OnlineVideos FAQ (1 Viewer)

SpudR

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    Please place here all those lovely tips you've found using this little gem...

    Q: My Mediaportal Config always tells me that there is a problem with OnlineVideos.dll or "An error occured while loading the plugin file OnlineVideos.MediaPortal1.dll It is broken or incompatible with the current version of Media Portal and wont be loaded" error pops up, what should i do?
    A: Simply delete the File OnlineVideos.dll from Plugins\Windows. MAKE SURE YOU DELETE IT - renaming it doesn't work!

    Q: How can I add new sites?
    A: That depends on the website you are adding but basically it's going to be one of these:
    • The website you'd like to add supports RSS feeds that link directly to files that can be played (like mp4 or flv) -> simply create a new Generic site and add the rss feeds in the plugin configuration
    • The website only offers HTML but you know about regular expressions -> create a new Generic site and use the GenericSiteCreator tool (or any other regex helper tool) to find the expressions for parsing the required infos off the html (they can be set on the Advanced button)
    • The playback urls are hidden very good and need some tricky logic or the site offers an open API you can base your site on -> you'll have to create a new siteutil in C# (look at the code there are enough utils to use as sample)

    Q: Site X is missing from my list
    A: you have to do the auto-update (when entering onlinevideos from mediaportal for the first time) first.
    If all goes well, the onlinevideosites.xml (located in the programdata\... directory) should be updated, and then you should be able to select the watch-series from the "manage sites" menu.

    Q: I often get a Windows popup about rights
    A: During install/setup of Windows Media Player you probably disabled "download usage rights automatically when I play a file". Enable it in WMP settings.

    Q: The problem is that whatever I try to play a video, it hangs in the buffering. Often it hangs Mediaportal all together and I have to force shutdown. Otherwise I can press the STOP button and I come back to the starting screen of OnlineVideos
    A: Not a fix but a work around, If you skip forward or back the video starts playing again.

    Q: Site X doesn't work properly
    A: This usually means that something has changed on the site, or the site is down - try in a web browser first and if it's working please note it in the official thread and it'll get looked at in due course

    Q: Is it possible to move the configuration for OnlineVideos to another computer in an easy way?
    A: Inside MediaPortal.xml is a section named onlinevideos -> copy to MediaPortal.xml on other pc
    Copy OnlineVideoSites.xml to other pc.
    Copy Favorites Database and Thumbs if wanted.
     

    SpudR

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    Q: It seems that most of the Apple Trailers have 24p but MP does not change to this frequency although it works fine for all other videos, blurays, etc.
    How can I solve this problem?

    A: In the current MediaPortal implementation the RefreshRate is aquired using MediaInfo.dll, which works with local files. As OnlineVideos is playing streaming video this is not possible, or would require to gather FPS from the running graph.

    Q: I try to play files using the rtmpte protocol, but it doesn't work
    A: rtmpte is not implemented yet. Only rtmpe and rtmp (so no tunneling or ssl encryption yet). You can try to change the link to read rtmpe:// only, mostly this will work as well.

    Q: It seems half of the online video sites are not working. I get "Unable to play the video: NO URL" and "Unable to play <filename>" errors
    A: This is most likely to be a codecs issue - install SAF Stable (or try SAF 5 Experimental) and try again...
     

    SpudR

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    Geo blocked sites
    As this is a community driven project, I don't have personal control over this, but site creators are encouraged to put the info about geoblocking into the site description (I did it for e.g. BBC iPlayer)

    More developers
    I will NOT go out and actively search developers. This IS an open source project and everyone is welcome to contribute! If any dev wants to create sites or features he is welcome (some have done so in the past already). But I cannot affort to spend my time looking for devs - which is not very usefull anyways - the willingness to contribute must be self-driven on spare time projects.

    Site requests
    In my opinion this thread is giving a wrong impression to people out there that the devs will jump on their "requests". This is NOT gonna happen. User can collaborate on websites they would like to see supported, but it does not mean that we WILL add those sites. Same principle as before applies: as we aren't getting paid here but use our spare time, we will mostly add sites that we like as well (some exceptions ofc). Adding a site ALSO means to keep track of the websites changes over time, so the more sites the more work. Therefore my principle is NOT to add every possible site, but rather a few GOOD ones with lot's of content. This is why I will NOT keep track of a "wishlist" - everyone is welcome to either create and maintain a site or find a dev to do it for him.

    Site Parser
    As you have noticed, adding new sites is NOT without work, and if it were THAT easy we would already have found a way I guess and many more tools like OnlineVideos would exist. The real world web is in no way uniform - so we cannot provide a simple way that every person on the planet can use. You are looking for the magic bullet here I'm sure with enough time and money one could develop something usefull.


    OffByOne said:
    I am not trying to dismiss all your very nice ideas! I am just trying to make you understand that this is a spare time project and it follows different rules. It needs more contribution by the users to grow. Asking for things to happen will not make them happen To quote someone here: "Just do it..."
     

    djredmar

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    Q: It seems half of the online video sites are not working. I get "Unable to play the video: NO URL" and "Unable to play <filename>" errors
    Answer2: check your logs if you get the message about mp url source, register the file "MPUrlSource.ax"
    e.g.
    regsvr32 "c:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\MPUrlSource\MPUrlSource.ax"
    restart mediaportal (or mp configuration) and try again.
     
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    doskabouter

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    Q: I've finished building a site, how can I publish it, so everyone can use it?
    A: Just open Configuration, select your site, press publish and follow the instructions
     
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    offbyone

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    Q: Almost all videos take a long time to start or do not start at all.
    A: Open your Anitvirus tool and
    • exclude the MediaPortal process
    • exclude the Path %localappdata%\MPUrlSourceSplitter
     

    ltfearme

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    Q: How do I scrobble episodes and movies to trakt.tv?
    A: First you need to ensure the trakt plugin is configured correctly to listen to events from OnlineVideos:
    • Download and install the Trakt plugin if you have not already.
    • Open the configuration tool or enter settings in the GUI.
    • Ensure trakt username / password is entered.
    • Ensure the option for OnlineVideos is checked
    The trakt plugin knows when you play an episode or movie from one of the many site utils in OnlineVideos, however it can only successfully scrobble to trakt.tv if the site util publishes the required information. If you find that nothing is being scrobbled then it's most likely that the site util does not implement the required interface ITrackingInfo.

    You can open a new thread and politely ask the site util developer add the required info so the trakt plugin can successfully scrobble, you may find that this is impossible due to lack of information e.g. for TV Episodes you need to have at a minimum a TV Show Name, Season Number and Episode Number. It supports Ids (IMDb, TVDb etc) but this would be a very slim change of being available to the online sites.
     

    doskabouter

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    Q: My Netflix isn't working
    A: Make sure you've followed the Configuration steps outlined here

    If you've done that and it still doesn't work then
    • Set your "Log verbosity" to "Debug" in MP Configuration, "General"
    • In MP Configuration, "Plugins", "OnlineVideos", "Sites", "Netflix"
      • Set "Show loading spinner" to False
      • Set "Enable Verbose logging" to True
      • Set "Disable browser logging" to False
    • In C:\Program Files (x86)\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\plugins\Windows\OnlineVideos\iexplore.exe.config (C:\Program Files (x86)\Team MediaPortal\MP2-Client\Plugins\OnlineVideos\iexplore.exe.config for MP2 users)
      • Set "WriteDebugLog" to "true"
      • Set "DebugLogPath" to a file in a directory that you have write access to (f.e. C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\log\iexdebug.log)
      • Set "BrowserHostWaitTimeout" to a high enough value (if it's not present, you can add
        Code:
        <add key="BrowserHostWaitTimeout" value="2000"/>
        under <appSettings>
    After those configuration changes, your system is now in full logging mode.
    Please try to play one video, and send me the Onlinevideos.log (for MP2: Client.log) and iexdebug.log privately (because there can be sensitive info in there!!)
    Also give a description (or screenshots) of the window appearing when you press play (These are the netflix-websites that the system has to go through when setting up for playback)
     
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