Utility: Web Radio and TV Encoder

[SprDtyF350]

Disregard my previous post. I read that playing on the server was choppy so I figured it should be installed on a client. Figured out I should install on the server, but listen from a client and now I am making progress.

Thanks..

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

Disregard my previous post. I read that playing on the server was choppy so I figured it should be installed on a client. Figured out I should install on the server, but listen from a client and now I am making progress

Hi,

Yes - I install on the same box as the SageTV server and listen via MVP extenders. I know other people use SageTV clients and HD100/200 extenders with success.

Plakback using SageTV client running on the same box as SageTV server produces choppy play for reasons unknown at the moment.

Please be aware its still a beta and note the issue mihooper has with running SageTV with EPG from native SageTV sources and epg_import_plugins like webfeedencoder and XMLTV importers.

Michael

[LJSSageUser]

Mike,
Eveerything installed as expected but the EPG config tool shows no channels. Any ideas? The various logs are attached.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by LJSSageUser

Mike,
Eveerything installed as expected but the EPG config tool shows no channels. Any ideas? The various logs are attached.

Hi,

Logs look fine.

So did you add any channels?

i.e. go to channels tab, choose edit menu, then add channel, etc....

Once a channel is added then move to the lineup using the "<" button.

(best done when SageTV is up, but not totally necessary as you can "resend lineup to SageTV).

Michael

[SprDtyF350]

I have been playing with this and it appears to have a lot of potential. I have been hoping something like this would come about.

I have had some problems though. I find that I can't get it to work with a Client, have had it play once on the server machine (Choppy) but it did play. I had it work on an HD200 once and then it froze when i tried it again.

I am running the following:
Windows 7 64 Bit
VLC 0.9.8a
Your plugin.

I have only added one channel so far but I can see the 2 instances of VLC start and stop when I try to play on a client, and the file size grows. Looks like it is doing everything it is supposed to except it hangs the client.

I have attached my log file.

Any ideas?

Thanks..

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

I have had some problems though. I find that I can't get it to work with a Client, have had it play once on the server machine (Choppy) but it did play. I had it work on an HD200 once and then it froze when i tried it again.

Hi,

Damn - and it sounds like you are close.

The logs show expected behaviour - the mpeg file is produced for SageTV and it grows bigger steadily.

Something I have had a lot of problems with is getting the two (for radio) or one (for tv) VLC sessions to shutdown properly when recording stops. This can mean that the ports used to communicate with the VLC sessions are tied up when you come to try to play again.

I cannot see any evidence of that here but its one to watch out for - when a recording is stopped take a peak to see if they are still there. I may have to implement a kill process feature to make sure they go away.

Otherwise I think I need to see the SageTV logs. The answer to the hanging is mostly likely in there. Do I need to do more for SageTV than offer up a growing mpeg-2 file for it to play? We shall find out.

The fact that you are using windows 7 means that you are breaking some new ground here.

Michael

[SprDtyF350]

I have watched the 2 instances of VLC start, and then when I stop what I am doing in Sage they stop within a few seconds and go away. Haven't had them hang yet..

What do I need to attach from Sage for you to look at?

Thanks..

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

What do I need to attach from Sage for you to look at?

Normally you have to turn on debug logging - which is a property set in Sage.properties. Normally shutdown sageTV, edit the Sage.properties, set the property to true. I cannot remember the exact property name off hand but it will be plastered all over the place.

Then you will notice in the SageTV directory ".txt" files beginning "sage".

A peek in those might help find out why Sage has hung.

Is the problem reproducable?

Michael

[SprDtyF350]

So So Close...

I have attached the log files from my server and one from a client. With task manager up I can see VLC start and stop. With the server client up I can see the recording indicator come on and the recording shows in Sage Recordings. I can look in explorer and see the .mpg file get created and watch it grow. I just cannot get it to show video or sound. The client seems to hang right after I notice the .mpg file get created.

Here are the logs.. The first 2 are from the server, the last one is from a separate client.

[LJSSageUser]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Hi,

Logs look fine.

So did you add any channels?

i.e. go to channels tab, choose edit menu, then add channel, etc....

Once a channel is added then move to the lineup using the "<" button.

(best done when SageTV is up, but not totally necessary as you can "resend lineup to SageTV).

Michael

Yup, that worked. it seems as if I read the directions first, I could save everyone time .

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by LJSSageUser

Yup, that worked. it seems as if I read the directions first, I could save everyone time .

Phew! I like these sort of support calls.

Michael

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

Here are the logs.. The first 2 are from the server, the last one is from a separate client.

Hi:

The server log seems to be saying I recognise this file type..ooh wheres the client gone!

Mon 10/26 14:44:29.293 [Seeker@15d252d] MARK 1 currRecord=A[217356,217355,".977 The Classic Rock Channel",158@1025.19:00,1440] enc=WebFeedEncoder on localhost:5000 clients=[] ir=false
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.294 [Seeker@15d252d] Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=null nextTTA=9223372036854775807
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.294 [Seeker@15d252d] newRecord=null
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.294 [Seeker@15d252d] Change in record, logging recorded data.
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.294 [Seeker@15d252d] Seeker.endRecord(Mon 10/26 14:44:29.292) currRecord=A[217356,217355,".977 The Classic Rock Channel",158@1025.19:00,1440]
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.295 [Seeker@15d252d] VF.submitJob(VFJob[InactiveFile r=0.0 t=0 file=null ifn=G:\SageTV\977TheClassicRockChannel-217356-0.mpg])
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.300 [Seeker@15d252d] Error communicating with client:java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: socket write error
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.301 [Seeker@15d252d] Doing pre-emptive file format detection on recording MediaFile....G:\SageTV\977TheClassicRockChannel-217356-0.mpg
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.305 [Seeker@15d252d] Using internal format detector first...
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.307 [Seeker@15d252d] File Format Parsed-2 G:\SageTV\977TheClassicRockChannel-217356-0.mpg=MPEG2-TS 0:00:00 4000 kbps [#0 Video[MPEG2-Video 30.0 fps 720x576 1:1 progressive]]
Mon 10/26 14:44:29.310 [Seeker@15d252d] Error communicating with client:java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: socket write error

Client says:

Mon 10/26 14:44:53.045 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] Doing pre-emptive file format detection on recording MediaFile....G:\SageTV\977TheClassicRockChannel-217356-0.mpg
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.264 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] Error with c/s comm:java.lang.NullPointerException
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.264 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] java.lang.NullPointerException
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.265 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.w.for(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.265 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b1.nw(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.266 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b1.n1(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.266 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b1.oc(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.267 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b1.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.267 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b1.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.267 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.d.l$22.try(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.268 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.ax.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.268 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.a.m$b.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.269 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.a.m.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.269 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.269 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.270 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.do(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.270 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.new(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.270 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.int(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.271 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.new(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.271 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.int(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.271 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.b4.j2(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.272 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.d.g$1.try(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.272 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.ax.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.273 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.a.m$b.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.273 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.a.m.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.273 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.274 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.274 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.275 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.275 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 10/26 14:44:53.275 [ReProcessHook@125d92c] 	at sage.e$2.run(Unknown Source)

At the moment I have no suggestions on this - bit hard to guess when the code is obfuscated and the HD200 keeps no logs.

Have you tried any other channels to see if they work any better?

Michael

[SprDtyF350]

Only tried 1 channel so far. I will add a couple more and see. I am not using the HD200 for this right now. Just clients on a couple different computers. Oh well, more playing.

[gplasky]

I would double check your firewalls, especially on Win 7 to make sure port 5000 is open. Errors refer to a connection error. On Win 7 is UAC or or off? And did you run install for vlc and plugin as Adminsitrator?

Gerry

[SprDtyF350]

I have UAC off, even turned the firewall off for a while. Installed VLC, and the plugin as administrator.

Think I will play with this on one of my machines with Win XP on it and see if that makes a difference.

Seems odd that I can get everything to work behind the scenes but it just will not go the final little bit. I once just told Sage to record the channel without trying to watch it. It does it and I have been able to play back the recorded .mpg file external to Sage and though there is no sound there is a picture of the station. The recording indicator comes on, etc.. But once it starts to record it hangs both the client and the server. It is still recording though as I can see the file grow.

Oh well, I'm getting dizzy watching the little spinny thing in Sage go round and round..

Weird....

[SprDtyF350]

I setup a laptop with WinXP as a temporary Sage server and the plugin works using my HD200, and an MVP. I have noticed that VLC is causing those silly "VLC has had an error" messages but they don't seem to be causing a problem with playback. I will need to figure it out though because they are kind of annoying..

Playback on the HD200, and MVP was good with no stutter. Playback on a separate Client PC was doing the stutter stuff you talked about in post #162. Same deal. Pause playback and it will play good for a little bit and then stutter again. I couldn't get it to play using a PC with Placeshifter.

Must be something different with Windows 7 because I never could get it to work. Using Win XP it all setup pretty easy.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

I setup a laptop with WinXP as a temporary Sage server and the plugin works using my HD200, and an MVP. I have noticed that VLC is causing those silly "VLC has had an error" messages but they don't seem to be causing a problem with playback. I will need to figure it out though because they are kind of annoying..

Those messages happen when VLC is closed down - it just won't quite go away. But playback is already finished by this time and the port freed up so its annoying but doesn't impact use.

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

Playback on the HD200, and MVP was good with no stutter. Playback on a separate Client PC was doing the stutter stuff you talked about in post #162. Same deal. Pause playback and it will play good for a little bit and then stutter again.

The last word from SageTV support "one of them (encoder, VLC, or sageTV) may be checking the file size through the actual filesystem and the other may be using the GET_RECORDEDBYTES call to determine the file size". They said the encoders way of checking the file size was correct. VLC support are adamant that they handle files correctly. I have some more testing to do on that issue before I can point any fingers, but it all seems to work until SageTV client is used to play.

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

I couldn't get it to play using a PC with Placeshifter.

Somebody definitely had this working way back earlier on the thread.

Originally Posted by SprDtyF350

Must be something different with Windows 7 because I never could get it to work. Using Win XP it all setup pretty easy.

Damn - another operating system I don't have to test on.

There are still lots of issues with VLC and windows 7 so there could be something there.

A priority is to get the later versions of VLC to work with the encoder and review all the above issues. I need them to fix an outstanding ticket I have with them.

In the meantime I'm considering ditching VLC altogether - its a rather chaotic open source development with features working in one release and then not working in the next. That said it is a huge job to make this stuff work everywhere and they may well be the best answer on the "play anything everywhere and anyhow" front.

Michael

[RocKKer]

Michael,

Thank you so much for this plug-in!


I set it up on my XP box as a test, once I got over a few issues, in retrospect it was fairly easy, I can currently play radio and NASA TV on the server, next is to test outputting to an HD200, which sounds trivial.

My problem was when I tested a new channel I expected to hear the radio stream while capturing, I was later able to play them thru VLC, so I decided to add the channel to SageTV's line-up and see how far I got. Much to my surprise it just worked! I'm assuming capturing only is the expected results of a test?

Next is to integrate WFE into my linux server, serve out some web radio, TV, etc.

[michaeldjcox]

Originally Posted by RocKKer

Michael,
My problem was when I tested a new channel I expected to hear the radio stream while capturing, I was later able to play them thru VLC, so I decided to add the channel to SageTV's line-up and see how far I got. Much to my surprise it just worked! I'm assuming capturing only is the expected results of a test?

Next is to integrate WFE into my linux server, serve out some web radio, TV, etc.

Hi,

Nice to hear good news - thanks!

HD200s should be a breeze.

The test currently just attempts to show the logs for VLC and the encoder and show that the mpg file size is growing. In my experience that 90% of the problems affecting playback already passed.

Its on my long long list of improvements to have playback.

Linux - I'm still a bit slow on that. bcjenkins got me so far in some earlier beta testing but I still hadn't got the command files correct for linux. I'm trying to get it working on portable unbuntu but the installation of that and getting a up to date enough version of VLC is evading me at the moment. So you might be a trailblazer here.

Michael

[pjpjpjpj]

Michael,

Thanks for all of your work on this plugin, even though I am not using it yet. Soon, very soon....

But, as with many threads on this forum, reading through pages and pages can only serve to confuse, because many of the issues in the pages have been fixed by newer releases. Also, with this plugin, TV is a newer addition, and some of the first-post info is more related to radio streaming. So I'll just ask a few basic things, please forgive me if they are explained previously.

1. It appears - correct me if I am wrong - that the XMLTV importer thing is now built in to your plugin, and we don't need the separate one that is linked in the first post. Is that true? There appear to be differences between the info on the download page and the info in the first post here. It appears that we are now able to add channels to our Sage lineup and import their EPG listings directly from your plugin.

2. I saw posts earlier about the XML importer (or maybe your plugin?) messing up the SageTV listings. Is this remedied, or does your plugin overwrite the SageTV channel listings, requiring you to redo existing "normal TV" channel EPGs that you would already have?

3. If #2 above is not an issue - the plugin allows you to add individual channels to your existing EPG and add their listings separately from the SageTV/Zap2It listings that area already there... then are you able to choose manually what channel number to give to each new channel you add?

Thanks.