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Hi everyone

This is my first post on the forum so wish me luck.

I have purchased a dreambox 500S and do not require it to card share. I would like it to just bootup and display a live video stream from the internet. I do not require any additonal features from the image besides network settings.

1. Is this possible?

2. Which image could i use to do this?

3. If i need to create a custom image could someone please provide some advice.


Thanks to all in advance

Hi everyone

This is my first post on the forum so wish me luck.

First of all a warm welcome to the PLi board.

I have purchased a dreambox 500S and do not require it to card share. I would like it to just bootup and display a live video stream from the internet. I do not require any additonal features from the image besides network settings.

In that case the best image is to use a maxvar image. This image is without all the extra's and is ready for adjusting at your own wishes.

1. Is this possible?

The 500 is the worst box for streaming video due to a bad networkperformance.

2. Which image could i use to do this?

As informed above. Use the maxvar image for the 500S

3. If i need to create a custom image could someone please provide some advice.

There's no need to use a custom image. Please flash the maxvar image and try it out.

> live video stream

depends which format. The dm500 supports mpeg1, mpeg2 in pes and ts containerformat. These formats are rarely used on the internet.
You can transcode them with movieplayer on the box and vlc on a pc.

If the only purpose of the box is to display a live internet stream, you shouldn't have bought a dreambox.
If you do want use the box for watching satellite channels and internet channels, you are probably be better of with a dm500hd because it supports more formats (like youtube), without an extra transcoding pc. But all depends on videoformat of the channel you want to watch. Streaming boxes (wd-tv, asus o-play, kiss, etc..) generally support more codecs than the dreambox.

Hi Frenske & Sjaaky

Thank you so much for a warm welcome and really helpful replies, you have given me somewhere to start from and alot to think about, i will try what you have advised and ill post my finding on the forum.

Thanks again

Hi Sjaaky

I think you have made a very good point about what internet streams the box can pick up and display.

Could you please guide me a little on how i could build a custom image preconfigured to use maybe VLC Player? to display a online rtsp video stream.

I have some expearence in using Linux OS, but would really appriciate any help and guidance you can offer.

Regards

Take a look at the E1MoviePlayer guide in the wiki. No need for a custom made image, just use OpenPLi. (There are some bugs in the movieplayer with Jade3). But you'll have to use an extra pc to do the transcoding.

Hi Sjaaky

Is there no way of doing this without the help of an additional device or PC?

Kind regards

I hate to brake to you, but no, it isn't possible.
The dm500 consists (among other parts) of a hardware decoder for mpeg1 and 2 and a general purpose processor. The hardware decoder is fast, but limited in supported codecs. The general purpose processor potentially supports all (except proprietary) codecs, but is too slow to decode it in real time. To give you an idea, decoding ac3 sound usually takes 25% to 40% of cpu power (raw estimates). But that is only sound, which is a piece of cake compared to the processor power needed to decode for example h264 video, used by youtube.

Only option without a pc is to record the webstream, transcode it offline and play it afterwards. But that's usually not what one wants.

Hi Sjaaky

I really appriciate you giving me so much time and greta replies to my questions. What if the video stream was in mpeg 1 or 2 then is it possible?

Yes it is.

Thanks Sjaaky

So hard is it to customise a maxvar image? i.e. so that the image knows teh exact URL of the video stream.

Not that hard. But your kinda working in reverse. First make it work, then adjust the image so it does work immediately after the box is started.

Hi Sjaaky

With your great help i have managed to flash my dreambox with

DM500MV
PLi® Jade3 MaxVar - for the Dreambox DM500 image

How can i test if it can display a video stream form the internet?

Thanks again for all you help and advice

Regards

Take a look at the E1MoviePlayer guide in the wiki.

Jade3 for the 500- never had a working movieplayer, you'll probably want to install an openPLi image...


--
hemi

Hi again

I have flashed the dreambox 500 with an openPLI image and have played about with movieplayer.

What i would like to do now is, remove all the menus and get a script to start recieving a video stream form the internet.

Could someone please guide me on how to do this.

Thanks again for all the help

Regards

the dm500 can only play mpeg2 files
so no fancy internet streams

Hi hemertje

That would be fine for now, could you give me any advice on how to do this.

Thanks

see the topic above or use the wiki/search options