[SolusCado]

I'm trying to configure XBMC on my laptop to connect to an instance of MediaPortal running the TVServerXBMC plugin on my home network, which is behind a firewall. I've tried publishing the TCP ports for the plugin (9596), as well as the MediaPortal streaming port (554), and port 31456 - noted on the MediaPortal site below.

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIA...l_Settings

I cannot seem to connect though. Name resolution is working fine, and everything works from inside my network. Are there some other ports I should be opening up as well?

[margro]

That won't work unless you change the TSreader setting in the PVR addon settings to "ffmpeg" for RTSP streaming.
By default, the MediaPortal PVR addon uses Windows shares to access the timeshift buffer and recordings in a multi seat environment.

Warning: Opening the TVServerXBMC plugin 9596 for the Internet is not a wise idea. The plugin has no authentication support, so everybody can control your TVServer.

[SolusCado]

That won't work unless you change the TSreader setting in the PVR addon settings to "ffmpeg" for RTSP streaming.
By default, the MediaPortal PVR addon uses Windows shares to access the timeshift buffer and recordings in a multi seat environment.

Warning: Opening the TVServerXBMC plugin 9596 for the Internet is not a wise idea. The plugin has no authentication support, so everybody can control your TVServer.

:/ I have it set to use ffmpeg, but I still get a "MediaPortal PVR Client - Connection lost" message every 10 seconds (my timeout period).

Why am I providing credentials to my Windows user account, if it isn't authenticating? I get that my ffmpeg stream wouldn't be authenticated - so anyone can watch what I'm watching, but isn't XBMC establishing a connection to the TVServerXBMC plugin? Or is the username/password just used when accessing the TSReader streaming file?

Just to confirm - I only need my MediaPortal TVServer running on my home machine, right? (With the plugin enabled of course.)

[margro]

The username/password settings are only used on non-Windows systems to access the timeshift/recording share using Samba (TSReader mode). They are not used to connect to the TVServerXBMC plugin.

Yes, TVServer + TVServerXBMC plugin should be enough.
The connection lost indicates that the PVR addon has problems accessing the TVServerXBMC plugin.

To check if you can access the TVServerXBMC plugin you could try to connect to it using a Telnet session.
See the TVServerXBMC Readme.txt for the details.

[SolusCado]

The username/password settings are only used on non-Windows systems to access the timeshift/recording share using Samba (TSReader mode). They are not used to connect to the TVServerXBMC plugin.

Yes, TVServer + TVServerXBMC plugin should be enough.
The connection lost indicates that the PVR addon has problems accessing the TVServerXBMC plugin.

To check if you can access the TVServerXBMC plugin you could try to connect to it using a Telnet session.
See the TVServerXBMC Readme.txt for the details.

I tried Telnet before I posted, and I couldn't even open a connect inside my network - I thought maybe it was disabled somehow, but apparently I had simply typo'd the port number. So - it works internally but not externally. I guess that confirms I have some sort of firewall issue.. :/

[SolusCado]

I'm an idiot. I had a VPN connection running on my laptop that was redirecting my IP.

---

So - new question... Is there any way I can modify the ffmpeg command to reduce the bitstream for WAN links?

[otem]

I am currently in the same situation, the bandwidth that I have is not enough and KODI is constantly buffering. Is there any way to modify the ffmpeg command to reduce the bandwidth? And if there is a way where shout the modifying be done - on the MediaPortal server or on the KODI client?

[margro]

@Otem: Nope. There is no such thing as an "ffmpeg command" involved here. The PVR addon was meant to be used in your local network since it will pass the full data stream from the TV card to XBMC. So, if you are streaming an HD channel which is transmitted by the provider at (lets say) 5 Mbit, the network load will be the same 5 Mbit.

What you are looking for is on the fly transcoding plugin for the TV-server. Best place to ask is the Team MediaPortal forum.