Thread: Http streaming and the Azbox

I'm not getting any content on those channels, either, but my UDP streaming to the AZbox still works just fine.

brent
are You streaming your own content,say a video
or maybe shoutcast tv, using vlc to the azbox
just curious

I've just been sending movies to the AZbox , to see if it worked. Anything I can get with VLC streams fine.

Originally Posted by B.J.

...

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.

Originally Posted by brentb636

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

Well, after getting back up after upgrading from 2371 to 3877, I finally tried playing with the UDP streaming.
Seems to work very well on SD content, both 4.2.0 and 4.2.2 and MPEG2 and MPEG4.
I was also able to stream ATSC OTA HD, HD from NASA-TV, and medium bitrate MPEG4 HD from DN sats. However as expected, I wasn't able to stream high bitrate network HD, although it came closer to working than I've ever got before. IT even popped up video from the ABC HD NET test card, but it was skipping badly. But it worked better than last time I tried playing from computer.

I'm now wanting to figure out how to do HTTP streaming. I tried to set up a channel in much the same way as the UDP was done, but I couldn't even get it to show up in the channel list. I may try altering the one that came as default.

Anyway, neat. I've been waiting for a way to stream to this thing, and it's getting closer.

Originally Posted by B.J.

Well, after getting back up after upgrading from 2371 to 3877, I finally tried playing with the UDP streaming.
Seems to work very well on SD content, both 4.2.0 and 4.2.2 and MPEG2 and MPEG4.
I was also able to stream ATSC OTA HD, HD from NASA-TV, and medium bitrate MPEG4 HD from DN sats. However as expected, I wasn't able to stream high bitrate network HD, although it came closer to working than I've ever got before. IT even popped up video from the ABC HD NET test card, but it was skipping badly. But it worked better than last time I tried playing from computer.

I'm now wanting to figure out how to do HTTP streaming. I tried to set up a channel in much the same way as the UDP was done, but I couldn't even get it to show up in the channel list. I may try altering the one that came as default.

Anyway, neat. I've been waiting for a way to stream to this thing, and it's getting closer.

For HTTP streaming take a look at this (Http streaming and the Azbox) and see if it answers your question.

Would you mind detaling the steps you took to get the UDP streaming. I'm a little bit confused as how to set that up.

Originally Posted by Babadem

For HTTP streaming take a look at this (Http streaming and the Azbox) and see if it answers your question.

Would you mind detaling the steps you took to get the UDP streaming. I'm a little bit confused as how to set that up.

Thanks.
Re the link above (earlier in this thread), yeah, I was trying to modify that technique with no luck.
What I'm trying to do is to initiate streaming on one of my own computers, and then use the IP function on the Azbox to play the stream. When I set up the IP thing to the IP#ort that I have streaming on, the Azbox sets up a "USER Channel", however it doesn't play. Although, despite having played those Russian channels before, I'm now getting blank screens on all 4 of those too, so I'm not sure what the problem is. I'll keep plugging at it though.

Re the UDP streaming, it was similar. I set up a UDP channel by going into the IP function, selected UDP, and gave the IP# and port number of one of my computers. I used the 256KB buffer size. It set up a UDP1 channel in my channel list, which I played. Then on my computer, I ran VLC, and told it to stream a file to the IP# of the Azbox via UDP. When tuned to the UDP channel on the Azbox, I could select and play different video files with VLC. Worked fine, except for higher speed HD.

Again, the reason I'm trying to stream is that from what I've seen with other boxes, streaming is faster than playing a file from a SMB type share. I'd really like to figure out the HTTP streaming, because that is what TSREADER does, so I'd be able to stream live sat channels that way. I know that my computer is streaming, because I can view the video with other players. I just can't get the Azbox to display it.

Originally Posted by B.J.

Thanks.
Re the link above (earlier in this thread), yeah, I was trying to modify that technique with no luck.
What I'm trying to do is to initiate streaming on one of my own computers, and then use the IP function on the Azbox to play the stream. When I set up the IP thing to the IP#ort that I have streaming on, the Azbox sets up a "USER Channel", however it doesn't play. Although, despite having played those Russian channels before, I'm now getting blank screens on all 4 of those too, so I'm not sure what the problem is. I'll keep plugging at it though.

Re the UDP streaming, it was similar. I set up a UDP channel by going into the IP function, selected UDP, and gave the IP# and port number of one of my computers. I used the 256KB buffer size. It set up a UDP1 channel in my channel list, which I played. Then on my computer, I ran VLC, and told it to stream a file to the IP# of the Azbox via UDP. When tuned to the UDP channel on the Azbox, I could select and play different video files with VLC. Worked fine, except for higher speed HD.

Again, the reason I'm trying to stream is that from what I've seen with other boxes, streaming is faster than playing a file from a SMB type share. I'd really like to figure out the HTTP streaming, because that is what TSREADER does, so I'd be able to stream live sat channels that way. I know that my computer is streaming, because I can view the video with other players. I just can't get the Azbox to display it.

My work around for those Russian IPTV channels to display is this. I choose the channel, and then reboot AZBox by pressing and holding down the power button on the remote. On booting up, I go back and select the IPTV channel(s) and they display video as I choose each channel. Even though, I don't speak or understand a word in Russian, I hope they fix that in the future.
On UDP, what is VLC?

My work around for those Russian IPTV channels to display is this. I choose the channel, and then reboot AZBox ......the future.

I setup the Russian Channels, I did not have to reboot to see video. Sometimes it tokk 10 seconds for it to pop in, but I'm sure my slow internet had something to do with that.

.....what is VLC?

VLC is a free program that play and stream video in many different formats.

Originally Posted by Lak7

Quote:
My work around for those Russian IPTV channels to display is this. I choose the channel, and then reboot AZBox ......the future.

I setup the Russian Channels, I did not have to reboot to see video. Sometimes it tokk 10 seconds for it to pop in, but I'm sure my slow internet had something to do with that.
.....

With the old firmware, when I created the Russian channels, it popped into my channel list without rebooting. With this new firmware, they don't even appear in the channel list until I reboot. The UDP channel pops right in without rebooting. Similarly, I tried editing the streaming text file on my computer and FTP'ing it back, but the changes didn't appear until I rebooted (although I kind of messed it up, and had to delete the results).

When I setup that Russian site yesterday, the Azbox connected, and said that it found 4 streams. After I rebooted to get the 4 channels in the list, I tried to play, and it seemed to be trying to play them, but I ended up with a dark screen on each. The 256K buffer I used shouldn't delay things too long... I think I waited a couple minutes, but maybe transmission speeds to Europe take longer. Maybe I should try a smaller buffer size.
Same thing when I tried to play stuff off my local computer though, and buffer size wouldn't be an issue there. I've read posts saying that the Russian channels aren't always on the air, so maybe they were down, or maybe there is something going on with my network preventing things from working. Anyway, until I get the Russian things working again, I won't be sure what to copy when trying to set up my local network stuff.
I have the feeling that the Azbox expects some kind of a server on the remote computer, rather than just having video streaming there. I have a web server set up on my computer, and also have a UPNP music server, but I don't have a video server, although my PopCornHour will grab video from an HTML file directing it to video on demand format which allows it to view the streaming video. I tried aiming the Azbox at this web file, however, and it didn't work.
Anyway, I'm still trying. I really think that HTTP streaming will be nice capability once we figure out how to do it. I'm going to look for a video server, to see if that helps. I have a Nero package that might include a video server... not sure.