Multicast Setup

[malle100]

Hey

is it possible to set up multicast so I can send out multiple channels UDP on one IP, with different ports or on different IPs? End in DVBViewer or DVBview server?

[Griga]

4 hours ago, malle100 said:

is it possible to set up multicast so I can send out multiple channels UDP on one IP, with different ports

 

Yes, with the DVBViewer Media Server. This feature requires a special licence for professional purpose, though. Please read more about it here in the section that begins with

 

Quote

Added: API/RTSP Server: Possibility to configure permanent UDP/RTP unicast and multicast streams (running independently from client access). Please note that this feature requires an extended license that allows for at least 50 Media Server clients at the same time....

 

If you want to buy such a licence, please contact the mail address given under the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the forum.

 

[malle100]

On 4/3/2025 at 6:30 PM, Griga said:

 

Yes, with the DVBViewer Media Server. This feature requires a special licence for professional purpose, though. Please read more about it here in the section that begins with

 

 

If you want to buy such a licence, please contact the mail address given under the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the forum.

 

I have created 4 RTPS servers, each with its own IP. How do I choose which channels to send to that IP? I just need to be able to send 5 channels at the same time, each with its own IP?

[Griga]

12 hours ago, malle100 said:

I have created 4 RTPS servers, each with its own IP. How do I choose which channels to send to that IP?

 

This is the wrong approach. Here I have already provided a link to multicast setup instructions, but obviously you didn't read or didn't understand them. So let's start from the beginning:

 

Basic Media Server Multicast Setup

 

Make sure that the DVBViewer Media Server is running. Open a browser on the server PC (!) and enter an address like this in the address bar (just an example):

 

http://127.0.0.1:8089/rtp/?ip=239.0.0.1&port=5018&chid=2359890582721931325|Das Erste HD

 

The meaning of the different parts:

• The blue part is the address of the Media Server's web server that receives your setup command. /rtp/ means that a udp/rtp stream shall be set up. The Media Server will encapsulate the DVB transport stream in the RTP protocol and the resulting RTP stream in the UDP protocol. Sat>IP does it in the same way.
• The green part indicates the address and port of the stream. Please note that the IP address must be within the multicast address range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Otherwise you will get Unicast.
• The red part specifies the ID of the channel that shall be sent. In the example above it is the ID of the German channel "Das Erste HD" via the Astra satellite. You will probably want another channel ID. You can obtain it from the DVBViewer channel editor. Open it, right-click the desired channel, select "Copy ID to Clipboard" and insert it in your setup command.

After entering the setup command in the browser's address bar just hit the Return key. If you get no error message, the stream is up and running. It is recommendable to store the command as bookmark in the browser, so you can use it again later. Please note the following points:

• Sending the same command again lets the Media Server stop the stream, if it is running.
• A multicast stream is running and distributed in your network, no matter whether a client is receiving it or not.
• A multicast stream can be received by multiple clients at the same time, provided the network capacity is sufficient.
• All components in your network must be able to to handle multicast properly. If not, you may experience problems, e.g. a network overload.
• If you want to set up another stream with another channel, you must modify the multicast IP address (e.g. to 239.0.0.2) and/or the port (e.g. to 5019) and the channel ID, of course. Modifying the port and channel ID is usually sufficient.

How to Receive and Test a Multicast Stream in Clients:

 

Just enter the address rtp://239.0.0.1:5018 (example) in a client that is able to process such streams, e.g. in VLC (Media -> Open Network Stream) or DVBViewer, where you can include the stream in the channel list:

• Open the channel editor.
• Select the folder or location where the stream shall be inserted.
• Click the "New" button at the bottom.
• Select "Stream" in the popup menu.
• Enter the address rtp://239.0.0.1:5018 (example) in the Address input line and the channel name in the Name input line. Don't care about the other data. DVBViewer will detect it automatically on first playback start.
• Start playback of the new channel list entry by double-clicking it.

If you are dealing with more than one multicast stream, it is recommendable to create a list of the addresses as M3U playlist file for easier handling. M3U is a text file with the file extension .m3u. Its content may look like this (example):

 

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Das Erste HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5018
#EXTINF:-1,ZDF HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5019
#EXTINF:-1,3sat HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5020
...

 

...and so on. Such an M3U file can easily be imported in VLC or DVBViewer. For including the contained channels in the DVBViewer channel list, just drag and drop the M3U file into the DVBViewer channel list editor.

 

Please note that the method described above is not Sat>IP, but just simple UDP/RTP multicast streaming. That's for a start... there are additional options for special requirements. We will deal with it as needed.

 

[malle100]

13 hours ago, Griga said:

 

This is the wrong approach. Here I have already provided a link to multicast setup instructions, but obviously you didn't read or didn't understand them. So let's start from the beginning:

 

Basic Media Server Multicast Setup

 

Make sure that the DVBViewer Media Server is running. Open a browser on the server PC (!) and enter an address like this in the address bar (just an example):

 

http://127.0.0.1:8089/rtp/?ip=239.0.0.1&port=5018&chid=2359890582721931325|Das Erste HD

 

The meaning of the different parts:

• The blue part is the address of the Media Server's web server that receives your setup command. /rtp/ means that a udp/rtp stream shall be set up. The Media Server will encapsulate the DVB transport stream in the RTP protocol and the resulting RTP stream in the UDP protocol. Sat>IP does it in the same way.
• The green part indicates the address and port of the stream. Please note that the IP address must be within the multicast address range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Otherwise you will get Unicast.
• The red part specifies the ID of the channel that shall be sent. In the example above it is the ID of the German channel "Das Erste HD" via the Astra satellite. You will probably want another channel ID. You can obtain it from the DVBViewer channel editor. Open it, right-click the desired channel, select "Copy ID to Clipboard" and insert it in your setup command.

After entering the setup command in the browser's address bar just hit the Return key. If you get no error message, the stream is up and running. It is recommendable to store the command as bookmark in the browser, so you can use it again later. Please note the following points:

• Sending the same command again lets the Media Server stop the stream, if it is running.
• A multicast stream is running and distributed in your network, no matter whether a client is receiving it or not.
• A multicast stream can be received by multiple clients at the same time, provided the network capacity is sufficient.
• All components in your network must be able to to handle multicast properly. If not, you may experience problems, e.g. a network overload.
• If you want to set up another stream with another channel, you must modify the multicast IP address (e.g. to 239.0.0.2) and/or the port (e.g. to 5019) and the channel ID, of course. Modifying the port and channel ID is usually sufficient.

How to Receive and Test a Multicast Stream in Clients:

 

Just enter the address rtp://239.0.0.1:5018 (example) in a client that is able to process such streams, e.g. in VLC (Media -> Open Network Stream) or DVBViewer, where you can include the stream in the channel list:

• Open the channel editor.
• Select the folder or location where the stream shall be inserted.
• Click the "New" button at the bottom.
• Select "Stream" in the popup menu.
• Enter the address rtp://239.0.0.1:5018 (example) in the Address input line and the channel name in the Name input line. Don't care about the other data. DVBViewer will detect it automatically on first playback start.
• Start playback of the new channel list entry by double-clicking it.

If you are dealing with more than one multicast stream, it is recommendable to create a list of the addresses as M3U playlist file for easier handling. M3U is a text file with the file extension .m3u. Its content may look like this (example):

 

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Das Erste HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5018
#EXTINF:-1,ZDF HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5019
#EXTINF:-1,3sat HD
rtp://239.0.0.1:5020
...

 

...and so on. Such an M3U file can easily be imported in VLC or DVBViewer. For including the contained channels in the DVBViewer channel list, just drag and drop the M3U file into the DVBViewer channel list editor.

 

Please note that the method described above is not Sat>IP, but just simple UDP/RTP multicast streaming. That's for a start... there are additional options for special requirements. We will deal with it as needed.

 

Thank you very much.

but i can only do 3 streams then it gives error. has 4 tuners in the TV card.

 

239.0.0.2:5019 to 239.0.0.4:5021 is fine.

Edited Tuesday at 08:34 PM by malle100

[Griga]

2 minutes ago, malle100 said:

but i can only do 3 streams then it gives error.

 

Which error?

 

[malle100]

4 minutes ago, Griga said:

 

Which error?

 

Bad request in browser, I have try many different ip,  ports and channels ID

[Griga]

There are several possible reasons for it. Please create and attach a support.zip here. It will be helpful to find out what's going on.

 

[Griga]

P.S. Please also check the Status page of the Media Server's web interface. It shows the tuner occupation (each tuner with a signal strength indication is busy) and how many streams are currently running.

 

The "400 bad request" error may appear if no tuner is available for the requested stream, or with other words, if all tuners are occupied. Maybe there is a "forgotten" stream that keeps a tuner busy.

 

For clearing all streams, just stop and restart the media server.

 

[malle100]

2 hours ago, Griga said:

P.S. Please also check the Status page of the Media Server's web interface. It shows the tuner occupation (each tuner with a signal strength indication is busy) and how many streams are currently running.

 

The "400 bad request" error may appear if no tuner is available for the requested stream, or with other words, if all tuners are occupied. Maybe there is a "forgotten" stream that keeps a tuner busy.

 

For clearing all streams, just stop and restart the media server.

 

Edited yesterday at 09:46 AM by malle100

[malle100]

13 hours ago, Griga said:

There are several possible reasons for it. Please create and attach a support.zip here. It will be helpful to find out what's going on.

 

support.zip

[Griga]

The Channel Groups configuration of your Digital Devices DVB-C Tuners seems to cause the problem. The default setting is all groups checked. Why did you restrict it to a single channel group per DVB-C Tuner in the Media Server Options -> Hardware?

 

Channel groups are only useful in very special situations. If you have no special reason for changing the channel groups default configuration, don't touch it!

 

In your configuration the only DVB-C tuner that is allowed to handle channels belonging to group A is Digital Devices DVB-C Tuner 1 (8). So you only have a single DVB-C tuner for streaming channels belonging to group A! As soon as you try to set up a second stream with a second channel belonging to group A, but from a different frequency, you need a second tuner that can handle it. You get failure, because there is none.

 

[malle100]

8 hours ago, Griga said:

The Channel Groups configuration of your Digital Devices DVB-C Tuners seems to cause the problem. The default setting is all groups checked. Why did you restrict it to a single channel group per DVB-C Tuner in the Media Server Options -> Hardware?

 

Channel groups are only useful in very special situations. If you have no special reason for changing the channel groups default configuration, don't touch it!

 

In your configuration the only DVB-C tuner that is allowed to handle channels belonging to group A is Digital Devices DVB-C Tuner 1 (8). So you only have a single DVB-C tuner for streaming channels belonging to group A! As soon as you try to set up a second stream with a second channel belonging to group A, but from a different frequency, you need a second tuner that can handle it. You get failure, because there is none.

 

It works now, sorry I had changed it.

Very good support 

 

A few questions

- after restarting the PC, shouldn't the streams be able to start up themselves or should it be done manually?

- can see some of the streams stop even after about 15 min and do not start again.

- how with Encrypted channels, CI modules can be automatically updated, just like on a TV.

- has 2 lan connections in PC and has under WEB, set the one IP as "DO not use" does this mean that no Streams are sent outside on the entered IP?

[Griga]

9 hours ago, malle100 said:

- after restarting the PC, shouldn't the streams be able to start up themselves or should it be done manually?

 

It must be done manually. That's why I have proposed to store the setup commands as bookmarks in your browser. 

 

However, I think there should be a mechanism that starts multicast streams automatically on Media Server start. For example a list of the multicast setup commands in a text file, that is read by the Media Server on start. Additionally there should be a setup command that stops all multicast streams without having to stop the Media Server. I will try to add something like this as soon as I find time for it.

 

9 hours ago, malle100 said:

- can see some of the streams stop even after about 15 min and do not start again.

 

I don't know why this happens. Maybe a network issue? If this happens again, please tell me the time when it happened and attach another support.zip, so I can check in the svcdebug.log if there was something special going on at this time.

 

9 hours ago, malle100 said:

- how with Encrypted channels, CI modules can be automatically updated, just like on a TV.

 

The Media Server can't update CI modules or CAMs, because there is no  API (Application Programming Interface) for it. Maybe it can be triggered manually in the TV/Radio -> CAM menu displayed by DVBViewer.

 

9 hours ago, malle100 said:

has 2 lan connections in PC and has under WEB, set the one IP as "DO not use" does this mean that no Streams are sent outside on the entered IP?

 

There is no "Do not use" setting that applies to the RTP multicast server (only for the web server and the UPnP server). However, you can use a multicast setup command parameter for specifying the IP address of the network adapter that shall be used for sending multicast, like the violet part in the following example (nic = Network Interface Card):

 

http://127.0.0.1:8089/rtp/?ip=239.0.0.1&port=5018&nic=192.168.54.100&chid=2359890582721931325|Das Erste HD