remotechannelstreamconverter GUI?

[MrQuade]

This remotechannelstreamconverter plugin looks like an interesting thing.

Described as"Fetches bouquets on remote hosts and make them available locally"

It looks like that it can essentially read a bouquet from another Enigma2 box (nominally the "server") and convert it into a local bouquet on another enigma2 box (nominally the "client") and allows the client to stream services from server.

Example screenshots and video here.
http://www.dreamoem.com/showthread.php? ... mConverter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIlfQHr0nYw

Unfortunately, it looks like the user interface is not exposed by the Beyonwiz skins.....unless I am missing something.

This could potentially be a handy little plugin for anyone who wants to stick a T2 in another room of the house where there is network access but no antenna, and slave it to another T series box where there is an antenna.

Any ideas on how to make it work?

[peteru]

Kinda sorta.

There is the RemoteIPTVClient extension, which I think might do what this does, but right now the code does not add the extension to the list of plugins, instead it appears in the setup options. I just had a play with it and although it works the experience is a bit flaky.

Install the extension, then go to the tuner setup and you should find an extra option to setup remote IPTV channels.
You should then get the opportunity to import the services from another box. I suggest you do this on a T2 and import from a T4.

[IanSav]

Hi MrQuade,

As for adding this to a skin. Just tell me you want this added and it should be a snap to add. (On a quick glance at the source code I can probably add it's skin to OverlayHD in a matter of minutes.)

Regards,
Ian.

[peteru]

When I say flaky, I guess my main gripe with it is that the GUI thinks that it should be possible to timeshift the IPTV stream, but as soon as you try to do that, things go pear shaped. That's actually not a problem with the plugin, which just imports and converts the service definitions.

Anyway, go ahead and experiment.

[IanSav]

Hi MrQuade,

I had another look at the plugin source and now I understand what you are really asking. You have installed the plugin and can't find its interface anywhere in the Beyonwiz UI.

Yep! I can confirm that problem. I suspect I know what is wrong. The Beyonwiz menu system is *NOT* fully compatible with the original Enigma2 menu system. In this case the RemoteChannelStreamConverter plugin wants to add itself to the Beyonwiz main menu but can't. as the main menu appears to not be extensible.

The RemoteChannelStreamConverter code could be changed to hang off the Plugins menu which should work on the Beyonwiz though this menu is already being overused.

Regards,
Ian.

[IanSav]

Hi MrQuade,

If you would like to try this plugin you can edit the source "/usr/lib/enigma2/python/Plugins/Extensions/RemoteChannelStreamConverter/plugin.py" and edit two items on the last line:

• Change "WHERE_MENU" to "WHERE_PLUGINMENU".
• Change "mainInMenu" to "main".

Restart the GUI and the plugin should hook itself to the Plugins menu. I have tried it and it seems to work fine streaming from one Beyonwiz to another. Note that the viewing Beyonwiz thinks it is watching a local tuner so some of the tuner info bar information is unavailable.

Have fun! (Remember, if you want this skinned in OverlayHD just ask.)

Regards,
Ian.

[prl]

... In this case the RemoteChannelStreamConverter plugin wants to add itself to the Beyonwiz main menu but can't. as the main menu appears to not be extensible. ...

I haven't looked at why that plugin can't insert itself in the main menu, but the main menu can certainly be extended by plugins. I was using the epgrefresh plugin recently just for the fact that it does extend the Plugins menu. That allowed me to test that the up/down arrows in the main menu dropdowns still worked after my changes to GeneralMenu.

Plugins don't actually insert themselves in the main menu. They simply mark themselves as wanting to be in the main menu in the plugins list, and the main menu checks that list for plugins it should include. The UI may need to be restarted to allow that to happen (it does need to be restarted for epgrefresh to appear in the main menu).

[IanSav]

Hi Prl,

Plugins can add themselves to the Plugin section of GeneralMenu but I am not sure they can add themselves to the top level menu or some of the other categories. My hack simply gets the plugin to ask for the Plugin menu and not the main menu.

By the way, I did Restart the GUI *and* Reboot the box, as I would assume did MrQuade, the plugin never appeared.

Regards,
Ian.

[prl]

I thought by "main menu" you meant "anywhere in the main menu".

[MrQuade]

Thanks gents. Taking a while to reply, from way back here in WA .

There is the RemoteIPTVClient extension, which I think might do what this does, but right now the code does not add the extension to the list of plugins, instead it appears in the setup options. I just had a play with it and although it works the experience is a bit flaky.

Hmm Interesting, it does sound like the ticket, and sounds like it plays better with the Wiz menus. I found remotechannelstreamconverter after a quick search for a plugin of this type, and the remotechannelstreamconverter was the one that kept popping up. RemoteIPTVClient seems to get very few mentions on the web for some reason.

When I say flaky, I guess my main gripe with it is that the GUI thinks that it should be possible to timeshift the IPTV stream, but as soon as you try to do that, things go pear shaped. That's actually not a problem with the plugin, which just imports and converts the service definitions.

That's a shame, I wonder what is going wrong there. I am sure I tested timeshifting with the Beyonwiz's "Standby Tuner" feature, which I presume operates in a similar fashion, and it seemed to work properly as I recall. I'll have a play.

I had another look at the plugin source and now I understand what you are really asking. You have installed the plugin and can't find its interface anywhere in the Beyonwiz UI.

Yep, spot on. It looks like it is designed to work with the Dreambox style main menu (which looks pretty terrible IMHO). I was hoping the interface would appear somewhere else like the plugin menu, or the Tuner menu, as prl mentioned with the EPGRefresh plugin.

If you would like to try this plugin you can edit the source "/usr/lib/enigma2/python/Plugins/Extensions/RemoteChannelStreamConverter/plugin.py" and edit two items on the last line:
Change "WHERE_MENU" to "WHERE_PLUGINMENU".
Change "mainInMenu" to "main".

I'm missing a step or a key bit of knowledge here. The path on the T2 that you have indicated only contains .pyo files.

By the way, I did Restart the GUI *and* Reboot the box, as I would assume did MrQuade, the plugin never appeared.

Yup. Though at the time, I only did a GUI restart, as the plugin advised that an enigma2 restart was required.

[IanSav]

Hi MrQuade,

If you would like to try this plugin you can edit the source "/usr/lib/enigma2/python/Plugins/Extensions/RemoteChannelStreamConverter/plugin.py" and edit two items on the last line:
Change "WHERE_MENU" to "WHERE_PLUGINMENU".
Change "mainInMenu" to "main".

I'm missing a step or a key bit of knowledge here. The path on the T2 that you have indicated only contains .pyo files.

When I installed the package from the link you posted it installed the source of the plugin and the restart "compiled" it.

Regards,
Ian.

[MrQuade]

I'm missing a step or a key bit of knowledge here. The path on the T2 that you have indicated only contains .pyo files.

When I installed the package from the link you posted it installed the source of the plugin and the restart "compiled" it.

I figured it was something like that. I had originally tried on the T3, and saw the compiled files, so I installed fresh on the T2. However when I install it, it seems to compile on install.

I am installing it from the Setup->Plugins->Download plugins interface.
Are you installing it differentlly?

[IanSav]

Hi MrQuade,

I downloaded the .ipk from the first link in your first post and installed it via File Commander.

(Sorry for the delay in answering. All the all nighters caught up with me. )

Regards,
Ian.

[MrQuade]

Ah, apologies. I'd posted that link for the screenshots rather than the link. I wasn't clear with my post.

I've been installing from the plugin menu (clearly).

[peteru]

And does it offer anything over and above RemoteIPTVClient ?

[IanSav]

Hi PeterU,

And does it offer anything over and above RemoteIPTVClient ?

I haven't explored both plugins extensively but at a quick glance these look similar if not identical.

Regards,
Ian.

[IanSav]

Hi PeterU,

Is there a reason why RemoteIPTVClient has a method called stopService() that stops the current TV service and blanks the screen with "showiframe /usr/share/enigma2/black.mvi'"? We previously removed these calls due to the inconvenience this causes users.

The hard coded list of DNS names to search when looking for other Beyonwiz units is less than optimal. The comment in the code "... not sure if it good way, but I guess not many people are changing their hostnames" is an indication of the unrealistic nature of this choice. I have renamed all my Beyonwiz devices as will anyone who has more than one of any model of T series Beyonwiz.

Also this plugin is very chatty in the logs. You previously indicated this is a problem and wanted log noise reduced.

Is this a plugin we can fix?

Regards,
Ian.

[prl]

... Is this a plugin we can fix? ...

I presume so: it's in the easy-ui-4 repository: lib/python/Plugins/Extensions/RemoteIPTVClient.

opkg info enigma2-plugin-extensions-remoteiptvclient

provides a hint:
...
Source: git://bitbucket.org/beyonwiz/easy-ui-4.git;protocol=https
...

[IanB]

... it's in the easy-ui-4 repository: lib/python/Plugins/Extensions/RemoteIPTVClient ...

What an absolute piece of $h?t*!

It is supposed to build a bouquet that ultimately contains a list of the open webif URLs for media streaming the remote boxes available services.

Why all the piss farting around robbing files via ftp from the remote box. Open webif provides that service list. And given the final result is dependant on open webif being available ......

[prl]

The source is open to anyone to improve...

[MrQuade]

I finally got around to testing the RemoteIPTVClient plugin (better late than never).

For some reason I thought that this plugin was the same as the remotechannelstreamconverter plugin in that it did not insert itself into the setup menus. It does in fact install a menu option under the Tuners section.

It discovers the other Wiz units on the network nicely, and lists all of the available bouquets on the remote box.

When I ticked the Favourites bouquet on the remote box, and performed the "Download", I got a GUI crash.

After the GUI restarted, the new remote bouquet was present, and everything appeared to work properly. Even the EPG populated correctly which surprised me!

The same crash occurred on the T4 running the 16.1 alpha and the T3 on the current beta. The error looks straightforward enough, though I have no idea if the issue is something wrong in the plugin, or something lacking in the Wiz code.

[peteru]

The code for that plugin is mind boggling. Anyway, I have a fix for that crash. It'll appear in the alpha at some stage.