STV Import: SlimPlayer 2.0 - Slacker, Pandora, Sirius,... on Extenders

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Man, I feel bad now. I will try my best to write up straight forward software loopback documentation this weekend. It looks like most people have it 99% setup correctly (and it looks like its going to work) except there's no audio on the extender.

BTW, I think you would be surprised to know how many people maintain, design, and admin large scale enterprise networks on these types of forums (SageTV, AVS Forum) ...me being one of them

Hey now, no need to feel bad! I more than realize people are putting their personal time into developing and testing these STVi's with no compensation other than some real satisfaction at what they have accomplished.

When you have some time, go through and refresh the docs, and lets us know. I'm more than willing to take another stab at it. I'm so close I can taste it!

[koelec]

For all of you trying to get audio on the extender you can try this.

Make sure audio is being fed into Virtual Cable 1 input, perhaps by using media player playing an mp3 file. Also UNE must be started by running c:\program files\slimplayer\sgraphrecorder.exe. For SageTV to pick up UNE when sageTV was already running, go into setup video sources and just select the "slimplayer on localhost:6969" channel listed there. You should see debug logging appearing in UNE's debug window.
Go into program guide and start watching the slimplayer channel, mine is at logical channel #1. The recording icon should show on the sagetV UI.
After 10 to 15 sec you should hear audio coming through on the extender.
You can also verify that the video file being created by UNE is actually growing in size. This file is a normal TV show recording like all others, and can be loaded in any video player for verification.

- Chris
any futher help needed? just ask.

[MTisza]

My recoding file is not growing in size. What creates that file? What is most ocnfusing to me is that I don't understand what's feeding audio to what.

Is this correct:

SqueezeCenter feeds the audio to Audio Repeater via Virtual cable 1. Then the output of Audio Repeater goes into the graphrecorder. Graphrecorder takes that audio and streams it to a file in the recordings dir. UNE (what's that? Do I need another plugin for that?) magically takes the audio and feeds it to UDP port 6969 which is what the HD200 is listening on.

Thanks much.
-Miki

[mkanet]

Its not really that complicated. Graphrecorder aka UNE (Universal Network Encoder).

Squeezecenter streams audio to a client such as Softsqueeze or Slimplayer. This player needs to have an audio device to play music out of (either a normal sound card like a Sound Blaster or a fake sound card (Virtual Cable). In order to hear the sound on the extender, you need to feed that audio into the UNE or graphrecorder. This UNE will create an audio and/or video stream which feeds into sageTV as a fake TV card (like a fake hauppauge card) with the "TV" channel necessary for slimplayer to use.

Hopefully, this draws a picture of who things work.

PS: Sorry I didnt make a document yet. Hopefully Chris can answer any questions in the meantime.


It's ether going to be a regular sound card's output or Virtual Cable's output (a fake sound card).

Originally Posted by MTisza

My recoding file is not growing in size. What creates that file? What is most ocnfusing to me is that I don't understand what's feeding audio to what.

Is this correct:

SqueezeCenter feeds the audio to Audio Repeater via Virtual cable 1. Then the output of Audio Repeater goes into the graphrecorder. Graphrecorder takes that audio and streams it to a file in the recordings dir. UNE (what's that? Do I need another plugin for that?) magically takes the audio and feeds it to UDP port 6969 which is what the HD200 is listening on.

Thanks much.
-Miki

[koelec]

Originally Posted by MTisza

My recoding file is not growing in size. What creates that file? What is most ocnfusing to me is that I don't understand what's feeding audio to what.

Is this correct:

SqueezeCenter feeds the audio to Audio Repeater via Virtual cable 1. Then the output of Audio Repeater goes into the graphrecorder. Graphrecorder takes that audio and streams it to a file in the recordings dir. UNE (what's that? Do I need another plugin for that?) magically takes the audio and feeds it to UDP port 6969 which is what the HD200 is listening on.

Thanks much.
-Miki

Miki,
Did you follow my directions to watch the slimplayer channel via the program guide?
Did you see the recording icon being shown on the UI?

To investigate your problem I need you to prepare a debug log file.
Proceed as follows:
- shutdown sagetv server
- turn on debug logging in sage.properties file
debug_logging=TRUE
- make sure sgraphrecorder (UNE) is running
- start sagetv server again
- goto program guide and start watching the slimplayer channel
- wait for 30 seconds

Send me a private message with
the log file: sagetv_0.txt log file and also the sage.properties file.
And probably I can find out what's wrong.
- Chris

[MTisza]

The problem or at least part of it, is that I don't see the channel to tune to in program guide or anywhere else for that matter. Under video sources I see, in addition to my 4 HDhomerun tuners, two entries like (it's not accessible now, so this is from memory)

Slimplayer TV tuner: null
Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3

If I go to channel setup for either, I don't see any channels mapped. If I try to manually map a channel I don't know what to put as the physical channel. I did try 0 and 1, but that didn't help.

Did I miss a step somewhere?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by MTisza

The problem or at least part of it, is that I don't see the channel to tune to in program guide or anywhere else for that matter. Under video sources I see, in addition to my 4 HDhomerun tuners, two entries like (it's not accessible now, so this is from memory)

Slimplayer TV tuner: null
Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3

If I go to channel setup for either, I don't see any channels mapped. If I try to manually map a channel I don't know what to put as the physical channel. I did try 0 and 1, but that didn't help.

Did I miss a step somewhere?

I think there a conflict in your sage.properties file.
Could you post it to me, so I can have look?

- Chris

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by MTisza

The problem or at least part of it, is that I don't see the channel to tune to in program guide or anywhere else for that matter. Under video sources I see, in addition to my 4 HDhomerun tuners, two entries like (it's not accessible now, so this is from memory)

Slimplayer TV tuner: null
Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3

If I go to channel setup for either, I don't see any channels mapped. If I try to manually map a channel I don't know what to put as the physical channel. I did try 0 and 1, but that didn't help.

Did I miss a step somewhere?

If you're trying to do the hardware loopback you need a tuner that has audio in. The HDHR do not. Analog tuner would be needed.

Gerry

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by MTisza

The problem or at least part of it, is that I don't see the channel to tune to in program guide or anywhere else for that matter. Under video sources I see, in addition to my 4 HDhomerun tuners, two entries like (it's not accessible now, so this is from memory)

Slimplayer TV tuner: null
Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3

If I go to channel setup for either, I don't see any channels mapped. If I try to manually map a channel I don't know what to put as the physical channel. I did try 0 and 1, but that didn't help.

Did I miss a step somewhere?

I'm in pretty much the same boat as Miki.

On the readme install instructions:

Part 1: No problem, done.

Part 2: No problem, done. On the client on my Sage server, I can play the output from Slimplayer over the server's audio card and speakers. Works great.

Part 3: No problem, done.

Part 4: Steps 1 to 5 no problem:
Step 6 (choose "Slimplayer on ....." - choose no tuning, no EPG and enable only first channel)... Which one? There are two already listed as capture cards after Steps 1 to 5 in Part 4 in Sage. They are:
- Slimplayer TV tuner: null
- Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3
If I carry on with the rest of the steps from here, I do not see a channel in the guide. The repeater shows it's getting data, but graph recorder keeps say NOOP. If I look in either of the capture devices listed above, there are no channels listed.

So, when that didn't work, what I did was deleted the two capture devices, and added one back in (I've tried both at one point or another - same result). This time, there are channels listed, and I enable one.

Now when I attempt to listen to a radio station with slimplayer:
- There is data showing in the repeater
- I see a new channels in the guide representing the Slimplayer tuner
- I see a file being created in graphrecorder
- The recordings list shows the tuner is recording
- I see a .MPG in my TV Recordings directory that is constantly growing
- I still have no sound on the extender (yes, set to VAC 1 and SYNC).

Ideas?

[MTisza]

So, when that didn't work, what I did was deleted the two capture devices, and added one back in (I've tried both at one point or another - same result). This time, there are channels listed, and I enable one.

Steve,
can you elaborate on what you did here and how. How did you add them back? By directly editing the properties file? Can you send me/us a copy of that file for reference.

I will look into this stuff again tonight.
-Thanks

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by MTisza

Steve,
can you elaborate on what you did here and how. How did you add them back? By directly editing the properties file? Can you send me/us a copy of that file for reference.

I will look into this stuff again tonight.
-Thanks

All I did was:

- Switch back to the default STV (there's an article on here somewhere about having to use the default STV for now to change video sources as SageMC doesn't have the new coding to go with the changes Sage made yet)
- Go to Settings
- Go to Setup Video Sources

You'll see all of your video sources (tuners) here, including the two "Slimplayer on localhost ...."

- Click on the source you want to remove
- Choose "Delete" on the left hand side
- When they are gone, Choose "Add Source" instead, and you can add one or both of the Slimplayer sources. Once you have done that, If you go into channel setup, you should see a list of channels to enable or disable. You only need one.

Keep in mind that I've tried this route, have everything showing up the way it should be based on the install instructions, but still get no sound on the extenders.

-S

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Hi Koelec, you summed it up perfectly. I have a PC which has a builtin audio card into the motherboard (Realtek HD) and have a separate PCI sound card (Creative XiFi Sound Blaster). I use the Creative sound card for my local machine sounds (since I use my sageTV server machine as a workstation as well) and discreetly have the output of Softsqueeze set for the Realtek HD analog speaker output Softsqueeze Configuration: (Audio tab, Audio Mixer=Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio). I have an audio cable connected from the output of my PC (coming from the Realtek output) into my analog capture card (Hauppauge 950q). I also have svideo going into to my capture card from a misc video source thats active

However, if you dont use your sageTV server as a workstation (some people just put their server in a closet somewhere), then you can just connect the output of the default sound card (only sound card) into the capture card.

mkanet, I am trying to get SqueezeCenter and SoftSqueeze setup, and have on-board audio with Realtek HD like you mentioned in the thread quoted above. No matter what I do when I launch SoftSqueeze I get the error message "Softsqueeze could not find a sound card on your computer." When I go to the audio tab, I do not have a choice to pick the option you mention. I do use the line out for the Netflix loopback hack and it works great. Any ideas why SoftSqueeze would tell me I do not have a built-in audio card like the one you mentioned? Am I missing a configuration step somewhere that SoftSqueeze can not see it until I do something else?

Thanks for any help you (or anyone else) can provide.

[setherd]

this is a sagemc question. I have this working fine using the defualt STVbut I have imported the sagemc version into the latest sagemc I usually run and I get no submenu in my music.
I've tried adding a seperate menu for slimplayer and I get a screen that just doesn't look right, like part of the interface is missing, and it doesn't work.
I have only 1 main HTPC that runs sagetv, no other server or extenders.
anyone have an idea on where to start?

edit: Well after a couple restarts of sage and sageserver, I added the new screen with slimserver and it works perfectly!!!!!!!

thanks for such an awesome plugin!

[mkanet]

If you dont see the realtek sound card mentioned in the drop down list of available sound cards to choose from, then your sound card driver is probably not installed correctly; or not at all (and most definitely wouldnt show up in other software as a choice either... such as sageTV's detailed settings. Can you use your realtek sound card as a sound card for sageTV? Needless to say, you need to make sure that your soundcard driver needs to show up in your Windows device manager as a working device and also show up in other software as a choice as well. I can assure you if you see realtek mentioned in the sound card choices in sageTV audio details, you will see it in softsqueeze preferences too as a choice.

Good luck! Let me know if youre still stuck..

Originally Posted by voorhees

mkanet, I am trying to get SqueezeCenter and SoftSqueeze setup, and have on-board audio with Realtek HD like you mentioned in the thread quoted above. No matter what I do when I launch SoftSqueeze I get the error message "Softsqueeze could not find a sound card on your computer." When I go to the audio tab, I do not have a choice to pick the option you mention. I do use the line out for the Netflix loopback hack and it works great. Any ideas why SoftSqueeze would tell me I do not have a built-in audio card like the one you mentioned? Am I missing a configuration step somewhere that SoftSqueeze can not see it until I do something else?

Thanks for any help you (or anyone else) can provide.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by voorhees

mkanet, I am trying to get SqueezeCenter and SoftSqueeze setup, and have on-board audio with Realtek HD like you mentioned in the thread quoted above. No matter what I do when I launch SoftSqueeze I get the error message "Softsqueeze could not find a sound card on your computer." When I go to the audio tab, I do not have a choice to pick the option you mention. I do use the line out for the Netflix loopback hack and it works great. Any ideas why SoftSqueeze would tell me I do not have a built-in audio card like the one you mentioned? Am I missing a configuration step somewhere that SoftSqueeze can not see it until I do something else?

Thanks for any help you (or anyone else) can provide.

If you RDP in to your WHS you're not going to see the soundcard, only the RDP Audio. Make sure you are on the WHS with a monitor and keyboard or using something like VNC.

Gerry

[bcjenkins]

I don't know if this is the same, but I currently have a MJ running on a WHS. In order to start it in RDP mode, I have to make sure "leave sound" is checked and start mstsc.exe in admin mode.

start --> run --> mstsc /admin

HIH

B

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by SteveW

I'm in pretty much the same boat as Miki.

On the readme install instructions:

Part 1: No problem, done.

Part 2: No problem, done. On the client on my Sage server, I can play the output from Slimplayer over the server's audio card and speakers. Works great.

Part 3: No problem, done.

Part 4: Steps 1 to 5 no problem:
Step 6 (choose "Slimplayer on ....." - choose no tuning, no EPG and enable only first channel)... Which one? There are two already listed as capture cards after Steps 1 to 5 in Part 4 in Sage. They are:
- Slimplayer TV tuner: null
- Slimplayer TV tuner: Channel 3
If I carry on with the rest of the steps from here, I do not see a channel in the guide. The repeater shows it's getting data, but graph recorder keeps say NOOP. If I look in either of the capture devices listed above, there are no channels listed.

So, when that didn't work, what I did was deleted the two capture devices, and added one back in (I've tried both at one point or another - same result). This time, there are channels listed, and I enable one.

Now when I attempt to listen to a radio station with slimplayer:
- There is data showing in the repeater
- I see a new channels in the guide representing the Slimplayer tuner
- I see a file being created in graphrecorder
- The recordings list shows the tuner is recording
- I see a .MPG in my TV Recordings directory that is constantly growing
- I still have no sound on the extender (yes, set to VAC 1 and SYNC).

Ideas?

Thanks to Chris's help, I now have it working. The problem turned out to be the SLIM.GRF and how it was working on my server. When I went and looked at SLIM.GRF in Graphstudio, it showed no connection between VAC, the Sage Layer II Audio Encoder, and the Sage MPEG Muxer. On top of that, the VAC filter showed no inputs. When I edited the SLIM.GRF, removed the VAC and re-added it, now it had inputs of SPDIF, Line, and Mic. Linked it to the audio encoder and muxer. Saved it.

Even after doing this, no sound on the extenders, even tho the audio setup was correct for Slimplayer (VAC, JLayer, SYNC). I had to set the SAME settings again to VAC, JLayer, and SYNC.

Once I did all of these steps - poof! It all worked. Big thanks to Chris for pointing me in the right direction.

- Steve

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by gplasky

If you RDP in to your WHS you're not going to see the soundcard, only the RDP Audio. Make sure you are on the WHS with a monitor and keyboard or using something like VNC.

Gerry

Gerry,

Thanks so much. That was it. I never know which on e of these things you are not going to be able to do on RDP. Hocked up a monitor and keyboard and was able to see it. Off to the races. Thanks again.

[sbherculano]

Hi,

I don't have sound in the HD200 extender, I did the instalation 3 times in order to double check if I lost any step but the problem still happen.

In Audio Repeater I can see the sound level, the file is generated in the recording directory and the SGraphRecorder show all information described in the Debug info.

In the media center server, I can listen the sound but not in extender.

The setup of audio receiver are:
Wave In -> S/PDIF 1 (Virtual Audio Cable)

Wave Out -> Realtek Digital Output, I tried the others Nome, Microsoft Sound Mapper and Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable) but no change.

In the Slimplayer the configurations are:
Audio Decoder = JLayer
SageMediaPlayer Synchronization = SYNC
Loopback = Slimplayer on Localhost:6969 TV Tuner Channel 3

I can open the Slimplayer in the extender and I can see the information about the music that is playing but no sound.

Any ideas?

I am running SageTV 6.6.2.218, Java 1.6.0.15 and Phoenix 1.44

Windows 7 RC

I really appreciate all suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers

[koelec]

Originally Posted by sbherculano

Hi,

I don't have sound in the HD200 extender, I did the instalation 3 times in order to double check if I lost any step but the problem still happen.

In Audio Repeater I can see the sound level, the file is generated in the recording directory and the SGraphRecorder show all information described in the Debug info.

In the media center server, I can listen the sound but not in extender.

The setup of audio receiver are:
Wave In -> S/PDIF 1 (Virtual Audio Cable)

Wave Out -> Realtek Digital Output, I tried the others Nome, Microsoft Sound Mapper and Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable) but no change.

In the Slimplayer the configurations are:
Audio Decoder = JLayer
SageMediaPlayer Synchronization = SYNC
Loopback = Slimplayer on Localhost:6969 TV Tuner Channel 3

I can open the Slimplayer in the extender and I can see the information about the music that is playing but no sound.

Any ideas?

I am running SageTV 6.6.2.218, Java 1.6.0.15 and Phoenix 1.44

Windows 7 RC

I really appreciate all suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers

Might be the same problem SteveW was having.
Please read his post (some posts back) and try to correct the slim.grf file by opening it in graphedit or graphstudio (download this from somewhere on the net).

- Chris