webStreamer - an integrated Web streaming solution

[djtaylor]

Is it possible to include an adjustable frame rate?

I was trying to work out last night why the Orb streamed video looks smoother and higher res than the VLC streamed stuff. It's down to the fact that Orb streams PAL at 12fps and hence theres's far more bandwidth available to the stream for data.

Halving the frame rate is hardly noticeable so it would be a nice option and probably help the lower bandwidth connections a lot as I find that if I try to push the stream bandwidth, when it starts to loose sync big time, the stream just stops playing which is frustrating.

David.

[normanr]

Well, almost, what's the difference between say having a cut down web list of what is effectively on now, then just choosing to watch one of the "what's on now" programmes, which then initiates the recording, web streamer then picks up the recording and streams it. The only bit that is being added here is the immediate record followed by stream.

If you in fact remove the title of the programme as this is irrelevant if all you wanted to do was say launch a stream of BBC 1 then it's the same as the above but with the programme info not displayed. So you could just display big buttons to WATCH NOW and the channel list. The name of the actual show at the time would be irrelevant to the user in this context.

To be able to start watching TV, you've got to tell the recording service 'start recording this channel, to this file'. That functionality isn't exposed at the moment, it's currently 'sekret' code that no one can interact with. With existing files it's easy because they're just files there on the hard disk. LiveTV requires the core code to expose the functionality to start watching TV, which it currently doesn't.

[mzup]

OK, I'm just not getting it here. And perhaps it's my setup. I copied webstreamer over and installed vlc. I am able to login into stream.aspx but no shows are listed.

I use Beyond TV to record shows. I really am using gbpvr just for the ability to connect my MVP up and watch shows upstairs. I have video folders setup within gbpvr.
I don't know alot about vlc, so I don't know what else am I supposed to do. I have read thru this whole thread and it seems like all you do is just load the apps and away you go.

What am I doing wrong?????

[sgilani]

choosing to watch one of the "what's on now" programmes, which then initiates the recording, web streamer then picks up the recording and streams it.

This was what I had in my mind.. but I'm hesitant to do this because it's a hack to make it work, and I don't want to risk what could happen because of it (maybe it could interfere with a scheduled recording or something), etc.. so I'd be much more comfortable if there was a function in the API to "start live TV", then we can query the database for the Live TV file, or I guess even have a function in the API for that as well.

[darisb]

mzup,

I believe your problem is that the webStreamer is getting the list of recordings from the GBpvr database. If you're recording shows using Beyond TV then you won't have anything in the GBpvr database. To make it work, you would have to use something like VideoArchiver to import the show into the database.

[djtaylor]

To be able to start watching TV, you've got to tell the recording service 'start recording this channel, to this file'. That functionality isn't exposed at the moment,

So what happens when I open up the web admin and choose a currently broadcasting channel and choose to record that one? Answer is that it starts to record that show straight away.

I don't see the problem, if I had a web admin page that listed all the channels but instead of the TV guide just had a button next to each one that said "Play me", it wouldn't matter to the user what the actual programme was, just start that recording of that programme.

You already have the programme name in the background, so just start the streamer with the recording whose filename is retrievable from the gbpvr.mdb database.

I don't see the issue, in fact I have just gone through those steps manually and it works, the only difference is that I have to do each step manually and there's a programme name in the TV guide, why shouldn't that have a "watch now" option instead of just record and then spawn the VLC in the manner in which I describe?

David.

[djtaylor]

This was what I had in my mind.. but I'm hesitant to do this because it's a hack to make it work, and I don't want to risk what could happen because of it (maybe it could interfere with a scheduled recording or something),

It can't screw up a scheduled recording because you'd already be using the recording engine. If there are no free tuners then it wouldn't record and if it didn't record, there'd be no file to play.

Think of it like this, in fact all we need is an extension to the present advanced web recording dialog box which at present offers RECORD or CLOSE, to have RECORD, STREAM NOW, CLOSE.

Try what I suggested, go into the web admin, choose any programme currently being broadcast, click the link, hit the big record button. Recording will start immediately.

Next manually fire up VLC on the PVR, open the file which is being recorded in progress, choose WMV2, MP3 and mux of ASF (it seems to work better as a streaming solution with a changing file size), set bitrate etc.

Then on a client, fire up Windows media player and point it at the stream. It streams albeit slightly timeshifted (as quick as you can get all this going).

This is really the same as the way the MVP works. What it then needs is something to automatically take care of next programme to start that recording and then delete the earlier file.

It's really not a hack and doesn't need any special API's to interface to how gbpvr does "Live TV", just use the existing recording features.

David.

[djtaylor]

Is it possible to include an adjustable frame rate?

Don't worry about this if it's not trivial, I found out where to do it and save it on the server end.

BTW, i've been streaming my "live TV" for 15 minutes flawlessly. Not bad for a quick test eh?

David.

[mzup]

I installed videoarchive and still nothing. When I run GBPVR I see my video folders and all videos inside and am able to watch them. If I can do that then I would believe that they are in the database.

[sgilani]

David, I understand what you're saying.. and yes this is exactly how TV works on for MVP clients. I haven't ruled out adding this feature, I'm just hesitant about it. At least for now, what I will do is to show recordings in-progress on the streaming page.. so you could do what you describe; start a recording over the web, and then start streaming that recording.

I really think a "correct" solution would be to have a behavior similar to how timeshifting mode works in GBPVR; you would be streaming a buffer file which would then be cleaned up and removed shortly thereafter. I suppose this is possible to do through the API and/or the database, but its definitely a murky thing to do. This is why I referred to it as a "hack" since this is what I had in mind.. but we'll see.