Community Web Admin

[ccarlin]

Gotta a neat one. By using VLC I am able to launch on the server (via the webadmin) VLC compressing and streaming video across the internet. I was able to take a MPEG file and convert it to stream over http at a rate of ~492kb/sec. The only problem with this is it basically fires up the video and there is no control other than viewing from the client side.

I still have a lot of kinks to work out but it seems to work pretty well.

Attached is the latest version.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by ccarlin

Gotta a neat one. By using VLC I am able to launch on the server (via the webadmin) VLC compressing and streaming video across the internet. I was able to take a MPEG file and convert it to stream over http at a rate of ~492kb/sec. The only problem with this is it basically fires up the video and there is no control other than viewing from the client side.

I still have a lot of kinks to work out but it seems to work pretty well.

So you are reencoding the stream kind of like orb does? That would be truly awesome to be able to do this through webadmin. Keep us posted

[ccarlin]

What is truly scary is that it works with ts files as well as mpeg (I found that out by accident).

[merrypig]

Didn't stephane already do this using windows encoder stuff in the back ground?

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by merrypig

Didn't stephane already do this using windows encoder stuff in the back ground?

I don't remember that, but I guess its possible. Did Stephane do it through some sort of webadmin plugin or some other way?

[ccarlin]

I found some references to it on his Web Based Program Guide. Since I used the native guide I have never looked at this. However it does seem like he did some work in using windows media encoder to transcode and stream on the fly.

FYI: Doing a HighDef video on the fly with my lowly processor, and a showsqueeze was already going on, along with a recording brought my machine to its knees till I could end task the process.

[Zogg]

Sounds great, keep us up to date! Most of my recordings are now TS and Orb won't stream them, so this would be a great addition.

Z

[ccarlin]

Just an update. I have it working now for both firefox and IE using the embedded windows media player. Still no real control over the server end once it is launched. Now that I have worked out most of the kinks I am going to try to put together some type of adjustable settings to deal with bandwidth issues.

The other problem is cleaning up the process. I can keep track of what I launch and dispose when the session expires but I am not sure that is the best way. Anyway if I get some free time over the next couple of days I should have something available for people to play around with.

[eMpTy3000]

Streaming TS files over the internet using web admin is what I've always wanted to do! It is a pain in the butt to use show squeeze because then I have to plan out which shows I am going to watch where. I would much rather be able to just click and play.

Hope all goes well! This will be a major advancement in BeyondTV!

[cfaslave]

I can't wait to see this in action! If you need someone to test, let me know

[ccarlin]

I am done I will be checking in the code changes to the community web repository shortly!

What I have done:

From the library page in the options dropdown menu I added a "VLC Plaer" option. If you select it you will be redirect to a page which will launch VLC on the server and transcode the selected video and launch the embedded windows media player to view it.

How it knows how to work... Basically the location of VLC is taken from the registry. If you did not run the install but ran the zip file instead you will either need to make sure it is in the default directory (c:\program files\videolan\vlc\vlc.exe) or create the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VideoLAN\VLC and create a default value with the path.

From there the streaming setting are taken straight out of snapstreams streaming settings (sneaky aren't I). Remember this is streaming so there is no real control of the server. Most players can cache the content once the connection is made so you can pause and fast forward to live (depending on your browser).

I set the streaming to use port 8120 so you will need to make sure the port is properly forwarded.

This runs currently in normal priority so it can harm other processes. If you are courageous and have some serious CPU it did more or less work when I tried it on a TS file, however I didn't really have the CPU to back it up.

When I get a chance I will post a zip file with installation instructions but for now if I can get any volunteers to pull the source code and test it would be appreciated.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by ccarlin

When I get a chance I will post a zip file with installation instructions but for now if I can get any volunteers to pull the source code and test it would be appreciated.

I'll test it when you post the file.

Thanks!

[ccarlin]

Originally Posted by cfaslave

I'll test it when you post the file.

Thanks!

Ask and you shall receive. As for directions, backup everything! Unzip this in the root directory of your webadmin while it is not running. This is the debug version of the dll I will update when I am a little more sure with the release version (not sure if it makes much difference).

Moved zip file to first post.

[eMpTy3000]

Ok, I unzipped the zip file into my wwwroot folder and I see the VLC player link. I also installed VLC player on the client and I port forwarded to my pc correctly, but when I try to stream it says -> Connecting to Media... -> Locating Media... -> Then it says Ready and nothing plays.

It doesn't work from the local machine either.
Did I do something wrong?

This will be awesome when all the bugs get worked out! Thanks for your work!

[ccarlin]

Originally Posted by eMpTy3000

Ok, I unzipped the zip file into my wwwroot folder and I see the VLC player link. I also installed VLC player on the client and I port forwarded to my pc correctly, but when I try to stream it says -> Connecting to Media... -> Locating Media... -> Then it says Ready and nothing plays.

It doesn't work from the local machine either.
Did I do something wrong?

This will be awesome when all the bugs get worked out! Thanks for your work!

VLC is required for the server not the client.