AVB

AVB - A/V Broadcaster Plugin with EPG Information

Overview:

This MyTheatre plugin is an improved version that includes EPG information in the channel listings. It is based upon A/V Broadcaster by Scribitus Ver 0.12 May 5, 2004. I haven't really made any serious improvements other than adding the EPG information. It's not going to stream audio only channels or anything else cool that it didn't do before.

Here's screenshots of the web pages generated by avb:
avb_browser_favs.jpg
avb_browser_epg.jpg

I built this in conjunction with modifications to the XBMC myTheatre.py python script v1.0 for XBOX my marplar.
FYI: Alfredo Fenoglio wrote me to say that for him, setting the XBMC cache size to the minimum allows streaming to work reliably so people who are having issues should try it.

Download:

AVB-20050420.zip - The avb plugin, AVB.dll.
Unzip this into your myTheatre\Plugins directory.
The installation should look like this:
Plugins\avb.dll
Plugins\avb\ch_MT3x.dll
FTP myTheatres.py into your xbmc\scripts directory.

Details:

The MyTheatres.py script has a few configurable options at the top.

I use 'Fun' as my default channels list. Edit the MyTheatres.py script and change the default to whatever you prefer.

DEFAULT_FILE = '/list.htm?favid=3&p=0&sort=0&offset=0&name=Fun'

To default to the favourites list change it to:

DEFAULT_FILE = '/list.htm'

That's just the default. The top button on the xbox screen (which should say 'FUN") will select the favourites list any time.

Here's my AVB settings:
avb_settings.jpg

Here's screenshots of the web pages generated by avb:
avb_browser_favs.jpg
avb_browser_epg.jpg

I'm not 'broadcasting' at all. XBMC establishes the http connection and AVB pumps out packets through it.

If you were to activate broadcasting and also use the http connection then you would be using twice the bandwidth.

There's a button on xbmc that will display the video statistics. On an S controller it is the small black button on the bottom right corner.
Start video playing and then pop up the statistics and keep an eye on the cache %

Odds are it will start around 24% and dwindle down to 0% and die.

I have not invested the time and effort into debugging this. I can tell you that AVB is probably not the cause of the problem.

It works like this:

MyTheatre calls AVB and says here's a chunk of data.
AVB then sends that chunk out over tcpip, letting the tcp stack deal with splitting the data into appropriate sized packets.
The process repeats.
That's it.

So, if the cache can't stay filled, it could be MyTheatre not calling the function often enough, or xbmc not reading the stream fast enough.
I don't know how much data MT sends per call so maybe there's an opportunity to optimize filling up packets. I don't know.

I can tell from the code that Scriptibus had looked into it. He wrote it so he's the guy to consult on that.

I have used many different versions of xbmc and mytheatre.
Sometimes you get a combination that works and sometimes you dont.

Right now, mine tends to work after a few false starts and I can live with it.

HTTP Parameters:
http://192.168.169.69:8000/list.htm?favid=3&p=0&sort=0&offset=0&name=Fun

sort=1 causes the results to be sorted alphabetically by program name
offset=1 (2,3,4, etc) returns the next epg item rather than the current item. (may or may not work that well)

Version History:

AVB-20050420
First public release v0.13
AVB was released Wednesday April 20, 2005.

Info:

AVB has been built using the A/V Broadcaster plugin by Scribitus Ver 0.12 May 5, 2004.
I also have another MyTheatre plugin Detailor that will write text files which describe the current program.
See my Detailor Page for more information.

Created 01 April 2005

Email: AVB@nro.ca

http://www.seanster.com/avb/

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AVB