MLB.TV in Linux

daftcat · 05-06-2009, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxphan

i'd guess mlb.tv would want more people linking to their games and driving up usage/subscriptions, but you're probably right. though they do publish with yahoo sports i see, maybe put myself 2 layers removed from them - heh

thx for the tip on the cleanup of mlbtv.py, i'll go with grid.xml and get started on it this afternoon. i'm looking for basic acct level access over flash, so really all i needed was a way to establish auth and an easy way to build a menu with the game-id and push it to their mediaplayer url.

i've been a user of mlbviewer since you guys first published it, so glad to help contribute anything if it's of any use.

Yahoo and MLB.com signed a media partnership deal last year so it's no surprise that Yahoo Sports has the MLB schedule. It is actually the Yahoo deal that has brought all the changes to this year's service. I think Yahoo is somehow involved with the Flash Media servers and the Swarmcast network (or at the very least, probably the SOAP and/or XML services.)

Suds and pyxml are available through easy_install (setuptools) so if a Mac system has python, it probably has setuptools, and it can probably install suds and pyxml with a couple of simple commands. Playing directly off the autobahn.jar is definitely easier than messing with the RTMP layer, but not as easy as linking directly to their flash plugin with the event-id (see the 'Flash', ord('f') section of mlbviewer.py for linking directly to their flash player.)

Theophile · 05-06-2009, 02:19 PM

Honestly, an XBMC/Boxee plugin that is dumping in the background and playing the dumped file would probably be preferable for me, since the raw stream isn't seekable.

daftcat · 05-06-2009, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackRubysDog

My pet project to get mlbviewer running on a PS3 has bitten the dust. In short, I've given up.

The final kick in the teeth, after jumping through so many hoops to get a working version of JRE for YDL to get autobahn, then a working version of mplayer and compiling it for YDL and getting all the codecs working, and then FINALLY getting mlbviewer working and showing baseball in a tiny window was the inability to go full screen (or even expand the screen to watchable dimensions).

Reading up on this, it appears that a PS3 will not allow a second operating system to have access to the video hardware, meaning that any picture scaling and acceleration has to be done by software. Even if I could find a way of achieving this (and sdl should do it but when I use sdl with mplayer it crashes) the PS3 processor would not be able to cope with running autobahn and mplayer and expanding the stream, making the video unwatchable.

Humph.

Ah well, I least I can rid myself of YDL on the PS3 and claw back 10GB!

Thanks to anyone and everyone who tried to help me and I'm sorry some time had been wasted. I can still use mlbviewer on my Ubuntu PC in the kitchen and for the time being my wife's laptop on the HDTV, but it would have been nice to have switched on the PS3 and loaded up mlbviewer without all the cables streaming everywhere!

Bye!

Ah, I read this after you posted. Yeah, Sony put a hypervisor on their PDA over the sound layer so anything that wasn't Sony blessed was Mono channel and couldn't get at the full volume range. I have no idea why they shoot themselves in the foot like this.

This probably the reason why MLB refuses to add PS3 support because they have no idea if Sony would even cooperate in the development or if the supplemental technology such as the browser or Flash would have access to the GFX. Besides, I think they have their hands more than full with all the problems they have on their officially supported platforms.

Applian FLV Player behaves so well with autobahn, that I could probably blow their flash player out of the water if I could figure out an easier way than cygwin to support mlbviewer. But... I'd rather have MLB.com's cooperation (or at least tolerance) than competition. Plus, I'd rather not have all those ungrateful and disrespectful users that flood the support forums with threats of breach of contract class action lawsuits.

Anyway, I think some project will eventually find a way around the PS3 hypervisor. They eventually did for the sound on the Clie. That's just the nature of the stubborn Linux community.

daftcat · 05-06-2009, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theophile

Honestly, an XBMC/Boxee plugin that is dumping in the background and playing the dumped file would probably be preferable for me, since the raw stream isn't seekable.

You could file an issue with ffmpeg on the seekability. That may even clear up other issues with our streams. Of course, it may be better to keep the requests one at a time. Don't know what's taking so long with the current request though.

Also, jump to half innings will be coming soon. I nearly wrote it last night after being dropped out of all three games I tried to watch in both nexdef and non-nexdef modes. Maybe tomorrow night?

linuxphan · 05-06-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Suds and pyxml are available through easy_install (setuptools) so if a Mac system has python, it probably has setuptools, and it can probably install suds and pyxml with a couple of simple commands. Playing directly off the autobahn.jar is definitely easier than messing with the RTMP layer, but not as easy as linking directly to their flash plugin with the event-id (see the 'Flash', ord('f') section of mlbviewer.py for linking directly to their flash player.)

I maybe able to get it down to bare bones with the boxee api. All I need is to pass it the url of http://mlb.mlb.com/flash/mediaplayer...ndar_event_id=[n] where [n] is the calendar_event_id found in grid.xml and it seems to work. Of course with a url like that, it's bound to change. Something like http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entr...ndar_event_id=[n] might work better, but I have to do more with the user-agent to make sure it redirects properly.

[edit] after looking at mlbviewer.py, we're talking about the same url

daftcat · 05-06-2009, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxphan

I maybe able to get it down to bare bones with the boxee api. All I need is to pass it the url of http://mlb.mlb.com/flash/mediaplayer...ndar_event_id=[n] where [n] is the calendar_event_id found in grid.xml and it seems to work. Of course with a url like that, it's bound to change. Something like http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entr...ndar_event_id=[n] might work better, but I have to do more with the user-agent to make sure it redirects properly.

[edit] after looking at mlbviewer.py, we're talking about the same url

Thanks! I like the second url since I won't have to keep up with the flash player releases. I'll test that tonight and if it works, I'll make the change.

I wonder if the flash player would work any better if we passed the swf url directly to gnash instead of running it within firefox. I'm more thinking aloud than suggesting anything for boxee/xbmc. Okay, nevermind. Looking at the firebug output, it looks like they are building the SWF on the fly.

linuxphan · 05-06-2009, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Thanks! I like the second url since I won't have to keep up with the flash player releases. I'll test that tonight and if it works, I'll make the change.

I wonder if the flash player would work any better if we passed the swf url directly to gnash instead of running it within firefox. I'm more thinking aloud than suggesting anything for boxee/xbmc. Okay, nevermind. Looking at the firebug output, it looks like they are building the SWF on the fly.

if you wget -r the site, you'll see all sorts of interesting js that looks like they've tried about 10 different video formats over the years. kinda like reading a history book as well as future stuff they're trying.

dols · 05-06-2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxphan

no, though i'm guessing the different platforms would need their own way of calling those features. it would be pretty easy to do on linux since xbmc would just be a wrapper for mlbviewer but i'm not really sure how nextdef(or whatever that's called) works on mac or atv.

I've got a mac and a appletv. AppleTV's limited. it doesn't have a lot of unix utilities and I couldn't get autobahn to launch. On the mac, you can just "open Library/App Support/.../MLBNextDef.app"

poorboywilly · 05-06-2009, 08:09 PM

Did I miss somewhere how to use the stream switching?

Theophile · 05-06-2009, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poorboywilly

Did I miss somewhere how to use the stream switching?

If you have the latest SVN, look at the console window while the video is playing. Should be pretty self explanatory.

Teleute · 05-06-2009, 08:17 PM

I've run into a couple of problems trying to follow the setup instructions for the new version. If anyone has any thoughts, it'd be vastly appreciated!

1st - I installed setuptools, and it's fine. Was able to use it to install suds and simplejson with no issue. However, when I try pyxml, I get far too many errors to stay in my terminal window. The same when I get the package directly from sourceforge and try to install.
(NOTE - I found the solution to this here, pasted in case it helps anyone else: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ighlight=pyxml)

2nd - When trying to run "java -jar autobahn.jar", I get the following:

Quote:

WARNING: Error loading security provider org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider not found in gnu.gcj.runtime.SystemClassLoader{urls=[file:autobahn.jar], parent=gnu.gcj.runtime.ExtensionClassLoader{urls=[], parent=null}}
WARNING: Error loading security provider gnu.crypto.jce.GnuCrypto: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: gnu.crypto.jce.GnuCrypto not found in gnu.gcj.runtime.SystemClassLoader{urls=[file:autobahn.jar], parent=gnu.gcj.runtime.ExtensionClassLoader{urls=[], parent=null}}
Aborted

As per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...tk/+bug/173208, I ran sudo apt-get install libgnucrypto-java libbcprov-java, but that has not solved the problem.

dols · 05-06-2009, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxphan

yes, I'm about done with that part and have a working xbmc/boxee plugin. however, a large number of users on boxee are using appletv (stripped down MacOS) which would create quite a few hoops to jump through to get the additional python libraries installed. i was asking about other forms of broadcasting listings that might not have the same pre-reqs, maybe something out of the box from xbmc's set of libs + basic python.

if they don't have other methods, i'll just document ways to get the additional python libs added, but it won't be a "quick install" app like most other boxee apps are in their repository.

I've been looking to work on this in my spare time. What format do you have the stream playing in? I've gathered that you have flash video working in boxee, is that right?

dols · 05-06-2009, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teleute

I've run into a couple of problems trying to follow the setup instructions for the new version. If anyone has any thoughts, it'd be vastly appreciated!

1st - I installed setuptools, and it's fine. Was able to use it to install suds and simplejson with no issue. However, when I try pyxml, I get far too many errors to stay in my terminal window. The same when I get the package directly from sourceforge and try to install.
(NOTE - I found the solution to this here, pasted in case it helps anyone else: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ighlight=pyxml)

2nd - When trying to run "java -jar autobahn.jar", I get the following:

As per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...tk/+bug/173208, I ran sudo apt-get install libgnucrypto-java libbcprov-java, but that has not solved the problem.

What does "java -version" say? Try using Sun's JVM instead of Gnu's JVM.

poorboywilly · 05-06-2009, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theophile

If you have the latest SVN, look at the console window while the video is playing. Should be pretty self explanatory.

aha. I had a new console instance running the player. Removed that and it works like a charm.

daftcat · 05-06-2009, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teleute

I've run into a couple of problems trying to follow the setup instructions for the new version. If anyone has any thoughts, it'd be vastly appreciated!

1st - I installed setuptools, and it's fine. Was able to use it to install suds and simplejson with no issue. However, when I try pyxml, I get far too many errors to stay in my terminal window. The same when I get the package directly from sourceforge and try to install.
(NOTE - I found the solution to this here, pasted in case it helps anyone else: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ighlight=pyxml)

2nd - When trying to run "java -jar autobahn.jar", I get the following:

As per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...tk/+bug/173208, I ran sudo apt-get install libgnucrypto-java libbcprov-java, but that has not solved the problem.

I hear Sun JVM works, possibly IBM's, and definitely OpenJDK:

Code:

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_0"
IcedTea6 1.3.1 (6b12-0ubuntu6.4) Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_0-b12)
OpenJDK Client VM (build 1.6.0_0-b12, mixed mode, sharing)