Hi, I stated this issue in another part of the community as a reply to another user’s issue - just to say that because of my issue - I’m also seeing the same issue they were having.
I want to also post this as it’s own Topic - hoping I’ll be able to attract someone who might know why this is happening.
I have an RTSP stream that is local to the Xibo Client box (LIVE TV Stream) - I am using a StarTech USB HD Video Capture Device, and I can using their software (Stream Catcher), I can stream the feed, and play it on VLC locally (rtsp://127.0.0.1/session0.mpg) as well I can play it on another VLC player across the network using that player’s IP address in place of the local IP.
Any help making this work would be appreciated - I don’t have the option of playing a different stream, I need this LIVE TV stream to work. Thank you in advance
RTSP streams via the LocalVideo module work on Android, but have never been directly supported on Windows.
If you want to show it on Windows, you can do so in 1.8.1 assuming you can change the stream type to HLS, otherwise you would need to use the VLC browser plugin to show the RTSP stream via an embedded HTML widget. Others have done that in the past and documented their results here.
Thank you for your reply. I guess I’m having trouble with the concept that it is part of the program, but it’s not supported by Windows, therefore it’s not supposed to work as intended. If nothing else, please make that clearer in the documentation or even in the module itself before someone bangs their head against a wall for a week looking to find a way to make it work because it SAYS it’s supposed to.
We don’t support Android devices here, all our players are Windows based - so that’s not an option for us. Where would I get the plugin you mentioned? I have tried to stream via HLS, and instead of a completely black screen, I get all my other Regions - so that is progress. The browser isn’t able to display the page, so I guess I’ll need this module to make that work.
We’re getting somewhere, that is encouraging. Thank you again.
The LocalVideo module is supported on Windows. It will play local video files, eg an MP4 on the local drive, but a limitiation in the Windows Media Player controls available when you embed it means that network streams aren’t possible.
I’m not sure where we have documented that network streams do work on Windows? If you can point me to it I’ll raise a bug to correct that, with my apologies.
HLS streams are a sepecific stream format. You can’t pass an RTSP stream URL in and expect it to work. If your streaming device supports HLS, then enter the HLS stream URL (Normally ending in .m3u8), and the 1.8.1 Player should then work with that.
The VLC browser Plugin is part of the VLC distribution. You can design a custom embedded HTML widget to enable that in conjunction with a web browser to play a network stream. Others have done that with varying levels of success. It’s not something we can directly support you with however. Installing that won’t make the LocalVideo module work for RTSP streams on Windows.
Alternatively, there’s the Guide Peter linked you to in your other thread which may be useful:
Thanks, I’ll take a look at that. I do need to upgrade to 1.8.1, I’ll need to upgrade the server as well, and now that it runs under Docker instead of IIS I’m going to have to make sure I get all that installed first. Never messed with Docker before.
The only area where it said anything about that RTSP streams should work is on the server in the Local Video module, it says “A local file path or URL to the video. This can be a RTSP stream.”
Maybe this has been changed in 1.8.1, but to me reading this - it doesn’t say if your players are Windows based, you’re hosed, and don’t waste your time. I was not expecting it to not be supported based on that. If you were going to add something to say it won’t work, that might be a good place to do it.
Thanks for your time, I appreciate the assistance. I just need to play live TV in one of my regions. If the workaround you have highlighted doesn’t work (after I upgrade to 1.8.1) then I might have to go with a different system. Which is a shame because this is the best Digital Signage system I have found to date.