bring the Slingbox to the Echo Show #505

RocketAlf · 2023-01-23T01:35:25Z

RocketAlf
Jan 23, 2023

I have an application here that may be of interest to others.

I run several Amazon Echo devices (Echo Show 1st Gen and Echo Show 15). I have long been looking for a way to display the Slingbox output on the Echo Show. Now I have found a solution ...monoclecam.com. The service is still in beta and therefore (still) free. The service is actually used to display local IP cameras with RTSP interface on Echo Show devices. The Slingbox is then a kind of "camera".

On the Echo side, this requires the smart home skill "Monocle RTSP/RTP IP cameras".
The cameras can then be set up on the monoclecam.com website. There is good documentation on how to proceed with the setup.
Additional SW components are required for the setup.
Via the "monocle-gatway" the local IP address of the stream source (IP camera) is passed to Echo Show, which then establishes the connection to the stream source.

Unfortunately, there seems to be so much "freedom" in the implementation of the RTSP protocol, and Echo Show only accepts a very specific protocol variant. Therefore, direct connection with the IP camera is often not possible and certainly not with the Slinger server. Additional SW components are needed. I have had success with the "rtsp-simple-server" (https://github.com/aler9/rtsp-simple-server). Echo Show, even the newer Echo Show 15, accept the interface provided by this RTSP server.

According to the configuration rules of the server, all stream sources can then be configured as input. On the output side, the IP address of the RTSP server and the respective stream name are set as source on monoclecam.com.
But there is still a "small problem". Slinger does not deliver an RTSP stream. Therefore the HTTP stream from Slinger has to be converted into a RTSP stream. For this I use FFMPEG. In my case the corresponding entry in the configuration file of the RTSP server looks like this:

paths:
stream6:
source: publisher
runOnDemand: ffmpeg -loglevel quiet -i http://192.168.2.252:9090/Slingbox/M1tv -vcodec libx264 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/stream6
runOnDemandStartTimeout: 20s
runOnDemandCloseAfter: 10s
#runOnDemandRestart: yes

Note: The stream names (in the example "stream6") in the should always be chosen the same.

On monoclecam.com the following was entered:

Name: Slingbox TV
Stream Url: rtsp://192.168.2.140:8554/stream6
Video Codec: H264
Audio Codec: AAC
Video Resolution640*480
Tags: @tunnel

The command "Alexa, show Slingbox TV" will then display the stream of the Slingbox "M1tv" on the screen of the Echo Show. The Slingbox "M1tv" is connected to a TV that cannot be controlled by the Slingbox remote. This is not a big deal for me, because I just want to have the same TV program available in several rooms at the same time (living room, kitchen, winter garden, ...).

This works very well when the RTSP server (along with the FFMPEG conversion) is running on my Windows PC. But when the RTSP server is running on a Raspberry Pi, there are constant interruptions for "loading" :-(. I have tried different variations of the settings, but without success. The Raspi seems to be not powerful enough for this task. I have tested Raspberry 2 and 3.

Maybe one or the other already had this idea and got similar results (?).

Because of the performance problem with the Raspi the question @gerry: Could Slinger also provide an RTSP interface?
@ALL the question: Do you have experiences to bring the Slingbox to the Echo Show? Maybe also with completely different approaches (?).

I am grateful for any hint and help to make my project a success :-).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) :-o

robosmith · 2023-01-23T19:03:00Z

robosmith
Jan 23, 2023

Pi 3 is barely powerful enough to send streams from one Pro HD. Per Gerry, Pro HD requires extra processing.
Pi 4 is powerful enough to handle 2 Pro HD streams, so you might want to try that, depending on how much extra processing load your RTSP processing requires.

11 replies

RocketAlf Jan 25, 2023
Author

@Toei79: Thankyou for your tip. It seems that the Pi is not powerful enough for my task (at least not the Pi2 and the Pi3). Using the Lenovo ThinkCenter exclusively for this purpose may work, but it seems to me like "to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut ". Furthermore, the power consumption should be quite high (?).

Toei79 Jan 25, 2023

@Toei79: Thankyou for your tip. It seems that the Pi is not powerful enough for my task (at least not the Pi2 and the Pi3). Using the Lenovo ThinkCenter exclusively for this purpose may work, but it seems to me like "to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut ". Furthermore, the power consumption should be quite high (?).

Idk i have small one Version the one like 2.5 smartphone size, I play with other stuff on it

RocketAlf Jan 25, 2023
Author

@Toei79: Can you tell me what type of Lenovo ThinkCentre you are using?

Toei79 Jan 25, 2023

@Toei79: Can you tell me what type of Lenovo ThinkCentre you are using?

Tiny

Like this one
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314348296043?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xTCFn6ZFRgO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=ibVD0_g0S6m&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

How much power consumption it can have?

I'm running local tv channels with my files then I switched to this one instead pi

robosmith Feb 5, 2023

RocketELF: I'm not going to do RTSP but that doesn't stop someone else from doing it. Yes, the PI2 might not not have enough juice for the processing the stream from a ProHD, Reducing your bandwidth setting will help. The latest code does have some minor improvement in the ProHD process but I don't expect it to be significant, give it a try. I'm working on an Android version of SlingerPlayer. Robo: Here's the latest pre-release py. slingbox_server_4.0 (3).zip

@GerryDazoo have installed and used your 4.0 trial release. With limited experience, I have noticed that a power cycle reboot gives superior performance and I can watch an hour+ during prime time with NO stream drops using VLC or MxPlayer. However, after some time elapses (half day plus) streams revert to dropping every few minutes during prime time, with regular brief interruptions under more favorable Internet conditions. The other day, this phenomena seemed like a switch being flipped: solid reliable stream for 1/2 hour suddenly became routinely disrupted. Neither app restart nor Pi reboot fixed it, but a power cycle the next day did. Not sure what could account for this behavior.

lehmbarsingh · 2023-01-24T23:48:17Z

lehmbarsingh
Jan 24, 2023

For those who wants the easier way .I was able do the same thing by installing mx player pro on echo show 15 and streaming from slinger(side loading the apk). I followed youtube video (How to sideload apps on echo show 15).

7 replies

tom76017 Jan 25, 2023

I'm using MX Player on my Firestick. Take a look at #307 to see how to save the stream location.

sp222222 Feb 4, 2023

For those who wants the easier way .I was able do the same thing by installing mx player pro on echo show 15 and streaming from slinger(side loading the apk). I followed youtube video (How to sideload apps on echo show 15).

what apk? mxplayer or mxplayer PRO ? and what are the steps? do you have the YT link handy?

I have no idea what you guys are doing in this thread but I might spend 250$ and get a echoShow

RocketAlf Feb 4, 2023
Author

@sp222222 What we do here :-o ? It's about displaying the program of a slingbox on an Echo Show. Not a trivial matter.
I followed the way to use Alexa's interface for (surveillance) cameras "Alexa.CameraStreamController Interface 3". This is supported by MonocleCam (monoclecam.com), so there is "only minor" effort for configuration. I have already integrated several surveillance cameras this way, so adding Slinger seemed like a small step.
The difficulty with Slinger is that slinger-server does not provide the stream in the format required by Alexa (Echo Show). Hence the trouble with transcoding. Also, Amazon changed the interface requirements for the newer Echo Show 15, so I had to find a solution that fits both the older first generation Echo Show and the new Echo Show 15 (hence the RTSP server).

In the discussion "Lehmbarsingh" introduced a suggestion, but it works exclusively for the new Echo Show 15 (and certainly for FireTV Stick). By means of "side loading" of an APP that can display the Slinger stream. The side loading procedure is described e.g. here: "https://forum.iobroker.net/topic/60891/echo-show-15-nahezu-alle-apps-installieren" (albeit in German, but why is there deepl or google translator?). This works for mx player pro, but unfortunately not for VLC.

But since I want to watch the Slinger stream on all my Echo Show devices(even the older ones), I have to stick with the camera approach. For those who have only one Echo Show to operate, the variant with the mx player pro is certainly the better and easier solution ...but, it is "cool" to start the TV program with "Alexa, show Slingbox TV" ;-).

PS: Yes, the Echo Show 15 is comparatively very expensive :-(. But I already had him ;-) ...as an entertainment center in the kitchen ;-)

RocketAlf Feb 15, 2023
Author

For those who also wanted to look at the Echo Show 15th Slinger. At the beginning of February, Amazon closed the backdoor for sideloading. The instructions using "X-plore File Manager" (e.g. https://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-sideload-apk-apps-on-the-amazon-echo-show-15/) or "TV File Manager" (e.g. https://forum.iobroker.net/topic/60891/echo-show-15-nahezu-alle-apps-installieren) no longer work because the menu item "Files" or "Dateien" under "System Apps" is no longer displayed. This means that the installation of downloaded apk files is no longer possible.

If someone knows a still working solution, please report.

GerryDazoo Feb 15, 2023
Maintainer

I don't have a "Show" but I would try using ADB. Most Android boxes have a "Developer Options" where you can turn this on.

RocketAlf · 2023-01-30T00:19:43Z

RocketAlf
Jan 30, 2023
Author

Another (almost) pleasant news to finish ...for those who might be interested.

I have now bought a ThinClient "HP t620" (AMD G-Series GX-415GA SOC: Quad-Core APU 1.5 GHz) for 30 euros on eBay after the tip from @Toei79. It runs quietly without a fan and has a just acceptable energy consumption of about 11 watts. Installed a Debian Linux distribution (openmediavault, because I want to use the device in parallel as a NAS).

I have taken down the RTSP server together with the FFMPEG transcoding from Pi in the architecture described at the beginning and installed it on the "HP t620". As a result, I can now stream (but only one stream) "stutter-free" via the RTSP server with transcoding. The CPU load is 50..80 %. A second stream with transcoding is not possible...for that it needs even more computing power. I will "play" a bit with the video bitrate. Maybe then two streams with transcoding are possible in parallel.

6 replies

GerryDazoo Feb 1, 2023
Maintainer

Unless you changed your URL base in your config file then
http://192.168.2.252:9090/Slingbox/M1tv should be http://192.168.2.252:9090/slingbox/M1tv
Lower case "s" on slingbox.

lehmbarsingh Feb 1, 2023

My URL base in slinger is http://192.168.1.233:64642/mytv/slingm1med ,this is what use to watch using mx player

lehmbarsingh Feb 1, 2023

Here is my config file ,I have changed the extension on it to upload. If someone can correct it.
rtsp-simple-server.txt

RocketAlf Feb 1, 2023
Author

@gerry I set my URL base to "Slinger" (upper case 'S'). Can that cause problems? I also use "Remote" (upper case 'R' for the remote und it works well. Should I change something?

GerryDazoo Feb 2, 2023
Maintainer

Nope, you're good to go.

RocketAlf · 2023-02-01T23:20:48Z

RocketAlf
Feb 1, 2023
Author

Hello @lehmbarsingh,
try it in this way. All properties and commands concerning the "stream6" (you can also name the stream differently) must be in the section of the stream "stream6" ...so "source" and the "runOnDemand" commands and options. Please delete the "runOnDemand" commands in the "all" section. Also you should disable all other protocols if you don't use them ...set rtmpDisable, hlsDisable, webrtcDisable to "yes". Please change the section as described:

...
paths:

stream6:
source: publisher
runOnDemand: ffmpeg -loglevel quiet -i http://192.168.1.233:64642/mytv/slingm1med -vcodec libx264 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/stream6
runOnDemandStartTimeout: 20s
runOnDemandCloseAfter: 10s
#runOnDemandRestart: yes

all:
# Source of the stream. This can be:
# * publisher -> the stream is published by a RTSP or RTMP client
# * rtsp://existing-url -> the stream is pulled from another RTSP server / camera
...etc. etc.

A few more notes:

If slinger is running on the same PC/board as the RTSP server, then you can replace the IP address "192.168.1.233" with "localhost" or "127.0.0.1".
I assume that you have installed Monocle correctly. For Echo Show 15 the installation of Monocle Gateway is mandatory (for this also the tag "@tunnel"). This is all well described in the Monocle documentation. For the older generations of Echo Show, the "Proxy Server Workaround for Incompatible Cameras" (Live555 Proxy Server solution) also worked. I still use this for my old Echo Show devices and for the input side connection of other "incompatible cameras" to the RTSP server.
I am not sure if the option "runOnDemandRestart: yes" really makes sense. I still have it commented out and everything runs just fine. If you see frequent interruptions of the stream, then it might make sense to remove the comment '#'.
If you start the RTSP server "manually" in a dos box, then you can follow the messages of the server. And if you remove the option "-loglevel quiet" from the ffmpeg command line, you can also see the messages from ffmpeg. This can help to detect possible errors.
You can also install ffmpeg in any other directory. However, the full path to ffmpeg must be included in the command line. But be careful, with Windows you have to set a double backslash instead of a single for the backslash as directory separators (because in the notation YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) of the yml file the backslash represents the introduction of a special character.
Therefore, also the indentations must also be observed (similar to Python).

I hope it helped and wish you good luck.

In the preview, the indentations disappear. Therefore I attach the code snippet here:
snippet.txt

1 reply

lehmbarsingh Feb 2, 2023

I will give a try tomorrow .thanks for your help

RocketAlf · 2023-02-04T03:14:46Z

RocketAlf
Feb 4, 2023
Author

Who can help? As I wrote before I bought a "HP t620" (AMD G-Series GX-415GA SOC: Quad-Core APU 1.5 GHz) and installed openmediavault (OMV, openmediavault.org) as NAS operating system based on Debian. I also installed slinger and the RTSP server to connect to the Echo Show 15.

Now the problem. When I install Flask because of the remote control function, suddenly configuration changes and SW installations using apt/apt-get no longer works. It throws an error message ""ImportError: cannot import name 'Markup' from 'jinja2′". This is due to an incompatibility between Flask and Jinja2. There is an extensive discussion about this in the relevant forums on the Internet. However, I did not manage to fix the error. To make the NAS function(s) of OMV work completely, the only possibility was to uninstall Flask again.
@ALL: Has anyone experienced this situation and possibly been able to fix the error?
@gerry: Flask consists of several components (packages) that can also be installed individually:
pip install --upgrade babel
pip install --upgrade python-dateutil
pip install --upgrade flask-moment
pip install --upgrade flask-wtf
pip install --upgrade flask_sqlalchemy
Are all these packages required for the remote control to work?
Or, could another WEB server be used (e.g. NGINX)?

3 replies

GerryDazoo Feb 4, 2023
Maintainer

Don't modify the version of python the system is using. Use the Python environment capabilities for your own private version of python to use.
https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html
This is exactly what I've done on my NAS.

RocketAlf Feb 5, 2023
Author

Many, many thanks.
I did not know this option yet. Have followed the "instruction manual" ...and it works wonderfully now :-)))

Toei79 Feb 5, 2023

Wondering if this can be used to play in other devices?

lehmbarsingh · 2023-02-05T01:04:21Z

lehmbarsingh
Feb 5, 2023

Hello@RocketAlf , Seems like I am missing on something because I haven't been able to get it working .I followed all your steps or directions .I have disabled all protocols you mentioned not being used ( rtmpDisable, hlsDisable, webrtcDisable to "yes" ) .I have installed ffmpeg properly . I have created bat files to run the server automatically .so 1st I run the server then I open ffmpeg . now if I try opening the stream6 using vlc (rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/stream6) it should start streaming but it never happens. Can you share your config file at [email protected] .Also if you can give me step by step how to run this properly would be appreciated .when I give the command in ffmpeg (ffmpeg -loglevel quiet -i http://192.168.1.233:64642/mytv/slingm1med -vcodec libx264 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://localhost:8554/stream6) manually it connects to my slinger but after few seconds it cuts off. If I understand correctly when anyone whether echo show 15 or vlc player try to connect to stream6 it suppose to start basically start converting hls stream to rtsp . Thanks

21 replies

lehmbarsingh Mar 5, 2023

That's what I am thinking of but at least I can still watch thru http://myip:8888/stream2 .

RocketAlf Mar 6, 2023
Author

@lehmbarsingh:

you have enabled HLS protocol and use http on port 8888 (?)
transcoding to H.264 and rtsp protocol is then actually superfluous. I know it works, but there might be a better setting.
what is your setting for stream2 ?
if the port forwarding of port 8888 works, then the port forwarding of port 64642 must work, too, if you didn't make a (typo) mistake in the configuration (!).

Maybe try another port number for the SlingerServer ( less than 49152 ). The port 64642 belongs to a range which is used by Apple for the "Xsan filesystem access". This may cause problems within the company network.

This is really puzzling :-O !?!?!

lehmbarsingh Mar 7, 2023

yes I have enable HLS and I do use port 8888 . I have configured the ports properly in my Asus router.
transcoding to H.264 and rtsp protocol is then actually superfluous. I know it works, but there might be a better setting.
what is best setting you recommend
stream2:
source: publisher
runOnDemand: ffmpeg -i http://192.168.1.233:64642/mytv/m1v1hd -vcodec libx264 -f rtsp -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://192.168.1.233:8554/stream2
runOnDemandStartTimeout: 20s
runOnDemandCloseAfter: 10s
I will give it try with lower port as you mentioned.
Well Known Ports: 0 through 1023.
Registered Ports: 1024 through 49151.
Dynamic/Private : 49152 through 65535.

lehmbarsingh Mar 7, 2023

Here is setting for slingbox M1
[m1v1hd]
sbtype="350/500/M1"
password=E1:DB1CAB5D2003A43B37A1426A0F817DE75E16F2532F26F03142A9E7745C578E12
;finderID 1E850B582B0CD3B61F3309474D489CA1
ipaddress=192.168.1.143
port=5304
Resolution=16
FrameRate=30
VideoBandwidth=3000
VideoSmoothness=63
VideoSource=1
maxstreams=6
Remote=bell3.txt

lehmbarsingh Mar 7, 2023

[SERVER]
; local port number for the server to listen on for connections
; Send all streaming and Remote request to this port number.
port=45452
maxremotestreams=6
URLbase=mytv
enableremote=yes

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bring the Slingbox to the Echo Show #505

Replies: 6 comments · 49 replies

RocketAlf Jan 25, 2023 Author

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