Thread: Http streaming and the Azbox

Playing with this, I haven't been able to get http streaming working to the AZbox on my local net, but streaming UDP from VLC works just fine. More tinkering to do.

Originally Posted by Babadem

This how I got to watch Katrina IPTV yesterday: Home Button > Settings > TV Channel > IP Channel;

Protocol = HTTP
TV Type = Katrina Tv.
Address= XXXX
://kartina.pristavka.de/new

/playlist.ph (replace xxxx with http)
Buffer Size =256
Username =146
password = 641

....and save. AZBox will download 4 channels. Reboot and go to channel list by pressing the "OK" key once and press "exit" button once and then select "SATELLITE" and IP_CHANNEL category will be there. Click on it, there should be 4 Russian channels. If you connection is fast enough, you should see video in a short time. I had to reduce my firewall to minimum security to view the channels.

Now you got me convinced that I better upgrade the firmware in my Azbox. I've been waiting for some significant improvement over the 2371 I have in mine, and perhaps this is it.
WHen I do the "Settings > TV Channel > IP Channel" sequence, the page I have been getting is MUCH different than what's described above. I get a row for "Channel Name", "IP Sddress", "Port Number", "Buffer size", and that is ALL. There are two other rows, called Stream Type and PID, but neither of these can be changed.
I don't get ANY of the parameters listed above, which is why I was experimenting setting up streams in HTTP, UDP, etc, trying to guess what kind of stream it was looking for.
I'm assuming that the above menu is from some firmware later than 2371??

Originally Posted by brentb636

Playing with this, I haven't been able to get http streaming working to the AZbox on my local net, but streaming UDP from VLC works just fine. More tinkering to do.

I assume you were using a later firmware that also had the above parameter options too? I tried doing UDP several weeks ago, and had no luck, but I had no way of selecting UDP on the Azbox.

Anyway, I'm going to first do what I can to make a backup of all my sats/transponders/channels, etc, then I'm off to the new firmware. Funny, I've been waiting for one of the new firmware versions to list this as one of the improvements, but I never saw it mentioned. Perhaps some version came out that did this, and we never got the improvement list.

BJ ,
My only experience with streaming is the latest firmware, 9.3877 . Haven't tried it much before today.

Originally Posted by Babadem

This how I got to watch Katrina IPTV yesterday: Home Button > Settings > TV Channel > IP Channel;

Protocol = HTTP
TV Type = Katrina Tv.
Address= XXXX
://kartina.pristavka.de/new

/playlist.ph (replace xxxx with http)
Buffer Size =256
Username =146
password = 641

....and save. AZBox will download 4 channels. Reboot and go to channel list by pressing the "OK" key once and press "exit" button once and then select "SATELLITE" and IP_CHANNEL category will be there. Click on it, there should be 4 Russian channels. If you connection is fast enough, you should see video in a short time. I had to reduce my firewall to minimum security to view the channels.

Now if you'll replace words "Katrina" to "kartina", it would be correct spelling.

Originally Posted by Smith, P.

Now if you'll replace words "Katrina" to "kartina", it would be correct spelling.

Good catch.

I'm wondering if it require two way protocol ? I did try to play that stream by regular IE8 (thinking to see a request for install some plug-in) but got nothing - no video, no questions.
[That's when I discover the misspelling, thought it's the reason for my fiasco].

BJ , does this help

How to stream stuff from your PC with XP to AZbox HD

With Windows XP it's dead simple to make various folders visible, to your AZbox HD!

Start your Windows Explorer > go to the main folders or even whole partitions you want shared > right click on them -> Sharing and Security, then gave the rights -> Allow to be shared. I also went to > Customise and > Apply the template to all sub-folders -> Apply and -> OK.

Then - just in case - I went a bit "lower" and repeated the whole thing to the Music, Video and Photo folders, one by one, and – lo & behold - NTFS or not, firewall or not, who cares - all the movies and other media files are playable, in AZbox HD, using its Multimedia Player!!!

How do you do it? If you press the HOME button on your remote and go to -> Movies, for instance, you will be able to navigate to the folders you just enabled to be shared and watch a movie on your AZbox HD. Or listen to the Music in your music Menu or pictures in your Photos Menu...

We are still waiting for various limits to be removed - for all multimedia files, mind... Photos have the max resolution of 1920 x 1080 and so on... Apparently, a new Chief Programmer should focus Opensat engineers' attention to various bugs, in the bid to finally get the FW 1.0. Ahem...

Streaming from PC/Laptop with Vista -> to AZbox HD

Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features on or off -> here I added/installed anything even remotely connected with whatever I need to use for AZbox HD and Multimedia [Telnet Server & Client, TFTP Client, Services for NFS and whatever else you find interesting...],

Start -> Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Centre -> then, here allow:

Network Discovery
File Sharing
Media Sharing

So, those to ON!!!!
The rest to OFF.

At the bottom of that page click on
"Show me all the files and folders I am sharing".

Now, go to a partition or a folder or a file you wan to "share" -> right click -> Properties -> Sharing -> Advanced Sharing -> Share This Folder -> Permissions -> Everyone [only "Read" is enough, from all the options there] -> Apply -> OK.

Security -> Everyone.

Customise -> All items -> choose/tick "Also apply this template to all subfolders" -> Apply -> OK or Close, whatever's there...

AZbox HD remote: HOME -> Movies -> .. -> Network -> find your Home Network, then your PC, then the partition/folder where your films are stored and choose...

The same for Music -> find your music or Photos -> find them [not all will work, mind, as there are some limitations still... waiting for the good programmers to sort it all out... and to stop stretching our photos, too...].

Originally Posted by pedrogarcia

BJ , does this help

How to stream stuff from your PC with XP to AZbox HD

With Windows XP it's dead simple to make various folders visible, to your AZbox HD!

Start your Windows Explorer > go to the main folders or even whole partitions you want shared ....
....
How do you do it? If you press the HOME button on your remote and go to -> Movies, for instance, you will be able to navigate to the folders you just enabled ....
.....

....

Thanks, but no... I've been doing the above all along. My terminology might be a bit off, but I didn't consider that as true streaming, or at least it wasn't the kind of streaming I was interested in. I sort of considered that as playing from a share, which from what I have seen on other devices has lower bitrate ratings than playing a stream. It could be that with the Azbox, that there is no difference, but I keep hoping.

For example, with my ROKU HD1000, if I play from a share, there are some very fast bitrate feeds that won't play properly, but if they are streamed, either from TSREADER or VLC, and the ROKU is set up to play a network stream, they play fine.

ANother reason for wanting to stream rather than playing from a share, is to be able to play live streams from TSREADER rather than from a file. {Although I COULD save the live stream, then PLAY it as it's recording I guess. }


Sorry for small print.... just my warped sense of humor.

What B.J. pointed at looks like software only limitation to me, which can be fixed, and possibly was fixed in recent ROKU firmware upgrades.

pedrogarcia

Thanks for the detail instructions, helpful for many new AZBox users. Now you need to explain in a similar detail fashion, how to continuously write (save) a decoded Sat TV stream from AZBox to a share network drive or folder, thus bypassing an attached to it USB or SATA drive entirely, and what network speed is required (i.e. Gigabit Ethernet, etc). Btw, what network speed is supported by AZBox network controller, and what's the model number of that controller?