[mcheng89]

Have you tried watching a transcoded stream for an extended period of time, say half an hour? On my system, for some reason VLC just stops transcoding, it's driving me crazy

Ok. I found a way to make it work for 1080p....
This is how I do it right now:

Code:

XBMC 1 <--> VLC (share transcode) <--> VLC (share direct stream) <--> Ceton
XBMC 2 <--> VLC (share transcode) <--> VLC (share direct stream)
XBMC 3 <--> VLC (share direct stream)

It was done this way so that a client can still watch the direct stream if theres a transcode (tuner sharing)

It seems like doing this works better...:

Code:

XBMC 1<--> VLC (share transcode) <--> Ceton
XBMC 2<--> VLC (share transcode)

^We can still share the transcode stream, so thats still an option
But now we lose the ability for another client to watch the same tuner using direct stream....

Let me know what you guys think.

Unless, we scrap tuner sharing all together. It makes things alot easier

[uspino]

That might be a way to do it, although it seems the problem might end up being in VLC stopping the stream based on input errors, and there's always plenty of those. I've seen multiple threads about it.

I'm thinking maybe it would be easier to just stream using ffmpeg. All the the great mini-servers for IOS apps (Air Video, StreamToMe, etc.) use it, and it is rock-stable, maybe because it handles errors better. That would also make RemoteCeton more independet: you can distribute it with a working version of ffmpeg. It also seems to work more efficiently for H264 encoding.

Take a look at this:

http://sonnati.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/...3-part-ii/

[mcheng89]

That might be a way to do it, although it seems the problem might end up being in VLC stopping the stream based on input errors, and there's always plenty of those. I've seen multiple threads about it.

I'm thinking maybe it would be easier to just stream using ffmpeg. All the the great mini-servers for IOS apps (Air Video, StreamToMe, etc.) use it, and it is rock-stable, maybe because it handles errors better. That would also make RemoteCeton more independet: you can distribute it with a working version of ffmpeg. It also seems to work more efficiently for H264 encoding.

Take a look at this:

http://sonnati.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/...3-part-ii/

I'll take a look into ffmpeg, since I was originally going to use it.
I'm going to put up the remoteVLC and remoteCeton code into github

https://github.com/CetonTV/remoteVLC
https://github.com/CetonTV/remoteCeton
https://github.com/CetonTV/CetonTV-XBMC

[uspino]

It seems like doing this works better...:

Code:

XBMC 1<--> VLC (share transcode) <--> Ceton
XBMC 2<--> VLC (share transcode)

How's this working? I've been testing 1.6.4 with different streams all day with the same flaky result. You need help with this new method?

And my vote is +1 for scraping tuner sharing if that brings stability.

For further reading, this thread came to mind:

http://www.i-have-a-dreambox.com/wbb2/th...did=127338

[mcheng89]

How's this working? I've been testing 1.6.4 with different streams all day with the same flaky result. You need help with this new method?

And my vote is +1 for scraping tuner sharing if that brings stability.

For further reading, this thread came to mind:

http://www.i-have-a-dreambox.com/wbb2/th...did=127338

I can do this quickly... give me about 15 min..

This build should work with 1080p.
http://www.mediafire.com/?26tq4tz589y5t1t

Theres more code I need to remove but it should have the same functionality.

[uspino]

I can do this quickly... give me about 15 min..

This build should work with 1080p.
http://www.mediafire.com/?26tq4tz589y5t1t

Theres more code I need to remove but it should have the same functionality.

So far, half an hour with 2 simultaneous streams (1080) to 2 different HTPCs (W7 and XBMCBuntu), a few channel changes... and no hiccups!

On top of that, CPU usage on my i7 server has gone down from 21% to 12% for each of the vlc.exe processes...

Let's give it one more hour...

EDIT: Interesting: both streams died on unatended systems and I got a "No clients streaming. Tuner is inactive. Shutting down stream. Closing VLC instance" on RemoteCeton.

Is there a time limit for an inactive client?

[mcheng89]

So far, half an hour with 2 simultaneous streams (1080) to 2 different HTPCs (W7 and XBMCBuntu), a few channel changes... and no hiccups!

On top of that, CPU usage on my i7 server has gone down from 21% to 12% for each of the vlc.exe processes...

Let's give it one more hour...

EDIT: Interesting: both streams died on unatended systems and I got a "No clients streaming. Tuner is inactive. Shutting down stream. Closing VLC instance" on RemoteCeton.

Is there a time limit for an inactive client?

It shouldnt shut down if its streaming. It's 90 seconds to shutdown if theres no activity

I'm going to start cleaning up code from the original transcode logic.

EDIT: Theres some issues with your version. I just cleaned up most of the code.
Ill give you something to use that should be better, and I'll do a two hour test stream on my comp.

[uspino]

Direct Stream never dies, so at least you know it definitely has to do with transcoding. Maybe there's some sort of "keep alive" or "ignore errors" flag on VLC?

[mcheng89]

Direct Stream never dies, so at least you know it definitely has to do with transcoding. Maybe there's some sort of "keep alive" or "ignore errors" flag on VLC?

Try this one... REMOVED on front page
Uploaded new version.... Seems to be pretty stable for me now .
Im at 30 min and counting without any issues.

EDIT: 40 min...

[mcheng89]

Does this work with the USB ceton?

Yes. It's the same calls

Time check: 2hr... (1080i transcoded to 720 at 3000kbps)
(Note: Direct stream already works fine)

I'll test until I hit 2 hours...
Finished two whole episodes ... Transcoding seems stable enough

And tuner[4] shutdown properly after I finished testing!

Next version todo: iOS Streaming + HDHomerun...
Note: Tuner sharing support is not dead (had to rework the streaming for transcoding stability). It's just on hold right now. I have an idea in mind to get it working...

[uspino]

I think you got it! I let it streaming for 10 hours. One 1080 DirectStream to XBMC, another 1080 transcoded to 720p. I'm going to do one more test, with 2 transcoded streams and frequent channel changing for at least a couple of hours.

About IOS streaming, what are you planning? Need ideas? Video looks great on BuzzPlayer.

[mcheng89]

I think you got it! I let it streaming for 10 hours. One 1080 DirectStream to XBMC, another 1080 transcoded to 720p. I'm going to do one more test, with 2 transcoded streams and frequent channel changing for at least a couple of hours.

About IOS streaming, what are you planning? Need ideas? Video looks great on BuzzPlayer.

Problem with BuzzPlayer is that you need to enter in all the links
It's going to have epg data and just a single click on the epg to start a channel
Long term goal would be something like the slingplayer app on iPhone.
^(just an idea... not sure if I would do it)
Short term would just be a web app...

Hoping to have this done today or tomorrow ...

[uspino]

Sent a PM with one more idea.

Regarding IOS, are you going to write an App or a web app? How can I help?

[mcheng89]

Sent a PM with one more idea.

Regarding IOS, are you going to write an App or a web app? How can I help?

Sent you a response

Web app. If you look at the webfiles directory, there's a index.html file
I need to create a nicer interface. And then modify the server for some sort of API for the iOS

[uspino]

1.6.5 is definitely steady. Tried my best to crash it and I couldn't