Streaming DTT over Internet / Network

mjsmyth

Has anyone an idiots guide to doing the above? I'd like to set up my media center so that I can watch the DTT channels when traveling abroad.

Any suggestions of software to use?

MJ

watty

VLC
unless you have massive upload speed, you need to re-encode to lower quality and then other solutions may be better. Much CPU is needed to re-encode.

philahern

I use Orb http://www.orb.com/ when it works it works well and pretty idiot proof. The problem I have with it is the application installed on pc keeps crashing/logging out. Seems like every time I want to use it while away to watch my recorded tv, it isn't on. I think the problem is related to Windows 7 64bit but haven't solved it yet.

Alternatively if it's just live dtt you are after, you could use the streaming service from magnet http://www.magnetwebtv.ie/ It's been mentioned on here already, it requires registration and the quality isn't the best. I have used it a few times now and is handy.

gtg60

philahern wrote: »

Alternatively if it's just live dtt you are after, you could use the streaming service from magnet http://www.magnetwebtv.ie/ It's been mentioned on here already, it requires registration and the quality isn't the best. I have used it a few times now and is handy.

That won't be of any use to him as he wants to use it abroad.

Another option would be DVBlink with the optional network pack, you can set quality to suit your upload speed, have used DVBlink but not in this context so can't tell you first-hand how well it works.

mjsmyth

My upload speed varies between 1.5mb and 2mb.

I have tried using VLC to watch DTT, but damned if I can get it to!!!

Funnily enough, I started one of the threads on Magnet I'll give Orb and DVBlink a go.

Thanks.

gtg60

mjsmyth wrote: »

My upload speed varies between 1.5mb and 2mb.

Wow, really? Who's that with?

philahern

gtg60 wrote: »

That won't be of any use to him as he wants to use it abroad.

Oops, missed that.

mjsmyth

gtg60 wrote: »

Wow, really? Who's that with?

UPC. I have their 20mb package. Very rare that it hits 2mb upload, but likewise, it is very rare that it drops below 1.5mb or so speedtest.net tells me!

STB

philahern wrote: »

Alternatively if it's just live dtt you are after, you could use the streaming service from magnet http://www.magnetwebtv.ie/ It's been mentioned on here already, it requires registration and the quality isn't the best. I have used it a few times now and is handy.

Leave your pc on and remotely access it abroad with the likes of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoToMyPC

That way you dont have to stream to it if you dont want to. Or if you are concerned about the quality of magnet you can launch your dvb-t card remotely.

You are just running the app remotely and wont have geoblock problems.

marclt

Is a slingbox, compatible with UPC?

Might be worth using?

watty

A slingbox works with anything. But if you have a PC with a DTT USB stick it can do same job better with free software.

But may take a bit of figuring out.

Free MS Media Encoder 9 and Unreal Server are other SW to look at for encoding at lower bit rate for streaming. VLC is a bit strange to use for "reading" a DTT card or stick. but A google will reveal instructions. You need recent or latest version.

Also you might want MS graphEdit (free tool part of DirectX SDK, which is free) as it lets you see what is what.

tonymayo

If it's any help, I use the Slingbox Pro myself for terrestrial and satellite TV viewing when away from home.
It's easy to set up and works brilliantly from my experience.
I have a very modest broadband package, below 2mb upload, and it runs very smoothly.
There is even an iPhone app (and Blackberry also) which costs about €28 and it too does what it says on the tin.
I have even watched RTE News on my iPhone on wifi-enabled buses when overseas.

ted1

just use remote desktop or logmein.

STB

Couldnt agree more. Why people use expensive streaming solutions is beyond me.

desaparecidos

I would disagree with Remote Desktop, and I'm surprised people would suggest it.

It offers very poor quality, and does not achieve full 25FPS even over 100mb LAN. You get vsync tearing effects and overall a poor experience. When you log in via Remote Desktop the graphics adapter on the remote PC is essentially redundant as the session uses an emulated graphics adapter.

VLC is an option but to be honest it's piss poor. It simply does not do that things I claims it can. Simple streaming from a PC to a Laptop over LAN I cannot get working no matter what.

watty

ted1 wrote: »

just use remote desktop or logmein.

very simple as is VNC or PCoverIP, but no good for other than least demanding streaming (i.e. a tiny low frame rate window). A dedicated a/V solution will use much less bandwidth for same quality. MS RDP or VNC may in fact show a black rectangle where the video is.

Anything other than Orb or Slingbox needs understanding of encoding settings and awkward to use software.
VLC isn't simple to get working. But it does work if you have enough CPU power on "server" for re-encoding.
unreal server and unreal client
Windows free Media Encoder 9
These all work with adjustable bitrate to suit your uplink. But
Streaming the Transport stream "as is" with Media Portal, ProgDVB, DVBviewer etc is simple and needs no server CPU power, but needs LAN with minimum speed equal to the channel peak bit rate. That's not going to work over Internet.
To Stream at lower bit rate you need to fully decode and then fully encode in real time. This is x3 CPU power as needed to view.

mjsmyth

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Logmein or VNC is a no no. The frame rate is shocking, even over my lan. Also, what about sound? I didn't think either of them did remote sound.

Although I have UPC broadband, I don't have UPC Cable, I have Freesat and an DTT tuner. I'm not worried about streaming Freesat as when I am in the UK that is not an issue.

I'll look into Orb and see how I get on.

Villain

DVBLink Network Pack with a DTT Tuner is another option, works well on iPhone too

KeRbDoG

I've just got DTT streaming over my network and now internet in the past few weeks using a PlayTV from Sony though my Ubuntu server at home.


Screen grab via VNC

I've streamed to work no problem, but I have a fairly fast net connection at home. I'm getting a steady 24 frames/second @ 640x480 with 96kb/s stereo audio :cool: Using VNC on whatever platform I want to view the network stream.

Cost me, 50~60euro total.

For those interested, the cmd line I'm using on the server;

cvlc dvb_channels_confs/tv3.conf --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1618,width=576,height=480,fps=25,acodec=mp3,ab=96,audio-sync,channels=2,samplerate=44100,sync-audio}:std{access=http,mux=ts,dst=:8080}'

...and yes, I need to ssh in and change the channel being streamed via the cmd line ^_^

zilog_jones

You should use 25 fps for a PAL source, otherwise it will go through needless framerate conversion, crude frame decimation or it will go out of sync (not sure what VNC will do in this case). Also try with a height of 576 and don't de-interlace for full interlaced video (sports, news, etc., are full 576i50 and not 25fps), not sure if PlayTV will deal with that properly, and if it gets the field order wrong you'll know pretty quickly.

KeRbDoG

zilog_jones wrote: »

You should use 25 fps for a PAL source, otherwise it will go through needless framerate conversion, crude frame decimation or it will go out of sync (not sure what VNC will do in this case). Also try with a height of 576 and don't de-interlace for full interlaced video (sports, news, etc., are full 576i50 and not 25fps), not sure if PlayTV will deal with that properly, and if it gets the field order wrong you'll know pretty quickly.

Good stuff, thanks for those tips - will amend my cmd line now.

Now to find a way of streaming two channels at a time

Update: Turns out a dual core Intel Xeon CPU 3065 @ 2.33GHz can't really deal with two streams at one. Always good to know.

watty

On a LAN you can stream any number of channels, or all of them with almost no CPU. Because you don't need to decode and encode.

KeRbDoG

watty wrote: »

On a LAN you can stream any number of channels, or all of them with almost no CPU. Because you don't need to decode and encode.

More looking to stream on my WAN, so transcoding needed.

watty

Absolutely. And dedicated $10,000 per channel boxes do it so much easier than a PC. Especially if you go for best quality for bit rate (say H.264 L3 MPEG4). MPEG2 or even divX MPEG4 is very much less demanding, but then for same bit rate the quality is much lower.
You could also run at 12.5 fps to have much more detail for same data rate. Crop to 480 lines from 576 rather than re-sample.

Johnboy1951

KeRbDoG,
what is required within the tv3.conf file in your example? Can you post it?

Thanks.

KeRbDoG

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

KeRbDoG,
what is required within the tv3.conf file in your example? Can you post it?

Thanks.

kerbdog-server:~/dvb_channels_confs$ cat tv3.conf 
TV3:738000000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_AUTO:FEC_AUTO:QAM_AUTO:TRANSMISSION_MODE_AUTO:GUARD_INTERVAL_AUTO:HIERARCHY_NONE:1103:1203:1103

I've attached all the config files for all the stations from Three Rock. You create them with a scanning app via the CLI.