Remote TV client cannot stream (1 Viewer)

[AFH]

I have recently upgraded to 1.3.0 Final and it works very well, except that for the first time I tried to use a remote client. The TV server is running Win7/64 and works fine with its local client, but try as I might I cannot get a remote client running under XP/32 on the same home network to play anything, whether live or recorded TV, or music, or videos. The rest of the interface works OK, including programme guides. I have tried all the advice I could find in your forums, including:-
1. disable firewalls on both machines;
2. change RTSP port number;
3. patch XML configuration files to stop RTSP being used; and
4. start stream manually on server and view the stream remotely with VLC - this works fine, so there are no obvious network problems.

I checked the logs and saw that the server starts the stream, but when I wiresharked the traffic I found that, after the client had sent the stream set-up requests and the server started streaming, the client sent a TEARDOWN request to close the stream down again. The stream reported in the "unable to stream" message was the same as was logged. I have run out of things to try.

I used the same installation file for both the server/local client and the remote client. I did not try any of this with 1.2 and I am not prepared to go back there to see if it is a specific 1.3 problem. If anyone can help I shall be most grateful. I cannot believe I am the only one with these problems. I have other means to watch remote TV, but I like MP so much that I would prefer to use it if I possibly can. By the way, I looked at MPTVClient, but this is currently available only in 64-bit, which is unsuitable for my XP/32 client.

 

[megahorst]

Did you get it working?
I had a similar problem after setting up my client server architecture.

Setting the source IP of the streaming server in the tv-server config application from auto to the real IP solved the problem for me

 

[AFH]

No. I had given up, pending feedback to suggest something else to explore. I did try setting the real IP, but that made no apparent difference. However, I shall explore this in a more controlled manner. I'll post the results in due course. Thanks for the information.

 

[AFH]

I set the real IP, as suggested, then tried everything else I could think of, and still nothing, although as before VLC happily picked up a manually launched stream. So I have had to give up yet again. However, I have now found that the XBMC client and server plug-in work perfectly, with the added advantage that I can now use my Linux lap-tops. It all worked more or less out of the box, after following the few simple configuration instructions. The only thing I can't access is the Radio guide, so I can't set up recordings without going to the local MP client on the TV server, but I can live with that.

As an aside, I do not understand why both MP and XBMC treat Radio through different menus from TV - most broadcast TVs have them in a single list and both the EPG and channel change button allow direct access from one to the other: there seems no reason to separate them in MP (or XBMC). Maybe someone will enlighten me.

 

[rich76]

Might be a long shot but are both pc's in the same workgroup?
By default windows 7 starts in workgroup named workgroup where as xp's default is mshome.
Try setting both to mshome as I used to get networking problems with xp machines using a workgroup named workgroup.
Maybe try disabling ipv6 too.
Hope that helps
Rich

 

[AFH]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, all PCs are in WORKGROUP. I did try disabling IPv6 at some point during my tests, but I restored it when I found it made no difference. The things that work with current settings are:-
1. MP client on the same machine as server, using either localhost or real IP settings.
2. Setting up a TV stream manually on the server, then using VLC on the remote XP system to open the RTSP stream from the server.
3. Using XBMC client on the server - the documentation seems to indicate that this doesn't use RTSP, but I have not gone into the details of how it works.
4. XMBC client on a Linux lap-top also works (though that was more of a challenge to set up - the Ubuntu 12.10/64 canonical distribution did not work).

One of the forum posts suggested disabling RTSP, but all this did was to change the error message. The TEARDOWN request from the remote client (after a couple of frames have been streamed) suggests to me that for whatever reason the client has read the stream, but cannot process or interpret it. I used the same installation file for the remote client as for the master server and its client on the MediaPC, so all the same codecs should have been installed.

I am reasonably happy with the XBMC alternative, but it still irks me that what ought to be a standard solution utterly refuses to work. Various posts have complained that it stops working after various events, but this is not my situation - it has never worked. I presume there are people out there who have it working in 1.3: I wish I were one of them.

Thanks again for the feedback,
Tony.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello Tony

As an aside, I do not understand why both MP and XBMC treat Radio through different menus from TV - most broadcast TVs have them in a single list and both the EPG and channel change button allow direct access from one to the other: there seems no reason to separate them in MP (or XBMC). Maybe someone will enlighten me.

It is a design choice.

If you want to debug, first thing to do is make sure the server is running with a static IP address.

Then open the gentle.config file on the server (in any text editor) and check the connection string. To find the gentle.config file:
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in top left corner.
3. Go up one level.
You're looking for the default provider line, which will look something like this (depending on whether you have a MySQL or SQL Server database):
<DefaultProvider name="MySQL" connectionString="Server=..." />
<DefaultProvider name="SQLServer" connectionString="data source=..."/>

The connection string should include the IP address, not the hostname.

Repeat the gentle.config check on the client, making sure to specify the IP address of the server.

Open MediaPortal configuration on the client. Navigate to the TV section and ensure you set the hostname as the IP address of the server, rather than the hostname.

After doing this repeat your tests.

If you still have problems, disable firewalls on both machines and repeat again.

 

[AFH]

Thank you for the advice.

The server has a static IP within my local subnet. Changing gentle.config made no difference. There are two copies on the server, one in "MediaPortal TV Server"\ and one in MediaPortal\ - I changed both. The only copy on the XP remote client system was in MediaPortal\, there being no server installed there, and I changed that too. Still no streaming, although everything else works - EPG, recording lists and schedules, etc, but live TV and recordings refuse to play.

I should note that something has changed since my first installations: I used to get a "cannot stream" error message; now the client hangs and has to be closed externally. I ought to try wiresharking the traffic again and see if the sequence is any different, and to compare with the working XMBC client, but I am quite busy with visitors at the moment.

Thanks again,
Tony.

 

[mm1352000]

Still no streaming, although everything else works - EPG, recording lists and schedules, etc, but live TV and recordings refuse to play.

Ahhhh, I see. I thought you were saying the client couldn't connect to the TV Server at all.

Okay, so you tried with all firewalls entirely disabled on both client and server, right?
Now would be a good time to post log files.

 

[AFH]

Sorry about drying up - my wife has been ill, so there have been other priorities. She has not yet recovered, so I am still not ready for further detailed investigations, but I thought I should log the fact that I have upgraded to MP1.4, and this has not solved it. I am now not getting error messages on the client - instead it hangs and has to be killed externally, though it had started doing that before the upgrade. This happens whenever I try to watch live TV or play recordings: in the latter case I do get an error message before it hangs. Other functions, such as the programme guide, continue to work OK -it is streaming that fails.

After upgrading the server plug-in, the XBMC client continues to work flawlessly.

I am very grateful for the interest shown, and I hope to be able to get back to it before too long.