Utility: Web Radio and TV Encoder

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by robogeek

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.

New to me - lets deal with this later.

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.

Running a bit short of time as its midnight and I have to be up in six hours but quickly.

In XMLTV channel lineup there is a column for channel number.

These should be the logical channel numbers in sageTV and so probably start with numbers after your TV channels rather than from 1.

Can you confirm this is how it is?

Will pick up on your reply tomorrow.

Michael

[latino]

thanks i will try tomorrow

[robogeek]

I think I've found my configuration problem with the sagetv lineups not updating after installing the xmltv importer and why no other lineups other than the xmltv lienup show up in the epg configuration of sagetv sources: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=647

When using a mix of sagetv and xmltv lineups, there is a property in the sage.properties file that has to be set to disable the xmltv plugin for any sagetv lineups that were previously configured. Friday I'll setup xmltv for sagetv again and make the sage.properties file change for my sagetv lineups and see how things go. Then I'll be able to test the streaming to see if it indeed was my flaky internet connection that caused the constant dropouts.

[latino]

Godmorning michael,

everything is working fine.
nice job

thanks you for all your help

saludos from Dominican Republic.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by latino

Godmorning michael,

everything is working fine.
nice job

thanks you for all your help

saludos from Dominican Republic.

You are very welcome.

I will put in a bug fix so that a substitute image is used for the video if a nice channel logo cannot be located in the usual way.

Stay in touch. Let me know here if you find further problems or think of any features that would be cool.

Regards

Michael

[latino]

hi michael,

can i use this webradio encoder, like a web tv encoder?

i know maybe is a stupid questions but maybe is not a bad idea.

[michaeldjcox]

That is my plan but it needs a little work first.

Michael

[latino]

i will be waiting.

great job

[michaeldjcox]

Do you have a URL for an internet TV station that you would like to watch?

Been hunting around for one to try out on.

Michael

[latino]

this one will be great.

mms://a1928.l3284834797.c32848.e.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1928/32848/v0001/reflector:34797

[tmiranda]

Michael,

My cable provider has many "DMX" Digital Music channels that I can listen to using VLC but can't "watch" in Sage because of the "no video" problem. Can your approach be used to tune a station from a HDHomeRun rather than from a web radio station?

Thanks,

Tom

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Michael,

My cable provider has many "DMX" Digital Music channels that I can listen to using VLC but can't "watch" in Sage because of the "no video" problem. Can your approach be used to tune a station from a HDHomeRun rather than from a web radio station?

Thanks,

Tom

If you can play it in VLC I'd say there is an excellent chance.

Just make the web radio encoder url property whatever it is you tell VlC to play normally.

The url property in the web radio encoder doesn't have to be a url - it can be any media source that vlc can play.

The other key thing is to find a URL for an icon image for the channel.

Michael

[michaeldjcox]

Change of plan on next release - I'm still experimenting with the faster tuning so that will come later.

So next release will be a bug fix release :

- latinos missing channel images for radiotime stations are not missing just named differently - fix for that
- substitute image for video if none is cached
- hopefully linux support
- auto now playing text from stream for ICY streams

Looking more like wednesday now

Michael

[michaeldjcox]

linux

all sorts of problems related to my portable ubuntu interacting with SageTV installed on host windows plus cannot get a new enough version of vlc for ubuntu you need at least 0.9.6.

But all that is speciific to me using a particular linux running as an app on windows

I did enough I think to check the vlc command lines have the right syntax so...

Try replacing this bit..

cmd /c start \"streamAsVideoCommand\" \"_VLCDIR_\\vlc.exe\"

of streamAsVideoCommand and saveToMp3Command in encoder.props with

vlc

as well has having the jar posted earlier

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...6&postcount=57

Really good chance of working.

Michael

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Just make the web radio encoder url property whatever it is you tell VlC to play normally.

The url property in the web radio encoder doesn't have to be a url - it can be any media source that vlc can play.

I would need to issue some commands to the HDHR before the capture can start and I would also need to issue some cleanup commands when the capture ends. Any way to add a "hooks" in your code to do that?

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I would need to issue some commands to the HDHR before the capture can start and I would also need to issue some cleanup commands when the capture ends. Any way to add a "hooks" in your code to do that?

Yeah - that fits in with the TV thing too.

I'll make it so a channel has a sequence of OS commands associated with it.

watch this space.

Michael

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Yeah - that fits in with the TV thing too.

I'll make it so a channel has a sequence of OS commands associated with it.

watch this space.

Michael

Cool.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I would need to issue some commands to the HDHR before the capture can start and I would also need to issue some cleanup commands when the capture ends. Any way to add a "hooks" in your code to do that?

What information do you think you might need to pass to the your tuning command from the web radio encoder so that the right channel is chosen.

Going to need to store this in the channel database somewhere.

Michael

[tmiranda]

Off the top of my head:

- The tuner identifier
- The tuner number
- The channel (specified as a Frequency I believe)
- The subchannel number

I'll have to go look at the SiliconDust forums for the details. No time right now, been away from work for a week and there is a mountain of paper and emails to deal with

If you want to take a look go to the SiliconDust forums and search for "VLCLauncher". That thread shows what is needed.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Off the top of my head:

- The tuner identifier
- The tuner number
- The channel (specified as a Frequency I believe)
- The subchannel number

I'll have to go look at the SiliconDust forums for the details. No time right now, been away from work for a week and there is a mountain of paper and emails to deal with

If you want to take a look go to the SiliconDust forums and search for "VLCLauncher". That thread shows what is needed.

I have a cunning plan. I'm going to make it so you can add any parameter you like to the channel config and then refer to it by name when calling out to external scripts.

Michael