MediaPortal Forum - View Single Post - PiipTV: LiveTV & remote PVR for Nokia Video Center

adicl · 2008-06-17, 18:00

Hello,
First of all I would like to thank you for your work on this great plugin which adds very nice new features to the excellent new tvserver

I know that the main target of your work is to provide iptv for mobile phones/devices, however I mainly use it from a PC together with VLC [thanks for the nice details included in the documentation on how to do this !!!]
The idea is that on some lower spec laptops I prefer using VLC [together with your plugin] as a tv client instead of mediaportal... Did I mention that "your way" I can watch tv also from Linux ?

)

The feature I like the most in your implementation is the way you implemented the rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname>.sdp streams, so when I change the stream url in VLC the tvserver will start timeshifting the new program !!! Using this feature together with the information from PiipTv.xml I was able to make for VLC a playlist containing all the programs, and this way the program changing from VLC becomes very easy.

I would like to suggest a few small changes which in my opinion would enhance the viewing with VLC and make your excellent plugin even more versatile:

*1.Would it be possible to pass along the original stream obtained from tvserver without transcoding it with VLC ?
- The motivation behind this would be to preserve maximum quality for the stream without recompressing it and also spare some CPU usage on the server [in my case the TV cards have hardware MPEG2 encoding]
- I see this implemented as a something like a checkbox "Use original stream - don't transcode" under the Advanced/Profiles dialog...
*2.Can you please remove the limitation from the audio/video bitrate and width/height edit boxes?
- The motivation behind this would be to allow to use the full image of the original stream [in my case I get 720x676 from my tvcard] and also experiment with some higher bitrates and therefore quality when using via VLC.
  I see that the values are now limited to some sane 640x480 and 128/512 for bitrates. This make perfect sense for mobile clients, but for PC usage would be nice to have some more quality.
  What I'm looking for with this: in some places in my house the wireless signal is not so good, and the original unmodified stream from the tvserver gets rather choppy so I get a better experience using your plugin, however I would like to pump up the bitrate a bit more than 512kbit and also have the full image
*3.Would it be hard to allow some even more advanced mode [i know I get annoying ] in which the user can specify the full command line for the VLC instance used by your plugin ?
- The motivation behind this would be to allow the advanced users to have total control of the VLC transcoding and still use the nice features provided by the plugin - webinterface/channel switching via VLC playlist
- I see this implemented as a separate profile called "Manual" where there is jus an edit box for the user to enter the command line parameters for the VLC tanscoding
*4.Would it be possible to automaticaly generate the VLC playlist for all the channels ?
- I know that it's not a big deal to manually get the stream listings from PiipTv.xml file, but maybe this automatic generation would be nice to have for less experimented [I mean lazy ]users
  The format would be a standard m3u textfile, eventually saved with the .vlc extension and containing records like
  #EXTM3U
  #EXTINF:0,<full_progname1>
  rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname1>.sdp
  #EXTINF:0,<full_progname2>
  rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname2>.sdp
- I see this implemented as a button from the configuration interface or as a link in the web page

Please excuse me for the very long message - I just got excited by your work

- this plugin was exactly what I was looking for.
If you will ever have the time/mood to implement some of this additions I would be very glad to test them

Keep up the excellent work and please let me know if I could be of any help

Adi Pop

2008-06-17, 18:00	#27 (permalink)
adicl Portal User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	piiptv / vlc feature request Hello, First of all I would like to thank you for your work on this great plugin which adds very nice new features to the excellent new tvserver I know that the main target of your work is to provide iptv for mobile phones/devices, however I mainly use it from a PC together with VLC [thanks for the nice details included in the documentation on how to do this !!!] The idea is that on some lower spec laptops I prefer using VLC [together with your plugin] as a tv client instead of mediaportal... Did I mention that "your way" I can watch tv also from Linux ? ) The feature I like the most in your implementation is the way you implemented the rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname>.sdp streams, so when I change the stream url in VLC the tvserver will start timeshifting the new program !!! Using this feature together with the information from PiipTv.xml I was able to make for VLC a playlist containing all the programs, and this way the program changing from VLC becomes very easy. I would like to suggest a few small changes which in my opinion would enhance the viewing with VLC and make your excellent plugin even more versatile: 1.Would it be possible to pass along the original stream obtained from tvserver without transcoding it with VLC ? The motivation behind this would be to preserve maximum quality for the stream without recompressing it and also spare some CPU usage on the server [in my case the TV cards have hardware MPEG2 encoding] I see this implemented as a something like a checkbox "Use original stream - don't transcode" under the Advanced/Profiles dialog... 2.Can you please remove the limitation from the audio/video bitrate and width/height edit boxes? The motivation behind this would be to allow to use the full image of the original stream [in my case I get 720x676 from my tvcard] and also experiment with some higher bitrates and therefore quality when using via VLC. I see that the values are now limited to some sane 640x480 and 128/512 for bitrates. This make perfect sense for mobile clients, but for PC usage would be nice to have some more quality. What I'm looking for with this: in some places in my house the wireless signal is not so good, and the original unmodified stream from the tvserver gets rather choppy so I get a better experience using your plugin, however I would like to pump up the bitrate a bit more than 512kbit and also have the full image 3.Would it be hard to allow some even more advanced mode [i know I get annoying ] in which the user can specify the full command line for the VLC instance used by your plugin ? The motivation behind this would be to allow the advanced users to have total control of the VLC transcoding and still use the nice features provided by the plugin - webinterface/channel switching via VLC playlist I see this implemented as a separate profile called "Manual" where there is jus an edit box for the user to enter the command line parameters for the VLC tanscoding 4.Would it be possible to automaticaly generate the VLC playlist for all the channels ? I know that it's not a big deal to manually get the stream listings from PiipTv.xml file, but maybe this automatic generation would be nice to have for less experimented [I mean lazy ]users The format would be a standard m3u textfile, eventually saved with the .vlc extension and containing records like #EXTM3U #EXTINF:0,<full_progname1> rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname1>.sdp #EXTINF:0,<full_progname2> rtsp://<tvserverip>:8554/ptv_<progname2>.sdp I see this implemented as a button from the configuration interface or as a link in the web page Please excuse me for the very long message - I just got excited by your work - this plugin was exactly what I was looking for. If you will ever have the time/mood to implement some of this additions I would be very glad to test them Keep up the excellent work and please let me know if I could be of any help Adi Pop