Allowing Internet Streams as channels in Live TV
#1
I was thinking that it'd be pretty neat and would certainly set XBMC apart if it allowed for internet live streams to be used as TV channels For example BBC iPlayer's live TV channels as already included in BBC iPlayer video addon or USTVNOW integration or even just Al-Jazeera and RT's live streams.

Is there already a way of doing this or is there currently any development being done in this regard?
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#2
you can already write an add-on which does just that if you like. just set the stream url in a channel tag to the url of the live stream, and it'll work.
opdenkamp / dushmaniac

xbmc-pvr [Eden-PVR builds] [now included in mainline XBMC, so no more source link here :)]
personal website: [link]

Found a problem with PVR? Report it on Trac, under "PVR - core components". Please attach the full debug log.

If you like my work, please consider donating to me and/or Team XBMC.
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#3
dushmaniac Wrote:you can already write an add-on which does just that if you like. just set the stream url in a channel tag to the url of the live stream, and it'll work.

Could you point me to a little example addon? I would like to make a "Ziggo Web TV" backend, allowing Ziggo customers to watch and record the Ziggo live streams through XBMC.
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#4
I would like to voice my support for your idea.

Keep us updated. If you can do that we could integrate a lot of stations in. Maybe even get the EPG data right and then boom we are recording it. PERFECT.

Subscribing to this thread.
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#5
I would really like to give it a shot, but I really do not know where to start.
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#6
there's a demo add-on in the tree that you can use as an example. the way that add-on uses xml is a hack, so don't immitate that (I just need something working quickly when I wrote that). the principle is the same though.
https://github.com/opdenkamp/xbmc/tree/m...s/pvr-demo
opdenkamp / dushmaniac

xbmc-pvr [Eden-PVR builds] [now included in mainline XBMC, so no more source link here :)]
personal website: [link]

Found a problem with PVR? Report it on Trac, under "PVR - core components". Please attach the full debug log.

If you like my work, please consider donating to me and/or Team XBMC.
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#7
Isn't it a lot easier to just setup VDR as your backend and use their IPTV plugin? The vdr-iptv plugin supports multicast, unicast, rtp and http. Hence you can even use VLC as live transcoder to alter the stream before sending it to the frontend.

http://www.saunalahti.fi/rahrenbe/vdr/iptv/


You don't need any further plugins and can still use the same pvr-xbmc version.

I think YaVDR (the distribution), after initial installation already has 3 internet streams as testing channels added (nasa, 3sat and some other)
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#8
'Thanks for the pointers, gentlemen. This should get me going. Don't hold your breath though: I'm slow, busy, and untalented. Well maybe just slow and busy.
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#9
what would be wrong with an xml?
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#10
oneadvent Wrote:what would be wrong with an xml?

Integration within the rest of your TV channels.

Example: You already have a dvb-c stick for your ziggo channels, via VDR you can add the same channel based on the weburl and put it in a different group.

When you are recording something via your dvb, you can still watch another channel via the weburl. It is like you add a second virtual tuner.

Better then "Yet Again Another Plugin" which reads and plays from a xml.

I onced looked at it and it nicely integrates stuff as Nasa-TV together with the rest of my TV channel. Hence I can even use all the recoding features to record the new launch of apolo 69 (or whatever)
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#11
Update, sort of: Ziggo has quit supplying live streams quite a while ago, so I no longer have a personal interest.
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#12
What is the supported format for livestreams in the pvr.demo addon. Because I tried rtmp, rtsp and http and none of them worked. They however do work when placed in a strm file.
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#13
Thanks for pointing to the right direction. Here, in exUSSR countries, many ISPs broadcast IPTV, mostly via udp-multicast or (rarely) via http-unicast, so this Demo add-on proved to be the easiest way to integrate IPTV with PVR. Usually, ISPs distribute .m3u playlists with channels among their subscribers, and I even wrote a simple Python script for converting .m3u playlists into a proper PVRDemoAddonSettings.xml file. Everything works like charm.Smile
However, there is a small cosmetic issue: by default all channels are displayed with the default "CC" logo. Of course, you can manually set a custom channel logo via PVR Channel Manager, but I'd like to automate the process, or at least to change the default "CC" logo with something more appropriate, e.g. an abstract TV icon.
Anyway, the question is: what should I write in
Code:
<icon></icon>
tags for PVR to pick a custom logo? I've tried to put a .png icon file into pvr.demo folder and add
Code:
<icon>tv.png</icon>
but it does not work - the PVR interface does not display any logo (not even the default "CC"). What is the right method to add custom icon(s) in pvr.demo?
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#14
(2012-12-04, 12:20)Roman_V_M Wrote:
Code:
<icon>tv.png</icon>
but it does not work - the PVR interface does not display any logo (not even the default "CC"). What is the right method to add custom icon(s) in pvr.demo?
Code:
<icon>special://home/addons/pvr.demo/tv.png</icon>
or you can create subfolder "icons" for logos and use:
Code:
<icon>special://home/addons/pvr.demo/icons/tv.png</icon>
Ubuntu 22.04, Linux desktop 5.15.0-57-generic #63-Ubuntu SMP Thu Nov 24 13:43:17 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Kodi (20.1 (20.1.0) Git:20230312-289ec664e3). Platform: Linux x86 64-bit
Sony Android TV, Kodi 20.1
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#15
(2012-12-04, 18:05)ray1112 Wrote:
Code:
<icon>special://home/addons/pvr.demo/icons/tv.png</icon>

Thanks! Just what I need.Smile
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