WebIF Media Player

[Black Hole]

Apologies to AF123 and the other BYTs who actually give up their time and do this stuff, but I've had a little brainwave.

How about the OPT+ menu not only offering to download (actually, on that subject, would it be possible to grey out the download option if the proper flags haven't been sorted? Maybe it does already), but also have a "play" option.

I don't know enough to say how this could be done - my guess is a bit of script that could fire up wget and pass it the parameters to buffer in a pre-set folder, and then trigger VLC to play it... or even give VLC the parameters to start a network stream (buffer preferred because of transport control).

I don't know what the equivalent would be for HiDef, I make a point of only streaming StDef to my PC.

 

[PeteranDi]

I guess this didn't go anywhere, or was it taken up in another post?

 

[Black Hole]

Nope. Might get more interest now you've bumped it.

 

[makem]

You can use vlc to stream very easily.

Just copy the DLNA url into vlc:

Media/advanced open file/network

Then play.

I read that somewhere in the forum and it works fine for SD for me. The thread also said it worked after auto-unprotect for HD.

Iv'e just installed auto-unprotect and so far it hasn't done it's job. I'm sure it will given time.

 

[Tyrken]

Agreed, vlc will stream from the Hummy's DLNA url on Linux & Windows, but the cut & pasting's a little awkward. Could some MIME type or other trickery be used to get vlc launching automatically?

More interesting for me is getting streaming or some other method working with my Android tablet (non-prime Transformer). vlc is not yet available, and the DLNA url doesn't seem to work in any of the media players I've tried so far. I did hack the "Extract to audio" function of the webif to be "Convert to mpg" instead, with the active command changed to:

/mod/bin/ffmpeg -y -benchmark -v 0 -i $rfile -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy "${base}.mpg"​

​

That seemed to work, if the workflow was a little awkward - lengthy decrypt & convert steps before I could start watching. Could live with them merged into one step if the decrypt-convert pipes could be daisy chained together, as I suspect streaming from a physical file will be much better for seeking anyway. But only just started looking at this & unsure how to extend webif cleanly...

 

[Black Hole]

I'm seeing reports of VLC playing HiDef (with sound) under Windows, but it hasn't worked for me (it can't track the sound encoding switch between the trailers and the actual programme). Is there a new version?

 

[PeteranDi]

I'm seeing reports of VLC playing HiDef (with sound) under Windows, but it hasn't worked for me (it can't track the sound encoding switch between the trailers and the actual programme). Is there a new version?

I'm using VLC 1.1.11 with Windows 7 SP1 up to date with patches, no problems seen.

 

[mihaid]

I'm seeing reports of VLC playing HiDef (with sound) under Windows, but it hasn't worked for me (it can't track the sound encoding switch between the trailers and the actual programme). Is there a new version?

VLC1.1.11, Win7, samba on HDR
I'm using Chrome explorer. Goto Browse media files, choose your HD unprotected, via auto-unprotect, recording/OPT+/Download. Bottom of browser you get a download status box, click dropdown button/ Show in folder. This opens the folder of your download where you will see your download. Drag your download onto vlc icon and hey presto, it works. Hopefully the speed of your network > play speed of the file. In other words, if estimated time of download < total time of the recording you're fine.

 

[Black Hole]

Perhaps it's time I updated then, I'm still on 1.0.5.

A few comments:

First, you do not need to decrypt as a separate operation before you download - the download operation will decrypt on-the-fly provided the flags have been previously cleared with auto-unprotect (which they would have to be to have decrypted separately). Second, you do not need to download at all, if you paste the URL from the WebIF recording information pop-up into VLC's network media address bar it will stream the file directly from the Hummy's hard drive by DLNA (again the flags need to be cleared previously).

There is an advantage to downloading first in that VLCs transport controls will work on a downloaded file but not on a streamed file. If you are going to download first, try Splash Player Lite which knocks spots off VLC 1.0.5 for local playback (including support for the Humax HiDef file foibles), but can't stream. However, VLC is unique (in my experience) in being able to start playing a file before its download has completed.

 

[PeteranDi]

VLC1.1.11, Win7, samba on HDR
I'm using Chrome explorer. Goto Browse media files, choose your HD unencrypted recording/OPT+/Download. Bottom of browser you get a download status box, click dropdown button/ Show in folder. This opens the folder of your download where you will see your download. Drag your download onto vlc icon and hey presto, it works. Hopefully the speed of your network > play speed of the file. In other words, if estimated time of download < total time of the recording you're fine.

Also works without Samba installed

Web interface version: 0.8.12
Custom firmware version: 1.14​

 

[mihaid]

There is an advantage to downloading first in that VLCs transport controls will work on a downloaded file but not on a streamed file. .

They will work on a streamed file on the above setup: skip forward, backwards as long as you're within the downloaded time segment.

 

[Black Hole]

Also works without Samba installed

Yes indeed, Samba not required. You only need that for network file shares. If you wish to access recordings by mounting the remote drive in Windows as a network share, then decrypting the files is a prerequisite.

 

[Black Hole]

They will work on a streamed file on the above setup: skip forward, backwards as long as you're within the downloaded time segment.

That's not what I said. You are downloading and playing before the download has completed, not streaming. There is a difference.

 

[Black Hole]

From another topic:

Discussion in another topic suggests VLC 1.1.11 works fine. I have yet to try it out myself.

I've just tried it with a few files, using the DLNA addresses into VLC's network stream address box. As before, OK with SD, no sound with HD.

 

[mihaid]

That's not what I said. You are downloading and playing before the download has completed, not streaming. There is a difference.

I stand corected.

 

[woodbar]

Just a quick reply - I agree that Splash player lite is absolutely brilliant for playing SD & HD files from the HDR as long as they are local on the PC or NAS - I have it as my default player for most file types - simple and good quality - without all the excess baggage and millions of settings that some others have.

For streaming to the Asus Transformer - try "Skifta" it is faultless streaming SD and even tries hard with HD but doesn't quite make it! I assume this is due to the Wifi limitations as the rest of my Network handles HD fine (all Gigabit except link to Humaxes via 200AV power plugs - but HDR plays HD from NAS 100%) It could also be the Transformer is not up to it as well I suppose - blimey can't update to the Tegra 3 yet - this one is less than 6 months old!

 

[Black Hole]

It is an unfortunate drawback of Splash that it can't stream and neither will it start playing a file before it has fully downloaded. If it was not for those issues it would be the player of choice, but until they are addressed the jury is still out. Auto-decrypt and network file share cures it though (not that I have done it yet)!

It could also be the Transformer is not up to it as well I suppose

This seems the most likely explanation, WiFi data rates are easily able to handle HiDef.

 

[Tyrken]

Thanks for the Skifta recommendation - but that only handles the finding of the stream, not the playing. Currently with my SD-only (roll on May) recordings moboplayer gets all confused, as does Rockplayer lite and VPlayer when I used it with another DNLA client. My VPlayer trial period has now elapsed but that seemed to get the furthest back then.

OTOH I did have success via the ffmpeg command I posted above which cuts unused audio streams & reformats to mpg - not sure which was significant - before using WebIF (i.e. no DNLA) to serve the .mpg file as an HTTP stream with the right MIME type so android's browser passes it on to the video player without a full download. I think seeking worked also, as I suspect the content length header was filled in & seeking in mpg files is more reliable.

Unfortunately I then blew my mods away with an injudicious update & am only getting back to recreate them now...

 

[woodbar]

Ah, yes - I did not mention the player, apologies. I tried multiple android players - in the end I kept coming back to MX Player - it was a bit shaky but with the recent updates and the correct ARM V7 codec it is 100% on SD from the NAS and HDR - have you tried MX?

Still no joy with HD - I must load an HD file onto the Transformer to see if the hardware is actually up to the job (My suspicion is it's not!)

I like the sound of the trick with ffmpeg and the browser etc. - perhaps an "idiots" guide when you get it working again?

Not sure, are we getting off topic here - no doubt someone will advise if so?

 

[Tyrken]

MX Player looks good - seems to play the raw streamed TS files without getting confused by the many internal data streams like other players did, so makes my hack unnecessary (at least for SD files).

But for the record, the re-purposing of Extract-as-MP3 to Convert-to-MPG just needs the ffmpeg package (if you haven't it already), and changes to one webif file - not so neat but functional. Please get the attached file, change the file extension back to ".jim" (only certain extensions allowed in this forum), and copy over the file at "/mod/var/mongoose/cgi-bin/browse/audio.jim". (Take a backup of the original to be safe.) To use, decrypt the ts file so the Extract Audio OPT option is enabled, then use that menu option which will kick off the MPG conversion. Seems ffmpeg doesn't need the map options I was using earlier - must already strip out all but the main audio & video when outputting to ".mpg" files. Not sure what ffmpeg will do with HD files...