• 1(current)
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 55
[RELEASE] XBMC TV using MediaPortal TVserver (XBMP-TV Script)
#1
Thumbs Up 
Like the title describes, watch TV using the Mediaportal TV server!

The XBMC plugin itself should work on XBOX, Linux and Windows.

Image

Requirements:
- TV Server v3 (Prefer: SVN builds) Download it at team-mediaportal.com
- XBMC version v9.11 (Prefer: SVN builds) 9.04 builds suffers from a RTSP bug
- Brains (and the ability to know how to use them)

Downsides: (ToFix)
- Slow zapping (like... really slow!)
- Sometimes XBMC freezes (due to zapping, watching TV is working great)
- I've broken Recordings, so you can only watch TV at the moment
- The MediaPortal "plugin" isn't a real plugin YET (for development reasons)

FAQ
No sound?
- Go to sound options, select another sound channel
XBMC crashes when zapping?
- Stop the player first (using X on keyboard or STOP on remote) then select another channel, every time you zap! (This really works)
- Player.stop() -> Player.start() doesn't work correctly (if you call it within a sec), looks like it's XBMC related, but I will check it against the XBMC MythTV Script.
The server is offline
- Try to change the hostname or you've forgot to run TVServerXBMC.exe (in the MediaPortal TV Server dir)
Got problems?
- Please post the error on the TVServerXBMC.exe

HowToInstall
The zip folder contains 2 plugins
- The first is for your MediaPortal TVServer
- The second is for your XBMC

InstallThePlugins
1. Extract the folder TVServer (folder including content!) to C:\Users\your user\App Data\Roaming\XBMC\plugins\video
2. Extract Gentle.conf + TVServerXBMC.exe to C:\Program Files (x86)\Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal TVServer\ on the PC with Mediaportal TVServer!!!
3. Go to XBMC => Video's => Video Plugins => hit C on TVServer and go to plugin settings, set it up!
- Keep the port as it is
- Change the host to localhost (if you are using it local)

RUN TVServerXBMC.exe! (on the PC with the tv server)

Download
Download (v0.0.1)
Also tnx to SantaClause (from MP forum) for starting this plugin

Version History
v0.0.1
- initial release

Please READ: Development
Since I'm a very busy person, I don't have much time to develop. Therefore I search people who can help me. This is a Proof Of Concept, and I hope someone can help it to a next level.
You can get the source on request
Reply
#2
Great news. Good start. It's works for SD and HD channels.
But some questions:
- How I can switch audio language?
- Whether there will be support EPG in the future?
- More Zapping stability...desired.

Thanks
Reply
#3
This is fantastic but I can't get it to work properly. I followed your instructions but when I select "Live TV" it comes up with "Loading Directory" and then goes back to the "Live TV / Recorded TV" Screen. Any ideas?
Reply
#4
Host is correct?
What says TVServerXBMC.exe in console view?
Try to disable firewall.
Reply
#5
@Dr Gonzo: See my FAQ, the debug screen should give you the problem... Since (and I'm sorry to the guys at MediaPortal) the code of MediaPortal is... well, really bad, there are 1800 possible error's you can get.

It probably says: The server is offline... (the first time)

@gammanoid: I will check on the MythTv project to see how they've fixed the zapping performance, there should be a way to get it fixed Smile. But I'll hope to see someone here who can create a script of this (it's now a Plugin), I don't have the time to get into that stuff.

My Mediaportal plugin can:
- Get the EPG
- Record shows
- List shows you want to record (queued recordings)
- See groups (of channels) and channels (within groups) with EPG info (what's currently on, and what's next)
- And about all the other things you can do in MediaPortal

But for the first 3 items you've to create a script (the Plugin API of XBMC isn't rich enough to create it). But it is all there Smile!!

By the way, you can select the Audio stream (so if you are viewing a program, go to the onscreen control thing (with pause, stop, video and audio settings) select audio, and search for audio stream (it's in the list) then select the stream you want). It's also possible to select the subtitle stream, but I don't know if XBMC supports this feature if it's send through RTSP.
Reply
#6
I'll have a looksee tomorrow and report back. I'd love to get this working, the whole exiting-xbmc-to-watch-TV thing was getting annoying.
Reply
#7
Hey XiniX88,

your post made me register to the forum. I've also started doing a "WatchTV with MediaPortal" python script.

I did it another way, i'm using For The Record as "Layer" between the MediaPortal Server and XBMC Script. By now it's not very comfortable or in a state able to be published, but it generally works.

Because I do not have yet alot of XBMC Scripting experience i used the MythTV script as a "learning" plattform and tried to change it to a ForThe Record TV Script, it was a proof of concept, and it works...

I do not know, if you ever heard about "For The Record?" it has many good features, one is: it provides Web Services to communicate with it. another one is, you can add other tuners, like DVB Dream, GB-PVR. http://www.4therecord.eu

This means, if there will be a script which uses "ForTheRecord", alot of Windows Users can use their favorite tuner app to watch TV with XBMC.


As far as i understood your approach, you wrote the MpTVConnector.py to connect to a TVServer plugin.

This TVServer plugin was also coded by you?

The MpTV Connector seems very simple, just a simple protocol sending stuff via a socket...


I do have an idea, why do we not "abstract" the Connetor Layer that way, that one can use MP directly or MP via ForTheRecord? One code base for switching, the GUI, timeshifting, recordings etc. but a lot more TV-Backends...

(ForTheRecord uses the RTSP stream also, and you can switch it via the WSDL Layer)

What do you think? If you are interested I can send you the ftrecord.py (which just gets the recordedTitles via Webservices from ForTheRecord)

greetz, and a great party tonight Wink

bye
Reply
#8
Here's my TvServerXBMC.exe window:

Image
Reply
#9
Dr Gonzo Wrote:Here's my TvServerXBMC.exe window:

Easy one... You have to copy Gentle.conf from c:\Users\<your user>\App Data\Roaming\Team mediaportal\Mediaportal

or

C:\ProgramData\AppData\Team mediaportal\Mediaportal

or

c:\Users\All Users\App Data\Roaming\Team mediaportal\Mediaportal

or

Use the search function, it's NOT the one located in the Mediaportal TV Server folder.

You have to copy it to c:\Program Files (x86)\Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal TV Server\

that should fix the problem. Little notice, your TV Server service should be running, and the plugin should be on the PC where you run your TV Server.

If that isn't working, then you have to put some rules to your firewall.

modyficater Wrote:Hey XiniX88,

your post made me register to the forum. I've also started doing a "WatchTV with MediaPortal" python script.

I did it another way, i'm using For The Record as "Layer" between the MediaPortal Server and XBMC Script. By now it's not very comfortable or in a state able to be published, but it generally works.
[...]
This TVServer plugin was also coded by you?

I wrote another plugin (wasn't that hard)... a guy over at Team-MediaPortal already told me about the 4theRecord plugin, but then I am dependent of 3 parties for updates which might break my plugin. I also saw that they are working on their own tv server, which is interesting BUT they only support DVB-C/T/S, so I guess I stick to the MP TV Server.

I also tried to use the MythTV plugin as a base before, but I stopped development when the RTSP protocol stopped working in XBMC. I also wanted to make something simple (simple zapping and EPG (I don't record shows since we don't have real series here in the netherlands)), since the MythTV plugin is big, I started from scratch.

I hope to make some progress this month and get a stable script working Smile I still hope to attract some developers here to speed things up (and maybe also create something to record shows)! So if you are interested... please let me know and I'll set up a SVN account.
Reply
#10
This is great, I stopped using xbmc because mediaportal has so powerfull tv that no 3rd party app I launched from inside xbmc could replace it.
I didn't try your plugin yet, but if you make it behave in exact way as mediaportal tv section that will be great! By that I mean timeshifting and jumping backward forward.. Also reading tv groups is a must, I will try it as soon as I can, now I have to download latest xbmc to try it out Smile
Reply
#11
I'm loving this plug-in. Works just fine on my Windows machines, but not on my Mac laptop.

I loaded 9.11 XBMC for PowerPC, cause I have a 1.3Ghz G4 chip on my laptop Mac. It'll find the server and even display the channels, but when I try to watch a channel I get an error that pops up in the lower right corner of my screen. A generic plug-in error.

Has anyone gotten this to work on XBMC on a PPC Mac, with MediaPortal on a Windows machine?
Reply
#12
akiaki Wrote:This is great, I stopped using xbmc because mediaportal has so powerfull tv that no 3rd party app I launched from inside xbmc could replace it.
I didn't try your plugin yet, but if you make it behave in exact way as mediaportal tv section that will be great! By that I mean timeshifting and jumping backward forward.. Also reading tv groups is a must, I will try it as soon as I can, now I have to download latest xbmc to try it out Smile

I make it the way I want:
- Fast
- Simple
- But full featured Smile

At the moment it is:
- Slow (zapping)
- Too simple

But at least I made a start

Dukenukemx Wrote:I'm loving this plug-in. Works just fine on my Windows machines, but not on my Mac laptop.

I loaded 9.11 XBMC for PowerPC, cause I have a 1.3Ghz G4 chip on my laptop Mac. It'll find the server and even display the channels, but when I try to watch a channel I get an error that pops up in the lower right corner of my screen. A generic plug-in error.

Has anyone gotten this to work on XBMC on a PPC Mac, with MediaPortal on a Windows machine?

Edit: Didn't saw your post Smile But when you have a bug, please post the log with it (XBMC and MediaPortal plugin).

I think I know what's the problem. Windows will send the following rtsp string: rtsp://netbiosName:??/3.0stream. I guess this netbios name can't be resolved by Mac OS, and therefore it can't play.

I already made a function that will get the IP of the server (not the netbios name) so it will always play correctly. Next release will fix this problem.
Reply
#13
Hi Xinix

If you still need help with development maybe i can help you.
Reply
#14
dutchmatrix Wrote:Hi Xinix

If you still need help with development maybe i can help you.

Yes. Please PM me and I'll set up a SVN account for you. Don't know if you have any experience with C# (plugin MediaPortal) or Python (plugin XBMC), please let me know Smile.
Reply
#15
Hi ,first of all a big THANK YOU ! ,i very apreciate that finally somebody is working on a working solution for the mp tv server ,very cool.
Unfortunatly it doesn´t work yet at my system. (but almost)

so :
i have my tv server working on a win7 machine with mysql ,it is working for my Mp client on the laptop.

i installed everything as u described here and if i press on videoplugins - tv server plugin on xbmc it lists the channels but when i press the channel tvserver xbmc.exe says playchannel result .... and a rtsp:// link wich is not my server and then it says handling command ;connection closed

what did i make wrong ?

can u help me ?

here is what it says :

TvServer Debug EXE: 1.0.0.0
Is it connected : True
Waiting for clients...
New Connection! Not listening for any new connections
Correct protocol, connection accepted!
Handling command; CloseConnection
Connection closed
Connection complete, listening for new connection..
New Connection! Not listening for any new connections
Correct protocol, connection accepted!
Handling command; ListGroups
GROUP : 1;All Channels
Handling command; IsTimeshifting
Handling command; CloseConnection
Connection closed
Connection complete, listening for new connection..
New Connection! Not listening for any new connections
Correct protocol, connection accepted!
Handling command; ListChannels
CHANNEL : 1;ORF1
--
CHANNEL : 2;ORF2 W
--
CHANNEL : 3;ATV
--
CHANNEL : 4;ORF2 N
--
CHANNEL : 5;PULS 4
--
CHANNEL : 6;3SAT
--
CHANNEL : 7;ORF Sport Plus
--
CHANNEL : 8;ServusTV
--
Handling command; IsTimeshifting
Handling command; CloseConnection
Connection closed
Connection complete, listening for new connection..
New Connection! Not listening for any new connections
Correct protocol, connection accepted!
Handling command; TimeshiftChannel
<< TIMESHIFT url
PlayChannel result : rtsp://2001:0:5ef5:73bc:38f3:3244:aa80:2af/stream1.0
Handling command; CloseConnection
Connection closed
Connection complete, listening for new connection..


so if u could help me make it working it would be cool ,
thanx ,
greetings della chef
Reply
  • 1(current)
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 55

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
[RELEASE] XBMC TV using MediaPortal TVserver (XBMP-TV Script)8