how to play broadcasted stream?

(I'm using me-tv version 0.5.9)

Have a read of this bug thread here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/178077

Use `mplayer udp://224.0.1.2:2005/`

Sorry, I should explain more. The broadcast in Me TV uses a network technology called `multicast`. Multicast has a set of IP ranges which includes 224.X.X.X. To read more about Multicast then see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast.

Thanks Michael Lamothe, that solved my question.

Use `mplayer udp://224.0.1.2:2005/` or `xine udp://224.0.1.2:2005/`

The broadcast in Me TV uses a network technology called `multicast`. Multicast has a set of IP ranges which includes 224.X.X.X. To read more about Multicast see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast.

FAQ #54: “How to play broadcast stream?”.

I have still no success with
  mplayer udp://224.0.1.2:2005/
or
  mplayer udp://224.0.1.2:2005

I got this:

  Playing udp://224.0.1.2:2005/.
  STREAM_UDP, URL: udp://224.0.1.2:2005/
  Failed to connect to server
  udp_streaming_start failed
  No stream found to handle url udp://224.0.1.2:2005/

I have active Firestarter,
but allowing all outgoing connection and incomming connection
from localhost, my local router and the multicast group adress
did not help.
Also stopping firewall had no effect.

Firstly, have you tried it from the same computer? This may seem like a silly test but it's not. This will determine that all the application software is working correctly. Then after that you need to determine what part of the network is blocking you.

Also, you haven't changed IP addresses to 224.0.1.2, have you, don't do this. It's quite a common fault for people that are new to multicast.

Finally, have you tried it in xine?

Hi Michael,

Yes, I am trying it from the same computer. I have not changed IP address, actually I have assigned IP by DHCP in 10.*.*.* range.
When I tried xine:
  xine udp://224.0.1.2:2005/
I got this message:
  There is no demuxer plugin available to handle 'udp://224.0.1.2:2005/'
(like with mplayer) in both cases with- or without active firewall.

But the firewall surely somehow affect it. When I disable it, I see nonzero value in outgoing rate [B/s] in network monitor applet.
But when I leave firewall running, I see zero value there.

I have then tried it on another computer and I got different results in some way:
When I have disabled firewall, I got the same message from mplayer as when I tried it on the same computer.
But when I disable firewall, I got (from mplayer) two messages "Stream not seekable" but no audio or video shown.
(Note mplayer on that computer is working well when playing avi/mpg/other files..)

Does the video freeze at all when you start broadcasting? If so, then your network might not be keeping up. Is it a wired or wireless network connection?

No, video is still alive when I switch on broadcasting ...

it is a wireless connection...

I'm not sure a wireless connection is fast enough, Also, I have never had it run over a wireless connection. I'm not sure if this is a bug or maybe wireless devices don't do multicast well. Can you try a wired connection to confirm that it's working?

Oops, Answered => Needs information.

Unfortunately I cannot test it in wired network now..

I've just had some issues also. I'll check that it's not a bug.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Needs information' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Still investigating this one ... might be a bug.

Thanks Michael,
I will try it in next version.

It works for me locally, although video has too many block artifacts.
I cannot get it work over network (wireless) - may be it is blocked by wi-fi router somehow...

What broadcast address are you using? Use 127.0.0.1 for testing local otherwise it'll send out on 192.168.0.255 which will probably be your wireless connection which is probably not fast enough. Yes, your wireless router may drop the packets, you may be able to configure this but I don't think that your wireless connection is fast enough anyway.

I'm thinking of introducing a ffmpeg codec converter into the network/recording stream so that you can "scale down" the video and/or use a different codec (DivX, MPEG4). See the "recording types" blueprint. The only comment that I've had is someone telling me that I shouldn't do it.

I have used 127.0.0.1 for local test and 10.255.255.255 for test on wireless network.
(I have 10.0.0.x addresses used in my network.)
I must check also firewall settings to allow broadcast connection..

When I set correctly firewall,
I was able to broadcast at 10.255.255.255 thru wi-fi (with many block artifacts).

Also I have another idea: would it be possible to set "Auto" (plus network interface name) in broadcast address in preferences,
which makes Me TV to automatically guess the broadcast address from the IP address of network interface,
e.g. 10.255.255.255 from IP address 10.0.0.3 etc.?

It's not really practical, I think because I used to have a computer that had 2 interfaces with 10.X.X.X and 192.X.X.X network cards in it. Are you feeling like a minority because of the network you are using, is that the issue? Or is it simply because it took you sometime to find the right address? Simply state your case and maybe we can come to a conclusion together.

It is not problem for me to set the broadcast address,
I am not going to use broadcast feature of Me TV really - I only tried to test it.
I think that Me TV is well designed to wide range of users, even beginners.
Those users usually do not know much about networking and broadcast addresses.
I think it would be nice to have simple settings for broadcasting even for beginner users.

Me TV is really aimed at simple users although anyone can use it. To me, networking is not simple and requires some existing knowledge. Even if the user hits the "Broadcast" button they will need to know how to get a network client to use it. This requires an understanding of networking. Being able to set a broadcast address is as basic as I can make it.

In short, if a user can't set the broadcast address in Me TV then there's no way they'll ever get a networked video client going under linux. An "auto" feature would be useless to them.

Please correct me if you think I'm wrong.

The broadcast feature could also need some router tweaking or firewall settings,
so I agree with you: A user that can configure router would have no problem
with setting the broadcast address and on the other side user that cannot tweak
router and firewall would not be probably able to use broadcast anyway.

I only tried broadcast when the button on toolbar gets my attention for the first time
and I was wondering: "Is it broadcasting so simple as pushig the button?"
Now I know that it is not so simple.

Interesting point of view, maybe I should remove it from the main interface because it's not something that you should enable without knowing what you are doing.