Use VLC External Player for HDHomerun .strm File
#1
Is there a magic setting in PlayerCoreFactory to get VLC to open the strm files? Using the filetype "hdhomerun" still uses DVDPlayer to open the file and
using protocols="hdhomerun|myth|cmyth|rtmp|mms|mmsh|udp" VLC errs out.

NOTICE: CExternalPlayer::OpenFile: hdhomerun://10149562-1/tuner1?channel=8vsb:207000000&program=3

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305086464 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: Player : "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305082368 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: File : hdhomerun://10149562-1/tuner1?channel=8vsb:207000000&program=3

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305082368 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: Content:

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305082368 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: Args : "{1}"

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305082368 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: Start

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305082368 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer:Tonguerocess: Releasing audio device 2

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305680384 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer::ExecuteAppW32: "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" ""C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"" "hdhomerun://10149562-1/tuner1?channel=8vsb:207000000&program=3"

08:28:06 T:5432 M:305680384 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer::ExecuteAppW32 - Failure: 123
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#2
Error 123 is ERROR_INVALID_NAME - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

I think you've managed to get the quotes messed up in your playercorefactory.xml. There seems to be an unmatched quote somewhere. If you post your playercorefactory.xml here I'll try it out on my system.

JR
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#3
Dobyken Wrote:08:28:06 T:5432 M:305680384 NOTICE: CExternalPlayer::ExecuteAppW32: "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" ""C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"" "hdhomerun://10149562-1/tuner1?channel=8vsb:207000000&program=3"

Yeah, the problem is the quotes, you don't need to put quotes around the filename in the playercorefactory.xml, as they get added anyway (see how there are double quotes in the line above).
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#4
jhsrennie Wrote:Error 123 is ERROR_INVALID_NAME - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

I think you've managed to get the quotes messed up in your playercorefactory.xml. There seems to be an unmatched quote somewhere. If you post your playercorefactory.xml here I'll try it out on my system.

JR

OK..got that part fixed..thanks. I've tried it with and without quotes in the 8 hours I've been trying to get this to work. Still not working though.

</playercorefactory>
<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="VLC" type="ExternalPlayer">
<filename>C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe</filename>
<args>"{1}"</args>
<hidexbmc>false</hidexbmc>
<hideconsole>false</hideconsole>
<warpcursor>none</warpcursor>
</player>
</players>

<rules action="prepend">
<rule name="hdhomerun/myth/rtmp/mms" protocols="hdhomerun|myth|cmyth|rtmp|mms|udp" player="VLC" />
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

VLC errors out on the file.


Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'hdhomerun://10149562-0/tuner0?channel=8vsb:177000000&program=3'. Check the log for details.

Of course the VLC log is nowhere to be found. I even went into the vlc advanced settings and specified a log name and location and nothing.

XBMC Debug log
http://pastebin.com/VGqj5Z6r

We know that VLC works with the HDHomerun because it's one of the options for viewing TV when opened with the HDHomeRun_Gui.exe program and when I use it the path shows as

udp://127.0.0.1:5000

Using a PCF with a rule of filetypes ="hdhomerun|STRM" the debug log shows considering rule but doesn't match it. It then matches on the udp for the system file and loads DVDPlayer. I'm not exactly sure what, if any, filetypes are for the HDHomerun as it isn't well documented and I couldn't find any examples. Windows explorer lists the filetype as "STRM" but I have no idea if XBMC uses that as the file type.

FYI..the reason I'm even messing with this is that on my Vista laptop I'm getting hundreds of dropped frames a minute and jerky video in full screen in XBMC but when I use either VLC or the HDHR QuickTV directly the full screen video works fine and isn't dropping frames. XBMC in windowed mode of about 50% screen coverage doesn't drop any frames so I'm pretty sure it's something with my Intel video system and the internal player. Hardware acceleration is turned on in XBMC settings.
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#5
Looking at line 412 in the log file, XBMC is running:

Code:
"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" "hdhomerun://10149562-0/tuner0?channel=8vsb:177000000&program=3"

so XBMC is doing it's bit. If the stream won't play it must be something to do with VLC.

Open a command prompt and try running this command from the command prompt. Assuming it doesn't work, you need to find out why VLC isn't running the stream. Once you've figured out hw to make VLC play the stream from the command line you can adjust your playercorefactory.xml accordingly. I can't check this for you as I don't have an HDHomeRun.

NB when running apps from a command prompt the & character has a special meaning. Make sure any arguments with an & in them are surrounded by quotes - as indeed they are in your example.

JR
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#6
You need to remove (</playercorefactory>) from the first line.
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#7
If you want a complete external player codes, you can check out my thread- Another External Player Code, but Very Simple to Setup. If you want VLC as external player, you can insert it in .bat/.xml files.
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#8
bluray Wrote:You need to remove (</playercorefactory>) from the first line.

Actually I tried that and the debug log showed an error loading the playercorefactory...said it was missing </playercorefactory>.
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#9
bluray Wrote:If you want a complete external player codes, you can check out my thread- Another External Player Code, but Very Simple to Setup. If you want VLC as external player, you can insert it in .bat/.xml files.

I can setup VLC or just about any other player with no problem...this thread only deals with loading a .strm file for the hdhomerun which doesn't seem to work with any player I've tried which includes DSPlayer, MPC-HC,KMPlayer, and VLC. I really think that the DVDPlayer code is not just playing the file but calling functions in the libhdhomerun which don't appear in the log file. I can also, from the command line, load a stream in VLC but it uses the hdhomerun_config run 3 times to set the parameters.

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channelmap us-bcast

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channel <12l>
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/program <3>
Once parameters are set you can load vlc
vlc udp://@:1234



and...JR thanks. I think an external player for the hdhomerun is not supported. Maybe I'll switch focus and try to determine why I'm dropping so many frames in full screen. Maybe I'll partition the laptop drive and see if Lucid works better.
There doesn't appear to be any parameters that will allow vlc to directly load the stream directly.
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#10
Dobyken Wrote:Actually I tried that and the debug log showed an error loading the playercorefactory...said it was missing </playercorefactory>.
It must have something to do with "hdhomerun" then, because it works fine with these external players "TMT5, PDDVD11, MPC-HC, VLC, etc" on all 3 of HTPC's and others without </playercorefactory> on the first line in Playercorefactory.

I wish you the best of luck with your "hdhomerun"!
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#11
Dobyken Wrote:I can also, from the command line, load a stream in VLC but it uses the hdhomerun_config run 3 times to set the parameters.

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channelmap us-bcast

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channel <12l>
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/program <3>
Once parameters are set you can load vlc
vlc udp://@:1234

In that case write a batch file to play the .strm file. The batch file can parse whatever URL is in the .strm file and call hdhomerun_config and VLC as necessary.

JR
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#12
jhsrennie Wrote:In that case write a batch file to play the .strm file. The batch file can parse whatever URL is in the .strm file and call hdhomerun_config and VLC as necessary.

JR

I thought about that..I'm actually using Twinther's TV Guide that I modified to call the .strm file so I can parse the file in python. It's been 20 years since I wrote any complicated batch files. He's released a new version that implements the strm files but it's only done for Eden so far. I'll have to take a look at his code to see what's changed. When I installed Eden on my XP test box I couldn't get the strm files to play at all in XBMC but maybe I'll give it a try on this box.
Thanks!
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