VODServer - Watch internet streams as TV channels (2 Viewers)

[rsenden]

A new beta version has been uploaded. Among others, this version has the following changes:

• Improved documentation (although not complete yet)
• Support for configuration via JavaScript (much more flexible services, probably easier to understand for some people)
• Support for executing HTTP POST requests to retrieve content
• A /playFromPage service that should be able to parse pages on many video sites for retrieving video content
• Many internal changes.

As always, please read the documentation for detailed installation & upgrade instructions. Please provide some feedback on this forum on how well this version works for you.

 

[rsenden]

I noticed that most or all of the sample channels for CastAlba and iLive.to currently do not work. Sometimes preconfigured CastAlba channels are offline; please check the CastAlba site to verify which streams are online.

For iLive.to, VODServer still correctly grabs the RTMP parameters, but for some reason rtmpdump fails (ERROR: RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header). iLive.to also no longer works with other rtmpdump-based tools (like rtmpexplorer), so they probably have changed something that breaks rtmpdump. If anyone knows how to get iLive.to working again, please let me know so I can add a fix in VODServer.

I also noticed that sometimes the TV Server fails to tune into a VODServer channel, even though the stream seems to be running fine. I am currently looking into this issue; for now you will probably need to scan channels multiple times in order to have the TV Server configuration pick up all channels.

Can you please provide some feedback on how VODServer is working for you? What online services are you using with VODServer?

 

[sand]

Can you please provide some feedback on how VODServer is working for you? What online services are you using with VODServer?

Didn't have time to test latest version. As you said have to scan channels few times but almost all were visible (bbc is not but i have non UK ip).
Switching channels was a bit slow but everything was working fine.
Will test latest version and post results.

I did try to add some additional streams/sites but haven't had success yet...

thanks again

 

[rsenden]

Thanks for your feedback. In the mean time version 1.3 is available, so please try that if you have the time. This version allows you to define a service override that always serves a local file, which usually allows TV Server Setup to find all channels on first scan (of course in that case the actual service is not being tested, so channels may be added to TV Server that don't actually work). Also, stream information can now be gathered using JavaScript-based configuration, which is more flexible and probably easier for most people.

With regards to channel switching performance; whenever you request a new channel from VODServer, it needs to do some processing to gather the necessary video streaming details, and then load the actual video, before it can actually start streaming to the TV Server.

There are some possibilities to improve this, but they also have drawbacks:

• While gathering stream info and loading the stream, already start streaming a local video with the text 'Loading Video stream'. I'm not sure however whether this would cause any issues when switching to the actual stream (I'm no MPEG-TS/DVB-IP specialist). It would probably cause TV Server to be able to tune into channels faster and with less issues, without the need for the service override.
• Pre-cache the ParamBuilder results (i.e. gather all info needed to actually start streaming a video beforehand), but this would probably need to be refreshed regularly, which will cause extra load on the site, and increased chances that the site discovers that it is being accessed in a strange way (possibly followed by countermeasures, like blocking your IP). For example, some sites generate security tokens that are only valid for a few minutes. If the cache contains stale data, the stream will fail to load.
• Allow channels to be fully pre-loaded, i.e. start background threads that already gather the necessary stream info and actually load the stream; just attach this stream to the actual HTTP request whenever the stream is requested. Again, this will cause extra load on the site and your internet connection; you would be able to do this only for a limited number of streams.

 

[JohnnyG]

Just wanted to log in and thank you for your development of this program. I hacked around with it for several hours and managed to get one channel working in MP. Probably a cleaner approach but:

A sample of what I normally stream in VLC with no problems is http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8
I tried various methods of trying to get it working in VLC with VODServer but had no luck (http://127.0.0.1:9999/playFromPage?url=http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8 or http://127.0.0.1:9999/play?url=http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8, ect)
I ended up modifying the test.xml to
<entry key="input" value="http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8"/>

The VODServer m3u to
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,PINK
http://127.0.0.1:9999/test

Then copied to the Dvbip tuning folder for Media Portal. Scanned and can now watch the channel on my stand alone client.
I'll continue to play around with the files and see what I can figure out. I'm hoping to avoid having to create an xml copy of test and modifying it for every channel I want to add to the m3u playlist.

Any advice? I imagine I'm overlooking something very simple.

Thanks again for the great program!

 

[rsenden]

I tried various methods of trying to get it working in VLC with VODServer but had no luck (http://127.0.0.1:9999/playFromPage?url=http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8 or http://127.0.0.1:9999/play?url=http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8, ect)
I ended up modifying the test.xml to
<entry key="input" value="http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8"/>

Any advice? I imagine I'm overlooking something very simple.

Thanks again for the great program!

Thanks for trying out VODServer. I can't access the URL you mentioned (404 Not Found), but I think you were very close with using the /play service. The /play service looks at the request parameter named input, not url. So, http://127.0.0.1:9999/play?input=http://149.255.37.194/hls/8803/index.m3u8 should work. The parameter is named input because it may contain any valid ffmpeg input, including local files. Maybe I will try to change the /play service to accept either input or url as parameter.

 

[joxen]

is autentication working ? syntax ?

did try this http://127.0.0.1:9999/playFromPage?url=http://admin:pass@192.168.1.26/video/mjpg.cgi no luck in logg ..
"HTTP/1.0 401 Authorization Required[\r][\n]"

the line is working in vlc http://admin:pass@192.168.1.26/video/mjpg.cgi

 

[spokkie_spok]

1st of all thank you for the great plugin
Got it working without to much effort and it works great

But i got a question: is it possible to create a channel with local video files (multiple files in one or more folders)?

Greets Spokkie_spok

 

[breedalot]

would this work with silverlight streams? (I am guessing not) but if not any plans to add? it would be very useful for nottv in the uk

 

[Benoire]

Would this allow me to watch the 10 Al Jazeera Sport channels through mediaportal rather than a web browser? I am trying to find a way to integrate this in to the single interface to avoid having to run it in the browser.