Live Streaming to iPhone/iPod Touch

[peternm22]

Orb now has a streaming client for the iPhone/iPod Touch called OrbLive

I installed it on my iPod Touch and it allows me to stream SageTV recordings to the iPod (on the fly transcoding), so you don't need to convert your recordings to an iPod compatible format to get them to play. In Orb, set your media folders to your SageTV recording directories.

The video quality is quite good. The only issue I have so far is that I can't fast forward/rewind/skip the media file, you have to start playing the videos from the start.


-Peter

[simonen]

Yeah, I just checked this out and it will even control some of your TV tuners. This is sweet. Great find!

[peternm22]

Looks like it is no longer free, it's $10 on the Apple Appstore now. Also, one big problem (I think) is that you can't fast forward or rewind videos.

A port for VLC has just been made for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) called vlc4iphone which supposedly supports streaming. I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Perhaps it would be possible to link this up with the SageTV web interface plugin?

-Peter

[amccrea]

I can stream to the iPhone (even over 3g) if I first transcode the file to h.264 iPhone format and then click on "Watch (Local File)" in Nielm's Sage Webserver.

I am trying to get the webserver's trancode feature (using VLC) to work with the iphone, but haven't had success yet. I can transcode to PCs just fine now that I downgraded VLC to 0.8.6i. Newer version of VLC would just crash.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...365#post366365

[l3nn0n]

Originally Posted by amccrea

I can stream to the iPhone (even over 3g) if I first transcode the file to h.264 iPhone format and then click on "Watch (Local File)" in Nielm's Sage Webserver.

Did you have to do anything else to get this to work? I have transcoded a couple of files to h.264 iphone format, ant then accessed the server locally over wifi using Nielm's webserver interface.

When I select "Watch (local file)" and select the Quicktime player it very briefly goes to the iphone video player and then immediately switches back to the previous screen.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

[jreichen]

I don't think the Sage Media Player page (player.html) is going to work on the iPhone. I don't even have an option for Quicktime. I have been able to watch video two ways (assuming the video has already been converted to iPhone format):

1. On the recording details page in nielm's web server, there are links to the recording files on the right side. Clicking on those (usually there's just one unless the recording was interrupted and restarted) seems to play fine on the iPhone.
2. Install the JS Feed Reader iPhone application. Then do a search in nielm's web server for all library files or TV recordings with filename *.mp4. Click the RSS button at the top to get the RSS feed url, then open JS Feed Reader and create a subscription to that url. The application has options for either downloading the video or streaming it.

I realize it's not the most seamless process but it's all we have right now. I'm continuing to research better ways when I get the chance but it's no small task. Plus, I find VLC to be unstable so I'm looking for other ways to do the backend.

[amccrea]

I was mistaken, When I click on Watch (Local File) it does not work. I am clicking on the actual link to the filename itself that is in the program description near the bottom. This streams just fine.

I may take a look at JS feed reader as it would be nice to acutally download the files instead of stream them. I have got the podcasting to iTunes working, but that requires a PC and who wants to carry a PC around. You may as well stream it to your PC then. It would be nice to subscribe the RSS feed right on the iPhone.

I honesty don't use the iPhone for watching tv, but it is still fun to make it work.

[l3nn0n]

Thanks for the help! I got the RSS feed to work without the JS feed reader app (although as you point out this is streaming not downloading), and simply clicking on the filename works as well.

To be honest as well, I have just bought a 3GS and I am 'playing with it', not in any functional way, just a "look what it can do" thing...

Thanks again.

[inlvnv]

I've been running Orb on WHS and streaming to iPhone for the past couple weeks. Here is what I've experienced so far accessing the files on WHS from iPhone.

LiveTV - It just won't work with WHS even with compatible TV tuner. I'm hoping someone will find workaround or probably would have to wait for WHS 2.0. No problem watching recorded TV programs though.

Music - Streams all music to iphone. One major drawback is no shuffle play option.

Pictures - Nice that I can access all my family photos from iPhone. Even better that I can save individual pictures to iPhone. One drawback is no slideshow option.

Videos - Streams just about every video format to iPhone and supports sub-titles (srt). Also plays individual DVD vob files, but it seems to be hit and miss. For some reason, Orblive sometimes won't recognize all vob files in the video_ts folder, so I can't watch the entire movie. Overall, streaming works but needs improvement. Some videos you can fast forward and rewind and some you can't, sometimes video freezes but audio continues. Video quality over wifi is great and over 3g varies depending on how good the reception is on the iPhone.

Overall though, great software.

[jreichen]

For those who start videos from nielm's web server or the mobile web server: does the iPhone media player hang if you move back and forth through the video? It happens to me randomly and I have to exit the player and restart the video.

[oddjob]

I was using ORB Live, but started using Air Video Server more for recorded video. They have a new feature that converts and streams live. The video is better than ORB.

CONS: does not Stream live HD.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by oddjob

Air Video Server more for recorded video.

Interesting! Anyone using this with .ts files as recorded by the HD-PVR?

[oddjob]

I think apple iPhone limits video formats

[oddjob]

HD video:
I should be able to convert it and then play it

I just can't convert it and play stream at same time

Feature only working with non HD video

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by oddjob

HD video: I should be able to convert it and then play it

I might play around with this tonight Thanks for the pointer!

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by oddjob

I was using ORB Live, but started using Air Video

Wow, I'm totally impressed with the 3G quality streaming of compressed 720p/xvid files. Buffering could use a little work but I installed the server software on an older machine which is now also busy indexing a ton of video files ;-)

Thanks for the tip, I'll be trying this out for awhile to see if I want to switch from OrbLive...

[oddjob]

There is a new beta out that includes some TS support.

http://www.inmethod.com/forum/posts/list/3.page

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by oddjob

There is a new beta out that includes some TS support.

http://www.inmethod.com/forum/posts/list/3.page

Thanks for that pointer; I thought I was streaming a .ts file but it was a previously converted file with the same name ;-) With the beta server installed, I see the .ts files but can't stream them (my quad core 2.2ghz is "too slow"). I'll followup at the air video forums...

3G streaming of any file though is still problematic (which is a must for me). I might try converting some files first and see how that goes. (nope, still get plenty of pauses over 3g, 4-5 bars) even with a converted file).

Also, if you want to watch "live tv" and have an available tuner and enough horsepower, just set up a manual recording and then start streaming that file ;-)