Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

This happened to me too right after the upgrade. After that I couldn't reproduce the problem so maybe it does something on first run and fails to start in time.

I looked at the filename problems people were having on Windows. It's pretty hard to try to fix in Knots and it seems it will be fixed in Ruby 1.9.2 so until it's released, please try to avoid using non-ascii chracters in filenames. They are usually properly scanned, but VLC fails to play them.

I released a new server for Windows with minor changes. For some reason its size dropped to half when I compressed it, but it seems to work fine so I wonder what caused it. Most noticeable changes:

- Latest changes from git
- Profile buffer now makes the N900 client (mplayer) buffer the video too. MPlayer doesn't use seconds so I made it buffer 512 kb * seconds.
- Tuned N900 profile a bit. Seems pretty solid according to my quick tests, can anyone with the "no video" -problem test it?
- Added an ability to check whether your server is accessible from the internet without you having to go out and actually test it. Just start a stream in the browser, click on 'Hide window' button and go to settings to test it.

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Hey ukki.

I've edited
/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf

and changed
zoom=false

This looks great but somewhat small on the screen.

Can mplayer display aspect ratio x 2?

It's fine if part of the top and bottom of the video ends up being cropped.

zoom = true seem to force a 480 height display which messes up the aspect ratio a bit.

So yeah, just throwing this question out to see what you had to say about it.

Awesome, awesome program you've done for yourself. :)

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

On n8x0 video is 400x240 with the correct aspect ratio (and possibly with black grief bands) and that gets doubled by mplayer. You shouldn't need to touch any mplayer options, just edit the transcoding profiles on server if you need something else.

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Thanks ukki! Yeah, I can see the math behind what you're doing here. That makes perfect sense to me now. :)

Well, the thing is, with your basic, TV cartoon that usually has a static background along with the low framerate needed, I'm thinking the transcoding for these can be a little more open.

I'll mess around on the server side and see if I can't come up with something so that the display output for these cartoons can be more "crisper".

One feature, but not a request, would be that on this screen
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7...0022119261.png
Knots could show the resolution and aspect ratio of the video just like it does on the server's webpage.

Anyway, I've got a few ideas to try out this week and I'll find you on Friday.

Thanks again for such a great app. It's a wonderful time suck. *lol*

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Okay. Most definitely. Cartoons/anime should be handled differently than regular videos.

Crunching the video then having mplayer blow it out while pounding the tablet with 24 fps isn't the ideal way to play such files.

I found that no aspect correction and dropping down to 8 fps with no zoom in mplayer gets terrific results. Actually zoom looks quite nice as well. :)

I was even able to play a full episode of Death Note (one of the higher end cartoons) that was 704x396 quite well with only a few burpies during the entire 25 minutes of watching it.

I don't even notice a difference with the reduced fps.

The beginning intro and ending credits are usually chunky just because of everything going on with the screen for most cartoons. However, the episodes themselves work great.

I've tried this with 4 different anime series and am very happy with the results.

Very cool! :D

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Is upgrading the server simple? It was kind of difficult to setup.

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Knots keeps all its settings in .config/kserver/kserver.db file. I haven't made database changes lately so you could either install the latest version and then just copy the .config folder inside the new install or download the latest git version from http://github.com/solmis/knots/archives/master and overwrite the files on your current install.

Or if you installed the git version, you can just run "git pull" inside knots folder to update to latest.

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Well, I thought to share with you guys a little more on what I was talking about previously.

Okay. Grab this video.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EAVOV9X9

This cartoon is MA, so please note that it could be disturbing for some.

height (blank)
width (blank)
fps 8
buffer in seconds 10 (not sure if this does anything though)

Since I have a N800, I need to strip the audio rate down to 22050.

If you have a N900, you probably can leave it at the default of 44100.

I'm kind of a pixel purist so I tend to have zoom = false in mplayer.

For most people though, you'll probably prefer to leave it as true.

In knots, select no aspect ratio in the menu.

I honestly think that these settings look ridiculous on the tablet. :D

So yeah, I just wanted to show you guys how "pretty" knots can work with anime shows.

Cheers.

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Since updating the server, my "Settings" and "Status" tabs display this error:

no such column: temporary
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-mswin32/lib/sqlite3/errors.rb:62:in `check'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-mswin32/lib/sqlite3/statement.rb:39:in `initialize'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-mswin32/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:154:in `new'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-mswin32/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:154:in `prepare'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-mswin32/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:202:in `execute2'
./lib/db.rb:135:in `method_missing'
(erb):13:in `html'
./lib/plugin.rb:154:in `html'
(erb):3:in `html'
./lib/plugin.rb:154:in `html'
./lib/plugin.rb:90:in `do_GET'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpservlet/abstract.rb:35:in `__send__'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpservlet/abstract.rb:35:in `service'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpserver.rb:104:in `service'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpserver.rb:65:in `run'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:173:in `start_thread'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:162:in `start'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:162:in `start_thread'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:95:in `start'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:92:in `each'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:92:in `start'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:23:in `start'
C:/knots/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:82:in `start'
knots.rb:32:in `initialize'
knots.rb:368:in `new'
knots.rb:368

Re: Knots 2 - easy media streaming for most operating systems
 

Yes, sorry, I made database changes some time ago so you need to either remove the old database or add the missing fields by hand. Easiest way is to just remove/rename the .config folder, restart the server and do a rescan. I'll try not to add features that require database changes from now on.