[Updated 27 Mar!] MPExtended WebMediaPortal 0.4.3 (3 Viewers)

[Oxan]

Since i´m using WHS. I can´t change Settings to the profile. No Logs possible. So which file should i edit to set the streaming profile and so on ?

You can change it above each video, but the default setting is in C:\ProgramData\MPExtended\WebMediaPortal.xml.

Use the Direct streaming profile that way nothing is converted. If you think another conversion method is better, go ahead and implement it. It isn't as easy as you think.

I'm NOT saying they are doing a bad job at all by using FFMPEG. I know FFMPEG are working on using GPU for converting...

I'm actually a IT-engineer specializing in communications technologies and certified in .NET and JAVA, so I CAN actually develop it. But right now I'm working on a Squeezebox plugin for MP and I'm looking into making MP running as a shell.

Well, what I really wanted to imply with that statement is that you've to think it through to discover why it won't work (but I couldn't explain it in depth as I was typing from my phone). The problem with your approach (converting on the client) is that we are working in a web environment. That is a very limited environment - you can't start processes from the browser, you can't use arbitrary codecs, you can't execute arbitrary code, etc. If we could just embed VLC or WMP, there would be (aside from bandwidth constraints) no reason at all to convert the video, as it would play the original file directly. To perform the conversion client side, you need to be able to launch ffmpeg (or another encoder) there. You can then just as well use a player that supports the stream without having to convert it then. That more or less requires you to convert on the server.

I know that Java applets and Silverlight are exceptions to this rule. However, they both disqualify as standard solution because they're non-standard (try using Silverlight on Linux...). I can imagine a Silverlight player coming in some future version though, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon (unless someone submits patches, of course).

 

[Ken4000]

Since i´m using WHS. I can´t change Settings to the profile. No Logs possible. So which file should i edit to set the streaming profile and so on ?

You can change it above each video, but the default setting is in C:\ProgramData\MPExtended\WebMediaPortal.xml.

Use the Direct streaming profile that way nothing is converted. If you think another conversion method is better, go ahead and implement it. It isn't as easy as you think.

I'm NOT saying they are doing a bad job at all by using FFMPEG. I know FFMPEG are working on using GPU for converting...

I'm actually a IT-engineer specializing in communications technologies and certified in .NET and JAVA, so I CAN actually develop it. But right now I'm working on a Squeezebox plugin for MP and I'm looking into making MP running as a shell.

Well, what I really wanted to imply with that statement is that you've to think it through to discover why it won't work (but I couldn't explain it in depth as I was typing from my phone). The problem with your approach (converting on the client) is that we are working in a web environment. That is a very limited environment - you can't start processes from the browser, you can't use arbitrary codecs, you can't execute arbitrary code, etc. If we could just embed VLC or WMP, there would be (aside from bandwidth constraints) no reason at all to convert the video, as it would play the original file directly. To perform the conversion client side, you need to be able to launch ffmpeg (or another encoder) there. You can then just as well use a player that supports the stream without having to convert it then. That more or less requires you to convert on the server.

I know that Java applets and Silverlight are exceptions to this rule. However, they both disqualify as standard solution because they're non-standard (try using Silverlight on Linux...). I can imagine a Silverlight player coming in some future version though, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon (unless someone submits patches, of course).

Of cause you can't convert on the client without using some kind of "global built-in" player. With my statement of converting on the client's - when we are talking web environment - I was referring to using Java applets. I haven't looked much into it yet, but have you also considered HTML5? ...it has a player for streaming and I think it's up to the browser for converting.
I'm sorry for forgetting the Direct streaming option, it's one I can use at home, when I'm on WiFi with my phone or tablet.

Your approach of converting on the server and then stream in a low bitrate format is very good. I would just love to have it converting using the GPU instead of the CPU. Then the server could do other tasks as well. We all have different setups and hardware. I have decided to add a powerful graphic card to my server for converting and backing up of recorded TV, streaming etc. A GPU is also faster for converting video's, if comparing it to a CPU.
FFMPEG is not using GPU, because they want to develop a global converter. But I have read they are considered an option to use ATi and Nvidia GPU's for converting.
If MPExtended service should use GPU for converting, it could use DirectShow that can use the installed codec's on the server, or use the same approach as the MediaPortal client. Were you define what codec's to use when playing TV, a movie etc. I don't say it's an easy job to develop, but have you also considered that?

 

[Oxan]

Of cause you can't convert on the client without using some kind of "global built-in" player. With my statement of converting on the client's - when we are talking web environment - I was referring to using Java applets. I haven't looked much into it yet, but have you also considered HTML5? ...it has a player for streaming and I think it's up to the browser for converting.
I'm sorry for forgetting the Direct streaming option, it's one I can use at home, when I'm on WiFi with my phone or tablet.

Your approach of converting on the server and then stream in a low bitrate format is very good. I would just love to have it converting using the GPU instead of the CPU. Then the server could do other tasks as well. We all have different setups and hardware. I have decided to add a powerful graphic card to my server for converting and backing up of recorded TV, streaming etc. A GPU is also faster for converting video's, if comparing it to a CPU.
FFMPEG is not using GPU, because they want to develop a global converter. But I have read they are considered an option to use ATi and Nvidia GPU's for converting.
If MPExtended service should use GPU for converting, it could use DirectShow that can use the installed codec's on the server, or use the same approach as the MediaPortal client. Were you define what codec's to use when playing TV, a movie etc. I don't say it's an easy job to develop, but have you also considered that?

Well, Java could work but I doubt it's multimedia capabilities are great. I haven't tried it though (and I don't have much Java experience so probably won't do it either). HTML5 won't work, as browsers don't convert the stream. It's up to the server to offer one compatible with the browser (and which codecs are compatible differs between browsers, but I found none that are usable until none: H264 is only supported in MP4 containers, which aren't streamable, and the WebM encoder is way too slow on modest hardware).

ffmpeg and VLC actually have hardware decoding support nowadays. I don't think we use it for ffmpeg though, but for VLC it's certainly enabled in MPExtended. That doesn't help much though, as consumer-grade GPUs don't offer integrated hardware encoding, only decoding. Decoding only takes up about 5-10% of the CPU time required for converting the videos, so that won't help much at all. You can use the GPU for encoding through CUDA and the likes, but I haven't found a reliable implementation of that yet and don't intend to write a videocodec myself. Also, a lot of servers (including mine) don't have powerful graphic cards at all, which makes it pretty pointless.

Using DirectShow has some problems too btw. I *hate* the codechell that DirectShow creates, so I really prefer using a single integrated solution. I'm also not sure whether DirectShow supports encoding at all; it's most common use is for decoding. And there is the technical problem that you can't load anything DirectX/DirectShow related when running under a service context.

 

[derSpeedy]

hello together,

got some big problems with mpextended service and webmediaportal. after several installations i have to give up!
i have a singleseat-setup at home. on tv-server runs windows xp sp3 32bit. i use mediaportal 1.2.3 with ms-sql database.
first i installed framenetwork 4, then iis 7.5 express, then mpextended service, then webmediaportal all like installation guide.
after installation i reboot the system. the booting tooks extreme long. it tooks about 3-4 min to start tv-service and got networkaccess to the tv-server.
so now i tryed to get access to mpextended service or webmediaportal. i tryed to localhost:4322, 127.0.0.1:4322, to the hostname and to the local ip from the tv-server. i just get the errormessage "bad request (invalid hostname)". for webmediaportal i tryed localhost:8080, 127.0.0.1:8080, to the hostname and to the local ip from the tv-server. there i get an servertimeout. it looks like iisexpress is not running. i deactivated all firewalls and opened the ports at the router. i tryed to set other ports for mpextended service, but nothing works. i think iis is not configurated to mpextended. so i reinstalled all again with the same errors. at least i uninstalled all to get a fast booting system back.
please let me know if one of you had an idea.

greetz
patrick

 

[doveman]

It seems with WebMediaPortal, when viewing the TVguide there's no way to change the date, other than advancing by time until you get to the day you want. Is this something that's being looked at or am I just doing something wrong?

Also, when browsing Music I'm getting a fair few of the following errors when clicking on an Artist:

Sorry, an error occurred while processing your request.
■WebMediaPortal version 0.4.3 (build 0.4.3.0).
■Request: http://localhost:8080/MusicLibrary/Albums?artist=A Tribe Called Quest
 
 
Value cannot be null or empty. Parameter name: linkText
 
 
  at System.Web.Mvc.Html.LinkExtensions.ActionLink(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String linkText, String actionName, String controllerName, RouteValueDictionary routeValues, IDictionary`2 htmlAttributes)
  at System.Web.Mvc.Html.LinkExtensions.ActionLink(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, String linkText, String actionName, Object routeValues)
  at ASP._Page_Views_MusicLibrary_Albums_cshtml.Execute() in c:\Program Files\MPExtended\WebMediaPortal\www\Views\MusicLibrary\Albums.cshtml:line 12
  at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy()
  at System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.ExecutePageHierarchy()
  at System.Web.WebPages.StartPage.RunPage()
  at System.Web.WebPages.StartPage.ExecutePageHierarchy()
  at System.Web.WebPages.WebPageBase.ExecutePageHierarchy(WebPageContext pageContext, TextWriter writer, WebPageRenderingBase startPage)
  at System.Web.Mvc.RazorView.RenderView(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer, Object instance)
  at System.Web.Mvc.BuildManagerCompiledView.Render(ViewContext viewContext, TextWriter writer)
  at System.Web.Mvc.ViewResultBase.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult)
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__19()
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<>c__DisplayClass1e.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__1b()
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult)
  at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeAction(ControllerContext controllerContext, String actionName)

 

[Oxan]

i have a singleseat-setup at home. on tv-server runs windows xp sp3 32bit. i use mediaportal 1.2.3 with ms-sql database.

Your problems might be related to Windows XP; all developers use Windows Vista of 7, so it's more or less untested.

it looks like iisexpress is not running.

Did you verify this (was there an iisexpress.exe process in the task manager)?

It seems with WebMediaPortal, when viewing the TVguide there's no way to change the date, other than advancing by time until you get to the day you want. Is this something that's being looked at or am I just doing something wrong?

This has already been fixed in the 0.5 development branch.

Also, when browsing Music I'm getting a fair few of the following errors when clicking on an Artist:

Looks like you have some albums with empty titles which confuses WebMP.

 

[doveman]

This has already been fixed in the 0.5 development branch.

Great stuff

Looks like you have some albums with empty titles which confuses WebMP.

OK, thanks. I thought I'd tagged all those albums properly but I'll check them.

 

[derSpeedy]

i started iisepxress manuell, then i get access over localhost:8080 but there was just the standard startpage from iisexpress (how to config blabla). iis isnt configurated. maybe the installer goes to the wrong path? mpextended needs iis too?

greetz

 

[Oxan]

i started iisepxress manuell, then i get access over localhost:8080 but there was just the standard startpage from iisexpress (how to config blabla). iis isnt configurated. maybe the installer goes to the wrong path? mpextended needs iis too?

greetz

That won't work. There are 2 options to run WebMP:
- Either you use the standard installer, with IIS Express. You don't have to start IIS Express manually, as that won't work (we dynamically generate a config file). The installer will create an "MPExtended WebMediaPortal" service, which should start IIS Express. Just check whether IISExpress and this process (MPExtended.ServiceHosts.WebMediaPortal.exe) is running.
- Or you use the IIS edition installer. In this case, you need to configure IIS manually. See our wiki page with documentation on how to use this edition.

 

[regeszter]

Hi Oxan,

The "0.5.0 Due in 12 days" isn't true, is it?