In-browser playback

af123

af123

Administrator
Staff member
Raydon recently released an in-browser playback function for the Humax Foxsat (see http://www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/1576094-vlc-player-plug-foxsat-hdr.html). I've taken inspiration from this and the latest version of the web interface includes something similar. It isn't based on Raydon's code so any bugs in there are down to me!

This feature is new and while it mostly works for me from various operating systems and browsers it may not be as smooth a ride for anyone else. It requires that you have the VLC plugin installed for your browser (see http://www.videolan.org) - various versions depending on your OS/browser combination; things should get a lot easier once VLC 1.2.0 is released. There are particular problems with MacOSX but it can be made to work.

Any recorded content that is decrypted or has been indexed by the Media server (HDR model) is available for playback in the browser. When you navigate to the recording and click on it to bring up the information window, there should be a Play button at the bottom right alongside the extant Close.

play.png


and clicking on it will attempt to show the recording directly within the browser window:

playback.png


There are still a few niggles in there such as the time field not working.

NOTE: If you don't see the play button, then try clearing your browser's cache or forcibly reloading the page (Control-F5 may do it)
 
This is working quite well for me with HD recordings, and now that the transport buttons are visible it is easier to use.:)

Do you know if there is any possibility of getting more transport control such as FF or REW, or are we stuck with Play/Pause and Stop?

I am getting a few grey screen crashes with the following error message

The VLC Multimedia plugin has crashed
Send crash report
 
Seems unstable at present. No transport control even after clearing the cache. Ctrl-F5 while playing disables the video but leaves the audio running. This continues to run even after closing FF. Trying to stop a file playing via the stop button usually crashes the plugin, requiring Task Manager to close down the plugin container. I think I'll be using this sparingly for the time being...
(Vista with VLC 1.1.11 Mozilla plugin in Firefox).
 
I can only see the play button when I select a DEC recording. Your screenshot says ODEncrypted?
 
I have just tried playing another recording and noticed that the status indicator at the bottom of the viewing pane said "standby" instead of the usual "playing". The recording played OK but none of the transport buttons would work.
 
I can see the Play button on all recordings, both encrypted and decrypted. The VLC plugin seems more stable with decrypted files, but of course, once the file is decrypted, I can play it directly in Splash, anyway. Playing an encrypted file through the browser is a useful alternative to DLNA, but only if it's both smooth and reliable.
 
I'll give up on that one. I don't have a working version of Windows so no point. I was only looking at it out of interest but with no real intention of using it. I'll make do with the pies!
 
4291 said:
I can only see the play button when I select a DEC recording. Your screenshot says ODEncrypted?
Click to expand...
Yes, on the HDR it's possible to view encrypted recordings too. It streams them from the media server. The HD doesn't have one so you can only play decrypted recordings.
 
brian said:
This is working quite well for me with HD recordings, and now that the transport buttons are visible it is easier to use.:)

Do you know if there is any possibility of getting more transport control such as FF or REW, or are we stuck with Play/Pause and Stop?

I am getting a few grey screen crashes with the following error message

The VLC Multimedia plugin has crashed
Send crash report
Click to expand...

Yes, FF/RW should be possible.
It does seem a little unstable - I'm hopeful VLC 1.2.0 will improve things across all platforms!
 
At the moment this is really just an experiment, but it may be possible to use it to set and edit bookmarks and therefore perform crop operations while SHMBO is actually watching something : )
 
Thanks for this, it's really cool.
Could we not stream the live tuner since they are being recorded to the disk, need to chance channel to make it live'ish.
Thanks again.
 
Hi AF123
Well you fooled me, after posting pointing you to Raydons ver for Foxsat, I kept an eye on the Available package list on my T2 for vlc player as he had Included it, and you slipped it into the web IF direct :).
Just found it I do not know the differences but his version plays perfectly on my win 7 32 bit but your version does not ?
As his plays and I assume you must point to the same VLC player on my comp any thoughts as to why it might not work
Regards and thanks for your work on this
Alan
 
I might be talking out of my rear end here, but I *think* the difference is that Raydon's version calls up the full VLC application to play the download, whereas af123's "play" button tries to run it within the browser and needs the VLC plug-in for the web browser.

Edit: Ignore me. See below.
 
I'm afraid you are, both use the browser's VLC plugin. Mine uses a jquery framework whereas Raydon has hand crafted the javascript. It's odd that his works and mine doesn't as the end result should be the same. It works for me with Firefox on Windows 7, 64-bit - what browser are you using?
 
Works for me with Vista 32-bit. I think Firefox is the only supported browser and the plugin is not installed by default with VLC - it's a selectable option. I had to reinstall VLC, with the plugin option selected, to get it to work.

I must say I find that pasting the DLNA URL into VLC's 'Open network stream' dialogue is preferable as it gives full transport control and access to other VLC functions, like sharpening.
 
Fenlander, Are you saying that you have more than just pause and play in your Web-If Firefox player using VLC plug-In? I have Window XP SP3 running Firefox 10.0 and VLC 1.1.11, The plugin can be seen in Firefox but I still only get pause and play

2afbri9.jpg
 
No, sorry if I was unclear. I get full control if I run VLC and copy the DLNA URL into the 'open network stream' box. It's worked perfectly (so far) for all SD and HD files I've tried, provided auto-unprotect is running.

The Mozilla plugin in FF works fine, but gives only pause/play and no access to any of VLC's other tweaks. That's why I generally prefer the first method. The only advantage I can see to using the plugin is that it seems to render HD files a little more smoothly on my system than VLC proper. I should add that my 'system' in this case is my old laptop which has very limited graphics acceleration and often struggles with 1080p files in VLC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top