MLB.TV in Linux

WaltH · 09-06-2013, 02:11 PM

I may have missed it (after all, mlbviewer is feature packed), but I notice that mlb.tv apparently has a free game each day for those who do not have an account, and I wondered if there is a way to watch that game in mlbviewer. No big deal if not, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks.

daftcat · 09-07-2013, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltH

I may have missed it (after all, mlbviewer is feature packed), but I notice that mlb.tv apparently has a free game each day for those who do not have an account, and I wondered if there is a way to watch that game in mlbviewer. No big deal if not, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks.

Maybe? But probably not.

I say that only because as feature packed as mlbviewer is, I don't know all the happy side effects (otherwise known as bugs) that may be lurking.

Let me look into it tomorrow. I don't know if I can determine the free game from the listings but I have been wrong before.

daftcat · 09-07-2013, 05:56 PM

For the Free Game Of The Day, the text "[FREE]" will appear next to the game.

HOWEVER...

You will need an mlb.com account. You don't need to subscribe to MLB.TV to watch the free game, but you do need to login with mlb.com username and password. I thought I was being lazy not wanting to modify the media stream code but it seems even on the website, you need an mlb.com account to watch the free game.

Give me a few days (probably tomorrow) and I'll modify the [FREE] highlighting to use a different color than favorite_color= setting so you can more easily see it in the listings.

daftcat · 09-07-2013, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltH

I may have missed it (after all, mlbviewer is feature packed), but I notice that mlb.tv apparently has a free game each day for those who do not have an account, and I wondered if there is a way to watch that game in mlbviewer. No big deal if not, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks.

You will need to register for a (free) MLB.com account (if you don't already have one) but you don't need to subscribe to the MLB.TV service($$). Edit your ~/.mlb/config to include that mlb.com user= and pass=.

I checked in a modification to the listings to put the text "[FREE]" next to the free game of the day so you don't have to go to MLB.com to find out which one it is.

If you have checked out mlbviewer from the SVN repository, an "svn up" is all you'll need to get this enhancement.

If you are instead using the version from the Sourceforge download, you will need to check out the latest code from SVN. Details on how to do that are in the README file.

If you know how to use SVN already and just want the checkout url:

Code:

$ grep trunk README
svn checkout https://svn.code.sf.net/p/mlbviewer/code/trunk mlb2013
URL: https://mlbviewer.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mlbviewer/trunk

daftcat · 09-08-2013, 06:25 PM

Included in this revision:

- Free game is highlighted in free_color= color (defaults to green) if use_color=1.
- use_color=1 is now the default
- mlbstats fix: use Enter to expand a players stats and Enter again to return back to summary

daftcat · 09-09-2013, 01:48 PM

Just updated the sourceforge release to sf-7 which includes the RTMP stream fix and free game of the day highlighting along with whatever other fixes went in since rev492.

Pretty much all of you reading this are likely updating the releases from the SVN repository so *yawn* do an SVN up and you're current. The only difference you may notice is the version number in SVN has changed to 2013svn534+ meaning the sourceforge release 7 is SVN revision 534 and any updates are from that point forward.

There will likely be one more sourceforge release and really only one more feature I plan to work on and that's post-season support. Each year MLB.tv charges just a bit too much for too little content (you can thank Fox for not participating) so you can watch the TBS camera angles with broadcast audio. If you are so inclined, you can open a few of those windows and piece together your own broadcast from the raw footage. The library code to select the postseason camera angles should still be in MLBviewer but the camera angle description menu needs to be rewritten since the GUI code was rewritten earlier this year.

mkomko · 09-10-2013, 12:46 AM

I just want to thank you for your work this year - you put a lot of time and effort into mlbviewer during this season. Thank you very much and to many more successful seasons

.

daftcat · 09-10-2013, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkomko

I just want to thank you for your work this year - you put a lot of time and effort into mlbviewer during this season. Thank you very much and to many more successful seasons

.

I'm super-excited about all the new features and the new code framework which made it all possible and a lot more enjoyable to maintain.

I hope you all have prospects you want to track in the Winter Leagues because I think I just may bring over master scoreboard, line scores, box scores, RSS, and standings to Winter Leagues (basically everything except being able to listen/watch the games which sadly MLBAM doesn't have any offering for anymore.)

daftcat · 09-10-2013, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltH

I may have missed it (after all, mlbviewer is feature packed), but I notice that mlb.tv apparently has a free game each day for those who do not have an account, and I wondered if there is a way to watch that game in mlbviewer. No big deal if not, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks.

Didn't hear back from you. I'm assuming you have updated and are enjoying the free games. Yes?

If you are encountering any problems with the free game of the day, let me know. I have a second mlb.com account that is not associated with MLB.tv so this is something I have tested myself.

WaltH · 09-10-2013, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daftcat

Didn't hear back from you. I'm assuming you have updated and are enjoying the free games. Yes?

If you are encountering any problems with the free game of the day, let me know. I have a second mlb.com account that is not associated with MLB.tv so this is something I have tested myself.

I tried it last night and got audio but no video. Tonight, I was out and missed the game. Apparently, though, one cannot watch the game afterward. I've tried that a couple of times and gotten some broken audio but a green screen with what looks like an outline of something in the background. Tomorrow's free game is at an earlier time, so I will try to get in and see it then report back. Thanks for all the work on this.

daftcat · 09-11-2013, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaltH

I tried it last night and got audio but no video. Tonight, I was out and missed the game. Apparently, though, one cannot watch the game afterward. I've tried that a couple of times and gotten some broken audio but a green screen with what looks like an outline of something in the background. Tomorrow's free game is at an earlier time, so I will try to get in and see it then report back. Thanks for all the work on this.

I am able to watch the archived free game of the day with my non-mlbtv account.

Are you trying nexdef (mlbhls) or non-nexdef mode (rtmpdump)? Incidentally both seem to work for me but nexdef mode requires mplayer2 whereas non-nexdef mode will work with mplayer or vlc.

As for media playback, try using mplayer2. Also try adding -vo xv to the command-line, e.g.

Code:

video_player=mplayer -cache 16384 -vo xv

There may be other more optimized video output depending on your graphics hardware, but I find xv should be a good starting point and should be supported for most installations.

I have begun working on the Wiki pages on Sourceforge. When you get the video playback working, let me know what you used. I am going to collect experiences from this forum and post them on the wiki to help others get through this.

WaltH · 09-11-2013, 10:33 PM

Whenever I have launched mlbviewer, it has used mplayer2. At what stage, though, do I add

Code:

video_player=mplayer -cache 16384 -vo xv

Does this go into the config file? I get

Code:

python mlbviewer.py video_player=mplayer -cache 16384 -vo xv
Error: unknown variable argument: video_player

when I try adding it to the command to launch mlbviewer and

Code:

video_player=mplayer -cache 16384 -vo xv
bash: -cache: command not found

if I try entering it on its own after switching to the mlb2013 directory.

I tried entering it into the config file and got the following:

Code:

ERROR: Media response contained a notAuthorizedStatus.

which is actually one error I got before when trying to enter the free game after the fact. It doesn't seem to matter whether I use NEXDF or an actual speed. Looking at the log file, I see things like:

Code:

DEBUG>> URL received: aHR0cDovL21sYmxpdmUtYWtjLm1sYi5jb20vbHMwNC9tbGJhbS8yMDEzLzA5LzExL01MQl9HQU1FX1ZJREVPX1BJVFRFWF9IT01FXzIwMTMwOTExL21hc3Rlcl93aXJlZC5tM3U4fFZVZnIxcUw1RENmZTdVam9TdXFqMWR4MitoVT18cGxheWJhY2s9SFRUUF9DTE9VRF9XSVJFRCZjb250ZW50SWQ9MzA0MzIwOTUmYXBwQWNjb3VudE5hbWU9bWxiJmV2ZW50SWQ9MTQtMzQ4OTAxLTIwMTMtMDktMTAmaXBpZD00OTExMjI4NiZzZXNzaW9uS2V5PWRXRWcxQzhhSVV4NG5sT2JvZzVzbXY4T1lqVSUzRCZjb3VudHJ5PXVzJnBvc3RhbENvZGU9ODM3MDY=
parseInningsXml(): url = http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/mmls2013/348911.xml
2013-09-11 20:56:32.718174
SUCCESSFUL MEDIA REQUEST: status-code: 1 , event-id = 14-348911-2013-09-11
See /home/walt/.mlb/successful-1.xml for XML response.

and

Code:

parseInningsXml(): url = http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/mmls2013/348911.xml
2013-09-11 21:05:50.485981
UNSUCCESSFUL MEDIA REQUEST: status-code: -3500 , event-id = 14-348911-2013-09-11
See /home/walt/.mlb/unsuccessful-1.xml for XML response.

which apparently happens if you stay logged in to your MLB.com account. Not sure if I can give you any other information.

WaltH · 09-12-2013, 08:45 AM

I tried again this morning to watch the archived version of Wednesday's free game. Initially, I got audio of the pregame (no video), but when the broadcast went to commercial, everything went silent, and in the terminal, this message kept flashing:

Code:

Too many video packets in the buffer: (4096 in 18019867 bytes).
                          Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?
                  For AVI files, try to force non-interleaved mode with the -ni option.

Not sure what it means. If it helps, when I run lspci -v to find out my video controller, I get this:

Code:

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

I'm going to try going back to the original config file and see if that clears up the "too many video packets in the buffer" error. Thanks for your help and your patience.

WaltH · 09-12-2013, 09:07 AM

Okay, I went back to the original config file, and I no longer get the too many video packets in the buffer error. I also, though, get n video. In fact, after the archived broadcast goes to the first commercial break, I get nothing but silence and this image:

Click image for larger version

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. Not sure what to try next.

WaltH · 09-12-2013, 12:38 PM

Okay, I am able to watch the live broadcast of the free game at 1200, 1800 , or 2400K, but not in NEXDF mode. I'll try again later today to see if I can watch the archived broadcast. Thanks.