VirtualTV plugin

[andrewds 93]

Thank you @kanipek for your feedback. @pünktchen do you know by chance if streaming requires any secondary ports? My network is pretty restricted, maybe that's the problem. I'm only allowing traffic over the https port.

[pünktchen 1251]

No secondary ports, but websockets.

[andrewds 93]

Thanks @pünktchen, at this time I have confirmed that the issue I am experiencing is due to a firewall configuration. The clients and server exist on different subnets and OpenWRT (21.02) is applying firewall rules to traffic crossing the boundary. I haven't identified exactly what the issue is, but by removing all of the restrictions between the Roku client and the Emby server I was able to get "Playlist (Live)" and "Playlist (Archive)" to both work as expected. For some reason with the firewall configured as I intended (only allowing TCP traffic on the HTTPS port) the Continuous modes both work fine but Playlist modes do not.

I will continue to try to isolate the specific issue so I can refine my firewall rules. Once I have done that I will provide additional feedback here should others encounter the same issue.

[Junglejim 340]

This plugin is great! Takes me back to my XBMC days using PseudoTV.

Nice work mate!

From my brief tests using "Playlist Live/Archive" this works great, nice set of channel options too.

Going to have some fun setting up this beast with some more channels..

Edit: Have you any plans of adding this to Emby's plugin catalogue?

         Also does this plugin respect Emby's 'Are You Still Watching?' (sorry haven't had time to test this, or read though 73 pages )

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Junglejim

[cycro 0]

Hello,
i have a little problem/question.
I have a multiple Channels with different amount of Content. 

For example Channel 1 (20 Movies and 5 Series) Channel 2 (300 Movies 50 Series)

At a guide refresh Channel 1 only gets content until all 20 Movies an Series are through.
After that only Channel 2 has planned content and the guide for Channel 1 is empty until the next guide refresh.
Is it possible to repeat the Guide for Channel 1 until Channel 2´s contant is throug? Or an option like plan Guide for x Weeks/Days.  

When i refresh the guide all 1-2 days to avoid this problem, i always see the same TV Show episodes (Random series, orderd episodes) wich is a litte bit anoying, if i set it to random episode it could be S1E5 -> S15E12 -S2E10 which is kinda worthless for most TV Series.

Is there a solution for this?

Thanks in advance.

 

PS: Nice to have feature request: an "Always show 1-n epsiodes of Series XY at xx:xx"-Option

[pünktchen 1251]

3 hours ago, cycro said:

Is it possible to repeat the Guide for Channel 1 until Channel 2´s contant is throug?

In Emby's live tv settings, set the days to download guide data to some number instead of auto.

[pünktchen 1251]

7 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Have you any plans of adding this to Emby's plugin catalogue?

Add some day for sure, but not in its current state.

7 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Also does this plugin respect Emby's 'Are You Still Watching?'

As this is purely client app related, i think yes.

[pünktchen 1251]

@andrewds you probably need this package for OpenWRT: https://openwrt.org/packages/pkgdata/asterisk-res-http-websocket

[crusher11 850]

I was watching a channel (playlist mode) the other day, and when I exited playback the thing that was playing wasn't the thing that was listed in the TV guide for that channel at the current time. Is that supposed to be the case?

[pünktchen 1251]

If you exit playback nothing should play at all.

[crusher11 850]

I meant the thing that was playing at the time I decided to exit playback.

[pünktchen 1251]

The only way i can think of how that could happen is, if your library has changed between the last guide refresh and the time of playback. Although i always thought the database would never use the same item id again from videos that where removed from the database. In the end it's not normal nor intentional. Just keep an eye on it.

[andrewds 93]

On 8/28/2022 at 7:47 AM, pünktchen said:

@andrewds you probably need this package for OpenWRT: https://openwrt.org/packages/pkgdata/asterisk-res-http-websocket

Thanks @pünktchen, this package is websockets for Asterisk and unrelated. I did finally spend quite a bit of time reading about websockets and then reconfiguring the firewall for logging so I could analyze the results. What I found is that the firewall was blocking the traffic because once the websockets are opened destination ports for traffic from the server back to the client are not just the HTTPS port.

So, I was allowing HTTPS traffic on one port, and during normal playback (and Continuous under Virtual TV) that one port is enough. But for some reason in both Playlist modes additional connections are being established with the remote client where the destination port is in the dynamic/private port range. The traffic does remain encrypted and the source port is still the server's HTTPS port. I was able to resolve the problem I was having by further modifying the firewall to allow traffic from the server to the client where the source port is the HTTPS port but the destination port on the client is any port.

To summarize:

* Previously, my only firewall rule was to allow traffic from the clients to the server on the HTTPS port.
* To support Live TV through VirtualTV after reading about websockets, I thought I would only need to add a new rule allowing traffic from the server back to the client on the same HTTPS port.
* The working configuration is to allow traffic from the server back to the client where the source port on the server is the HTTPS port but the destination port on the client can be any port

Edited August 29, 2022 by andrewds
formatting for readability

[andrewds 93]

7 hours ago, pünktchen said:

The only way i can think of how that could happen is, if your library has changed between the last guide refresh and the time of playback. Although i always thought the database would never use the same item id again from videos that where removed from the database. In the end it's not normal nor intentional. Just keep an eye on it.

I am also seeing this behavior. When I exit playback to the guide the screen remains black (the guide doesn't load back in), but only on my Roku devices. On Chrome on Windows/Ubuntu it loads as expected. I thought it was probably just something about the Roku devices.

[andrewds 93]

5 hours ago, andrewds said:

Thanks @pünktchen, this package is websockets for Asterisk and unrelated. I did finally spend quite a bit of time reading about websockets and then reconfiguring the firewall for logging so I could analyze the results. What I found is that the firewall was blocking the traffic because once the websockets are opened destination ports for traffic from the server back to the client are not just the HTTPS port.

So, I was allowing HTTPS traffic on one port, and during normal playback (and Continuous under Virtual TV) that one port is enough. But for some reason in both Playlist modes additional connections are being established with the remote client where the destination port is in the dynamic/private port range. The traffic does remain encrypted and the source port is still the server's HTTPS port. I was able to resolve the problem I was having by further modifying the firewall to allow traffic from the server to the client where the source port is the HTTPS port but the destination port on the client is any port.

To summarize:

* Previously, my only firewall rule was to allow traffic from the clients to the server on the HTTPS port.
* To support Live TV through VirtualTV after reading about websockets, I thought I would only need to add a new rule allowing traffic from the server back to the client on the same HTTPS port.
* The working configuration is to allow traffic from the server back to the client where the source port on the server is the HTTPS port but the destination port on the client can be any port

I realized I need to clarify on this because the original context from several posts ago was lost: the complexity of getting this set up for me is due to the Roku devices. Streaming from Chrome on Windows/Ubuntu does not use these extra ports.

[andrewds 93]

@pünktchen thank you again for your awesome work on this plugin and helping me with troubleshooting. Do you take feature requests here? I would like to add one to the list: if possible, can the plugin automatically mark an entire series unwatched if it's supposed to be included in the guide so that if I set the guide to use unwatched episodes only and order the guide so that the episodes play in sequence, once the end of a series is reached it will start over again in the guide.

If you don't take requests here I'm happy to submit it on GitHub or whatever platform you prefer!

[pünktchen 1251]

That's not possible, because how should i know which show to mark unwatched? If you have set to only include unwatched episodes for your channel data, i do not even get a fully watched show from the library in the first place.

[andrewds 93]

16 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

That's not possible, because how should i know which show to mark unwatched? If you have set to only include unwatched episodes for your channel data, i do not even get a fully watched show from the library in the first place.

Oh ok, I see. I thought you were querying for the full list and then applying filters based on whether I select watched/unwatched afterwards. If you are querying with the watched/unwatched filters applied (because of the way the API works I assume) then I see how it is not possible. Thanks for explaining.

[speechles 1917]

@pünktchen

( cannot screenshot the active video layer just the overlay but there is playing video beneath these stats for nerds )

I am working on getting the Roku application to work better with your plugin. I can get direct play with the original container using playlist live. But at first it fails with a playback error. Then it resumes with playback recovery and immediately works with direct play.

Since you have matured this plugin so much it seems a shame the Roku is being stubborn. I will figure out where the difficulty lies and get back to you in this thread. But good news is always good.

Edited August 31, 2022 by speechles

[horstepipe 356]

hey

is anybody using this plugin with strm files and can tell how good it works?
"continous" mode seems to be a bad idea, but "playlist" mode should work fine?

Edited September 13, 2022 by horstepipe

[pünktchen 1251]

Both should work, but you have to create somehow the mediainfo first. Without any duration, the library items won't be accepted for the program guide.

[horstepipe 356]

11 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

Both should work, but you have to create somehow the mediainfo first. Without any duration, the library items won't be accepted for the program guide.

damn okay, guess this is a deal breaker.

Thanks!

[King_Col_Bundy 12]

Hoping I can get some help with this. I can't understand at all why my channels aren't working.

These are the settings I have for my channel for The Simpson's.. my hope was to create a channel so I would not have to shuffle all on the show all the time.

I was trying to use a tag on the show "Simpsons" and Dan Castellaneta to try and nail it down more, but it still doesn't work. What this channel does is seemingly play my movies from the start, it begins with '12 Years A Slave' as that is alphabetically my first movie.

Also now every other channel I try to create doesn't even show up on Live TV. I have tried restarting the server multiple times, tried to uninstall and reinstall the plugin, still no luck.

 

[King_Col_Bundy 12]

Here is my channel. For some reason it is still displaying The Simpon's, even after I went in and corrected that and saved. I guess this must mean it is broken somewhere as my other channels aren't showing either.

[pünktchen 1251]

Everytime you make changes to the channels other than the playback method, you have to run the refresh guide task to take affect.