# Video Stream some other formats?



## davidblackledge (Sep 9, 2008)

Dan203 said:


> TiVo has hardware support for the required DLNA formats and most of the optional formats as well.
> 
> The only required formats are MPEG-2 video and LPCM audio, both of which they support. We know they can also decode H.264 and WMV video (the original Netflix used WMV) as well as MP3, MP2, AC3 and WMA audio. Not 100% sure about MPEG-4 pt.2 but since the chip can do H.264 it can probably also do MPEG-4 pt.2. So that only leaves ATRAC3 audio, which is not widely used anyway.
> 
> ...


Has anybody made any serious attempts with those audio and video formats above? WMV video, ASF, WMA, AC3, and MP2 audio?
I don't even know what some of those things are (like PS, TS)

I'd love to find out WMV and ASF work some way...may have to "trick it" like I did for streaming .TiVo files.


davidblackledge said:


> Rather simple, actually. Just claim they're a supported video format. video/mpeg, and I even tried video/mp4 at one time and that seems to work as well. It works for files fed directly from a tivo, or files I downloaded to my desktop.


 (there is an additional required step mentioned in a reply by wmcbrine)

My usual problem is not having a known good file to test stuff with ;]


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Valid file types summarized here:
http://code.google.com/p/streambaby/wiki/video_compatibility

wmv sample that works on a TiVo series3/4 here:
http://tivostream.googlecode.com/files/test_vc1_wma.wmv
(Though can't see why you would want to use this format as encoding requirements are very specific and you can at best get 2 channel audio)

PS = mpeg2 program stream container (Can contain mpeg2 video and limited audio types)
TS = mpeg2 transport stream container (Can contain many types of video and audio formats)


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## davidblackledge (Sep 9, 2008)

Thanks for that. Partly I'm always looking for more video sources that Enter Webz can take advantage of.

I wonder if the built-in videoplayer might be a little more forgiving with those formats? Maybe I'll make Enter Webz use that player for all video formats that aren't known to be "easy" (or too large a file).


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

davidblackledge said:


> I wonder if the built-in videoplayer might be a little more forgiving with those formats? Maybe I'll make Enter Webz use that player for all video formats that aren't known to be "easy" (or too large a file).


I don't understand what you're saying here. More forgiving than what? You sound like you mean to compare two things, but I only see one referent.


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## davidblackledge (Sep 9, 2008)

wmcbrine said:


> I don't understand what you're saying here. More forgiving than what? You sound like you mean to compare two things, but I only see one referent.


I'm thinking of HME video streaming vs. the built-in video app. Built-in video app may handle .TiVo files without any "convincing" with special headers, and we know it handles the 1.1G limit, so maybe a few more types of video will work through it, too - not that it really supports more, but it might try harder (or really, try "dumber") and have a decent result (e.g. maybe a few H.264 or WMV variations are "sort of compatible" and will get played).

I guess, in general, I really mean that I'll probably have Enter Webz use the video player app for everything with a mime type of "video/*" except for a few formats I know I can handle well with Enter Webz's streaming screen.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Ah, I see now what you're saying. In which case... no, I wouldn't expect it to be any more compatible.

HME video streaming is probably capable of avoiding the 1.1G limit, too, if only we knew the right options to specify.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> HME video streaming is probably capable of avoiding the 1.1G limit, too, if only we knew the right options to specify.


 It's not "probably", it's confirmed. TiVoCast HME Video Player doesn't have the 1.1G limit and is the player I launch in kmttg for the "pyTivo stream" feature. I never managed to get it working with on the fly transcoding with pyTivo as server, so currently it is limited to compatible videos only.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

It's the TiVoCast player that David is speaking of as a separate thing from the HME streamer (i.e. CMD_RSRC_ADD_STREAM in an HME app). I think it's reasonable to assume that the TiVoCast player is built on HME streaming, though.


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## jhilla (May 13, 2011)

davidblackledge said:


> Thanks for that. Partly I'm always looking for more video sources that Enter Webz can take advantage of.
> 
> I wonder if the built-in videoplayer might be a little more forgiving with those formats? Maybe I'll make Enter Webz use that player for all video formats that aren't known to be "easy" (or too large a file).


David based on your com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp, I think I may have an idea how to play my personal media through EntertheWebz. In theory if I were to make an internal homepage that links to all my media, I could then refer that to the launcher.

Example:

com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp http://192.168.0.3/asus/pytivo.html

I would have a preset intranet page with all the videos of Pytivo with hyperlinks saved to pytivo.html. Since EntertheWebz pulls the data it would serve my links for playback on the screen with remote and then assuming has read acess could/should play on my TiVo right? If this is even remotely possible, I'm going to get started on this project and report back my findings. I feel that your app has huge potential into moving to the next step.

STATUS UPDATE: FAILED - Preparing 2nd workaround.


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## jhilla (May 13, 2011)

Since David's design pulls streams from live feeds and does not recognize local file storage as supported. I've taken the liberty to try an easier approach. We all know that Plex is powerful that it's catalogs everything and makes it playable to just about everything but a Tivo. But, if my theory is close to correct, after the system is cataloged it's assigned an it's own web broadcast address for personal devices. So we take the the new hyperlink and add it to the launcher and if all goes to plan. It should have a pure feed of media files for playback for the TiVo to function.

I'll keep you posted if this works or fails..

Status: EntertheWebz did pull the PlexAddress but the screen was not displaying media entries.

com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp
com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp http://www.google.com Google
com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp http://www.archive.org "Archive.org Videos/Music/Books"
com.blackledge.david.html.hme.WebBrowserApp http://70.127.58.228:29819/web/index.html "Plex MediaServer"


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