bandwidth for playback over web?

[toomanyhandles]

Hi;

I'm playing with playback of recordings over the web via enhanced webadmin.

the GB-PVR box is on 802.11b wireless, although I have a 'g' router and likely have a spare PCI 802.11g card somewhere that could go into the PVR box.

I can get about 5 seconds of a movie to play (using VLC. OS X) using the URL created in the .m3u generated by webadmin. Playback then stops; except from webadmin log below. All my other admin tasks work fine via webadmin, whether LAN (direct connect to the XP box) or WAN (via ssh tunnel).

If I put the 10/100 wireless card in, will that be enough bandwidth for web playback within the LAN? From WAN side, it would be neat to be able to do remote playback, but I run external connections thru an sshtunnel- sshd supplied by a Cobalt Qube MIPS box running NetBSD, which I don't think has nearly the chutzpa for this task. It is unlikely that I'll replace it though, we have bonded .

How many people run their GBPVR naked to the world by forwarding port 7647 directly to the XP box? The idea makes me nervous to say the least...

Is there a way to "degrade" the quality on the fly so the streaming requirements would be less? The movies I'm testing with are set up as "medium" quality, using the default settings for "medium".

Thanks--

---
2/18/2006 5:11:51 PM.401 VERBOSE [4] RecordingFactory.loadSchedule()
2/18/2006 5:11:51 PM.401 VERBOSE [4] getValue cached value: /settings/AutoRemoveMissingRecordings : true
2/18/2006 5:14:48 PM.932 ERROR [4] [14]: outfile.Write Exception: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Send(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags)
at xbde30302059b0f67.x4c7b16547f6813c5.xe851103c6cdd3289(Byte[] x75381418ec342259, Int32 x0849bae34e5d8c09, Int32 xa91708beab5e1e03)
at xbde30302059b0f67.x54043f9854585ee5.FlushResponse(Boolean x358231d6356effcf)
at System.Web.HttpResponse.Flush(Boolean finalFlush)
at System.Web.HttpWriter.WriteFromStream(Byte[] data, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at System.Web.HttpResponseStream.Write(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 count)

[Lucas_24]

I've been using the webstreaming enhancement. It's pretty new but it's been working quite well. It allows you to transcode to a lower bitrate on the fly. The thread is in the community announcements section.

[lonegeek]

Why dont you just share the recording directory over windows network... Thats what i do...

[haxorboy]

Well it might be pretty slow to connect to that share from teh airport on a laptop huh?

[wtg]

802.11b wireless doesn't have the bandwidth to playback MPG2 files reliably. I don't recall what the bitrate of a medium quality recording is, but I think it's in the 6-8 megabit range and that's about all 11b can muster in the real world too. If you want to stream video wirelessly you need 54g at a minimum.

I port forward 7647 on my router to my gbpvr box. It's a unique port so not likely to get scanned, and I don't keep anything on the box that's personal either. Plus, the box doesn't have any of the user accounts used on my network either, so even if it was compromised I'm not worried about the fella being able to get any farther. It'd sure tick me off to have some wipe the box clean, but I suspect it's more likely for someone to break into my house and steal the thing than it is someone's gonna find my web server running at 7647, be able to hack into it's web server and cause me misery.

Finally, it sounds like your considering accessing the box remotely to playback videos remotely. That takes some serious upload bandwidth at full bitrate, something you probably don't have. To stream outside your wan you probably will need to investigate something like Orb or a Slingbox, which can transcode the videos to lower bitrates and resolutions on the fly.

[toomanyhandles]

Thanks for the comments. I've been meaning to put a spare 'g' card in the PVR; I might be able to use the LAN for playback, then, if I'm lucky and willing to put up with occasional issues. Everything involved would be 'g' for that in that case.

Thanks also for the info about the port forwarding. I really only "need" (and that is a loose need) the regular webadmin; but the network playback, even at decreased resolution etc. would be fun for gee-whiz factor. I am paranoid about XP and the .net stuff, but as you, nothing really resides on this box that isn't replaceable, and thinking of the other stuff in the LAN that could be vulnerable, it's mostly OSX and NetBSD, so pretty intrinsically safe.

IF the bandwidth is OK it would be fun to play back a few things over the network from inside the LAN; access from the WAN side really would be for demonstration not real use. Regualar cable upload speeds aren't great, artifacts bug me, so that's certainly not for regular use. It would be fun if it were sort watchable though

I'll look into the other on-the-fly reencoding though, jsut to see. Sounds like the new webstreaming extension is liked, as well.

Thanks- there are some things to play with!