OnlineVideos 1.6.1.0 [2013/05/01] (5 Viewers)

[GJC]

Hi Babdef,

Thank you soooooo much! That fixed my connection problems with Bloomberg and various other sites and also fixed a lot of freezing and stuttering issues.
I'm also trying the filter tweaker to fix my audio and video sync issue, but no luck so far. I noticed, however, that with the antivirus turned off for MediaPortal, now the first live channel that I watch after starting MP will have audio sync. If I exit and come back to the live channel, or change to another live channel, then audio sync is lost. I need to restart MP to get it back.

Any thoughts on what may be causing this? It almost seems like MP or OV is saving some kind of time marker that is not getting cleared until MP is restarted.

 

[GJC]

offbyone,

I have a few questions regarding recording Internet streams:
1) Is there any way to record the stream and watch it at the same time (chase-play) within MP? So far I can only do it by starting the recording, minimizing MP, and then starting Media Player to watch the flv file manually.
2) What's the difference between Download (concurrent) and Download (queued)? The both seem to do the same thing and neither option seemed to allow me to watch and record concurrently.
3) Is there any way to stop the recording automatically after a certain period of time?

Thanks offbyone!

 

[offbyone]

1) Is there any way to record the stream and watch it at the same time (chase-play) within MP?
It would depend on the source filter that is used for FLV. You need one that can handle growing files. I am already wondering that WindowsMediaPlayer can do it?

2) What's the difference between Download (concurrent) and Download (queued)?
concurrent means, that when you strat another donwload on the same site it will start immediately, and queued means that all are run after one another.

3) Is there any way to stop the recording automatically after a certain period of time?
Not automatically, only manually.

It's a livestream, watch it, don't record it! Don't compare it to the features that TV server can do with timeshifting and such, Onlinevideos will never offer that.

 

[GJC]

Thanks for the answers offbyone.

I thought that I'd try out the recording feature as the player already supports pause, rewind etc., just like a PVR. I find that with live streams I often have troubles with audio and video sync, which I don't have if I record the stream. Recording also begins MUCH faster than live playback. My guess is that live playback is delayed as the codecs try to establish audio and video sync.

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Windows Media Player Classic could play the growing file, but I had to run it outside of OV. If I select Media Player from "Play with.." within OV, then it will play, but playback stops at the point wherever it was recording at the time I started playback. Interestingly enough, after playback stops, the record buffer suddently jumps a huge amount, indicating that recording never actually stopped. If I playback again, I see everything I missed (only I have to watch from the beginning again).

It would be awesome if OV could support a "Play with..." player that could handle a growing file. This way I get guaranteed audio sync, and a large buffer so that playback isn't as vulnerable to Internet congestion. Going to an outside player is fine for me as a techie sitting at a computer, but I'm thinking of my family sitting in the living room with a remote. I'd love to be able to tell them that to have pretty much flawless playback they should simply record the stream and then start watching 5 or so minutes later.

Regarding recording duration, would that be difficult to implement? When watching live movie channels in other time zones, a good movie will often start at 11 pm local time. It would be great to be able to specify a duration so that I could simply say "record for 3 hours" and then go to bed.

 

[offbyone]

I think you are aiming for your own plugin... don't forget you can always supply patches with new features. But, IMHO, we rather need to improve the livestream playback - I would say that our source filter has problems with the timestamps on flv live streams which is fixable (probbaly not by me but georgius).

 

[GJC]

No problem offbyone. I was delighted when I saw that OV supported custom live streams. My wife already says that I spend too much time in the office just trying to set up my HTPC, so I doubt she'll grant me the time to actually learn the code and supply patches.

I agree though, that MP appears to have a problem with timestamps on live flv streams. Hopefully georgius can help out.

I've been setting up xbmc on the side so that I can "roll out" the best of the two packages to the family (I'm trying to avoid having to switch between packages for different features). Both packages have their strengths and weaknesses, and one of xbmc's strengths is that it has no issues with live streams, they usually sync within 10 seconds and there are no problems after that. I still need to see if xbmc will let me record live streams. I think they have a plugin under development for that.

The support for on-demand video in MP is awesome, and its PVR is more mature than xbmc (I also find the picture quality is better). So I've been really focusing on "what's missing" with MP because so far this looks like the package I'll be rolling out to the family. You guys have done a great job, and I'm not the only one that appreciates it!

 

[offbyone]

OnlineVideos 1.2 released! Changelog in first post.
There were some enhancements that require skin updates (marked red). I'll update the Wiki asap, until then you can check the changes to the default skins.
The current skin will still work - no worry (just a few buttons have no function anymore).

Happy Easter!

 

[GJC]

Thanks offbyone. We all appreciate your hard work and continuing support!

 

[Holzi]

Hello!

added: allow refresh rate adaption according to FPS and settings in MediaPorta

Does this mean Dynamic Refreshrate Changer will work with OnlineVideos? This would be to good to be true!
Thank you for the new release! =)

 

[offbyone]

That is exactly what it means

It's not gonna work 100% because many webstreams do not have any or bad metadata or report non-default fps, which need to be added as mapping in Config. The Onlinevideos.log will contain info when a refresh rate was not found. I also implemented late RR change by asking the EVR for the FPS while the clip is runnning -> but that will only work with on eof the later dshowhelper DLLs.