Utility: Web Radio and TV Encoder

[michaeldjcox]

I find that SageTV is usually happy if I let its last few NOOP requests to the encoder happen after a recording before restarting the encoder.

When it isn't - if left long enough SageTV will eventually try to connect to the restarted encoder.

I usually get bored before it does so I go to source setup and select the network encoder.

You should see in the encoder log that it springs into life with a few NOOP messages.

The next challenge for you is probably the grabber (although you can use without guide data initially).

Also I'm pretty sure that the VLC commands in the streamAsVideo and saveAsMp3 properties have a different syntax for command line arguments in linux. Only one dash instead of two or some such madness.

I read it somewhere - I will have to try and locate the page again.

If these VLC command line arguments aren't right there will be no mp3 file generated in the tmp directory and no video recording in your sageTV recording dir.

UPDATE: I think the VLC documentation I saw was out of date - think it may well work as is

Regards,

Michael

[CanadianEh]

Hey all,

Is this now working well with the HD-100 extenders?


Thanks!

[deanm]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hey all,

Is this now working well with the HD-100 extenders?


Thanks!

Yes working very well with HD-100. Dont think it never did not work well just think it was my setup as did not work perfect on my MVP. 0.9.1 seem to have fix the problems.

[deanm]

Hi Michael

I can confirm that channel offsets are now working with V 0.9.2

Thanks for your work on this.

[michaeldjcox]

Thank you all beta testers for your efforts and feedback.

I'm not aware of any bugs at the moment so working on new features...

1. Faster tuning
2. Automatic now playing subtitles for some streams without need to provide channel config.

Will be an easy upgrade - just a new encoder.jar file.

For release at the weekend.

[latino]

thanks you very much for all your work. for me is working fine finally, but for some reason i have problem with some radio station like station from radio io.
i am adding the time radio id like the others working.
if somebody have any tip, let me know.

gracias

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by latino

thanks you very much for all your work. for me is working fine finally, but for some reason i have problem with some radio station like station from radio io.
i am adding the time radio id like the others working.
if somebody have any tip, let me know.

gracias

Can you post your radio channel properties please or the radiotime station id if that is what you are using.

Thanks,

Michael

[latino]

this is my radio lineup:

channel.1.id=s_26090
# RADIO 24
channel.2.id=s_1216
channel.3.id=s_16679
channel.4.id=s_45549
channel.5.id=s_96493
channel.6.id=s_2475
channel.7.id=s_3124
channel.8.id=s_24053
#WXRK 92.3 NOW NEW YORK
channel.9.id=s_22837
#MEGA 97.9 NEW YORK
channel.10.id=s_27109
#AMOR FM MIAMI
channel.11.id=s_63968
#RADIO VIVA FM
channel.12.id=s_67884
# kISS FM
channel.13.id=s_63591
#RADIO MONTECARLO 2
channel.14.id=s_6535
#RADIO CAPITAL
channel.15.id=s_6684
#RTL102.5
channel.16.id=s_87585
#RTL 102.5 ITALIAN STILE
channel.17.id=s_100963
#ANTENNA 1
channel.18.id=s_45617
#107.8 ENGLAND
#
# End of lineup properties
#

[michaeldjcox]

Hi,

I can definitely help you.

I see you are using radiotime throughout your lineup.

Radiotime is great and saves a lot of configuration work.

But the data is of mixed quality and sometimes the tuning commands for some stations don't work.

The web radio encoder is very configurable so you can override the URL used for tuning.

in the channels directory should be a ".props" file for each of your channels.

If you add a "url" property to this file using another URL for the same station it can be made to work.

I have done this in the sample channel properties file KLLC.props.

The trick is to find the right URL.

Places to look are - the radio channels website, shoutcast (if its internet radio), and various other web sites that try and list internet radio stations.

Can you tell me which of your channels in your lineup you are having problems with please - I will try to help.

Regards,

Michael

[latino]

thanks, i think i understand, i will try today and i will let you know.

thanks you very much.

[latino]

hi michael,

i did what you tell me but is not working for me.
please help me with this 2 stations:
this are the channel props:
_____________________________________________________________
#Override channel properties for channel s_6684 callsign RTL1025
#Thu Apr 16 21:11:47 ICT 2009
callsign=RTL1025
id=s_6684
url=mms://151.1.245.36/rtl102.5hq
___________________________________________________________
#Override channel properties for channel s_87585 callsign RTL1025ItalianStyle
#Thu Apr 16 20:05:59 ICT 2009
callsign=RTL1025ItalianStyle
id=s_87585
url=http://www.rtl.it/player/streaming/rtl1025it.asx

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by latino

id=s_6684
id=s_87585

Hi,

in the tmp directory there should be a file called:

s_6684.props

and

s_87585.props

They should have a line in:

saveAsMp3=true

Can you check that please.

If it is not there then put that line in - restart the encoder - and try again.

Michael

[latino]

hi,

in the tmp directory i don't have any .props file. i have only .desc and .details

i just found that when i tune the channel and i have the sign (no signal) when i change to the next channel i hear the station for some seconds.

i am using the media mvp extender

thanks for your help

[latino]

sorry i have those files in the cache directory and the (saveAsMp3=true) is there.

[pjpjpjpj]

Just trying to catch up with this utility (been away a bit, had our first child!). My first concern is what kind of load this puts on the server - taking the audio stream, converting/encoding to MP3, then playing, all on-the-fly. I have an old server (see sig) and I fear that this whole process might require more than mine can handle while also doing other Sage-y processes. I am guessing it's not a big deal, but can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by latino

hi,

in the tmp directory i don't have any .props file. i have only .desc and .details

i just found that when i tune the channel and i have the sign (no signal) when i change to the next channel i hear the station for some seconds.

i am using the media mvp extender

thanks for your help

OK. Hang in there. Next idea.

1. Can you add the text:

 --extraintf=logger --logfile=\"_LOGFILE_\"

to the end of the streamAsVideo and saveAsMp3 property values in encoder.props.

(remember to remove them later)

2. shutdown the encoder

3. remove all the files in the log directory

4. startup the encoder

5. try to tune to first one bad channel then the other.

6. Attach in a post on this forum vlcmp3.log, vlc.log and encoder.log.

(try not to tune to any other channels as this will make the logs harder to read)

Also questions:

1. Are you able to listen to those streams on your PC using some media player?

2. Do you have the very latest version 0.9.2?

Thanks,

Michael

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Just trying to catch up with this utility (been away a bit, had our first child!). My first concern is what kind of load this puts on the server - taking the audio stream, converting/encoding to MP3, then playing, all on-the-fly. I have an old server (see sig) and I fear that this whole process might require more than mine can handle while also doing other Sage-y processes. I am guessing it's not a big deal, but can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

Yes that is quite a low spec. I've not tried it.

Need for CPU is a stated disadvantage of this solution.

The processes are not completely CPU bound so there seems to be some spare capacity on my setup. I am able to carry on working on my PC while listening to radio through the TV.

If you don't get any better replies to your post. You could try the encoder (without setting up any program guide data with the grabber). As suggested in the instructions.

Then you've not really messed with your Sage installation much beyond adding a new source and this is easily deleted.

This is a beta so you may have to be the first to try

Michael

[latino]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

OK. Hang in there. Next idea.

1. Can you add the text:

 --extraintf=logger --logfile=\"_LOGFILE_\"

to the end of the streamAsVideo and saveAsMp3 property values in encoder.props.

(remember to remove them later)

2. shutdown the encoder

3. remove all the files in the log directory

4. startup the encoder

5. try to tune to first one bad channel then the other.

6. Attach in a post on this forum vlcmp3.log, vlc.log and encoder.log.

(try not to tune to any other channels as this will make the logs harder to read)

Also questions:

1. Are you able to listen to those streams on your PC using some media player?

2. Do you have the very latest version 0.9.2?

Thanks,

Michael

hi Michael,

Yes i can listen to them with vlc and i have the latest version 0.9.2.

thanks for all your help

[robogeek]

Hey Michael. First, I have to say this is a great tool for a SageTV. and after spending some time setting everything up, it seems to be working well...for the most part.

I have two problems with the Web Radio Encoder setup, but I don't think they are directly related to your work. Just thought I'd mention them here if anybody else has had these issues or has any idea of what I may have done wrong with my setup. Just some additional info of my setup: running latest SageTV beta 6.5.13, Web Radio Encoder 0.9.2, VLC 0.9.9, running SageTV service mode on Windows Home Server, and connecting via Hauppauge MVP clients.

1. I'll preface this first issue with a side note that my cable internet connection had some issues over the weekend, so this may very well be what caused my problem. Often and randomly, I would lose audio for several minutes at time. After turning on the logging, it appears that vlc is losing the stream from the server and not an issue with the network encoder. I'm guessing the webfeedencoder eventually senses the stream loss and reloads the stream in vlc and it starts back up again. Two questions: I noticed that when it does this, why does vlc change from outputing an .mpg to outputing a .ts file? And, is there a way for the webfeedencoder to use the vlc log or some other means to senses a lost connection and force it to reload the stream sooner or any vlc settings that might help? The .mpg to .ts switch doesn't cause any issues, just thought it was odd. I'll do some more testing when I get issue number two resolved.

2. When I use the XMLTV importer for SageTV, I get the WebRadio guide source in the EPG setup in SageTV. But now my other OTA and cable lineups that were previously configured are now dead. By dead, I mean the channels and existing guide data are still there, but it won't update anymore since configuring the WebRadio XMLTV source. When going into the EPG lineup configuration on my TV tuners, it appears that SageTV is no longer downloading EPG lineup data sources from the Internet for my zip code and the only source that I can see now is WebRadio. Does this mean I have to go with the SageTV EPG sources and live without XMLTV data for radio channels or do I have to switch to XMLTV for all of my EPG sources? Or did I miss a step somewhere that will allow me to use both the SageTV EPG sources for my local zip code and XMLTV for the radio channels? I'm not sure exactly what part of my procedure fixed this, but removing the xmltv.properties from the SageTV directory and removing all lines that start with 'epg' in the sage.properties file (I know, that was probably overkill) allowed me to go back in and redefine my SageTV EPG sources for my TV tuners, but now the WebRadio source is gone. Adding the WebRadio source back in following the instructions with the webfeedencoder download and I lose my SageTV EPG sources again and only WebRadio is listed.

Can anybody enlighten me? Or did I not RTFMs closely enough (which wouldn't be the first time )

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by latino

hi Michael,

Yes i can listen to them with vlc and i have the latest version 0.9.2.

thanks for all your help

fake error: unable to read image file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\webfeedencoder\cache\RTL1025.jpg

fake error: unable to read image file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\webfeedencoder\cache\RTL1025ItalianStyle.jpg

The encoder was unable to download icons for these stations from radiotime.

The icons are used to produce the video and without them all fails.

The solution to this is edit the files:

channels\RTL1025.props
channels\RTL1025ItalianStyle.props

and for each specify a URL of a channel icon e.g.

icon=http://www.rtl.it/images/site_tmp/logo_ora_nero.gif

will work for RTL1025.

Restart the encoder and try again.

Again radiotime not always providing good data.

Michael