Android App: Phoenix for SageTV

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

Bought it this morning and it crashed also, sent error report.

Thanks... and Thanks

Originally Posted by Dargason

No, it just said something like "Unfortunately, Phoenix Remote has stopped."

The 'buy' option is no longer available.

As for using CVLC, I don't have that as an executable.

It's good to know that at least the "checking for purcahses" part is working (since that is what turns off the option after you purchase).

I'll try my best to push out a build tonight that fixes the version check.. maybe for now, I'll just skip the version check, until I find a way to have it work on windows.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by rnadeau

I can't find it in the app to purchase it.

You have to be running the latest version of the App (2.0 from the Google Play Store), and the option to "Buy/Unlock" is the first Option in the Main App Menu (the 3 dots menu, Top Right of the Screen).

If you don't see it, then...
a. Maybe not running the latest version.
b. The app thinks you have already "bought" it, so nothing more to do

[stuckless]

I'd like to get a sense for what people might light to see next, provided there is enough support to continue working on this...

I'm going to gather a list of items, and then create a Poll, and then choose the most active item from that poll, as the next piece to work on.

So, if you can post some of your "feature" requests here, and I'll start a poll over the next couple of days.

Here are some thoughts/ideas...
1. Bugs should get filed in the issue tracker and not listed as a "feature'. ie, I'll try to fix bugs where I can, but they are not features (http://code.google.com/p/sagephoenix/issues/list)
2. "Seamless" streaming playback is not a viable feature, so I'll just through that out there... The current streaming solution using vlc and client tweaking (or raw stream over network), is probably as good as it gets.

"My" list includes...
- new Wall view/Poster view for movies (mainly for tablets/tv/landscape)
- new Music centric View
- Ability to schedule recordings without linking to the Mobile Web View (today, you can search airings and schedule recordings, buy using the View in Web View option on the search results)
- Ability to Manage Favorites
- EPG view (probably more tablet centric)

So, Post some ideas, and I'll create a POLL, to see which wins out.

[sacrament055]

Question for Stuckless.

Does the new version still give me the option to continue to use MX Player over wifi without VLC? I can see where VLC would be handy for streaming over the internet but my home wifi is plenty fast enough and I'd rather not bother having my videos transcoded unless it's required.

I like the option for VLC but I'm just curious if it supports both.

[mechling-burgh]

Select the settings button in the upper right corner

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Question for Stuckless.

Does the new version still give me the option to continue to use MX Player over wifi without VLC? I can see where VLC would be handy for streaming over the internet but my home wifi is plenty fast enough and I'd rather not bother having my videos transcoded unless it's required.

I like the option for VLC but I'm just curious if it supports both.

Originally Posted by stuckless

... Once this is setup, you have 4 profile options when you stream; low, normal, hd, and no-transcode. These are subjective in that they simply create different streams, except for no-transcode, which sends back a raw stream.

So, VLC is a "server" solution, ie, nothing to do with which media player you use on the client. If you do absolutely nothing with vlc on the server, then app will behave as it always has. If you decide to experiment with VLC on the server, you have a "fourth" profile option, called, "No Transcode", which sends back a raw stream, which is what it did in previous builds.

So, the short answer to your question is "yes, it supports both".

I don't think there is a one size fits all solution, which is why I'm trying to cover as much ground as I can with multiple configurable solutions.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by stuckless

NOTE: This requires some setup by the user, in that you need to install VLC 2.0+ on the SageTV server AND you need to configure the full path to the VLC exectuable using the "Phoenix Streaming Server" configuration section in BMT.

Once this is setup, you have 4 profile options when you stream; low, normal, hd, and no-transcode..

This is fantastic!!

I've started playing with it using a Nexus 7 & my linux SageTV server. I've got the latest pheonix on there, and I do indeed see the streaming options when I select "watch on device" However, only "No-Transcode" results in a video being sent to the device. The transcoding options result in a "SageTv did not create a stream url" error on the Nexus7.

I've made sure that the the pheonix VLC cfg lists /usr/bin/cvlc (which is a wrapper for vlc on ubuntu 12.04). I have also hacked the stock wrapper script to log the time it was called & arguments, and it looks like it is never being called. Eg:

Thanks,
% cat /usr/bin/cvlc
#!/bin/bash

echo "=====================" >> /tmp/plog
date >> /tmp/plog
for var in "$@"
do
        echo $var >> /tmp/plog
done
echo "=====================" >> /tmp/plog
exec /usr/bin/vlc -I "dummy" "$@"

% ls -l /tmp/plog
ls: cannot access /tmp/plog: No such file or directory

What log files might shed some light on this? I didn't see anything in server/logs/*.log that looked amiss.. I did enable debug logging for both sagetv and bmt.

Thanks!
Drew

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by drewg

This is fantastic!!

I've started playing with it using a Nexus 7 & my linux SageTV server. I've got the latest pheonix on there, and I do indeed see the streaming options when I select "watch on device" However, only "No-Transcode" results in a video being sent to the device. The transcoding options result in a "SageTv did not create a stream url" error on the Nexus7.

I've made sure that the the pheonix VLC cfg lists /usr/bin/cvlc (which is a wrapper for vlc on ubuntu 12.04). I have also hacked the stock wrapper script to log the time it was called & arguments, and it looks like it is never being called. Eg:

Thanks,
% cat /usr/bin/cvlc
#!/bin/bash

echo "=====================" >> /tmp/plog
date >> /tmp/plog
for var in "$@"
do
        echo $var >> /tmp/plog
done
echo "=====================" >> /tmp/plog
exec /usr/bin/vlc -I "dummy" "$@"

% ls -l /tmp/plog
ls: cannot access /tmp/plog: No such file or directory

What log files might shed some light on this? I didn't see anything in server/logs/*.log that looked amiss.. I did enable debug logging for both sagetv and bmt.

Thanks!
Drew

Here's some background....
I develop on Ubuntu 12.10 (32bit) and for my testing I'm not sure if I use clvc or vlc (whichever is the default in the configuration in BMT, since I tend to set the defaults to be what I use )

Maybe as a test, without the app, just go to a url and enter...

http://server:port/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=A_MEDIAFILE_ID&network=wifi&profile=normal

See if you get back a JSON reply that includes a mediaUrl field (which is the media stream). Also use ps and check the server to see if vlc is running (it should be).

Next using vlc on your desktop try to playback the url and see what happens...

You can now shut down vlc using kill or enter the shutdown url if you want to test

http://server:port/sagex/streaming/control&cmd=stop

(check using ps if vlc is shutdown...it should be).

If all that worked, then now we need to check the device to see why it's not working. From the device if you can run it attached to eclipse/adb, then you can check the logcat for output. If that statement was "wtf"...then you can enable logging on the device to write to a text file on the sdcard. Just go into preferences for the app, enabled writing log to file...then kill and restart the app, and now all logging will be writting to the sdcard (root, some .txt file). You can look at that log to see if there is anything going on there.

Also from the App, go to Change Server, and then long press on your server and select Test connection... it will test the vlc stuff as well, to make sure that it's configured correctly, and that it can execute it and get back a version.

let me know how you make out... I suspect that there is going to be some growing pains over the next couple of weeks as I iron stuff out.

[seaverd]

The other day I opened this app and it would not connect to my server. I quickly realized my issue, the SageTV server had gone to sleep. Since you are looking for ideas, how about integrating some sort of wake-on-lan for the sagetv server?

Dan

[Dargason]

My short list of new features:

Transcoded downloads - Basically, when you select download file, you can choose from the same set of 'quality' settings, except that the file is queued for download via the download manager. In terms of implementation it might be as simple as setting VLC to output the transcoded stream to a file, and then add that file to the download manager. This would allow me to queue up several shows to transcode&download while I'm on the hotel wifi asleep in bed, and watch them while I'm on the plane or otherwise without a decent network connection. To be honest, I think I'd use this much more than streaming, especially if I can skip commercials, or watch part of a show and come back to it later (which you can't do with streaming in its present state.)

I guess that really was my short list... I listed a whole bunch of other ideas earlier in this thread, but you've either covered them already, or I'm not that enthusiastic about them.

Maybe set up streaming so that it records how much you've watched so that you can resume later if you get interrupted. Not sure how much effort this would involve. Might even set the 'watched' flag... Edit: To elaborate, I was thinking that streaming could both read and save the progress data in SageTV. Is that possible?

[drewg]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Maybe as a test, without the app, just go to a url and enter...

http://server:port/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=A_MEDIAFILE_ID&network=wifi&profile=normal

I tried that with wget, and I get a file back with a java exception in it:

% wget 'http://192.168.200.2:8080/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor'
--2013-02-27 16:37:54--  http://192.168.200.2:8080/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor
Connecting to 192.168.200.2:8080... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/plain]
Saving to: `cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor'

    [ <=>                          ] 2,148       --.-K/s   in 0s      
cat cl123\?mediafile=3701891\&network=wifi\&profile=nor 
{"reply":{"error":"java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/ProcessBuilder$Redirect\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.VLCHLSMediaProcess.start(VLCHLSMediaProcess.java:76)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.MediaStreamerManager.createRequest(MediaStreamerManager.java:58)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.PhoenixStreamingHandler.createMediaRequest(PhoenixStreamingHandler.java:104)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.PhoenixStreamingHandler.handleRequest(PhoenixStreamingHandler.java:51)\n\tat sagex.remote.SagexServlet.doPost(SagexServlet.java:60)\n\tat sagex.remote.SagexServlet.doGet(SagexServlet.java:38)\n\tat javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)\n\tat javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:502)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:389)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:216)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(ContextHandler.java:765)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:230)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:114)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.rewrite.RewriteHandler.handle(RewriteHandler.java:230)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:326)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java:534)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.headerComplete(HttpConnection.java:864)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:539)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:212)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:404)\n\tat org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:409)\n\tat org.mortbay.thread.QueuedThreadPool$PoolThread.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:520)\n","args":["",

So do I not have something installed?

Sorry, I stepped out & am accessing the system remotely, so I can't do the "selftest" you described until later..

Thanks,

Drew

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by drewg

I tried that with wget, and I get a file back with a java exception in it:

% wget 'http://192.168.200.2:8080/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor'
--2013-02-27 16:37:54--  http://192.168.200.2:8080/sagex/streaming/request/cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor
Connecting to 192.168.200.2:8080... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/plain]
Saving to: `cl123?mediafile=3701891&network=wifi&profile=nor'

    [ <=>                          ] 2,148       --.-K/s   in 0s      
cat cl123\?mediafile=3701891\&network=wifi\&profile=nor 
{"reply":{"error":"java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/ProcessBuilder$Redirect\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.VLCHLSMediaProcess.start(VLCHLSMediaProcess.java:76)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.MediaStreamerManager.createRequest(MediaStreamerManager.java:58)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.PhoenixStreamingHandler.createMediaRequest(PhoenixStreamingHandler.java:104)\n\tat sagex.phoenix.remote.streaming.PhoenixStreamingHandler.handleRequest(PhoenixStreamingHandler.java:51)\n\tat sagex.remote.SagexServlet.doPost(SagexServlet.java:60)\n\tat sagex.remote.SagexServlet.doGet(SagexServlet.java:38)\n\tat javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)\n\tat javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:502)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:389)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:216)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(ContextHandler.java:765)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:230)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:114)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.rewrite.RewriteHandler.handle(RewriteHandler.java:230)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:326)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java:534)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.headerComplete(HttpConnection.java:864)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:539)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:212)\n\tat org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:404)\n\tat org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:409)\n\tat org.mortbay.thread.QueuedThreadPool$PoolThread.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:520)\n","args":["",

So do I not have something installed?

Sorry, I stepped out & am accessing the system remotely, so I can't do the "selftest" you described until later..

Thanks,

Drew

This is the Java 7 issue. ie, Requres Java 7 on the server. I can change the code to use Java 6, but it's going to take some time... i was doing this quickly and Java 7 provided an Api that I needed

[stuckless]

2.0.1
➤ Fixed "Force Close" issues related to purchasing
➤ Removed VLC version check (preventing streaming on windows)
➤ Added Java 7 version check (required for now)
➤ Fixed "Play on TV" for Default STV

Hopefully this version enables vlc streaming on Windows. If not, then I guess have I more work to do...

On a side note, the new parts for my new development workstation just came in... so I might be busy setting up that machine over the next few days

[drewg]

Originally Posted by stuckless

This is the Java 7 issue. ie, Requres Java 7 on the server. I can change the code to use Java 6, but it's going to take some time... i was doing this quickly and Java 7 provided an Api that I needed

Ah, thanks. That makes sense. If there is one thing that makes Sage flaky in weird ways, it is updating java. I've actually moved this particular java install from an old server, rather than risk upgrading. I guess it is finally time.. I'm going out of town for a long weekend, so I'll wait to update the java until I get back.

Thanks again.. This plugin/app looks awesome. Death to plex

Drew

[Dargason]

I had no problems upgrading from 6 to 7 the other day... just shut down SageTV, ran the installer (make sure you uncheck the box for bloatware) and then started up SageTV server again. Good luck!

[Dargason]

Just got the update...

I see you fixed the issue I reported this afternoon... now that's service!

Streaming is MUCH better than last night. Great job!

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Dargason

I had no problems upgrading from 6 to 7 the other day... just shut down SageTV, ran the installer (make sure you uncheck the box for bloatware) and then started up SageTV server again. Good luck!

I've already got it installed for a different program that requires it. It is just a matter of editing the sagesettings script to point to the new java.. I just hate changing something when I won't be able to get to the machine to fix it..

Drew

[Dargason]

I have found an issue that I think is unrelated to Phoenix.

Some of my recordings have audio and others don't. I tried changing the vlc options (in BMT) so that the audio codec was mp4a instead of mp3, and I got the musical background audio, but I didn't get any of the dialog. I seems like it's picking the wrong audio stream or something... any ideas?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Dargason

I have found an issue that I think is unrelated to Phoenix.

Some of my recordings have audio and others don't. I tried changing the vlc options (in BMT) so that the audio codec was mp4a instead of mp3, and I got the musical background audio, but I didn't get any of the dialog. I seems like it's picking the wrong audio stream or something... any ideas?

Doesn't seem like an audio track issue, but an audio channel issue. VLC may not be downmixing the 5.1 audio to stereo, it may just be encoding the left and right channels into the stereo stream, and just ditching the surround, LFE, and center channels.

[farscapesg1]

OK, I feel stupid for asking, but how do I configure VLC to work with a Windows SageTV server? I've gone to the batch metadata tools, Phoenix streaming services, VLC options and tried to enter the path information for the VLC executable. To make things as simple as possible I installed VLC on the server under c:\vlc and set the path to c:\vlc\vlc.exe, but the VLC check keeps failing... and when I try to launch a video I don't see any VLC activity on the server side.