Can't remote stream

[ccihon]

I have no problem streaming from nDroid>Recordings when at home on my lan, but cannot stream when away. I have inbound ports 8790 and 8791 open on my router, as well as allowing those as inbound via Windows Firewall. I can access the channel and recording list while away...but cannot stream anything.

At home, streaming works great on my phone (Nexus 5) using either the built in video player or MX Player. When away, the recording don't even attempt to launch a video player (nothing at all must be sent?) - where do I begin looking for the issue?

BTW, I am still running NPVR 2.6.2

[ccihon]

I am looking through the logs, and have discovered something odd, at least as conmpared to the other post I've read regarding streaming issues. As I mentioned, streaming at home works fine - I have a numeric ip of my NPVR machine in the config.

When I look at the nDroidServiceStreamer log, there are no entries for the programs I am steaming...just entries like:

06/01/2014 09:54:36.994 nDroidServiceStreamer ctor() called
06/01/2014 09:54:37.011 nDroidHttpServer.Start() - About to call BeginGetContext()

I would expect to see the stream url etc here? So why does it work locally? Further, I selected XBMC rathger than MXPlayer, as that allows me to easily see the url of the playing stream - it appears to be passing the stream argument as 8866, not 8791. Again, it works, but only locally.

I stopped the service and edited the settings, making sure 8790 was the specified port for nDroid settings - no change. You may notice in the logs I updated to the latest service version....no change.

I may try a public ip rather than a domain for the Android remote server config name...but still confused?

[bgowland]

Just to clarify the ports used. Based on default ports of 8790 (nDroid Service base port), 8791 (nDroid Service streamer port), 8866 (npvr web server port).

Live TV (no transcoding) -> 8866
Live TV (transcoding) -> 8866
Recordings (no transcoding) -> 8791
Recordings (transcoding) -> 8866
Videos (no transcoding) -> 8791

Depending on what you're trying to watch and how you're trying to watch it (transcoded or not transcoded) you may or may not see details in the nDroid Service logs. Anything which has to use the npvr web server port won't log anything at the service level because the app on the Android device itself connects directly to the npvr web server. You should see something in the npvr logs (web.log in particular).

Cheers,
Brian

[ccihon]

Ports make sense... and seem to all be open... since on mobile nothing happens is it possible the app is not substituting the mobile address when needed?

[bgowland]

... since on mobile nothing happens is it possible the app is not substituting the mobile address when needed?

Ah...are you using the original nDroif v1.x or nDroid (TE)? The original should certainly allow remote streaming over mobile Internet but I've recently reworked the streaming code for the TE version and found a couple of bugs which could prevent it working.

[ccihon]

Its the original...TE not visible to me on the Market. Is there a npvr option for remote stream I need to set?

[bgowland]

In the config.xml file of the npvr data folder, in the <WebServer> section...

Code:

<AllowRemoteTranscode>true</AllowRemoteTranscode>
    <AllowRemoteStreaming>true</AllowRemoteStreaming>

I think they should do the trick. Make sure to use something simple like Notepad to edit the config.xml file - other editors have been known to corrupt it.

EDIT: TE isn't visible to you on the market??? Is that with your Nexus 5? I'll check but I'm pretty sure it should be.

EDIT 2: I just checked my Android dev console and there aren't any excluded devices. The Nexus 5 is definitely listed as being supported.

[ccihon]

Both those entries are already set to true as prescribed, unfortunately, so I will keep looking.

I will search again for the TE version also.

My current work-around for Android recorded streams is to use the standard NEWA web interface to start a stream and then put the stream url into MXPlayer. That passes the stream via VLC transcode to port 648 and works well, but clunky.

Its odd that nDroid streams work perfectly at home and not on mobile - I tried turning off windows firewall, to no avail, and am sure my port forwarding is correct and complete.

[bgowland]

I will search again for the TE version also.

Just to clarify, the bug-fixed version of TE hasn't been released yet.

My current work-around for Android recorded streams is to use the standard NEWA web interface to start a stream and then put the stream url into MXPlayer. That passes the stream via VLC transcode to port 648 and works well, but clunky.

I posted on a related topic here http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post469321 that I'm working on using the new version of NEWA to use its VLC service capabilities and make it more streamlined for nDroid users. If it's successful I'll ditch the current streaming/transcoding approach.

Its odd that nDroid streams work perfectly at home and not on mobile - I tried turning off windows firewall, to no avail, and am sure my port forwarding is correct and complete.

It could be something as simple as network bottlenecks and the media player app timing out. I've generally had no problems streaming audio (i.e., music mp3s) over mobile internet but limited success with video.

Cheers,
Brian

[ccihon]

Thanks - mis-spoke on the VLC port it is 7648. NEWA lets you specify scaling and stream bandwidth, and works well for laptop remote streaming - and also, it seems for Android, but the "launch in external player" downloads a .vlc file that does not appear as a stream url to android players - but patching the url to MXPlayer works quite well - not sure if MXPlayer can be launched if fed the streaming url by some other method.

The ffmpeg stream when used locally works fine. I won't worry too much about using it remotely.