[PATCH] Enable HLS passthrough to FFMPEG
#1
Hi,

I've sightly modified spiff's work (originally found at here) to pass all online m3u8 files to ffmpeg instead of trying to handle them with the local playlist factory. The patch is available here.

FFMPEG can already play HLS streams. Services that use HLS are MLS Live, NHL Gamecenter, UFC.tv and probably many many more.

Also, there is an outstanding bug in XBMC here requesting hls support.

The patch applies clean against both the git master and eden branches. It would be nice if it could be applied to both so that plugin devs (like me) can support these services.

Thanks in advance
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#2
Was this the correct place to post the patch?
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#3
As as a pull request to XBMC Main Repository on GitHub would maybe be better

http://help.github.com/send-pull-requests/

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pulls
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#4
Hi micahg,

Yes, this is fine, we are currently working hard on other things right now but your patch has been noticed and is awaiting review Smile
I am not scared of SVN - Cutting my hands open on the bleeding edge.
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#5
As a user of the MLBMC add-on, I am looking to see if there is a chance that this patch can make it into one of the next "monthly" cycles.

Currently, the add-on can call a binary file (mlbhls) which pulls the HLS stream and saves it to a temporary file, which XBMC then plays. An issue that we have is that when the file reaches ~2.5 GB, the player crashes for reasons yet unknown. This patch would/should eliminate the issue.

I also am curious because this may influence my decision to get NHL Gamecenter in September instead of NHL Center Ice... as long as a proper add-on is written at that time.

P.S. - I know that this is the developers thread, and I am not looking to push issues or demand that this be done. I have been monitoring this thread for about 2 months hoping for an update, and I'm just hoping that this was not forgotten about/overlooked.

Thanks.
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#6
Well, judging by the silence, no, nobody is reviewing this. I'd kind of hoped to have it included sooner rather than later as most North American sports providers all use HLS.
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#7
Hopefully this gets looked at soon... the HLS support would be a welcome addition.
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#8
Is there someone in particular I should be bugging to try and have this included?
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#9
I received a message from the dev of the MLBMC plugin that stated that FFMPEG's HLS support does not include https:// feeds, which would be needed for MLB.TV, and I would figure the MLS and NHL feeds also.

If this is true, I could understand why this patch has been overlooked for so long.
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#10
That is surprising... I'll have a look at that next time I'm poking around the code. I thought ffmpeg handled https already as a protocol.
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#11
I dont believe the NHL stream is https encrypted. I know for sure that MLS isnt (which I believe uses the same underlying tech).

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#12
I went ahead and updated to 12.04 on Ubuntu and tried the MLS streaming links, they work perfectly with VLC but XBMC every 10 seconds or so gives a "working" dialog before reloading. Sucks because otherwise my addon is ready to go.
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#13
ksosez, this is because XBMC is handling the playlist internally, instead of passing it back to ffmpeg to handle as HLS. You'll notice it always runs from the start of the stream too even for live events.
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#14
Is there any other way to submit this so it gets accepted (or at least reviewed). I kind of feel its just sitting here doing nothing.
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#15
Have you created a pull request for it? At least then it will appear on the [increasingly long] list of pulls in the repository.
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[PATCH] Enable HLS passthrough to FFMPEG0