[uspino]

Any chance you can implement some sort of forced transcoding when XBMC is out of the same LAN?

That would turn XBMC in a very powerfull SlingCatcher-type device. I know you can access the direct stream from outside, but I'm guessing you'll need a very high upload speed on your Internet coneection if you want to watch it from outside....

[mcheng89]

Any chance you can implement some sort of forced transcoding when XBMC is out of the same LAN?

That would turn XBMC in a very powerfull SlingCatcher-type device. I know you can access the direct stream from outside, but I'm guessing you'll need a very high upload speed on your Internet coneection if you want to watch it from outside....

That is planned (and tested). Its on my todo list in the first page already
But I'm not sure what's the best way to set the bitrate/resolution yet.
Suggestions would be great !

Couple other observations from running this on my ATV2:

1. Pressing the menu button on the ATV2 remote does nothing; when I playback my other media, pressing menu stops playback and then takes me back to the previous menu... is there a way to have a consistent implementation of handling the menu button as it is in other playback scenarios?
   
2. Pressing the center/select button does indeed bring up the guide... but I can't "cancel" out of it... I would expect to click menu and then the guide would disappear
   
3. When playing back other media, if I hold down the center/select button for a second or two, it brings up the "play controls" where I can adjust playback options etc... holding down the center/select in this addon does nothing
   

Don't let my ATV2 issues distract you from what you're doing...sounds like you're making great progress! But something to consider as this addon matures.

I wonder what the key mappings are for those button. I'll have to take a look

[uspino]

That is planned (and tested). Its on my todo list in the first page already
But I'm not sure what's the best way to set the bitrate/resolution yet.
Suggestions would be great !

For a place-shifter addict like me, I'm guessing the best approach would be to add 3 or 4 quality settings in the Config box inside XBMC (+ direct stream play just in case the bandwith is good enough), maybe even a user-defined bitrate, and we would also need a setting to define where is the remoteCton server (through external IP or dyndns server).

All this sound like a dream!
Let me know if you need help in testing...

[mcheng89]

For a place-shifter addict like me, I'm guessing the best approach would be to add 3 or 4 quality settings in the Config box inside XBMC (+ direct stream play just in case the bandwith is good enough), maybe even a user-defined bitrate, and we would also need a setting to define where is the remoteCeton server (through external IP or dyndns server).

All this sound like a dream!
Let me know if you need help in testing...

There is a setting for the remoteCeton ip.

[uspino]

There is a setting for the remoteCeton ip.

Oh I see that now. RemoteCeton worked fine, so I never even went into the config.

So if I'm out of my LAN, that would give me the full uncompressed stream? What upload speed would I need?

[mcheng89]

Oh I see that now. RemoteCeton worked fine, so I never even went into the config.

So if I'm out of my LAN, that would give me the full uncompressed stream? What upload speed would I need?

4-5mb for SD streams I think.

Edit: I might put off transcoding until epg is done. It still needs some minor changes

[europorsche914]

Oh I see that now. RemoteCeton worked fine, so I never even went into the config.

So if I'm out of my LAN, that would give me the full uncompressed stream? What upload speed would I need?

The bitrate of HDNet, which is 1080i peaks at about 23 Mbps (according to vlc's media info screen), so the connection where the host computer would need an upload speed of 23 Mbps plus some overhead and the client computer would need a similar connection download speed. I have Verizon fios 35 mbps download and 35 Mbps upload for my host computer and for my client computer I have Comcast 20 Mbps download and all hd channels are unwatchable with constant buffering... Now if sd is all your after then about 5mbps upload speed is all that's needed on the host computer and has worked great for me, I think my issue with hd is on the client end because I'll get bursts of hd that degrades due to comcasts performance boost buffer running out...

EDIT: mcheng must have answered at the same time, the max bit rate also depends on your tv provider, Verizon is known for providing the best picture quality available but it utilizes mpeg2, for example dish network and directtv provides their hd content via mpeg4 which has a lower bitrate but maintains a similar level of quality, Comcast is known for degrading hd quality to maximize the number of channels available so lower upload speeds may be required on the host machine for these providers (ceton won't work for satellite but utilizing dvb capture cards and a smart card reader will get tv into an htpc but that's a topic for another time)

[mcheng89]

I get a urlopen timeout error when trying to run the addon.

What's strange is that it works fine for vlc/wmp for you...
Maybe a firewall program blocking xbmc? I'm not sure...

[Killervette]

What's strange is that it works fine for vlc/wmp for you...
Maybe a firewall program blocking xbmc? I'm not sure...

The only thing running is windows firewall. I will disable it and try again.

[Killervette]

The only thing running is windows firewall. I will disable it and try again.

Maybe 5 seconds to tune is not enough for me. I am using the USB version of the ceton.

[mcheng89]

Maybe 5 seconds to tune is not enough for me. I am using the USB version of the ceton.

I don't think that the device should take 5 seconds to change channels, which is why I put such a high amount. (or else wmc would be unusable)

Can you start a stream in vlc/wmc and leave that open. Then run xbmc.
Since another stream is sharing the tuner, it won't tune again on startup.
It's just to see if xbmc works.

and this is from the command prompt

Server: Client requested stream url for Tuner[1]
Tuner[1]: Changing channel to 1
Tuner[1]: Program number is 15
Tuner[1]: Channel name is OND
Tuner[1]: rtsp://192.168.42.165:8554/cetonmpeg0
Tuner[1]: Starting video stream
VLC[1]: Starting VLC instance with remoteVLC plugin
VLC[1]: Streaming to http://localhost:8556
VLC[1]: Setting channel program id using remoteVLC
VLC[1]: Could not set channel in 5 seconds
VLC[1]: Closing VLC instance
Tuner[1]: Stopping video stream

Can vlc or wmp play channel 1?

EDIT (possible solution): Channel 1 is OND. If OND means on demand then defaulting to the first channel on the channelmap will not work. Do you mind going to the <plugin folder>/resources/ceton/channelmap.csv and removing that channel (to see if thats the issue)?

[europorsche914]

How to create a custom channel list for cetonTV


1. Navigate to the folder containing ceton api -> resources -> channelmap.csv. Open this file in a text editor (excel/open office calc is best for next step anyway) then remove any channels that you do not subscribe/want displayed in the guide (I inserted a return after each channel for readability, by default it isnt this pretty also the data is comma delimited <no spaces>).
ex:
3,KYW,1003
6,WPVI,1006
8,WGN,100

2. Then create a file titled mc2xml.chl in the resources folder containing the same channels (one channel number per line) to be downloaded using mc2xml.exe (google search). Easiest way to create this file is simply removing column "B" and "C" in whatever spreadsheet program you are using for the previous step and saving as mc2xml.chl.
ex:
3
6
8

Now the computer will download the required data for the guide without waisting space (my guide data went from a 215mb file to 110mb file) and errornous channels will be removed from the xbmc guide.

DISCLAIMER: If any one that has issues with the plugin after modifying the channel list, they should delete the modifiied .csv file before posting issues due to how easy it is to mistakenly modify the .csv file, the api program will automatically reparse a new channel list.

[mcheng89]

Navigate to the folder containing ceton api -> resources -> channelmap.csv. Open this file in excel then remove any channels that you do not subscribe/want displayed in the guide. Then create a file titled mc2xml.chl in the resources folder containing the same channels (one channel number per line) to be downloaded using mc2xml.exe (google search). Now the computer will download the required data for the guide without waisting space (my guide data went from a 215mb file to 110mb file) and errornous channels will be removed from the xbmc guide. DISCLAIMER: If any one that has issues with the plugin, should delete the modifiied .csv file before posting due to how easy it is to mistakenly modify the .csv file, the api program will automatically redownload a new channel list.

Not sure if you noticed but the epg data is about 4 hours off for me
I'll release something tomorrow to fix the timezone issue...

[Killervette]

Navigate to the folder containing ceton api -> resources -> channelmap.csv. Open this file in excel then remove any channels that you do not subscribe/want displayed in the guide. Then create a file titled mc2xml.chl in the resources folder containing the same channels (one channel number per line) to be downloaded using mc2xml.exe (google search). Now the computer will download the required data for the guide without waisting space (my guide data went from a 215mb file to 110mb file) and errornous channels will be removed from the xbmc guide. DISCLAIMER: If any one that has issues with the plugin, should delete the modifiied .csv file before posting due to how easy it is to mistakenly modify the .csv file, the api program will automatically redownload a new channel list.

i bet this will do it. I dont know why i didnt think of it. I made the changes and will test when i get home. thanks!

[mcheng89]

i bet this will do it. I dont know why i didnt think of it. I made the changes and will test when i get home. thanks!

The channelmap file gets saved in the xbmc addon also. Don't forget to modify that. I'll make some sort of blacklist file, so that we can remove channels from the channel map automatically.

NOTE: VLC 2.0 seems to break my plugin
So that might have higher priority than any other issues.
I'll release one more update today to finish off the epg