Android application: taSageTV

[wit713]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Are you using the same video file for testing, to at least take that out of the equation?

I am currently using the same HDPVR file which worked before. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by wit713

Mythikal reported having success streaming to HTC EVO on Froyo. Was he streaming over just wifi or was both wifi and 3G working?

Only tested WiFi after the Froyo upgrade. Just now tested 3G and, guess what? No workie. It appears that there may be other people outside the Sage community having issues with streaming video after the Froyo update as well. The good news is that I was able to get it to work on port 554.

Originally Posted by wit713

Can he tell us his version of vlc?What is his router and his whs windows firewall settings?

VLC v1.0.0. I was using port 8000 before.

Originally Posted by wit713

Was he using the old transcode setting or my new?

I was using custom settings, but I removed them to try out the defaults. They work just fine.

Originally Posted by wit713

Are you using the defualt media streaming player on the HTC EVO or another one?

The default player.

Hope that helps!

[Fonceur]

Hmm, port 554 is a more standard port for streaming, but I didn't think it was getting hard-coded anywhere to have such an effect...

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Hmm, port 554 is a more standard port for streaming, but I didn't think it was getting hard-coded anywhere to have such an effect...

You're not hard coding it. Netstat shows VLC listening on the correct port. It's just not connecting over 3G from my Evo. I ran vlc with the -vvv switch and I can't see it connect when it's on port 8000 (or 7999 which I also tried) even though I can see it listening and can connect through WiFi. When I switched to port 554, it connected with no issues over 3G and WiFi.

[vexhold]

Switched my STB to 720p and removed VLC and reinstalled v1.0.0.

Just watched...

Warehouse 13 : almost flawless video quality, but audio/video is out of sync

Billy the Exterminator : Heavily pixilated but not to the point where you cant watch it.

This was over 3G using the new settings and normal port.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

You're not hard coding it.

I didn't mean me, but somewhere in the chain vlc - provider - router - phone - media player - video codec - etc...

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by vexhold

This was over 3G using the new settings and normal port.

I think the problem we're seeing with the default port might be specific to the Evo with the Froyo update. Everything worked prior to that.

Originally Posted by Fonceur

I didn't mean me, but somewhere in the chain vlc - provider - router - phone - media player - video codec - etc...

Yes. Sorry. I certainly wasn't trying to lay blame on the app for this issue. I'm almost certain that this is an issue with the Evo + Froyo update. I'm wondering if the streaming app is now hard coded to port 554, or if RTSP streams are being blocked on ports other than 554 on the Evo. I'm not in a place where I can test that theory right now, but maybe later tonight.

wit713, would you mind trying port 554 to make sure that wasn't some random voodoo luck thing on my end?


Edit:
After a little more digging, I can confirm that this is an issue with the Evo after the Froyo update. Not sure what broke it, but a workaround is to leave your WiFi antenna turned on all the time even if you're not connected to an AP. I tested it and I was able to stream on port 8000 again over 3G with WiFi enabled. Didn't catch this last night because I had to turn off WiFi to test 3G.

[wit713]

Originally Posted by Mythikal

wit713, would you mind trying port 554 to make sure that wasn't some random voodoo luck thing on my end?

It worked for me. no vodoo!!

Thanks Mythikal. You made my day. This was driving me crazy. I am now happily streaming to my HTC EVO (Froyo) using port 554 over 3G.

Now onto improving video quality, I had great video quality before the Froyo update but now video quality is back to being a little too pixilated for my liking. The problem could be with the Froyo update or I had to drop back down from VLC 1.1.0 to 1.0.0 to get everything working.

I bumped the vb setting from 200 to 300 and that helped. I then tried to bump it to 350 and the video quality seemed to get worse. I also increased it to 500 and the video would not play at all. So lesson is, watch changing your vlc settings.

[sic0048]

So are you guys putting in port 554 into the Sage application and then port forwarding that to your SageServer's 8000 port? Or will the Sage system work on any port?

I'm just trying to figure out which ports to change.

Thanks,

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by sic0048

So are you guys putting in port 554 into the Sage application and then port forwarding that to your SageServer's 8000 port?

What they are doing is using rtsp.554, which will update the URL in the app too. So you get rid of 8000 everywhere, and instead open up 554 in your firewall/router.

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by wit713

It worked for me. no vodoo!!

Thanks Mythikal. You made my day. This was driving me crazy. I am now happily streaming to my HTC EVO (Froyo) using port 554 over 3G.

Glad I could help.

Originally Posted by wit713

I bumped the vb setting from 200 to 300 and that helped. I then tried to bump it to 350 and the video quality seemed to get worse. I also increased it to 500 and the video would not play at all. So lesson is, watch changing your vlc settings.

That's odd. I've had mine up to as high as 4000 (overkill, I know). 750 seems to be a good balance between quality and bandwidth (about 1.5 Mbps is needed to stream that bitrate). I did change the width/height to 320x192 to get fullscreen video on the Evo. Not sure if that would have an effect on seeing/not seeing video though.

[wit713]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I'm just trying to figure out which ports to change.

You would only need to change your port if your phone's Android operating system was updated to the latest version (1.2 Froyo). Me and Mythical's HTC ECO phone's were updated last week and that is when we had problems streaming over 3G using port 8000.

Mythical figured out that we could change the port from 8000 to 554 and streaming worked again. Make sure you change your port forward settings in your firewall too.

Mythical, would you mind posting your current transcode settings. I would like to compare them to what I currently have. Thanks.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by wit713

You would only need to change your port if your phone's Android operating system was updated to the latest version

Actually, that did seem to help on a Droid running Android 2.1 too...

[Mythikal]

Originally Posted by wit713

Mythical, would you mind posting your current transcode settings. I would like to compare them to what I currently have. Thanks.

sageTCPServer/streamingTranscodeOptions=soverlay,ab\=100,samplerate\=44100,channels\=2,acodec\=mp4a,vcodec\=h264,width\=320,height\=192,vb\=750,venc\=x264{vbv-bufsize\=750,partitions\=all,level\=12,no-cabac,subme\=7,threads\=4,ref\=2,mixed-refs\=1,bframes\=0,min-keyint\=1,keyint\=50,trellis\=2,direct\=auto,qcomp\=0.0,qpmax\=51,deinterlace}

[vexhold]

A network security friend and I were talking this weekend and we thought of something that you might want to add somewhere.

VLC is allowed to exist and stream home users content by having a blanket disclaimer stating that it is just a media player and that the user is responsible for ownership and all legal ramifications if taSageTV is used to stream to parties other than the owner of said media.

You know, something along those lines.

Better safe than sorry when it comes to the MPAA, right?

[Fonceur]

Well, technically VLC is doing the streaming, so I'm not sure why we would need anything... That's kinda like Google map displaying a warning that they are not responsible if thieves use it to plan their bank heist...

[vexhold]

Well, technically VLC is doing the streaming, so I'm not sure why we would need anything... That's kinda like Google map displaying a warning that they are not responsible if thieves use it to plan their bank heist...

Hmm, we live in a world where everyone sues over everything. McDonald's has to write CAUTION: COFFEE IS HOT! on their coffee cups.

I didn't say you had to, just throwing it out there. Take it or leave it.

I don't think goole maps is a fair comparison, a better one would be SageTV, it is a licensed software that uses othe devices/softwares to record and view media content. SageTV has it writen in their EUA to protect themselves against someone using SageTV in a manner that is unlawful (i.e. storing rented movies on hard drives)

A quote from the SageTV EUA:

...use the Product in compliance with all applicable laws including, without limitation, United States copyright laws...

Just trying to help bud.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by vexhold

Just trying to help bud.

No problem, thanks. The Tallus owner tends to say that we are small fishes anyway, and they won't be bothering us, but should they, it's easy enough to fix...

BTW, did you ever read my pm?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

As some kind of pre-release offer, it is now available for $9.99 from the wiki.

That promotion is ending on September 1st, after that it will move back to the regular price of $19.99.

There are still no plans to distribute it through The Market. OTOH, you can get a faster access/notification using DropBox (they have an Android app). If you don't have an account, you can use the referral link: http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTQwODI5NTk. Just drop me a pm with the email associated with your account, so I can share a folder with you.

[Fonceur]

Version 1.10

- Added the possibility of locking the screen orientation.


On the About screen, you will notice a new icon. Pressing it will toggle between locked and sensor. Why would you want to lock the screen? Let say you are on the couch or in bed, the portrait/landscape orientation might not match your body...