[spitfire78]

how do i stream (sat) tv to my xbox? there are many topics that are just too detailed for me to get the whole picture. i sense there are more people like me, so help me out and i'll make a guide.

goal: watch digital tv, low cost, maximum flexibility

i have 2 pc's and a xbox in my network. i can open and watch *.avi's, *.mpg's, *.iso's etc. via smb on xbox from the pc's hdd's. now i want to add satellite tv, and i have to options:

1. by buying a skystar 2 pci card for one of the pc's and stream to network via xbox
2. buy a dreambox sat receiver and add to network (model 500 ok?).

q1: what would be your argument for either one of the solutions?
q2: without spending money already, i have set up a configuration with mytheatre (without a dvb-s card) because mytheatre also playes files from disk. i installed mytheatre and the avbroadcast plugin and tried to broadcast a movie from pc hard disk to xbox. in this i did not succeed. so here i need to know:
1. is it possible to stream local files as well as dvb signal to xbox?
2. what settings and setup do i need to go through if i want to set up the whole thing from scratch?

as a "middle step" i tried to recieve a stream from one pc to the other by vlc but without luck also... i just need input on settings and "what means what" since it doesn't explain enough in the help files.

[Th3_H0unD]

ok first things first i'm not going to tell you how to setup mytheatre that's up to you to figure out.

get the mytheatre.py script and the files that come with it.
if you don't have it pm me with your e-mail address and i'll send it to you.

second install the files and launch mytheatre then run the
mytheatreepgserv.exe. (this is for the guide)


edit the mytheatre.py script to point to the ip of you pc with mytheatre running.

then go and launch the mytheatre.py script from your xbox.
and you should get your "favorites" and be able to select and channel and watch tv.

as far as the dreambox goes it is possible and there is a frontend to it posted here in the forms. i don't know anything about it.

hope this helps you out. if you need more info let me know.

th3_h0und

[johnwastaken]

do i need any hardware aside from the skystar2 card? does the card need to plug into anything, or can it work alone with the software. where is the best place to score one fo these cards?

thanks you!

[Th3_H0unD]

well your getting into other topics.... your best bet is too looking into dvbforums to find that information.

as far as getting that card i have no idea i have a card from dvbmaster vision plus 1020a is what i use. now you might be able to get your skystar card from threre as well. i don't know.

the card does not have to be plugged into your receiver. you can take it straight from the lnb of your dish to the sat card in your pc.

extra hardware well you need a computer for the card

th3_h0und

[spitfire78]

i downloaded "mytheatrexbmc2.0.rar" from the link for downloads in this thread. i followed the instructions in the readme.txt file that comes with it. the progress i've made is that now the script runs from xbox, where the earlier version that came with my xbox in januari 2005 just showed [running] for a second and then nothing.

however i do get an error that says "unable to retrieve channel list" when pressing the two top buttons (tv only/radio only and the all channels/fta only). when i select the program guide in de xbox screen menu, i get "error tuning channel". i suppose i need to configure my favorites in mt on pc, but i do not have the dvb-card or tv-card in my pc yet. how can i stream a dvd or any other video-file first to see how it works before buying a dvb-card, satellite dish and full licence to mytheatre?

@th3_h0und: can you check by my download if these are all the files i need? on the pc i am using mytheatre 3.25.1 and the avbroadcast 0.12 plugin. when mytheatre is running on the pc, i run "mytheatreepgserv.exe" as you describe. a dos window opens for a second and closes again. it's too fast to read, but i think i saw the word error in there too.

[Th3_H0unD]

that's your problem right there. that dos window that opens should stay open cause the program keeps running.
run the command from a dos window and see what happens.

th3_h0und

[spitfire78]

i copied the folder xbmcepg to c:\ and opened mytheatreepgserv.exe from the command line. this is the text i see (i translated some of it to english myself):

port = 8001
traceback (most recent call last):
file "mytheatreepgserv.py", line 29 in, ?
dbchannel = engine.opendatabase(datapath+'\channels.mdb')
file "<comobject dao.dbengine.36>", line 2, in opendatabase
pywintypes.com_error: (-2147352567, 'an exception has occurred.', (0, 'dao.workspace', 'cannot find file ..\\channels.mdb.', 'jeterr40.chm', 5003024, -2146825264), none)
i copied the folder xbmcepg to c:\ and opened mytheatreepgserv.exe from the command line. this is the text i see (i translated some of it to english myself):

port = 8001
traceback (most recent call last):
file "mytheatreepgserv.py", line 29 in, ?
dbchannel = engine.opendatabase(datapath+'\channels.mdb')
file "<comobject dao.dbengine.36>", line 2, in opendatabase
pywintypes.com_error: (-2147352567, 'an exception has occurred.', (0, 'dao.workspace', 'cannot find file ..\\channels.mdb.', 'jeterr40.chm', 5003024, -2146825264), none)

//edit// update:
i got it to run by putting the xbmcepg folder under mytheatre folder in program files and run mytheatreepgserv.exe from there.

however i still have the errors "unable to retrieve channel list" and "error tuning channel" in my xbox screen. the readme.txt states that the mytheatre script will only work with favorites set up. but how do i setup favorite channels without a dvb-card? mpg's and dvd plays well in mytheatre on pc.

[Th3_H0unD]

well i'm glad too see that you installed it in the proper location. as for your other problem well if you have mytheatre setup and you are watching tv then it should be working.

too add any channels to your favorties well just right click on the channel goto properties then you will see the spot for putting it in your favorites.

and because you are trying to do this without your dvb card well you will allways get that "error tunning channel" because it cannot tune to something that does not exsist.

if you want this too work then get a dvb card. i'm not the only person that uses this script. this script does work and rather well at that. so if you want to get to the next level then get a dvb card.

th3_h0und

[spitfire78]

thanks a lot so far! :bowdown:

i installed a dish and skystar2. after 15 minutes of trying (alone) to point the dish, i went out to buy a compass and analog satfinder, which helped me to find astra...... 2, instead of 1! just to figure out which sat i had aimed at, took me more than installing the hardware. but there's a great website you can check by searching for the channels you receive and check the sat.

now there are two steps (i hope) to victory:

1. mytheatre (3.12 and 3.21) will hang with some channels after 1 to more minutes or just play. when i change channels a few times it hangs too. i've de-installed the dvbviewer software that came wit the skystar2 and things seem more stable, but problems occur at least changing channels.

2. i still get the "unable to retrieve channel list" in the xbox script. good things are: i see that bandwidth is being used in the avbroadcaster plugin (which i didn't see before using a card), so there is broadcasting going on. i also added andalucia tv to my favorites, since it doesn't seem to hang if i start up and do not touch anything.

ps: my hardware should be ok: asus p4c-800e, p4 3,2 g, 1gb ram. cpu usage when playing around 6%.

[Th3_H0unD]

it's too bad you installed the software that came with it. i've usally only had problems and had to re-install my whole system from scratch. anyways. about your mytheatre problem is it a demo? cause you should not have any problems with the demo if you bought it then it will work fine as well. now there have been alot of reports of "illegal" copies not working 100 percent. i don't know why that's just what i've seen and read.

second let's fix your channel listing problem.

step 1) start mytheatre and set it to any channel.
step 2) run mytheatreepgserv.exe
step 3) start xbmc
step 4) run the mytheatre.py script from xbmc.

if you've configured the mytheatre.py script was modified to point to your pc with the skystar2 card then everything should be fine.

note: you don't have to start avbroadcaster just have it installed and configured.


try that and let me know.

th3_h0und

[robbo43]

hi there,

i have the same problem of unable to retrieve channels list. everything is installed in the correct directory, and epg server is active. the script will not exit if i press one of the top buttons.

i am able to watch the avbroadcaster stream pointing to the dvbcore.mpg file using a .strm file.

i am running mytheatre 3.25.1 and haven't payed for it as yet - i'm waiting to see if this works.

thanks

rob

[Th3_H0unD]

did you run the mytheatreepgserv.exe ? and does the dos window stay open?

if the window closes then there is a problem!!! and you need to run the command from a command prompt "manually" and that will help determine what the issue is.

if the window stays open and you still get the unable to retrieve channel listings message on your xbox then you might want to verify your settings in the mytheatre.py script.

th3_h0und

[robbo43]

hi,

i no longer get the unable to retrieve channel list - turns out the 1 hour evaluation time has expired, but the icon was still in the system tray!

however there is no list of channels when the script opens??

if i scroll down so the buttons at the top (tv only, all channels) are not selected and press enter i get a message saying channel cannot be tuned.

the dos window stays open - when i check the avbroadcaster plugin it doesn't seem to be broadcasting.

my favourites are all located in a subcategory - tv fav.

here's the debug file

01-04-2005 19:16:07 debug udpclient tx: 17038 -> 'kai_client_discover;'
01-04-2005 19:18:26 info activating window id: 10020
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrarya('zlib.pyd')
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug initializing fs_seg..
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug fs segment @ 0x8c3d50
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug executing entrypoint at: 0xb684ff - dll: zlib.pyd
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrary('zlib.pyd') returning: 0x869fb0
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug kernel32!getprocaddress(0x869fb0, 'initzlib') => 0xb62210
01-04-2005 19:18:30 info -->python initialized<--
01-04-2005 19:18:30 info
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrarya('_ssl.pyd')
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug executing entrypoint at: 0xbbe951 - dll: _ssl.pyd
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrary('_ssl.pyd') returning: 0x86ffb0
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug kernel32!getprocaddress(0x86ffb0, 'init_ssl') => 0xb71aa0
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrarya('pyexpat.pyd')
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug executing entrypoint at: 0xc09c01 - dll: pyexpat.pyd
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug loadlibrary('pyexpat.pyd') returning: 0xa02040
01-04-2005 19:18:30 debug kernel32!getprocaddress(0xa02040, 'initpyexpat') => 0xbf4540
01-04-2005 19:18:31 debug loadlibrarya('_sre.pyd')
01-04-2005 19:18:31 debug executing entrypoint at: 0xc2a3cb - dll: _sre.pyd
01-04-2005 19:18:31 debug loadlibrary('_sre.pyd') returning: 0x9ec670
01-04-2005 19:18:31 debug kernel32!getprocaddress(0x9ec670, 'init_sre') => 0xc2a120
01-04-2005 19:18:31 info activating window id: 13000

thanks for your help!

rob

[Th3_H0unD]

rob: you should get a list of "favorites" that appear on the left side of the screen. if you select one of those ie "tv fav" then you should see "all" the channels that are under that section. and you should then be able to scroll through the list and pick a channel to watch.

and well it does not appear that your debug level is not set to "0" so it does not give me all the information.

th3_h0und

[robbo43]

th3_h0und

i don't have anything on the screen apart from the tv only button, the all channels button, program guide text ( in the middle of the right hand side of the screen and i can't select it) and the two page numbers at the bottom. i'm running the project mayhem ii skin.

i only posted the debug file from the point where i get debug information.

thanks again

rob