Streaming outside local network, question

[WKleeven]

Everything (but View Live in TV Guide) works within local network.
In config, clients, web server is enabled, web server port is (unchanged) 8866, I put in username and password.
I manually set <AllowRemoteStreaming> to true in config.xml in server.

I installed vlc (32bit version) and HFS. I set port forwarding in the router, tested okay. HFS selftest okay.

Added directories in HFS.

Added vlc player to "programs allowed to communicate via windows firewall" in windows firewall.

I tested http://my-external-ip-address:1000 (1000 being the port that HFS suggested) through vpnfresh.info (proxy). It's okay (shows directory structure set up in HFS).

I think, I should see the same NEWA interface I see with (on internal network) the address http://192.168.2.100:8866/Guide2.aspx
Is this true?
If so, is it true the address for streaming outside the network should be http://my-external-ip-address:8866/Guide2.aspx ?
In my case, this doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?

Wim

[WKleeven]

Got it working, it was a firewall problem. I am new to portforwarding but now I understand enough to get this going.

I now have 3 ports forwarded, probably I need just 1 (8866) but while testing I also added ports 7000 (for HFS) and 7648 (don't remember for what; EDIT: standard streaming por setup in NEWA streamer settings, so necessary). Will try later which one I don't need. Perhaps one of you can tell me which is and which isn't necessary?

Wim

[WKleeven]

But now I've got a question about the streaming. In the server, in NEWA, after clicking stream I have the option to choose pixels and bitrate. I've set them to minimal, but when outside LAN, in NEWA, I play a video, I get normal (not less) quality and vlc keeps buffering.

Where do I set up the quality of the stream so that I have no buffering? (I have 1 Mb/s upload at the moment, talking to my ISP to get it up to 3).

[gEd]

Where do I set up the quality of the stream so that I have no buffering? (I have 1 Mb/s upload at the moment, talking to my ISP to get it up to 3).

Isn't that under the transcode options button?

see http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...de+options
post #28

Currently I am mucking around with the transcode settings for streaming. I seem to have settled on a bit rate of 512 a scale of 1.00 and transcoding using manual options mux = TS Vcodec H.264/Mpeg-4 AVC Acodec MPEG4 A bitrate 96 Vencoder H264. The H264 options are set in the way you suggested. Seems to be working for the most part and the quality from a point outside the lan (ie work is pretty darn good.


and

You'll find (in most cases) you can drop the scale down to .50 and increade you bitrate and then let the client browser scale it up (i.e. fullscreen) and have negligable impact on quality.

[WKleeven]

That does seem to effect live tv (the button View Live doesn't work, but I click on the ongoing show, stream now, launch external player), but not video's.

And I also noticed that when watching livetv in this way (clicking "stream now", not "record") when I stop the stream the recording doesn't stop also but keeps going on.

[WKleeven]

Wait a minute. I just set it up like in the wiki and maybe the quality of the stream is less indeed. Maybe the changes I made weren't enforced? Tomorrow at work I can try if this makes a difference.

For now I am stuck with 2 other problems:
1. button View Live doesn't work. Read about another vlc-version, but would that make a difference???
2. when streaming live tv (not through "View Live"), after stopping the stream the show keeps on being recorded. I have to log into the server and stop it manually.

[WKleeven]

Yes, it seems that changing the settings doesn't do anything until pushing the "update" button.
And sometimes streaming stops after telling it to stop, sometimes it doesn't.

Scaling makes a lot of difference for me, the other options don't do much.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Sorry for delayed interaction here.....but my day-job is for a health insurer in the USA and we are in the throws of implementing healthcare reform changes into out systems.....based on incomplete, draft versions of requirements from the federal government for things that are to be running in production 10/1/13..... ok off soap-box

The View Live option on the guide uses NPVR's native streaming and is connected only to VLC for the browser plugin for viewing. So this live viewing is at the mercy of whatever NPVR natively does with a video stream.

The other options for streaming like in Manage and from the details pop-up do use VLC for the actual streaming and adheare to the transcoding settings that you set. When you bring up the details of an event that is currently running you should see an option for Stream Now. This will use the VLC transcoding to provide the live feed.

Scaling will make a big difference....I find that .25 - .5 works well and when enlarged on the client side has little impact on the quality.....so you can have a higher bitrate (better quality) and a small scale and get a nice result on the client.

My favorite setting is below.....

[WKleeven]

The View Live option on the guide uses NPVR's native streaming and is connected only to VLC for the browser plugin for viewing. So this live viewing is at the mercy of whatever NPVR natively does with a video stream.

I wrote about this problem in another thread:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...th-address
I think the address that is sent to explorer is wrong. Should I post this in the NextPVRSupport forum?

The other options for streaming like in Manage and from the details pop-up do use VLC for the actual streaming and adheare to the transcoding settings that you set. When you bring up the details of an event that is currently running you should see an option for Stream Now. This will use the VLC transcoding to provide the live feed.

I noticed that changes made in the settings are not used at all, until pressing "update" (I thought that changing these settings without saving them would change them just for that 1 stream).
Also I don't understand why there's a "play" as well as a "stream" button. I found out that "play" doesn't use transcode settings at all, while "stream" does. Why not a "no transcoding" setting for "streaming", then there's no need for a "play" button.

Scaling will make a big difference....I find that .25 - .5 works well and when enlarged on the client side has little impact on the quality.....so you can have a higher bitrate (better quality) and a small scale and get a nice result on the client.

Yes, I noticed that scaling has the biggest effect. In quality and need for upload capacity.
But, I need to lower scale to 0,20 max to keep vlc from buffering every couple of seconds (and my other settings: video bit rate 128, streamer port high, mux TS, video coded MPG1, audio MP3, audio 64 bit, video encoder default). With the 0,20, the quality is not very good. I've got 1 MB upload. Is this normal? Does the PS instead of TS make a difference?

And finally, when streaming live tv (not through "View Live"), after stopping the stream the show sometimes (maybe 50% of the time) keeps on being recorded. I have to log into the server and stop it manually.

Wim

[UncleJohnsBand]

I wrote about this problem in another thread:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...th-address
I think the address that is sent to explorer is wrong. Should I post this in the NextPVRSupport forum?

I'll take a look at what might be happening here.......

I noticed that changes made in the settings are not used at all, until pressing "update" (I thought that changing these settings without saving them would change them just for that 1 stream).
Also I don't understand why there's a "play" as well as a "stream" button. I found out that "play" doesn't use transcode settings at all, while "stream" does. Why not a "no transcoding" setting for "streaming", then there's no need for a "play" button.

Play uses straight http streaming of the video file.... vlc is not invoked nor needed.
Stream uses VLC to work and is invoked on the server to actually transcode the video and send the stream out to the defined streaming port. If a person does not have VLC installed on their system or does not configure its location in NEWA Admin they do not see the stream option and only have Play available to them.

Yes, I noticed that scaling has the biggest effect. In quality and need for upload capacity.
But, I need to lower scale to 0,20 max to keep vlc from buffering every couple of seconds (and my other settings: video bit rate 128, streamer port high, mux TS, video coded MPG1, audio MP3, audio 64 bit, video encoder default). With the 0,20, the quality is not very good. I've got 1 MB upload. Is this normal? Does the PS instead of TS make a difference?

1MB up is slow these days.... the quality you are seeing is because you are only at 128 bit rate...... if you can get that up to 512 or LAN you should see a big difference in the quality even with the ratio a .2.

On the client machine.....in VLC you can change the default buffer to something higher....I Think I have mine at 8 or 10 seconds instead of the default which I think is 1/2 second. This causes an initial delay of viewing of the steam but allows the buffer to fill and then when watching you don't usually end up getting the stop/go situation since there was an up-front buffer that is big enough to handle those issues.

And finally, when streaming live tv (not through "View Live"), after stopping the stream the show sometimes (maybe 50% of the time) keeps on being recorded. I have to log into the server and stop it manually.

Wim

I'll look into this item as well....I think I have a way to address this by using a feature I built out for the XBMC plugin that mvallevand maintains.