[mythtv-users] Mythweb Flash Stream - Can I Open It With Some Other Player?

[Nick Rout]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 4:38 AM, Drew Tomlinson <drew at mykitchentable.net> wrote:
> Alen Edwards wrote:
>> Drew Tomlinson wrote:
>>
>>> I'm trying to understand the ASX streaming in the mythweb that ships
>>> with 0.21.  In the "Recorded Programs" list, clicking the asx icon from
>>> a Windows client results in Windows Media Player starting and then
>>> giving an error.  However if I click on the thumbnail and play via the
>>> flashplayer on the web page, the files plays fine.
>>>
>>> Looking at system processes, I see ffmpeg is running.  So what is the
>>> ffmpeg command line and when is the resulting encoded file stored?
>>> According to the VLC site, it can play flv files.  Thus it seems to me
>>> that I should be able to feed VLC a URL and view the stream with it.  Is
>>> this possible?
>>>
>>> The main reason I want to use VLC is because I'd like to be able to see
>>> my 16:9 content in a 16:9 window and I'd like a window size that's
>>> bigger than the browser window but smaller than full screen.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Drew
>>>
>>>
>> While this is being looked into, I get the same behavior but no sound in
>> flash.  I googled and it looks from that like nobody gets sound and
>> there is no solution.  However, it looks like Drew is getting sound.  Is
>> that correct Drew?
>>
> I get sound in the player embedded in the mythweb page.  I get some sort
> of "file can't be found" message when copying to URL from the asx file
> into either Windows Media Player or VLC network stream dialog.
>> That out of the way, what I found may not be what you are looking for,
>> but it may be a clue.  This is what I did:
>> 1) Opened the asx file with an editor
>> 2) Entered the embedded link into Firefox
>> 3) Saved the file to my disk
>> 4) Played the file in WinAmp.
>>
>
> What makes the flv file get created?  When I click the play button in
> the mythweb embedded flash player, I can see a ffmpeg process starts.
> However clicking the link that sends the asx file does not start a
> ffmpeg process

Thats becasue the asx link is designed to stream the file as it is on
your hard drive without transcoding. Take a look at the url in the asx
file (right click, save as then look in a text editor or with the cat
command if you are on linux). The url is the same as the direct
download link, its put in an asx file so that it is handed off to
media playing software which will start playing before the whole file
is downloaded.

On my ubuntu desktop the asx link opens totem which plays the file
fine. I haven't rebooted to windows to test that.

I can also get it to play by passing the asx url off to mplayer
-playlist. mplayer has a great windows (and linux) front end called
smplayer which also does the right thing when called with smplayer
-playlist url.asx


> and thus, there is no file to download.  I even tried
> clicking the play button on the embedded player and then trying to open
> the URL in the asx file with browsers, VLC and Windows Media Player.
> File still not found.
>
>> It played fine widescreen in a window with sound.  This is just what you
>> want but you probably want it streaming so you don't have to wait for
>> the download, which took 15 minutes for a 30 minute show in this example
>>
>> I could not, however, figure out how to get it streaming into WinAmp.
>>
>
> I wonder if it would stream with VLC?  Anyway, thanks for your reply.
>
> Drew
>
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>
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