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[masterjoe]

Hi folks,

MC is getting better every day. And to make it even better I have a suggestion which leads an unified media handling system.

Additional objects besides media files found on storage devices shall be handled as "normal" media files.
The following media shall be unified with conventional files:

- online videos (http-video, youtube videos etc.)
- online streams (rtmp broadcasts, http feeds etc.)
- webcams
- TV channels

When there is no definitive content length available these objects shall automatically be defined as particles with a length of x that can be defined by the user. So the user decides how long the stream might play.

Making all media sources behave the same way is extremly powerful and flexible. These objects could then be organized just the same way as any other media object in the library. They would be included in views and would be available over the network.

[Hendrik]

You can already "import" URLs into your library, and they are listed there among all other media files.

[masterjoe]

Right. However there are several other streaming options like TV channels and webcams which are not included in the library. Also it seems that it's currently not possible to use streaming content across the network?

A unification of all media content no matter where it comes from would be appreciated.

[jmone]

TV and Webcam are entries in the Library.  Did you read the thread I linked on this?

[masterjoe]

Sorry, but I don't exactly know which thread you mean? Could you please repost a link?

How do I tag a TV channel with keywords, genre and more? That's not possible right?

And how to share the TV channel with DLNA clients? That's also not possible because
for a DLNA server no view can be created that includes TV channels.

So this is what I mean with unification. Everything that can be treated as a media file / stream shall be handled exactly the same  way because this brings a whole lot of new features and simplifies the management of everything as there is only one concept required to watch, share and manage things.

[jmone]

It is all "Possible", have a read of this Live TV Now Works (eos)!

There are two parts to do what you want:

1) Create a Playlist - Attached are an example of ones I have created for TV/Webcam and another for Radio stations.  You can now see these items in MC, and with Remotes like EOS (see the thread I've linked on how to do this for TV/Webcam)

2a) Playback - eg Radio Streams (HTTP etc), when you try to play it to a 3rd party Renderer (DLNA etc), MC will hand off the stream.  It will work if your Renderer supports the stream.  It will fail if it does not.  I have had no issue with my Pio DLNA Active Speakers, but some of my Andriod devices don't like one or the other streams.  I would prefer that MC process all streams and sends the processed stream but this is not part of the current feature set.

2b) TV & Webcam - this gets a bit more tricky.  How MC works is when you play a TV Station/Webcam etc, MC will on the PC with the TV Tuner/Webcam buffer the stream to a file and then play that file.  MC and MC Library Server Clients can of course play these entries just fine as the logic is part of MC but not for 3rd party renders as the reference sent to a DNLA Renderer is to the TV Channel itself and not the actual buffered video file.  Now, the good news is MC has implemented a set of MCWS calls that lets you find out what the buffered file is.  The Bad news is JR has not implemented using these calls with their Remotes or 3rd party renders.  The Good News is the Dev of EOS (Soul_Rvr911) has done this, and you can now play the TV or Webcam Stream locally on Android Devices using EOS.  It works really well.  After your original post I have spoken with Soul_Rvr911 if he will extend this functionality so you can use EOS to push the stream to any Renderer (eg TV) and he is currently considering how to implement this.  If you are keen I'd suggest reading the thread linked above and posting in it.

Thanks
Nathan

[jmone]

In summary, what I have is the ability to have a Unified access to all my media including Web Radio and Live TV/Webcam/Video Capture anywhere in the world using EOS for local playback on Andriod devices.  If Soul_Rvr911 makes the suggested changes you would also then be able to use EOS as a Control Point to push these streams to any DLNA devices that supports these streams.

[masterjoe]

Well - it's nice that EOS can do a whole lot of what I hope to see functional-wise.

However this requires another device to be installed and another app to be bought and used (EOS).

My intention is that MC can do all of this right out of the box. Because that's where the access to the data happens. The other options are ok and may lead to some sort of unification of media. But then I have to use additional stuff (Android box, app etc.) to make it happen. True unification must happen on the server side becvause you should always prefer the shortest possible way. Letting MC do the unified handling would be unification done right.

My point of view is that DLNA already provides a robust mechanism for what it takes to provide access to ALL media sources.
Why not support it directly inside MC?

[jmone]

I'm not part of the JR Dev team, so I can only give you the state of play as it currently sits.  The DLNA spec has three parts, Server, Control Point, Renderer.

At this stage we have the ability in the server to create playlists for live Radio Web Streams and TV/WebCams.  You should be able to push the Radio Web Steams to any DLNA Renderer that supports them.  TV/Web Cams etc are a special case and at this stage only one Control Point (EOS) can expose and push the buffered file (and at this stage only to the local Android Device).  It is what it is.  The JR Team is in very active discussion on this topic but it is a matter of priority for them on when/if they bake this into their code.

Your requests have no gone unnoticed.