[ExtractStream] Re: Status of Windows tools ==> Linux Solutions

[Kyle Davenport]

Dale Reed wrote:


> > 1. ExtractStream package (.2) didn't work for me.
>
> .2 will not work with a tivomad expanded system (which I'm assuming
> you used to expand to 80gb).

No, just put in an extra 80 Gb drive. Since httpd.tcl NowShowing has
some shows but not others, I was guessing that the ones it had problems
with were on the other drive. I found I can drill down into the mfs
database and program -> part contains the missing tystream fsids. I
don't remember now really why extractstream .2 didn't work for me - the
documentation just isn't very clear for beginners. The step-by-step
guides out there just plain didn't work.

> > 3. CVS version of ExtractStream (.3) works, but the httpd.tcl has no
>
> > recorded shows
>
> There are lots of them. I still use the really old httpd.tcl on port
> 81 to get the show ids. I run the sufr tivoweb on 80 for the cool
> features, though. :)

I've been doing that too, but I'm also trying to diff the cool httpd
with the ExtractStream stuff.

> > 4. ConvertStream doesn't work for me (I'm at TiVo 2.0.1).
>
> Converstream should work fine with 2.0.1. I re-worked some of the
> code and pulled some other code from Extractstream. If you'd like
> a copy that works with 2.0, let me know.

I thought I downloaded the latest from the author's web site - please do
send.

> > 5. Finally! got nfs mounting to work. A little documentation would
> have
> > been nice. It's for mounting remote server's filesystems on the
> TiVo.
>
> nfs is REALLY slow. I couldn't get over 300K/sec with it. I still
> use
> the single netcat connection and pull almost 950K/sec with netcat.
> The nice thing about nfs is that you don't have to set any listeners
> up on the PC side, though. :)

hmmm, I'm getting only 230K/sec. Why won't the netcat thing work for
me?

> > 11. move to 1.2 GHz athlon/Win98SE - both files play great. I use
> the
> > Sigma Designs Netstream2000 mpg2 decoder and bsplay divx player.
> Full
> > screen mpg2 looks better than on my hdtv. Even the highly
> compressed
> > mpg4 is ok - better than a vcd.
>
> I use my dxr2 card to watch the mpg back on my tv and its comprable to
>
> what the tivo looks like when playing it natively.
>
> > The netstream2000 was made to play network streaming mpg2's. I
> eagerly
> > look forward to that functionality on my TiVo.
>
> Is it hardware or software?
> Dale

Check it out: http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/netstream2000.htm
To quote Special Hardware Features:

Hardware decoding of both audio and video
Low latency decoding modes for subsecond channel changes of
multicast and on-demand video
Hardware sync of audio and video
Hardware VCXO for streaming audio and video clock recovery
256 color, full-screen On-Screen Display (OSD) controller,
with 4-bit alpha blending
Analog YPbPr (480i/576i) or S-video and composite, RGB VGA
video outputs

It handles upto 20 Mbps video stream, which would include all hdtv atsc
modes. The kicker for me was linux drivers.

P.S.
After pulling a large stream from the TiVo, I too noticed the audio was
behind the video about 1/2 second by the end. It seems mplex was
complaining about the frame id's - could ExtractStream be inserting
incompatible/non-standard frame id's?