New NASA UHD channel

[BigRyan]

Well with DVBViewer it does play but only for a bit, the longest I have been able to watch is about 1 min. The good news is DVBViewer supports DXVA Scaling wich is what MPC-HC and VLC do also, so this will eliminate the need to stream the video to an external player. I just wish DVBViewer was more stable, either crashes and I have to kill it with task manager, or it says could not load filters / black screen. When it does work it looks native and UHD.

As for individual PIDs I just went into the channel editor in the scanner software and deleted all but NASA TV UHD. Not sure if this still sends the whole TS though, it should only give one channel to select, the only one that exist.

Forgot to add for EBSPro LITE edit the command line under integration for VLC to read as followed: {proto}://@:{net_port} --program=104
This will tell VLC to start the NASA TV UHD program in the TS instead all just launching on the first program in the TS.

Modify a VLC shortcut on the desktop or write a batchfile:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" UDP://@:7000 --meta-title="NASA TV UHD" --program=104

 

[BigRyan]

Today I am happy to report success with NASA TV UHD.

In short, my GTX950 arrived and solved all of my problems, so here is basically what I used to get this project up and running.

Installed a TBS6922SE into a computer I pieced together with the following spare parts I had laying around:

Asus M3A78-EM socket AM2+ DDR2 micro ATX motherboard
AMD Phenom II 955 Socket AM2+/AM3 Processor
8GB DDR2 800 4x2GB
Antec 450W Power Supply
Seagate 1TB Hard Drive

Purchased a GTX950 (the KEY component in the project) and installed Windows 10 64bit (upgraded from 7 actually). Installed SmartDVB and MPC-HC. Scan in the channel and turn on UDP streaming. Open MPC-HC with the command mpc-hc.exe udp://127.0.0.1:8888 and enjoy!

All of the problems I was having were due to not having a hardware decoder because my thrown together PC was of old and slow parts for new technology. I basically made this way harder than it needed to be. For all of you that have new i7 or even i5 computers you probably want have any problems, for me it was about having a budget 4K receiver. I want to say thanks to all of you here that have helped me out with this and put up with my OCD. Happy holidays to all and keep watching the sky.

 

[fred555]

So you ran HDMI out from the GTX950 to a UHD TV?

 

[goaliebob99]

So you ran HDMI out from the GTX950 to a UHD TV?

I would say yes.

 

[fred555]

I would say yes.

I guess I was wondering as opposed to a computer monitor of some kind.

 

[BigRyan]

I guess I was wondering as opposed to a computer monitor of some kind.

Yes, I originally ran HDMI to a 1080p Sony Bravia, but since this thread started I got so excited I broke down and bought a UHD tv, the Vizio M60-C3. I did however try streaming NASA UHD to my laptop over the LAN to MPC and It played it better then the HTPC (it has a mobile i7 first gen) but still bombed out after about 30sec or so.

 

[BigRyan]

One thing I forgot to mention about SmartDVB you may want to switch to renderless mode (second icon from the end across the top) if you are streaming to MPC so your computer isn't rendering it twice.

 

[Babadem]

BigRyan...... Your Perseverance paid off!

 

[N6BY]

...
Purchased a GTX950 (the KEY component in the project) and installed Windows 10 64bit (upgraded from 7 actually). Installed SmartDVB and MPC-HC. Scan in the channel and turn on UDP streaming. Open MPC-HC with the command mpc-hc.exe udp://127.0.0.1:8888 and enjoy!
...

Perseverance pays off, and you have saved many of us a lot of trial and error to get it to stream smoothly.

... I bought my son a GTX960 for his birthday last month. I wonder if he'll let me "borrow" it?

 

[BigRyan]

Perseverance pays off, and you have saved many of us a lot of trial and error to get it to stream smoothly.

... I bought my son a GTX960 for his birthday last month. I wonder if he'll let me "borrow" it?

I'm back from vacation, good to be back in the swing of things. And yes the GTX960 will more then do it. Man, looking back at all the things I tried, and it all coming down to the video card, makes me feel a little sad. If only I could get VLC to work, then we would have a Linux solution too.

 

[BigRyan]

Looking at the Roku 4 (4K UHD 60 fps HEVC Playback) and it's USB Media Formats (Video: MP4 (H.264), MKV (H.264), HEVC (H.265)) Does anyone think it would be possible to stream the New NASA UHD channel to a Roku 4? Maybe an owner of such a device can attest to this. Could be an alternative for those of us with older or slower computers and maybe just maybe take the place of needing a new video card. My guess is having an app/channel that would allow the stream (MPEG-TS) will be the problem LONG before the hardware, from what I can see the hardware CAN do it.

I know the GTX950 has solved this problem but now I would like to get this giant computer out of my living room and move it back to the closet where it belongs. The ROKU and GeoSat Pro MicroHD has always passed the wife test too! Nice small boxes are a plus!

 

[fred555]

I know the GTX950 has solved this problem but now I would like to get this giant computer out of my living room and move it back to the closet where it belongs.

Rebuild the computer in mini-itx form factor.

 

[BigRyan]

Rebuild the computer in mini-itx form factor.

That is one of the plans I had, looking at some of the mini ITX cases that make use of horizontal space, we could actually keep the GTX950 style cards that take up two slots. I like the 90 degree PCI-E adapter that is used in the steam box. Just need to figure out a solution for the PCI-E 1x TBS6922SE, at least it's already low profile and includes bracket. Still have not found that perfect case for this yet. But I'm thinking something along the lines of the SilverStone Raven Z Mini-ITX / DTX Small Form Factor SFX Computer Case. It has the PCI-E Riser and Custom Low Profile Fans, model number RVZ01B. Just need one with a slot for the TBS6922SE, or mod that case to fit it in there. The guys with the USB DVBS tuners would be golden with that setup though.

 

[BigRyan]

Picked up a ROKU 4 today, time for round two. I am going to try and get the NASA UHD channel to stream to the ROKU 4. It supports 4K UHD 60 fps HEVC Playback and H.265. So the plan is to try and find an app in the ROKU 4 that will take either a UDP or TCP stream from SmartDVB.

If this works out then we can avoid having to buy GTX900 series video cards, although I have already bought one. Maybe others might be able to just buy a device with much more uses then just hardware decoding.

 

[BigRyan]

Got a picture on the ROKU from NASA UHD, however at the moment it would appear the ROKU might be using a software decoder, or is just plain to slow to handle this.

Here are the steps I have taken to get to this point: SmartDVB http stream, installed the IPTV plugin for PLEX on my PLEX server and made a custom playlist.m3u file.

#EXTINF:401,NASA UHD (Original)
http://192.168.0.34:8080/smartdvb

The method that finally gave a picture was to access PLEX not though the PLEX App but through the ROKU media player app and select the PLEX server that way. Browse to video channels and select IPTV then play the NASA UHD (Original) item.

So it plays, but not good, really slow and freezes. My opinion is the ROKU 4 is not fast enough to play NASA UHD in its original quality, I tried transcoding for the heck of it and got errors about the encoder that was used is not supported. This would negate the purpose anyway but wanted to try and see if it was an option.

 

[BigRyan]

Great news today! It works and the ROKU 4 is playing NASA UHD buttery smooth!!!

I had network issues, with a bad patch cable in the closest.

So now we have TWO options for NASA UHD and other 4K HEVC H.265 feeds. ROKU 4 or Nvidia GTX900 series. I will revisit this thread after sometime of actually watching TV though and report back with some longevity testing, but for now this is looking good.

 

[fred555]

Nice! I have been following your work very closely, and
I appreciate you taking on these challenges and reporting your findings.

I just don't have the time I once did to take on challenging projects.
It's great to have your posts to get pointed in the right direction in the future when I may have a little time.

When you find something that does not work, that is a success too,
as it helps others and saves them time on what not to do.

 

[Titanium]

BigRyan,

Could you test if the Roku 4 also plays a 4:2:2 stream (example CBS)? I have never tried with my older Roku, but think it should play fine.

 

[BigRyan]

Nice! I have been following your work very closely, and
I appreciate you taking on these challenges and reporting your findings.

I just don't have the time I once did to take on challenging projects.
It's great to have your posts to get pointed in the right direction in the future when I may have a little time.

When you find something that does not work, that is a success too,
as it helps others and saves them time on what not to do.

Glad to do it, and with a memory like mine, it helps to have a wonderful place to document what I have done.

 

[BigRyan]

BigRyan,

Could you test if the Roku 4 also plays a 4:2:2 stream (example CBS)? I have never tried with my older Roku, but think it should play fine.

You bet, I will try it out and let you know.