu Remote client running on my laptop.

look into creating a sample guide .xml to go with the default channels cuz otherwise it's just blank and hard to tell which channel you're on..

This is a problem with any non-EPG supported source, I think. I have this problem with my ExternalRecorder, VCR capture and Tivo capture sources. Seems like I read some discussion about a workaround for this somewhere in the forums but didn't have the bandwidth to follow up at the time. Have you tried creating "dummy" program entries? If I knew the manual process involved, I could probably automate inserting entries at 30min intervals for each channel defined with UbuStreamConfig.

[Gallus]

ubu,
Good job can it run with MVP?