MLB.TV in Linux

daftcat · 03-25-2009, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theophile

Have you checked out rtmpdump?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtmpdump/

I did look at this. It compiles beautifully and doesn't core on startup. But...it received an AccessDenied when I tried with the rtmp url I pulled from HTTPAnalyzer. It could just be a timing issue because the copy/paste from HA takes a bit of massaging to get to work. I'll know more likely this weekend if I can get the SOAP requests working. It looks like the SOAPpy tutorial was written so long ago that the examples it uses are no longer valid responders. I guess I'll be flying blind.

daftcat · 03-25-2009, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CubsFanUK

I think you have got the link slightly wrong, that was the link to the Venezuela v Puerto Rico game. The link you intended was:

Yankees v Phillies

Also, the start time is actually 17:05 UTC (which is the same as GMT), but the stream usually starts about an hour or so before the start of the game. Also, in case anyone missed it, this game will be free.

Regarding fingerprints in the SOAP message, if you mean the field called session-key, this is the value in the cookie called ftmu. I'm not entirely clear how this cookie is initially fetched yet, I've got a bit more research to do. At the moment, I am copying it over from running the version of the Java that fetches the url for the old media player, it is included in the response to that request. On the other hand the values in the fields called identity-point-id and fingerprint are in the response to the login request.

As for a downloader, I have absolutely no clue, sorry.

From the HTTPAnalyzer, it seems it hits workflow.do but with a different query string than the old way of getting the url. Maybe it's to pick up the session key. I'll experiment with this later.

Here's an example of one of the SOAP requests:

Code:

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <SOAP-ENV:Body>
    <scma:user-verified-media-request xmlns:scma="http://services.bamnetworks.com/media/types/2.0">
      <scma:event-id>164-251363-2009-03-17</scma:event-id>
      <scma:content-id>3979009</scma:content-id>
      <scma:playback-scenario>MLB_FLASH_800K_STREAM</scma:playback-scenario>
      <scma:subject>LIVE_EVENT_COVERAGE</scma:subject>
      <scma:fingerprint-identity-point>
        <scma:identity-point-id>12263517</scma:identity-point-id>
        <scma:fingerprint>VmNLamH30eJktg666VzZpakg+ak=</scma:fingerprint>
      </scma:fingerprint-identity-point>
      <scma:session-key>NGgjvBNcR2lWfDI1kPTWdwtpU5k=</scma:session-key>
    </scma:user-verified-media-request>
  </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

event-id: epg.xml.
content-id : not sure where to get this
identity-point-id: ipid of the authenticate.do cookie
fingerprint: frpt of the authenticate.do cookie
session-key: ftmu of the workflow.do cookie

So the only thing I'm not sure about now is where to get the content-id. It seems that might be the last six digits of the mid: like you said, but where to get the mid: if it's not included in epg.xml.

Anyway, this doesn't look nearly so daunting anymore after spending a few bleary eyed sessions in front of HTTP Analyzer and a python SOAP tutorial.

It seems like they might be deprecating gamesbydate.jsp this weekend. There are no more video stream listings after the 29th though the audio streams continue to be listed here. Maybe they are planning on cutting over to the new player next week.

daftcat · 03-25-2009, 05:01 PM

There's a very good chance that none of the SOAP python implementations are compatible with mlb.com's server. From my reading (haven't yet put down any soap code), it sounds like a good many projects popped up, and then died off (probably when folks realized what a pain in the arse SOAP is!)

CubsFanUk, would you be willing to develop an API interface to mlbviewer using your java code? In other words, I could write an xml parser for epg.xml to generate the listings and get the event-id, but could we call your java code to return the rtmp url?

In the meantime, I plan to lay down some python SOAP code this weekend and see if I can get anywhere with it. Worst case, I can just treat it like XML and write a builder/parser.

CubsFanUK · 03-26-2009, 06:18 AM

daftcat, I have sent you a couple of emails, hope they help.

CubsFanUK · 03-26-2009, 08:30 AM

The link to download the current version of NexDef for MacOSX is

NexDef Mac Installer

daftcat · 03-26-2009, 10:30 AM

Thanks CubsFanUk. I'll have a look at both tonight (best case) or this weekend.

I found a new SOAP package for python, suds, that seems like it's head and shoulders above the other soap libraries and still in active development. I have high hopes for it. It's nice to know that I have the java code as a fallback helper.

djalmabm · 03-28-2009, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Revision 113 should fix the EDT/EST conversion to UTC. From UTC, we apply the timezone -or- we apply the time_offset in the config file.

Someone else can review this for me if they wish but my listings are now correct so it looks like I'm doing it right now.

Code:

    DAYLIGHT = {
        '2007': (datetime.datetime(2007,3,11),datetime.datetime(2007,11,4)),
        '2008': (datetime.datetime(2008,3,9),datetime.datetime(2008,11,2)),
        '2009': (datetime.datetime(2009,3,8),datetime.datetime(2009,11,1)),
        '2010': (datetime.datetime(2009,3,14),datetime.datetime(2009,11,7)),
               }
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    if (now >= DAYLIGHT[str(now.year)][0]) \
       and (now < DAYLIGHT[str(now.year)][1]):
        dif = datetime.timedelta(0,14400)
    else:
        dif = datetime.timedelta(0,18000)

    utc_tuple = datetime_tuple + dif

First we define the dates for Daylight Saving Time for each year. I realize now it's not necessary to have past years.

Get the current datetime. If the datetime falls between the DST dates for the current year, create a dif (time offset) of 4 hours. Else, create a time offset of 5 hours.

datetime_tuple is the datetime we receive from the mlb listings which is in Eastern Time. So apply the correct time offset to achieve UTC.

From UTC, we can apply a custom time_offset (from the config file) or use the local time zone to get local times rather than Eastern Time.

I'm from Brazil and I'm using revision 116. With "time_offset=-0300" in the config file the time is OK, but if I use the arrow keys to change days, when I come back to current day, the time is 1 hour later. With "time_offset=" it's always 1 hour later. This is the output of "tzwatch":

Sat Mar 28 02:05:11 BRT 2009 America/Sao_Paulo
Sat Mar 28 01:05:11 EDT 2009 America/New_York
Fri Mar 27 22:05:11 PDT 2009 America/Los_Angeles
Sat Mar 28 02:05:11 BRT 2009 Local
Sat Mar 28 05:05:11 GMT 2009 Europe/London

Let me know if you need more information and thank you very much for this great software.

daftcat · 03-29-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djalmabm

I'm from Brazil and I'm using revision 116. With "time_offset=-0300" in the config file the time is OK, but if I use the arrow keys to change days, when I come back to current day, the time is 1 hour later. With "time_offset=" it's always 1 hour later. This is the output of "tzwatch":

Sat Mar 28 02:05:11 BRT 2009 America/Sao_Paulo
Sat Mar 28 01:05:11 EDT 2009 America/New_York
Fri Mar 27 22:05:11 PDT 2009 America/Los_Angeles
Sat Mar 28 02:05:11 BRT 2009 Local
Sat Mar 28 05:05:11 GMT 2009 Europe/London

Let me know if you need more information and thank you very much for this great software.

This might be a moot issue if I can't get mlbviewer using the new MLB backend architecture.

Two questions/observations I have. In the United States, daylight saving time was changed by law to start in early March and end in early November. In all, several weeks were added in the hopes that it would be a net energy savings. Don't ask me to explain Bush logic on that one. As a result though, the product might be forcing DST before Brazil does.

But...the code is written in such a way that you shouldn't have to explicitly use a time_offset unless mlbviewer can't find out from your machine what the correct timezone (offset from UTC) is. Try removing the time_offset (or commenting it out) of your config file. If that doesn't work, I can't really look into this one until I figure out the new architecture. More on that in the next post.

daftcat · 03-29-2009, 01:24 PM

With the new flash player, MLB.TV changed quite a bit for the 2009 season.

The good news is that with the flash player, mlbviewer is no longer necessary.

The bad news is that even if I get mlbviewer updated for the new season's changes, it's going to be quite a bit harder to setup and install. At a minimum, most of you will have to recompile your ffmpeg since most distros use an out of date version which would say "unsupported codec". This is assuming that we can download the full stream. So far, I've only been able to get about an hour's worth of stream before rtmpdump (yet another dependency) drops out.

I hope to have an early version of mlbgameid.py using the new architecture and rtmpdump available for testing with soon (today? a few days?) Mlbviewer may not be fully updated with the changes until after the season starts.

I'll have more complete instructions on what needs to be updated or downloaded to get the new mlbviewer working. It will not be for the faint of heart. I will want testers who are comfortable with recompiling packages and downloading dependencies from git, svn, or source tarballs.

rjwood · 03-29-2009, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

With the new flash player, MLB.TV changed quite a bit for the 2009 season.

The good news is that with the flash player, mlbviewer is no longer necessary.

The bad news is that even if I get mlbviewer updated for the new season's changes, it's going to be quite a bit harder to setup and install. At a minimum, most of you will have to recompile your ffmpeg since most distros use an out of date version which would say "unsupported codec". This is assuming that we can download the full stream. So far, I've only been able to get about an hour's worth of stream before rtmpdump (yet another dependency) drops out.

I hope to have an early version of mlbgameid.py using the new architecture and rtmpdump available for testing with soon (today? a few days?) Mlbviewer may not be fully updated with the changes until after the season starts.

I'll have more complete instructions on what needs to be updated or downloaded to get the new mlbviewer working. It will not be for the faint of heart. I will want testers who are comfortable with recompiling packages and downloading dependencies from git, svn, or source tarballs.

I'll test for you. I've never done that before, but I should contribute somehow. Let me know what to do.

djalmabm · 03-29-2009, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

This might be a moot issue if I can't get mlbviewer using the new MLB backend architecture.

Two questions/observations I have. In the United States, daylight saving time was changed by law to start in early March and end in early November. In all, several weeks were added in the hopes that it would be a net energy savings. Don't ask me to explain Bush logic on that one. As a result though, the product might be forcing DST before Brazil does.

But...the code is written in such a way that you shouldn't have to explicitly use a time_offset unless mlbviewer can't find out from your machine what the correct timezone (offset from UTC) is. Try removing the time_offset (or commenting it out) of your config file. If that doesn't work, I can't really look into this one until I figure out the new architecture. More on that in the next post.

It didn't work, no problem. Thank you.

Onip · 03-30-2009, 02:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

I'll have more complete instructions on what needs to be updated or downloaded to get the new mlbviewer working. It will not be for the faint of heart. I will want testers who are comfortable with recompiling packages and downloading dependencies from git, svn, or source tarballs.

Post them and I'll try. I'm currently using gentoo and studying computer engineer, so no problem at all with compile and using vcs.

bodly · 03-30-2009, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

With the new flash player, MLB.TV changed quite a bit for the 2009 season.

The good news is that with the flash player, mlbviewer is no longer necessary.

The bad news is that even if I get mlbviewer updated for the new season's changes, it's going to be quite a bit harder to setup and install. At a minimum, most of you will have to recompile your ffmpeg since most distros use an out of date version which would say "unsupported codec". This is assuming that we can download the full stream. So far, I've only been able to get about an hour's worth of stream before rtmpdump (yet another dependency) drops out.

I hope to have an early version of mlbgameid.py using the new architecture and rtmpdump available for testing with soon (today? a few days?) Mlbviewer may not be fully updated with the changes until after the season starts.

I'll have more complete instructions on what needs to be updated or downloaded to get the new mlbviewer working. It will not be for the faint of heart. I will want testers who are comfortable with recompiling packages and downloading dependencies from git, svn, or source tarballs.

I can help test. I enjoy patching, compiling and testing stuff.

rjwood · 03-30-2009, 08:11 AM

Is anyone else getting this?

knappster · 03-30-2009, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjwood

Is anyone else getting this?

I just happened to see this webpage not long ago:

http://www.eds.org/~straycat/mlblinux.php

Quote:

You might be using the "xv" video output module in mplayer (at least that was my issue.) I solved this by invoking mplayer with:
mplayer -vo x11