This file describes MythStreamTV, it's uses and installation.

The problem - After installing my MythTV system at home and getting everything working properly I was unable to access the programming remotely from my office. The Nupplevideo formatted files are about 2.2GB per hour and way to large to upload over the meger 3000k/500k ADSL connection in my home.

Initially I used Nuvexport to transcode the videos so that I could stream VIA Apache and watch from my office. But I soon found on my Pentium 3 1000Mhz system the time to transcode to WMV or other streamable format it was almost a 1:1 ratio for time to encode.

Every morning I would hit-up my Myth box from my laptop before work and grab all the programming from the night before. But this was on the order of 5-7GB and could take quite some time even on an home network at 100Mbps. Amazing quality, but so much space.

The solution - With Linux and VLC I was able to transcode and stream via http the recorded and live programming stored on my MythTV system. The next logical step would be to tie it into MythWeb to allow remote selction of recording and control them. With my 500k upstream I am able to successfully live transcode video and stream it over VLC's internal http server.

Much thanks to the author of MythBurn (http://mythburn.sourceforge.net). I am not a php programmer and with his permission he has allowed me to use what ever needed. 

Current featureset of MythStreamTV includes:
-Codec Selection of DIV3 and WMV2
-Video Bitrate Selection
-Audio Bitrate Selection
-Playlist Creation
-Streaming of LiveTV and Recorded programming
-Control of resolution of stream
-Control of frames per second of stream
-Remote video control (fast forward, rewind, pause etc)
-Protocol Selection mms or http
-Stream Authenication using http

Future enhancements:
-Streaming of DVD playback
-Autolanch of MMS client
-Access to MythVideo files

Installation instructions
Of course you must have MythTV/MythWeb installed and running properly.

You'll need the following software packages. I can't say these options won't break something else. So check them all for your systems configuration.  
(At least this is the versions I've used.)
vlc-0.8.1 http://www.videolan.org/
ffmpeg-0.4.9-pre1 http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/

**Download the source and compile these packages** 
VideoLan-Client 'may' work without compiling. There are reports that it will work with the binary distro.

Configure ffmpeg:
./configure --disable-x11 --disable-xvideo --disable-gtk --disable-sdl --enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-faac --with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-mad --enable-libdvbpsi --enable-a52 --disable-dvdplay --enable-dvdnav --enable-vorbis --enable-ogg --enable-theora --enable-mkv --enable-freetype --disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-speex --enable-flac --enable-goom --enable-livedotcom --enable-caca --disable-skins2 --enable-modplug --enable-debug --enable-gpl --enable-mp3lame --enable-pp 
Configure VideoLan-Client Version 0.8.1:
./configure --disable-x11 --disable-xvideo --disable-gtk --disable-sdl --enable-ffmpeg --with-ffmpeg-mp3lame --with-ffmpeg-zlib --enable-mad --enable-libdvbpsi --enable-a52 --disable-dvdplay --enable-dvdnav --enable-vorbis --enable-ogg --enable-theora --enable-mkv --enable-freetype --disable-cddax --disable-vcdx --enable-speex --enable-flac --enable-goom --enable-livedotcom --enable-caca --disable-skins2 --enable-modplug --enable-debug --enable-gpl --enable-mp3lame --enable-pp --with-ffmpeg-tree=/video/extra/ffmpeg-cvs-2004-11-10 

Run the install.sh script located in the mythstreamtv directory. Enter the following information-
MythStreamTV Directory (The program directory where MythStreamTV will be stored)
MythWeb HTTP Directory (Location of MythWeb files.)
MythStreamTV Server Address (IP address or hostname you would like to stream from.)
MythStreamTV Server Port (Port number you would like to stream from.)
MythStreamTV Server Stream Admin Port (This is the port number VLC http admin runs.)
MythStreamTV User:Group? (User and group to be used for MythStreamTV Directory.) 
Path to where vlc is installed (Location of the vlc binary on your system.)

Now at the top of MythWeb you should see a link that says 'Stream Program'. When clicked MythWeb should show a list of recorded/recording programs. Select the show/shows you would like to see and click the 'Select Recording and Continue' button. Now select the Codec and Stream Speed you would like and click 'Start Live Stream'. You should see in the Log window that the VLC session was able to succesfully started. Now click the MMS link. If your mimetype has been properly configured it should launch an MMS viewer ie: Mplayer or Window Media Player. If your mimetype for MMS is broken you may enter the MMS link directly into your MMS player.

MythStreamTV admin port connects locally and does not need to be opened from an external firewall. MythWeb launches a script that sends the command to the vlc admin port locally and controls the stream.

*If you select no video MythStreamTV will kill the current VLC session being streamed. Or you can press the "Stop Streaming" button.

Support
For installation help or bugs please visit the support forum on SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/mythstreamtv/

MythStreamTV
Copyright (C) 2005 Joshua Ebel joshebel@gmail.com

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
