MLB.TV in Linux

austin_spartan · 10-01-2011, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

With the P (shift-p e.g. capital P), you'll get the camera angle screen. Choose the angle you want to watch and try to pretend your at the ballpark with a radio instead of watching a good broadcast at home. I like the mid-home plate and tight centerfield angles. If you open them in separate windows and mute one of them ('#' key in mplayer), you can almost piece together a workable broadcast.

Or just wait for it to be archived and watch it like normal.

This is the problem that I'm having, there is no capital P, it doesn't do anything more than refresh the screen for me. When I look at the help for screens, P is not there.

svn up
At revision 314.

Is there a combination of config options that must be setup properly for this to work?

Thanks

redseventyseven · 10-01-2011, 04:45 PM

+1 for what ChrisVV said.

I'm not able to watch games from the UK; I get the same message (which says "MLB_NON_US_BLACKOUT" if I recall correctly).

I don't understand - all the Ts&Cs I can find say that no blackout restrictions apply outside the US - what's going on? I can however get through to the "This game will begin shortly" screen on the Rays/Rangers game, but not sure yet whether that'll change as soon as the game starts. Time will tell...

Additionally, I can't even get the flash version to work, but that's another story...

daftcat · 10-01-2011, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisVV

I have an out of North America subscription so I don't need, and probably can't use, the North American post season offering (the post season comes with my regular package without additional charge).

Although I appear to be able to play last night's archived games OK with mlbviewer (so far I have only tested the first game), I can't watch the live stream - stream connection on the live stream fails with something like MLB_INTERNATIONAL_BLACKOUT - sorry I didn't take an explicit note but it was something like that.

I can watch it with the flash plugin after I have carried out a special additional login step that I am required to complete, but then I get a fairly rubbish picture as it isn't hardware accelerated. I think that the additional step is to ensure I accept the post-season terms and conditions.

I realise that this can probably only easily be fixed by someone outside North America, but is there anything I can try to carry out this additional login automatically via mlbviewer?

Sorry. Since I have no way to test this since I am in North America, I can't do much. Best I can do is relax the blackout rules and see if your login is already "keyed" for the international post-season. Since you won't go through the 'P'ostseason screen like the North America users, add "postseason=1" to your ~/.mlb/config. The code I added yesterday relaxed the blackout code for those who went through the 'P' screen because the media reply still contained a blackout status even though it also contained a media url. So the config file option will simulate the 'P' screen for you in case the media reply is containing both a blackout status and a url. If it doesn't have a url, then you'll get a "Stream URL not found" error instead of the blackout error. If that happens, I'm not sure there's anything I can do for you.

Do an svn up. I just checked in the postseason config file option fix.

daftcat · 10-01-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by austin_spartan

This is the problem that I'm having, there is no capital P, it doesn't do anything more than refresh the screen for me. When I look at the help for screens, P is not there.

svn up
At revision 314.

Is there a combination of config options that must be setup properly for this to work?

Thanks

Make sure you are running on the nexdef2011 branch. Do an svn info.

This is the nexdef2011 branch:

Code:

Path: .
URL: https://mlbviewer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mlbviewer/branches/nexdef2011

This is the mlbviewer trunk (which you don't want):

Code:

Path: .
URL: https://mlbviewer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mlbviewer/trunk

If in doubt, rename the directory and do another checkout using the instructions I posted yesterday.

Jaunt66 · 10-01-2011, 08:49 PM

Quote:

I like the mid-home plate and tight centerfield angles. If you open them in separate windows and mute one of them ('#' key in mplayer), you can almost piece together a workable broadcast.

How do you open multiple windows? I tried running mlbviewer twice, each from its own terminal window. But when I tried to open a stream in the second one, it wouldn't allow connection. Now MLB won't let me log in even from their own UI, with the error message "This email address/password combination has been used too many times over a short period of time." I'm on the phone with customer service now to unlock my account, but how can I open multiple windows without this happening?

Thanks for creating this software and letting us use it!

daftcat · 10-01-2011, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaunt66

How do you open multiple windows? I tried running mlbviewer twice, each from its own terminal window. But when I tried to open a stream in the second one, it wouldn't allow connection. Now MLB won't let me log in even from their own UI, with the error message "This email address/password combination has been used too many times over a short period of time." I'm on the phone with customer service now to unlock my account, but how can I open multiple windows without this happening?

Thanks for creating this software and letting us use it!

I can get a few windows open but I don't mix their UI with mlbviewer. They really don't like to see multiple sessions even if it's from the same IP.

chrisVV · 10-02-2011, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Sorry. Since I have no way to test this since I am in North America, I can't do much. Best I can do is relax the blackout rules and see if your login is already "keyed" for the international post-season. Since you won't go through the 'P'ostseason screen like the North America users, add "postseason=1" to your ~/.mlb/config. The code I added yesterday relaxed the blackout code for those who went through the 'P' screen because the media reply still contained a blackout status even though it also contained a media url. So the config file option will simulate the 'P' screen for you in case the media reply is containing both a blackout status and a url. If it doesn't have a url, then you'll get a "Stream URL not found" error instead of the blackout error. If that happens, I'm not sure there's anything I can do for you.

That seems to have done the trick. I have the Detroit v NY game streaming now. Thanks.

fang2415 · 10-02-2011, 04:59 PM

Is anybody else having problems with archived nexdef (mlbhls) streams? I've now tried three postseason games at 1200k; two just gave me "This game will begin shortly" forever and the other one did that for ages and then seemed to switch to a TBS test pattern? I'm at nexdef branch version 315, and I'm only watching archived games so I don't think it's a blackout thing...

The non-nexdef streams seem to work fine, so at least I can watch those. But I want to hear Uecker!

Is anybody else seeing this problem or know a workaround?

redseventyseven · 10-02-2011, 05:00 PM

Again, +1 to what ChrisVV said.

That, along with switching to the nexdef2011 branch (was still using the trunk), did the trick.

Many thanks!

fang2415 · 10-02-2011, 05:09 PM

Also just noticed that the bad nexdef streams seem to have three audio streams, but they're, well, crazy. One is silence, one starts randomly in the middle of what I think is the wrong game, and one is just a high, sustained beep.

So, uh... not sure if that makes sense to anyone? I'm in the UK and have been watching nexdef streams with mlbhls without a hitch for about a month now and have changed nothing; but I assume the fact that I can watch the 800K non-nexdef stream means that I shouldn't need a new subscription or anything for postseason games as long as I'm not watching them live...?

fang2415 · 10-02-2011, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Since you won't go through the 'P'ostseason screen like the North America users, add "postseason=1" to your ~/.mlb/config.

Whoops, just realized I haven't tried this yet, and I'm now getting a sign-on restriction so I'll have to try again later. But I'm doubtful that it'll make a difference since it doesn't seem to have anything to do with blackout restrictions?...

chrisVV · 10-02-2011, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Whoops, just realized I haven't tried this yet, and I'm now getting a sign-on restriction so I'll have to try again later. But I'm doubtful that it'll make a difference since it doesn't seem to have anything to do with blackout restrictions?...

It is exactly blackout restrictions that it deals with, if you want to watch a live stream. I have no idea what mlbhls is (or what it has to do with mlbviewer) but why not just enjoy the stream?

daftcat · 10-02-2011, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fang2415

Is anybody else having problems with archived nexdef (mlbhls) streams? I've now tried three postseason games at 1200k; two just gave me "This game will begin shortly" forever and the other one did that for ages and then seemed to switch to a TBS test pattern? I'm at nexdef branch version 315, and I'm only watching archived games so I don't think it's a blackout thing...

The non-nexdef streams seem to work fine, so at least I can watch those. But I want to hear Uecker!

Is anybody else seeing this problem or know a workaround?

Archived games with mlbhls is a bit of guesswork. You see, the stream doesn't start exactly at 0. Through trial and error, I picked an offset of 48 (I forget what the units of this value is, but I believe each increment of this value corresponds to about 6 seconds.) What you can do is edit MLBviewer/mlbtv.py and look for the line:

Code:

HD_ARCHIVE_OFFSET=48

near the top of the file.

Change that to some other value. Try 60 first. Keep increasing it until you find the start of the game. This may not be the correct value for each game though so you might have to play around each time. Sorry. mlbhls works a lot better with live games because you don't have to worry about this. Let me look into overloading the old start_time= config file option to see if we can make this a config edit rather than a source code edit.

daftcat · 10-02-2011, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redseventyseven

Again, +1 to what ChrisVV said.

That, along with switching to the nexdef2011 branch (was still using the trunk), did the trick.

Many thanks!

Glad to hear that switching to branch and the postseason=1 trick works for you international folks even if I'm extremely jealous that you aren't blacked out.

fang2415 · 10-02-2011, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisVV

It is exactly blackout restrictions that it deals with, if you want to watch a live stream. I have no idea what mlbhls is (or what it has to do with mlbviewer) but why not just enjoy the stream?

I'm watching archived streams, not live streams.

mlbhls is an open-source program that mlbviewer can use to grab nexdef streams (see a few pages back for details); the nexdef streams in the regular season offered high-def video and alternate audio streams. The 800K stream is okay, but I really like the audio switching (especially when one of the options is Bob Uecker), so I'd like to get the nexdef streams working.

I've now tried Saturday's Rays-Rangers game with the postseason=1 line in the config and I get the same behavior. Are people who are successfully watching archived games using the nexdef streams, or just sticking with the low-def ones?