Using MythStream

1. Playing Streams

After starting MythStream a list of stream items is visible. Below that list are folder labels, shown as tabs. Stream items contain a name, url, description and handler. Use action INSPECT (key I) to view all information. The url of the stream item can point to a playable stream or to information about streams - like a stream index web page or XML feed.

Use left, right buttons on your remote control to change folders
Use up, down to move the cursor over stream items
Use return to start a stream

If the handler field is empty and the stream item points to a playable stream, the stream starts. If not, the data the url points to is retrieved and parsed by the MythStream "harvester". The way it is parsed is determined by the parser set in the handler field (for parser information see below). The parser generates a new list of stream items from the retrieved data.

Progress of stream item handling is visible in the status field:

harvesting: stream item contents is retrieved and parsed
buffering: stream item contents is being cached by the player
videoinit: player has detected a video
playing: stream is played
stopped: stream item processing stopped

MythStream has different GUI Modes, available depending on the stream status:

browse mode : Browsing folders and stream items. Folders are listed on the bottom of the display, items are listed from top to bottom. The current folder and stream are highlighted.
play mode : Active during stream play. Stream details like name, codec, buffer, stability are shown. The top right LED is green. A Flashing LED means the player is buffering.
harvester mode : Shown are URL fetch status or harvested URL's. The bottom right LED is red. A flashing LED means the harvester is receiving data (fetching URL's). URL's likely to be streams are prefixed with ~.
action mode : Several actions that require feedback present available options using the MythStream display. Example: the option to filter playable streams from the parser result set. This mode always has "Cancel" as last option.
info mode : Displays (stream) item details. Most information is displayed in the display prefixed with "I"-icons. Items "harvested" from XML or other data may have embedded html or multiline text. This content is presented as an entry with a dedicated icon. Selecting this entry opens a separate viewer.

In the empty region below the status and time field informational and error messages are presented. Examples:

the number of KBytes received by the parser
failure to find new stream items
parser failure
feedback from the player (errors, or during play: song title, artist)

During stream play, it is possible to:

browse stream items (left, right, top, down)
show stream item information (I)
harvest stream items if parser is set
store stream (actions instead of folders)
switching Preview, Fullscreen, Fullscreen zoom (f)

2. Key mappings

Keys registered by MythStream (see "Edit Keys" menu in MythTV Frontend):

AVDEC	Delay audio	-
AVINC	Delay video	+
DUMP	Display player dump	D
END	Stop stream or speech	END O
FORWARD	Forward seekable stream	>
FULLSCREEN	Toggle preview, fullscreen, zoom	F, RETURN
INSPECT	Show details	I
MARK	Mark stream	M
MUTE	Mute	\| / F9
PAUSE	Pause	P
REWIND	Rewind seekable stream	<
SPEECH	Toggle speech synthesizer	S
STOREMARKED	Store marked streams	Y
VOLDN	Volume down	[ { F10
VOLUP	Volume up	] } F11
EDITITEM	Update, Add or Remove Stream Item	E
RECORD	Start recording
STOPRECORD	Stop recording
STOPALLRECORD	Stop all recordings

Usage of MythTV "Global" keys:

LEFT, RIGHT, ...	Browse stream items and folders	cursor keys
SELECT	Start Stream Item	RETURN
ESCAPE	Stop playing stream, exit	ESC
9	Page Down in Stream Item list	9
3	Page Up in Stream Item list	3
0	Load another stream storage (0..9)	0

3. Play a list of stream items (e.g. music videos)

It is possible to create a playlist from a folder of stream items. This can be a manually configured folder, or the "harvest" folder containing the results returned by the harvester. Just mark (MARK action) the items you want to include. Then start the first of the marked items.

The demo storage (press 0, then 8 for the online demo storage or 9 for the local demo storage) includes RSS feeds from DailyMotion created from custom queries. These stream items return lists of music video files that can be used to construct a playlist.

A playlist will not "wrap", if you start an item somewhere down the list, the items above it will not be played.

Video's will automatically switch to fullscreen five seconds into the video.

The playlist stops running when:

the end of the playlist has been reached
one of the stream items fails to play
one of the stream items produces a new stream item list (parser action)

If the playlist stops because of a failed stream, try the failed stream again. The playlist will resume from this position.
If a new stream item results in a new (parser generated) stream item list the playlist is not longer available, so playlist play will stop.

4. Downloading A/V files

Audio and video files (mp3, flv, mpg, ...) can be downloaded.
Streams can only be recorded. See [...] for recording streams.

Note: Don't download on a readonly storage (like the demo storages) if you want to be able start the download from the "downloads" folder. And you want that when downloading from dynamic url's, or if you want to delete the file from mythstream's GUI.

The parser decides whether a file should be downloaded or played directly. Some parsers ask the user what to do with the file, some don't - e.g. to facilitate playlist play.

Examples:

the dailymotion/feed parser asks the user to download or play directly
the dailymotion/playall parser plays the file directly without asking.
the podcast parser downloads first - giving the option to play the downloaded content. This is proper behavior for a podcast client.

Files are stored in $HOME/.mythtv/mythstream/downloads/<host>/<url path + query>

The status of a download is indicated by the icon next to the stream item used to start the download. If this stream item is selected again, the (partially) downloaded file will play. In addition, a reference to the downloading or downloaded file is stored in the "downloads" folder. This entry in the downloads folder is required to match downloads from dynamic url's to the stream item that initiated the download. This is why you shouldn't download from a readonly storage - MythStream cannot add your download to that storages downloads folder.

Downloads will continue after closing MythStream. Exiting the MythTV Frontend will stop the download. MythStream will not try to resume these stopped downloads.

When a stream item in the downloads folder is deleted, the file it references will be deleted too. If a stream item is first moved from the download folder and then deleted, the downloaded file remains on disk.

The download feature can be used to play media files that appear choppy when played directly from the online source. If the content is split into several parts, the parts can be played in sequence by creating a playlist from the relevant stream items in the downloads folder.

5. Edit Stream Items on the fly

Action EDITITEM (key "E") will open a dialog window showing the fields of the stream item under cursor. The fields are listed in the order folder, name, url, description, handler. To edit the fields use a keyboard or press "select" on the remote to bring up the virtual keyboard.

The "Update", "Add new" or "Delete" buttons in the dialog window work as expected when editing a stream item from a writable stream storage. If the stream item is readonly, an error is displayed.

If a dynamic stream item (provided by a parser) is edited, only the "Add new" button works: it can be used to store the item in the current stream storage.

6. Switching stream item storages

The stream items and folders visible in MythStream are stored in "stream storages". A stream storage can be a file, database or static/dynamic web page. Available storages are loaded in MythStream by pressing 0. After pressing 0 a prompt asking for stream item index is shown, pressing the storage index number 0..9 will load the stream storage.

Available storages:

8: online demo storage "online storage"
9: offline demo storage "v0.18 tarball demo storage"
0: default storage "mythstream" (table "stream" in the MythTV database)
1..7: custom storages (if configured)

When MythStream is installed for the first time, the database storage "mythstream" is created from the "v0.18 tarball demo" storage. A Mythstream upgrade replaces the tarball demo with a new version, the "mythstream" storage is not altered.

In the setup module you can manage custom storages (selectable by keys 1..7), and set any storage as the default storage.

7. Copy stream items between storages.

To copy a stream item in a folder to another stream storage, MARK (key D) the stream items and copy them using the STOREMARKED (key Y) action. A list of available stream storages is presented. Select one of them.

Note: to copy to the default database storage (the streams table in the MythTv database) this storage must first be configured