[mythtv-users] How to properly set up transcode for Android frontend streaming?

[Bill Meek]

On 03/09/2014 03:02 PM, steve wrote:
> this?  I was looking at the docs for transcoding.  The automatic transcode replaces the original file, and I don't want to do that (at least I
> don't think I do--want to preserve the HD recordings for viewing off the primary frontend).  Instead I want a copy at lower resolution for
> streaming, and I assume I need the command-line version of transcoding for this.  However, there are a lot of options and I'm not sure which
> ones to pick for this purpose, and I'm not sure how to make command line transcoding run after commercial flagging.  I also would prefer to have
> one cop deleted when the other one is deleted, and I'm not sure how to make that happen.  Any advice appreciated.

Short answer: you can't do what you want at this time.

MythTV Android Frontend (MAF) initiates the transcoding and keeps track of it.
The backend responds to its requests and stores the (hundreds of) files
created. Currently, MAF doesn't have any code to display the list of existing
completed transcodes. Given the significant effort going into 0.28-pre for
the new WebFrontend, it's possible that a new/better way to playback
recordings may surface. So, in my opinion, developing what you want using the
exiting Services API wouldn't be a good way to spend development time on MAF.

To be honest, what you want is *possible*. See mythtranscode --help and note the
--hls option set. That's what gets used when the client asks for the HLS transcode.
So, a User Job could be setup to do it (not the Automatic Transcoding feature as
you already noticed.)

<yourBackend>:6544/Content/GetLiveStreamList provides the list of transcoded files.

I don't know if any of the other Android apps do what you want.

-- 
Bill