DVBLink IPTV Server Installation and Configuration manual
Contents |
Preconditions
- DVBLink IPTV Server requires at least one of the DVBLink source products (DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink for IPTV, DVBLink for Dreambox etc.) installed and configured.
DVBLink Configuration webpage
How to access DVBLink Configuration web page
General
DVBLink IPTV Server can either broadcast TV channels into the network, using UDP multicast or serve them via unicast (HTTP). The TV channels (all of them or individually selected) can be received at the client side using m3u playlist. This playlist can be downloaded from IPTV Server configuration page as described below. DVBLink IPTV Server also provides functionality to integrate TV channel streaming into Stalker ([1]) framework and into LG:ProCentric hotel network.
Transcoded streaming
Transcoded stream uses h264/AAC codecs for video/audio streams, encapsulated into mpeg-2 transport stream container. The transcoding bitrate can be set under "Server state" configuration.
Simultaneously active channels
Upon IPTV server start-up it opens all "Active" channels at the same time. It means that number of active channels should be selected according to the number of configured Sources and channel allocation on transponders. If all "Active" channels cannot be opened on IPTV Server start-up due to tuner number limitations, some of the channels will broadcast "All tuners are busy" message.
DVBLink IPTV Server configuration: General
To configure general DVBLink IPTV Server product settings, navigate to IPTV Server tab of the DVBLink Configuration webpage and select its General sub-tab:
DVBLink IPTV Server configuration consists of the three parts:
- Channel configuration
- Network configuration for HTTP and UDP streaming
- Server state
Channel configuration
Here user can select which channels will be broadcasted into the network (by checking HTTP or UDP checkbox for unicast or multicast streaming respectively). It is also possible to configure on per-channel basis if that channel will be transcoded (e.g. bandwitdh and stream format conversion). The "Playlist" column offers downloading a playlist, which has only an url of that particular channel.
Network configuration - Multicast
The network configuration section for Multicast streaming offers the following settings:
- Multicast network adapter selection. "Auto" selects a default network adapter. Alternatively user can choose a specific network adapter from the list.
- Multicast address. The last byte of the address is always 0.
- Port
- Multicast addresses url forming rules. Selection "Increment IP address" increments the last byte of the multicast address for each channel in the list. (e.g. the first channel gets multicast address 226.0.10.0, second - 226.0.10.1 etc. with fixed port value). Selection "Increment port" increments port for each channel in the list (e.g. the first channel gets port 9876, second 9877 etc. with a fixed multicast IP address).
- TTL
- UDP socket buffer size in bytes
Network configuration - Unicast
HTTP Server configuration has following settings:
- Port. This is the port value, which DVBLink IPTV Server uses to serve unicast stream to clients
- DVBLink Server address. This is the address of DVBLink Server as seen from the clients. It is used for playlist generation purposes.
Server state
Server state section offers the following settings and informational controls:
- Server state indication (running vs. stopped) and Start/Stop buttons
- Checkbox to activate IPTV server on DVBLink server start-up
- Information about maximum number of simultaneously active channels
- Information if video transcoding is supported by the server platform
- Transcoding bitrate setting (in kbytes/sec)
Playlist download
An m3u playlist can be downloaded per channel (e.g. having a streaming url for a single channel only) or for all active channels.
Per-channel m3u playlist is downloaded from a channel table by clicking doanload playlist button in channel row.
A channel list for all active channels is downloaded using IPTV Playlist button at the bottom of the configuration tab.
For each download you need to select for which streaming protocol a playlist will be created - UDP or HTTP.
It is also possible to obtain a playlist generation URL, which can be used by clients to request a playlist from server at the run-time.
DVBLink IPTV Server configuration: Integration
To configure integration settings of DVBLink IPTV Server product, navigate to IPTV Server tab of the DVBLink Configuration webpage and select its Integration sub-tab:
Stalker integration
This section specifies parameters for Stalker [2] middleware integration for use with MAG IP settopboxes.
DVBLink feeds Stalker system with both live TV stream and EPG information.
The following parameters have to be set:
- Stalker server IP address as seen by DVBLink server
- Stalker server port (default value is 88)
- TV stream type (UDP vs. HTTP)
- DVBLink Server address as seen by Stalker Server
Pressing Syncronize button will start a synchronization process.
LG Pro:Centric integration
This section allows exporting all previously selected DVBLink channels as LG Pro:Centric backup file.
Please note that LG Pro:Centric server only accepts channels with UDP streams.
Streaming file source
General
Streaming file source allows creation of info and promo channels from movie files. These files are represented as separate channels, integrated into single channel set and are played in a loop.
Configuration
To add a new file-based TV channel, navigate to the Sources tab of the DVBLink configuration interface and press add source button:
File source configuration page allows selection of the stream file:
Preparing a streaming file with ffmpeg
File source only accepts single program transport stream files (spts). If you have a video file in any other format than this, you have to convert it first to spts file.
It can be easily done with ffmpeg. You can use ffmpeg, which is already installed on your system or the one, which comes with DVBLink installation,
Ffmpeg, which comes with DVBLink installation is located in:
- <dvblink installation directory>\common on Windows
- /usr/local/bin/dvblink/common/ffmpeg on Linux
Assuming, for example, that you video file is called promo.mp4, use the following command to convert it to spts:
ffmpeg -i promo.mp4 promo.ts
