Problem with web stream on Linux and OSX betas

[grumpyjack]

I'm trying to play this stream http://cctv.ws/7/BBC1 using PS3 Media Player (1.20.409). I have added it to my WEB.conf like this:

videostream.BBC1=BBC1,http://cctv.ws/7/BBC1,http://www.example.com/null.gif

I can see the BBC1 folder as an option on the PS3 and then in that folder is 'BBC1 [VideoLan Video Streaming]*'. When I try to play that, I just get a blank screen. Eventually the play icon appears on the PS3 display as if it's about to start playing, but it's still just a blank screen no matter how long I wait. No audio, nothing. The status screen of the PS3 Media Player page shows that it is doing stuff (screenshot first file here: http://lukesaunders.me.uk/ps3mp/) but just nothing on the PS3 end. In that folder (http://lukesaunders.me.uk/ps3mp/) you can also see the debug.log and the WEB.conf as well as the transcoder settings as a screenshot.

When I play this steam directly in VLC (0.98) it works fine but just not via the media player. I also tried running the Linux version of the beta build under Ubuntu 10.4 with the same settings but the same thing happened. I tried downgrading to 1.10 on OSX but then the stuff in WEB.conf was ignored entirely so presumably support for this is new. Another thing to add is that one time the stream did work, but when I tried again with the exact same settings it was just the blank screen again.

Any ideas of something I can try to make it work?

OSX 10.6
VLC 0.98
PS3MP 1.20.409

EDIT: extra bit of info - the PS3 and Mac are both on wired ethernet connections and so there's tons of bandwidth between them (streaming HD mkv files is no problem)

[chocolateboy]

If you're not in the UK, then you won't be able to watch most BBC streams for various reasons (RTMP, geolocation). If you are in the UK, just launch iPlayer from the XMB.

Also, VLC support is broken in PMS.

[grumpyjack]

How is VLC support broken and what should I use instead? The specific stream is just an example, I know I can use the IPlayer and also the stream works directly in VLC.

[chocolateboy]

what should I use instead?

The forum search feature

[grumpyjack]

Very helpful, thanks.

[chocolateboy]

Er, yes. It is helpful. If you search for "web stream", the answer to this extremely Frequently Asked Question comes up in the first 3 results.

[grumpyjack]

Sorry for the sarcasm, but after hours of searching via Google and this forum, reading and trying everything I can think of and finally resorting to signing up and starting a thread, it's easy to get frustrated with quick replies.

As it happens that mega thread about web stream doesn't solve the issue but it does seem like a step forward. The latest version of pmsencoder does work much better with youtube and the like, but still doesn't seem to handle the stream I gave as an example here. What would be helpful is if you can see if that stream works with your setup (or anyone else reading this thread) and if so let me know. There are many more of these streams, http://cctv.ws/2/ITV1 etc and so if they worked with PS3 media server it would really be a bonus.

[chocolateboy]

The best solution for streaming UK TV channels on your PS3 (if you're in the UK) is TVCatchup. It has dozens of channels; the BBC feeds appear to be live (i.e. no delay); and it looks good on full screen in the PS3 browser.

[grumpyjack]

Yeah, but the issue is that I'm not in the UK at the moment (although I do live there normally) and the live stuff doesn't work even with a proxy or VPN. Hence the desire to get a dodgy stream working. And now I've spent so long messing with it, I'm quite interested from a technical reason what it is about this particular stream that makes it incompatible.