[Announce] MPTvClient V1.2.5 (20.12.2007) II

[buggerr]

Hi guys,
just wondering if anybody developed a client like MPTVClient but for Mac OSX.
The only way I have to watch the live tv stream of my tvserver from here is xbox media center (with a playlist, not the best option[1] or rtsp[2]), but it isn't reliable...

Thanks

[1] Sometimes the tvserver will create new files which aren't inside the playlist
[2] No rewind/fastfwd

[mpfrank]

hi buggerr,

i asked this question plenty times in this form, but serving a client for the Mac and/or Linux seems not to be in focus.
The answer is always the same: This is a Windows media solution :-(

What a pitty....

Cheers
mpFrank

[buggerr]

The tv engine aims at being the central software component around a mediacentric home, and windows isn't the only system around here..
So, "It's a windows media solution" isn't an answer. An answer would simply be "no, (still) there isn't a client for mac, but hopefully somebody will develop it".

Well, thanks anyway..

[MJGraf]

ok guys, here we go...

This is my first C# project ever - so please be kind with me

I always wanted to use MPTvClient also from remote destinations, where I can vpn into my home network, my Tv-Server is locate at. The problem is: my DSL-connection to the internet is to slow for the whole rtsp stream. I think Frodo provided an example of how to transcode the stream with VLC on the server to a lower bandwidth. To be able to use MPTvClient for this, it would be necessary that MPTvClient starts the VLC server on the TV-Server before it starts VLC on the client-side. Now it can do that...

In the external player configuration you now find two additional check-boxes and two edit boxes.

"Start remote program before starting VLC viewer" does exactly that. It starts on the server whatever you put behind "Cmd-Line". For me this looks something like:

C:\Programme\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe --extraintf telnet --vlm-conf=C:\Programme\VideoLAN\VLC\vlm.txt

(don't forget the path to the vlm-file, which cost me a lot of time to find out...)

"Stop remote task after stopping VLC viewer" is the other side of the game. I didn't use the one provided in the start-section, because when you start e.g. a batch-file, the running task may be different from the command line you startet. For me this looks like:

vlc.exe

Now you put in gemx' "Override stream URL" option something like "htpc:8080" and there you go...

To achieve this, I used WMI - but please be aware that I didn't include a username / password management (I don't like my password stored anywhere except for my head...). This means that your client side must have enough rights to start and end processes on the server side.

All the credits for this go to gemx for his wonderful plugin. Gemx, I know, my programming skills are fading away from day to day. If you think the code is useable, please feel free to include it into your main version - but don't beat me for the terrible exception handling

cheers,
Michael

edit 04.02.08 00:13 - sorry, there were two ifs missing, which could cause an exception when using MPTvClient in the original config (without transcoding). Should now be solved with the new version 0.02.

[peep]

level20peon: Just found out what was the cause of the error that we both recieve (at least this was the case for me), read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914277 and did what is said under "Enable remote connections for SQL Server 2005 Express or SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition" and Voila! All good, thanks gemx for this handy tool :-)

[ncoH]

Hi!

I also need a linux client to watch tv in my working room. I can watch the stream with vlc player, but I cannot change the channel. Has anyone an solution to make a channel change with vlc?

Thanks
Nico

[petsa]

Hi!

I've tried to use this great app but can not get it to work on my laptop. It works fine on my other PC.

When I try to start it on my laptop it just dies. I have not been able to find a log-file anywhere. Can someone help?

Cheers

/Peter

[allanp81]

I found this didn't work from a complicated directory name. It didn't work for me from my desktop for instance. From a directory in the root of my C drive it worked just fine.

[petsa]

Hi allanp81,

Indeed you are right! I move the MPTVPlugin folder to another location and it works...!

Gemx, is there any limitation on the length of the path for the application? Is there any logfile that can help users trace errors like this?

/Peter

[gemx]

Thread moved to new "Tools" forum section