[NeoRaven]

I just recently got a 4508 and love it!! Save some problems I'm having with it not recording shows but that is not what this thread is about.


I have been using DVArchive to pull shows off of my ReplayTV. This is working fine save the fact that the files are so dang big!! I have been using VideoLAN to stream from my ReplayTV and DVArchive to stream my copied shows back.


As I looked into the VideoLAN Server I see that it takes various video formats and streams them as MPEG2 to the VideoLAN Client. I want the VideoLAN Server to stream to my ReplayTV!! That would be so cool because then I could convert the ReplayTV MPEG files to something smaller like DIVX!! Not only would that lend to better storage of my ReplayTV shows, it would allow me to watch the shows I have downloaded off the net on my ReplayTV.


DVArchive currently Proxies for the ReplayTV, would it be that difficult to do the same thing only the otherway? Proxy the VideoLAN for the ReplayTV.


One of my conserns is that I know the ReplayTV doesn't use a standard MPEG2 format. I have not tried adding a foriegn MPEG2 file to DVArchive so I don't know if the stream would even be compatible without alterations.


Anyway, that is my wish. I'm not even close to be exprienced enough to try this myself. So, let me know what you think and if this is already being done etc.


Neo Raven

 

[gduprey]

Quote:

Originally posted by NeoRaven As I looked into the VideoLAN Server I see that it takes various video formats and streams them as MPEG2 to the VideoLAN Client. I want the VideoLAN Server to stream to my ReplayTV!! That would be so cool because then I could convert the ReplayTV MPEG files to something smaller like DIVX!! Not only would that lend to better storage of my ReplayTV shows, it would allow me to watch the shows I have downloaded off the net on my ReplayTV

If I understand you correctly, it seems unlikely that you'll be able to do this without some serious work. The #1 problem is that the ReplayTVs are very, very fussy about the MPEG format they'll accept and worse, the format they use is not quite up to MPEG standards. It usually works when playing back, but the number of problems folks have getting PC based playback working is testament to the slightly goofy format.


If you can convert your DIVX videos to a format the ReplyTV will accept, you then need to implement a number of other things in order to be a serve that a ReplayTV can stream from. You have to implement the discovery protocol (broadcast) for unit ident, a guide protocol and a httpfs server with time based encryption.


This is all doable (you can look a thte DVArchive source for ideas), but it is a lot of work.


You may be better off converting to ReplayTV compatible MPEGs (if you can) and then importing them into DVArchive and letting it server them.


And to jump ahead a bit, at this time, I do not have any plans to incorporate "on the fly" format conversions in DVArchive. I've had other requests for this (MP3 format and others) and really don't feel that it's the right place for DVArchive. I prefer to keep DVArchive focused on what it does now.


What I would be willing to do is help expose an API to someone who wanted to work on an automated means to import transcoded MPEGs into DVArchive. Or any other automation. Someday, I plan to seperate the DVArchive GUI from the server and have a publically defined interface so anyone can interact with it. Thats a huge job and as an interim measure, should someone be interested in this route, please contact me and we should be able to get an interface running.