MLB.TV in Linux - Page 152

daftcat · 10-12-2009, 06:40 PM

I checked in some code for postseason.tv support. If you are an mlb.tv subscriber, you shouldn't have to also pay for postseason.tv. I believe that package is only for new subscribers.

Release notes:

+ If you want the main TV broadcast feed, use mlbviewer.py.

+ If you want the alternate camera views, use postseason.py.

+ Alternate camera views are only enabled during live broadcasts and are not archived.

+ Camera view can be incremented with '.' (period) key and decremented with ',' (comma) key. (We're running out of keys and this is a ultra-short term project.)

+ Camera views are fixed within a game but not between games. Camera 1 (default) may be the home plate camera one game and the centerfield camera the next game. There's no way for me to know which view it is from the listings or the content reply. Just have to try them all each game and see what you like.

+ You can attempt the "quad mode" that mlb.com advertises with multiple instances of postseason.py and muting all but one camera within your mplayer windows ('m' key in mplayer.)

I got this code working only last night about a minute before the Phi-Col game ended so I didn't have much test time. It may or may not work as expected. Let me know what your experience is.

If it works for you and you like it, please consider donating the $10 postseason.tv fee to me via paypal at straycat000(at)yahoo(dot)com.

daftcat · 10-12-2009, 10:16 PM

Ugh! Once again, because the ET times suck for those on the west coast who have to work, I got pretty much no testing time in. I don't think the camera switching code is working yet but I'm not getting another chance to test and debug again until probably Saturday.

pajamian · 10-13-2009, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Okay, thanks for the info.

So what's the problem you are still facing?

For some reason mlbviewer is trying to play the flash stream, and does not appear to see the other (standard or nextdef) streams. I can't get on the laptop to give specifics right now, but when I can I will give you the specific messages from mlbviewer as best as I can.

Quote:

For nexdef, you need the autobahn.jar file and you're starting it as "java -jar autobahn.jar"?

Yep, doing that.

Quote:

Also for nexdef, you should set max_bps in your config file and also use_nexdef:

Yep, done that as well. I think I set it to 1800000 because that looks good on my big screen TV without using loads of bandwidth. In NZ we don't get unlimited broadband. My plan allows for 26 gigs / month before I have to start paying extra and that is considered quite a large plan around here. I will probably go over my allotment this month, heh.

Quote:

With svn revision 214, you should be picking up the main tbs stream only.

That's what I want, but all the available streams say FLASH on them.

daftcat · 10-13-2009, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pajamian

For some reason mlbviewer is trying to play the flash stream, and does not appear to see the other (standard or nextdef) streams. I can't get on the laptop to give specifics right now, but when I can I will give you the specific messages from mlbviewer as best as I can.

Yep, doing that.

Yep, done that as well. I think I set it to 1800000 because that looks good on my big screen TV without using loads of bandwidth. In NZ we don't get unlimited broadband. My plan allows for 26 gigs / month before I have to start paying extra and that is considered quite a large plan around here. I will probably go over my allotment this month, heh.

That's what I want, but all the available streams say FLASH on them.

They are supposed to say FLASH on them. There is Flash the plugin and Flash the video type. Or at least that's how MLB and NexDef see it.

If you see a screen similar to the following:

Code:

AVAILABLE STREAMS (Use number keys to select a stream)
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 ) [ 164K] MLB_GAME_VIDEO_PHICOL_NATIONAL_20091012_MLB_FLASH_164K_STREAM
2 ) [ 400K] MLB_GAME_VIDEO_PHICOL_NATIONAL_20091012_MLB_FLASH_500K_STREAM

4 ) [ 800K] MLB_GAME_VIDEO_PHICOL_NATIONAL_20091012_MLB_FLASH_800K_STREAM












STREAM: MLB_GAME_VIDEO_PHICOL_NATIONAL_20091012_MLB_FLASH_800K_STREAM
KBPS  : 800
MS    : 56242559
TIME  : 15:37:22.559 ET

The mlbviewer code is working as expected. Now it's just a question of whether your video_player is starting up and playing correctly.

Does the video start after several seconds (maybe as many as ten seconds depending on the size of your cache buffer in your player.)

What I would try first is lower the max_bps to 200000 (200K) and use mplayer for the video_player with the config file setting of:

Quote:

video_player=mplayer -cache 512

If that pops up a tiny, low quality video screen with both picture and sound, you're good to go. From there, just tweak the cache value in the video_player setting and raise your max_bps back up to 1.8M.

daftcat · 10-13-2009, 08:40 PM

Don't worry it's the same video stream but you'll get far better performance with mplayer vs. using Flash plugin and Firefox. It's the Flash plugin, not the Flash video stream (usually!) that gives the poor choppy performance you're seeing when you use MLB.com's player.

If for any reason you want to compare them head to head, you can use the 'f' key instead of 'Enter' to launch the Flash plugin for that particular game within a firefox window.

daftcat · 10-15-2009, 09:44 PM

I did a little Firebug on the post-season player and I learned there is an easier way to do multi-angle than I am already doing. That's the good news. The bad news is that I might not get to this until Sunday since I can only test it while games are in progress and I can't test while I'm at work.

In the meantime, there is an xml file that contains the multi-angle camera names and content-id's. You can use the test tool to select a camera id:

Code:

$ test/nexdef.py <event-id> <content-id>

or 

$ test/stdout.py <event-id> MLB_FLASH_800K_STREAM <content-id>

Find the event-id's and content-id's from here:

http://gdx.mlb.com/components/game/m..._angle_epg.xml

Change the day portion of the url to the current day.

Theophile · 11-09-2009, 11:18 AM

Well thanks for another successful year with mlbviewer. See you all next season!