Utility: Web Radio and TV Encoder

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by dbullock

Is anyone using this add-on to feed security cameras into Sage?

Hi support for IP cameras is coming in 0.9.6.

I'm testing that at the moment and updating the documentation.

I may slip out a pre-release soon for brave souls to try.

Michael

[dbullock]

Thank you for your great work on this! I would be happy to test an early release. I currently use an Axis 207W.

[CanadianEh]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Yes it plays fine for me in VLC. I have added it to my home lineup but not had a chance to test yet. Get back to you soon on that.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Were you able to test this out at all?

Thanks!
-Jay

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hi Michael,

Were you able to test this out at all?

Thanks!
-Jay

Yes I have been having a go most recently yesterday.

It works with WFE 0.9.6 (unreleased) and VLC 1.0.5.

With WFE 0.9.5 and VLC 0.9.8a I get static.

In both cases VLC knows how to play it.

In the case of VLC 0.9.8a it doesn't seem to know how to transcode as mp3.

The stream type is aacp which is unusual.

When I was investigating on Friday and was hoping to see if we just needed some different transcoding params but haven't got there yet.

So so far two suggestions:

1. See if you can find access to the station via an asf or mp3 stream via some kind of aggregator e.g. radiotime, realradios.com etc.

2. Wait for a week or so for 0.9.6.

Michael

[CanadianEh]

Awesome

I'll wait for 0.9.6, as I've already looked for other streams. Their official stream is done through flash, so this was the only alternative I could find. So, will the newer version of VLC be officially supported with the upcoming release of this plug-in?


Thank you for all of your hard work - this has been the most useful plugin I've ever used with SageTV!

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

So, will the newer version of VLC be officially supported with the upcoming release of this plug-in?

Yes. Just a bit held up at the moment trying to get some of the params just right.

Michael

[joenobody33]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Hi support for IP cameras is coming in 0.9.6.

I'm testing that at the moment and updating the documentation.

I may slip out a pre-release soon for brave souls to try.

Michael

That would be great! I'm trying to get my two security cameras accessible inside Sage, but no luck so far.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by joenobody33

That would be great! I'm trying to get my two security cameras accessible inside Sage, but no luck so far.

Should be able to post a 0.9.6 release by the end of this week.

[michaeldjcox]

Web Feed Encoder 0.9.6 pre-release version:

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/1872...-11-39-pm?da=y

This is for the experimental among you.

• allows use of latest VLC
• support for audio only devices
• support for ip cameras
• includes VLC kill
• advanced channel tweaking

Be sure to take a backup of your current webfeedencoder directory and put it somewhere safe.

Michael

[CanadianEh]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Web Feed Encoder 0.9.6 pre-release version:

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/1872...-11-39-pm?da=y

This is for the experimental among you.

Well, I wish I could report that all was well.. lol. So, I upgraded to 0.9.6 and VLC 1.05 and it seems the first time I fire up a stream, it plays successfully (takes a lot longer than normal to begin playing though). If I try to change to another stream, the current stream stops playing, however the new stream never starts.

A couple of interesting things. Once this happens, I cannot properly stop the webfeed encoder service:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7024
Date: 4/23/2010
Time: 6:45:28 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SUPERSERVER
Description:
The Web Feed Encoder service terminated with service-specific error 1 (0x1).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Secondly, the log just shows it sitting there waiting for the stream to exceed the 3MB? to start playing. The stream size stays at 0kb.


Any thoughts?

[CanadianEh]

0.9.6 log file attached, in case it helps. I see a java registering error near the beginning..?

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

0.9.6 log file attached, in case it helps. I see a java registering error near the beginning..?

channeltypes/device.props

set:

seed.plugin=uk.co.mdjcox.configdb.AudioVisualDeviceSeedPlugin

rather than current value. Upgrade should have done that.

The other issues are going to be about windows and permissions and vlc.

1. Java launches VLC via windows.
2. VLC tries to run but has no permissions to access something
3. VLC is stuck in some limbo state and won't die.
4. If vlc won't die java won't die hence cannot shut down.
5. new VLC sessions cannot open because the old VLC sessions is still up.

What version of windows you are on.

I would be trying opening up access to webfeedencoder directory and recordings directory to all users to see if that helps.

What user is the webfeedencoder service running as?

Its difficult to give clear guidance on this one at the moment. Everything was working fine on my home system and then there was a windows update and everything went like the above. Currently I have the directories opened up to all users and webfeedencoder user = local system and have some stability again.

I also played for a while with the "allow service to interact with desktop option" and occasionally got a VLC error message.

I also notice that the scripts/ps.bat and kill.bat didn't seem to work on your version of windows. We may need different variety for your version of windows.

As you are playing with all this look in task manager to see if the VLC session dies properly at the end of a recording attempt.

There should only every be one.

Sorry it has not been smooth for you but I'm sure once we get windows happy all will be cool.

Michael

[CanadianEh]

My server is Windows XP x32 with SP3. I'm wondering on the Windows update thing, too btw. Regardless, I openedup permissions like you suggested and modified that config file. Here's what I found:

Before playing anything, I can start and stop the web feed encoder service without error.

- I verified no VLC processes existed
- Selected to play a station through SageTV
- VLC process spawns up, and SageTV successfully plays stream
- I stop watching the stream (and it's recording) and VLC process goes away
- I choose another radio station, and the VLC process never starts up

At this point, I get that error I listed above in my last post when I try to stop the web feeder service (-1?).

If I recycle the web feeder service regardless, I can then play one station successfully again, until I go to change the station.

... so close, but so far away

[CanadianEh]

Updated log file

[scanner95]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

My server is Windows XP x32 with SP3. I'm wondering on the Windows update thing, too btw. Regardless, I openedup permissions like you suggested and modified that config file. Here's what I found:

Before playing anything, I can start and stop the web feed encoder service without error.

- I verified no VLC processes existed
- Selected to play a station through SageTV
- VLC process spawns up, and SageTV successfully plays stream
- I stop watching the stream (and it's recording) and VLC process goes away
- I choose another radio station, and the VLC process never starts up

At this point, I get that error I listed above in my last post when I try to stop the web feeder service (-1?).

If I recycle the web feeder service regardless, I can then play one station successfully again, until I go to change the station.

... so close, but so far away

My symptoms are identical to what is described above, only that I try to play the IPTV stations and not radio. VLC is the old version, BTW - 0.9.9. And my server is Windows 2003 Server, SP2

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by scanner95

My symptoms are identical to what is described above, only that I try to play the IPTV stations and not radio. VLC is the old version, BTW - 0.9.9. And my server is Windows 2003 Server, SP2

The log above does tell the tale - VLC is not even being launched by web feed encoder 2nd time.

This is not my experience with my Vista and Windows 7 WFE installations.

I'll get back to you..

UPDATE: can you try editing scripts/kill.bat and ps.bat and put a REM on the start of each line. Then try again from a fresh restart of WFE using the same test you did before.

Michael

[scanner95]

No luck .I commented out every line in the batch files, made restart to WFE service, and still exact same behavior...

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by scanner95

No luck .I commented out every line in the batch files, made restart to WFE service, and still exact same behavior...

OK. Hard for me to reproduce this one - need to find an XP box.

I am rather assuming here that Scanner95 and CanadianEh are seeing the same issue.

Scanner95: Can you send me you encoder.log for the failing test case.

CanadianEh:

In your case I can see that the new feature to kill rogue VLC sessions is not working. It tries to call scripts/ps.bat to return a list of process commands and process ids and this seems to hang without returning.

It would really help if you could try running scripts/ps.bat from a DOS prompt

The DOS box should appear to print out some stuff and disappear.

I think in your case it will hang.

Thanks,

Michael

[scanner95]

Hi,

Here is the log attached.

Best regards,

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by scanner95

Hi,

Here is the log attached.

Best regards,

Thanks - does look similar.

I have an updated version of 0.9.6 with more debug here:

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/1872...-11-39-pm?da=y

Shutdown encoder, configtool, sagetv, leave webfeedencoder directory in command tools and explorer windows, Unzip, run the jar, choose repair.

Appears very much as if the scripts/ps.bat is not returning control and webfeedencoder has stopped waiting for it to finish as part of detune . This seems to be XP/server 2003 specific.

If someone can try ps.bat from a command prompt and check that it prints a list of processes and exits that would help a great deal.

Michael