[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] tilleke:
STREAMING

Streaming works great for me, especially at home (in my Local LAN) but also at work (using WIFI) and even at the supermarket using a mobile-connection (3G) although the quality degrades.

For you, I don't know - Streaming may work, may work so and so or may not work at all.

It depends on a lot of factors:

-For Local-LAN: your WIFI set-up at home (11g, 54g etc)

-For WLAN or mobile: upload/download speed of your Broadband (normally upload-speeds are slower than download-speeds (ADSL)

-Your device

-Your computer acting as VLC-server

-not finding the right configuration in stream-profiles settings

-etc

What you need:

1) VLC (Videolan). Just Google for it and install it on your computer which will act as the VLC-server. I have only tested streaming using VLC running on Windows but it should work on VLC-servers using Linux and MAC as well. If it doesn't, please let me know. I have only tested version 1.0.5 of VLC so I am unable to say if previous versions will work.

UPDATE (22/06/2010) - I just tested the new version of VLC no. 1.1.0 and it seems like WinDR is not compatibile with the latest version of VLC. So if you want to use WinDR, please ensure to use VLC 1.0.5 or earlier until I have resolved this issue.

2) TCPMP (free and which you can find here on XDA) or Coreplayer (not free). Make sure that ASX-files are opened by the program you installed (look in the programs' settings for file-association). Some say that TCPMP is faster to load the stream (5-6 seconds in my Local-LAN) than Coreplayer. On the other hand, some say that Coreplayer is more fluid. The choice is yours.

3) A rather modern and fast device. It might work with slower devices as well but you may have to play a lot with your VLC-configuration (bitrate etc) before you get it to work

4) and of course WMDR

How to set up everything:

1) install VLC on your computer which will act as the VLC (streaming) -server. Then under the menu, select "View" in the English version (not sure since I have it in Italian) and then select "Add Interface" and finally you select "Add Telnet-interface". If you haven't changed anything, the default password for Telnet is admin and the port in use is 4212. That's it. VLC must be running to get streaming working. There are options to install VLC as a Windows Service or you can create a bat-file to be executed upon launch of your VLC-server. I guess similar options are availabe on Linux and MAC as well.

2) if you are going to use streaming outside your Local-LAN, you must ensure that you have set up port-forwarding correctly in your router. You must ensure that the WebIf can be accessed. You must ensure also that port 4212 (for Telnet) is opened and forwarded to the VLC-server. The same goes also for the streaming-port on the VLC-server which TCPMP/Coreplayer needs to access to receive the stream. So, basically you need to set up port-forwarding for one port for accessing the WebIf of your Dreambox and two ports for accessing your VLC-server.

3) A typical VLC-command to get streaming going is as follows:

vlc.exe" -vvv [url]http://192.168.1.130:31339/0,0025,0384,0385,0295[/url] --sout #transcode{vcodec=MP4V,vb=384,scale=0,5,acodec=mp3,ab=64,channels=1,deinterlace}:Duplicate{dst=std{access=HTTP,mux=ASF,dst=192.168.1.12:8085}}

Here are some explanations:

- the part "vlc.exe" is handled by WMDR using Telnet. You don't need to anything except for filling in information regarding the IP-address of your VLC-server, its password and which port to use.

- the part

"http://192.168.1.130:31339/0,0025,0384,0385,0295"

is your dreambox-ip, the port used for streaming and some channel-parameters. These parameters are handled automatically by WMDR and do not require your attention

- the part

"#transcode{vcodec=MP4V,vb=384,scale=0,5,acodec=mp3,ab=64,channels=1,deinterlace}:Duplicate{dst=std{access=HTTP,mux=ASF,dst="

is the one you have to insert in WMDR and which you need to experiment with to get the best picture/quality/fluidity according to your connection-speed. WMDR is pre-installed with 3 examples which are working on my HD2, my WIFI (using 54g) and my ADSL with an upload speed of 512kb. You can use those as an example and then modify them according to your needs.

- the part "192.168.1.12:8085" is the IP of your VLC-server and the port which TCPMP/Coreplayer should connect to in order to get the stream. You fill in this information in the stream-profiles.

With this information, you can set up your streaming-profiles in WMDR. In the streaming-profiles, you will find an additional setting called "VLC Sleep Delay". You can leave it at 200ms as its default-value. This parameter is used by WMDR when "talking to" VLC via Telnet. If the connection is very slow, you can increase this value but normally, even on Mobile-connections, the value of 200ms is OK.

Above information should get you going.

If you have problems with streaming, look at the points mentioned above since it is unlikely due to WMDR itself and that I can do anything to resolve your problems.

Good luck!

TIPS AND TRICKS:

-To make TCPMP open up automatically in full screen mode, you can do the following registry-edit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\TCPMP\PLAY
DWORD 123
Change value from 0 to 1

-For associating the file-extension ASX with TCPMP, do as follows: In TCPMP it is under:

-As far as I have understood, TCPMP has been discontinued but there are some people updating it from time to time. If you have problems viewing the stream, it may (perhaps) be because you are using an old version of TCPMP. Here are two links to TCPMP which I have found working on my HD2:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=5657963&postcount=1

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=5685536&postcount=1

TROUBLESHOOTING

- If you get errors in TCPMP (unknown file format, crashes) or if you don't see anything at all, you can try the following to trace where the error originates:

Select Stream in WMDR and if you get an error message from TCPMP, just disregard the error and put your device on the table or wherever. Don't click on anything. Don't kill the stream. Now, in the folder of WMDR on the device, you should find a file called WMDR.asx. Copy this file to your desktop (on a PC). Go to your PC and right-click on WMDR.asx and choose "open with" and select VLC (it will open another session of VLC). If you now can see the stream from your Dreambox on your computer-screen, then it means that WMDR comunicates correctly with VLC and most likely there is a problem with TCPMP/Coreplayer or because the file is too large/complex to be seen on the device. If you don't see anything, then probably there is a communication-problem between WMDR and VLC. Check IP-address, Port and Password of VLC.

- Make sure that streaming actually works between your Dreambox and VLC (without using WMDR) and that you can watch the streams on your computer. You can test this by using the web-interface of your Dreambox or you can search internet for instructions. If you have problems (can't see anything at all, bad quality, buffering-problems etc), then the problem itself lies with the source and there is no way streaming will work in a satisfying way. For instance, it has been reported that cheap (clones of) DM500 might have problems with streaming.