[Ozymandyaz]

Hi all -

This is more of an FYI observation than anything else..

I have an ATV2 with XBMC and it works great. I use the "Canada on Demand" plug-in (cuz I live in Canada...) to watch stuff on the local TV networks (its like Free Cable but for Canada.) However in the last few weeks I also started using a DNS based US proxy/VPN provider so that I can use a US Netflix account. But, as soon as I did that, ALL of my RTMP based streaming broke in the ATV2. It took a lot of troubleshooting, but here is what I found:

Looks like using any kind of DNS based solution to to get around IP geo-coding has a tendency to break ATV2 streaming. In fact using google DNS (8.8.8.8) also breaks all of my RTMP streams, but ONLY for the ATV2...

I have an ATV1 Crystalbuntu box and a Windows XBMC install that both play the streams just fine regardless of what DNS server they are attached to... So its very specific to the ATV2.

I read somewhere that even iTunes streaming was having trouble with stuff like Google or open DNS because they would cause the geo-coding to misread the location of the IP address and in turn send the stream request to the wrong Akami CDN hub...

Either way, I suspect its an RTMP issue here, but I find it odd that Windows and Linux RTMP do not suffer the same issue.

Anyone else seeing this behaviour? Any workarounds?

[macf1an]

there are good dns geo-masking services and there are.. not so good ones.
In general if a dns provider claims a site as "supported" you should be ok. Not all sites work "right-out-of-the-box" - some need particular support by the server.
The effect you see is known (to me at least) and happens with some free dns services - I've experienced it with the epixhd addon in particular. The stream just fails to load..
A tested and working (but paid) option is unotelly. Netflix, Epix, Hulu, Crackle, Pandora, Vevo - all play fine on eden with both the default and the updated rtmp from supertv. Watch your logs for the type of error the rtmp srever returns. Warnings "client requested 6 server sent 9" are usually skippable but if you see a handshake type 9 error - choose another cdn (if present) or upgrade your librtmp

[Ozymandyaz]

there are good dns geo-masking services and there are.. not so good ones.
In general if a dns provider claims a site as "supported" you should be ok. Not all sites work "right-out-of-the-box" - some need particular support by the server.
The effect you see is known (to me at least) and happens with some free dns services - I've experienced it with the epixhd addon in particular. The stream just fails to load..
A tested and working (but paid) option is unotelly. Netflix, Epix, Hulu, Crackle, Pandora, Vevo - all play fine on eden with both the default and the updated rtmp from supertv. Watch your logs for the type of error the rtmp srever returns. Warnings "client requested 6 server sent 9" are usually skippable but if you see a handshake type 9 error - choose another cdn (if present) or upgrade your librtmp

Hi there macf1an -

Thanks for taking a look! I agree that there are good and bad geo-masking services as I have tried a few. I also think its interesting that I see the same behaviour when I use 8.8.8.8 as my DNS. The service I am using right-now works perfectly for Netflix (on the ATV2 as well as all my other boxes), Pandora, Hulu etc... And it works great with XBMC in an ATV1 (Crystalbuntu) and a windows set-up. The only issue that I have right now is specific to the ATV2. I have tried on iOS 4.3 and 5.0 with the same result and I have also updated my librtmp to the one that Bluecop complied a while back.

Here is a snippet of the error I receive:

Code:

06:19:16 T:149725184  NOTICE: {'app': 'ondemand', 'scheme': 'rtmpe', 'querystring': 'auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/', 'playpath': 'mp4:s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/Conan-2254-clip02.mp4?auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/', 'netloc': 'cp45924.edgefcs.net'}
06:19:16 T:149725184   ERROR: DEBUG:root:Playing Stream: rtmpe://cp45924.edgefcs.net/ondemand?ovpfv=2.1.4&auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ playpath=mp4:s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/Conan-2254-clip02.mp4?auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ swfurl=http://watch.ctv.ca/Flash/player.swf?themeURL=http://watch.ctv.ca/themes/CTV/player/theme.aspx
06:19:16 T:149725184  NOTICE: .
06:19:16 T:104988672  NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: rtmpe://cp45924.edgefcs.net/ondemand?ovpfv=2.1.4&auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ playpath=mp4:s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/Conan-2254-clip02.mp4?auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ swfurl=http://watch.ctv.ca/Flash/player.swf?themeURL=http://watch.ctv.ca/themes/CTV/player/theme.aspx
06:19:16 T:104988672 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
06:19:16 T:152621056  NOTICE: Creating InputStream
06:19:16 T:152621056 WARNING: HandShake: Type mismatch: client sent 6, server answered 9
06:19:17 T:152621056  NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
06:19:17 T:152621056   ERROR: RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header
06:19:17 T:152621056 WARNING: could not find codec parameters for rtmpe://cp45924.edgefcs.net/ondemand?ovpfv=2.1.4&auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ playpath=mp4:s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/Conan-2254-clip02.mp4?auth=dbEc8bFaFckc1crbGaucsbzc5aybUaZa.cS-bpS6Lu-eS-iYG-ovF1onDCq&aifp=v001&slist=/s_!ctv/shows/2012/05/10/ swfurl=http://watch.ctv.ca/Flash/player.swf?themeURL=http://watch.ctv.ca/themes/CTV/player/theme.aspx
06:19:17 T:152621056   ERROR: OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
06:19:17 T:152621056  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
06:19:17 T:152621056  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit() deleting input stream
06:19:17 T:104988672   ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [plugin://plugin.video.canada.on.demand/?Plot=Conan+welcomes+Tom+Selleck%2C+Zosia+Mamet+and+musical+guest+The+Wombats.&show_id=8823&use_rtmp=0&Title=Conan+%28Ep.+2254%29+May+10%2C+2012+Clip+2+of+6&episode_id=114569&season_id=1977&Date=11.05.2012&clip_id=677312&remote_url=None&action=play_clip&Icon=%2Fvar%2Fmobile%2FLibrary%2FPreferences%2FXBMC%2Faddons%2Fplugin.video.canada.on.demand%2Fresources%2Fimages%2Fchannels%2Fctv.png&videocount=6&channel=ctv&Thumb=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctvdigital.com%2Fimages%2Fpub2upload%2F3%2F2012_5_11%2Fconan-2254.jpg]
06:19:17 T:104988672  NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()

[macf1an]

strange but true...
until yesterday, hulu via unotelly was ok, using akamai with the default eden librtmp
since today all akamai streams fail with the very same error..RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header

I had to switch to level3 (not supported by the default librtmp due to HandleCtrl: SWFVerification Type 2 request not supported! Patches welcome...) but it's ok with supertv's librtmp (get it here http://supercloudtv.com/librtmp.html )

I guess akamai upped their game a bit..

[Ozymandyaz]

Actually, that new librtmp seems to have fixed me up...