Streaming avi,divx movies to Dreambox

[dweeb4]

I posted this in the new to cable section but thought it should get a wider audience, so reposted here:

Here's a handy solution I found on my travels through all things related to recording/streaming from/to dreambox.
It's a VLC script which you can drag and drop a movie file onto (all formats accepted avi,divx,etc) and it converts the movie to a transport stream format file in the movies mount folder on your PC.
So on your DM box it will show up as a recorded movie & you can view it while it is being converted by VLC. You also, at the end, have a copy of the movie in ts format on your mount folder.
Just create a .bat file with this content:
"%ProgramFiles%\VideoLan\VLC\vlc" -vvv %1 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=3072,scale=1,acode c=mp2a,ab=192,fps=24,channels=2}duplicate{dst =std{access=file,mux=ts,dst="C:\db\hdd\movie\%~n1. ts"}}
Change C:\db\hdd\movies to your mount folder

Edit: IMPORTANT NOTE: the above script (and attached file is wrong) it needs to be changed to read fps=25

 

[Hejira]

Thanks I'm looking at this method for converting at the moment.

Maybe not really relevant here but I've being playing with something simular to this for the 360.

.bat files for wmv's
View attachment 34843

 

[grim00]

I've just tried it and it plays back on the DM500c very pixellated. It does this even when the conversion is complete and my PC is doing nothing else. The converted (.ts) file plays flawlessly on the PC using vlc so its not the file.


Is it meant to play perfectly?

 

[velvitjester69]

are you trying to play wirelesy ie laptop

 

[grim00]

No, doing it wirelessly is asking for trouble. It's connected via my router using quality cat6 cable.

 

[dweeb4]

Hi grim00,
Yes it should play back flawlessly! Maybe you have one of those 500 boxes with slow network speed? Have you ever tested the speed?

 

[hatab]

@dweeb4 sorry to be a pain
i can see where to change expression to change output folder and ive changed input path for vlc on pc, when i run bat it opens vlc with error.....where do i tell vlc what movie to copy and make a ts file ?

 

[dweeb4]

Just drag the movie over & drop it on the bat file!

 

[grim00]

Hi grim00,
Yes it should play back flawlessly! Maybe you have one of those 500 boxes with slow network speed? Have you ever tested the speed?

What is the best way to test the speed, apart from copying a large file and timing it?
Watching a recorded programme on the Dreambox that is stored on the PC that the Dreambox created plays fine with almost no pixellation, much better than the vlc-created file that is not watchable. This may discount the slow network port theory unless the bit rate is lower on the Dreambox recording.

 

[dweeb4]

yea, copy a large file from PC to Box & use a network traffic analyser - I use netstat live from here: http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/nsl.htm
If it isn't network speed I don't know what else - maybe others who have tried it can pitch in with their experience?

 

[grim00]

yea, copy a large file from PC to Box & use a network traffic analyser - I use netstat live from here: http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/nsl.htm
If it isn't network speed I don't know what else - maybe others who have tried it can pitch in with their experience?

Not sure how to read the output of that app but ftp-ing DW.img from the Dreambox to the PC gives me:
ftp: 8126464 bytes received in 2.25Seconds 3611.76Kbytes/sec.
...which doesn't look bad.
I'll try converting a different avi and see if that makes a difference.

 

[dweeb4]

Yes grimoo,
That's about right - I get between 3-4MBytes/sec, which is about 30Mbits/sec - more than ample for streaming (you can change the Netstat live options to give you bits/sec)
How are you playing this ts file on your box - just as if it was a recorded movie from your box?

 

[grim00]

Yes grimoo,
That's about right - I get between 3-4MBytes/sec, which is about 30Mbits/sec - more than ample for streaming (you can change the Netstat live options to give you bits/sec)
How are you playing this ts file on your box - just as if it was a recorded movie from your box?

Playing both the vlc created .ts and 500c created .ts files as recorded programmes.

I converted another avi file and same result. Shame, her indoors would have been impressed with this feature.

 

[frenchman]

Maybe your missing a codec, have a look for a program called gspot, it checks your PC for the right codecs caompared to the file.

Frenchman

 

[studiowerk]

I have same problem too - pixelated heavily! tried gspot but it says I have the right codecs...am using neutrino & have tried changing video bitrate and everything!

 

[dweeb4]

Oh dear, Yes it does seem to be pixellated! I ran Mpeg2Repair on the ts file & it is error free! And indeed the ts file plays back perfectly on the PC. Don't know what is going on? Will need further investigation. I have reports from others that on 7020 boxes this works fine!!!!

 

[dweeb4]

I seem to remember that I ran this script originally with PLi Helenite & DM500C box without problem and indeed the recent feedback from a satisfied user was with the PLi image on a 7020 box! So, I'm at a loss to explain (I'm currently running DW2 image) - I was going to go for the difference between Enigma ts file Vs Neutrino ts file as a possible explanation but I don't think this is it.

Anybody else got any ideas? It must be something to do with the ts file makeup that VLC creates in the transcoding process. I will ask on the VLC forum & PLi forum!

As they say - leave no stone unturned!

 

[dweeb4]

One thing that I just noticed in the script is the fps=24. AFAIK the channels all come in at fps=25 in my part of the world anyway.

I'm not in a position to make this change & test it - is anybody up to doing this & reporting back?

 

[hatab]

i had the same result when i tried it.

just changed that fps option to 25 trying now, will let u know

 

[hatab]

yupp thats the setting

100% times better, ive ff through film and lip sync seems ok too

dweeb4 m8 might be an idea if u update your original file in post 1 for anybody that comes across this post and downloads in the future