Watch IPTV via Node-RED

[BartButenaers]

Hi folks,

There is a nice discussion ongoing about live streaming, based on some cool new nodes from @kevinGodell. In that discussion @SuperNinja used an IPTV stream to test it.

Don't want to go too much off-topic there, so would like to discuss that topic here in depth.

Suppose I want to watch IPTV on a TV (not a smart TV, so no browser on it...). How can I do that?

1. I connect the HDMI port of my RPI 3 to my TV vua an HDMU cable.
2. I install Kevin's nodes to decode the stream.
3. ???

But what do I need more?

1. How do I show the images from Node-RED on my hdmi port? Perhaps a stupid question, but I don't know...
2. Is there an easy way to send basic commands (channel/volume-up/down) to my flow from an IR remote control. Could wire physical buttons to my GPIO ports, but a remote control is more wife proof...
3. Is it easy to switch the channel via Kevin's nodes? I didn't have time yet to play with his nodes
4. Other stuff I have forgotten?

Thanks a lot!!

P.S. My daily job is consuming most of my free time at the moment. And I need to implement this kind of projects to keep the wife happy. And want to have a little free time remaining to build Node-RED nodes... So I want to thank all the people that keep helping me with all my dummy hardware questions, so I don't have to spend hours googling!!!!!

Bart

[zenofmud]

Bart have you seen this Watch IPTV - uibuilder

[BartButenaers]

Hey Paul,
It is an older TV, not a smart TV. So I have no browser on it. I need to send the video via HDMI to it.

[BartButenaers]

@BartButenaers

How do I show the images from Node-RED on my hdmi port? Perhaps a stupid question

Hmm. I think this was a stupid question. Was thinking: how can I show images on a HDMI port from a headless Raspberry. However I should install a Raspbian with GUI layer, and show a kiosk browser I assume. In that browser I have to show Kevin's live stream.

Doing it like that, I don't need a browser on my old plasma tv (unlike a smart tv).

Is that correct? If so, then question 1 is solved ...

[ristomatti]

Perhaps you could use your own multipart stream encoder and run cvlc (VLC players CLI version) to play the stream? I guess you'll need to have some sort of X11 server running for that though. Also if you're already using VLC, I guess you could just use it to directly stream from the camera?

You should be able to run the X server without any window manager to keep it light on the resources.

Running X11 without Window Manager?

[BartButenaers]

@ristomatti

VLC players CLI version

Yes indeed VLC could be an option, but would like to do it entirely via Node- RED

@zenofmud

Bart have you seen this Watch IPTV - uibuilder

Seems that the IPTV github repository - used in the project - has been taken down, due to illegal activity...

[ristomatti]

@BartButenaers

Yes indeed VLC could be an option, but would like to do it entirely via Node- RED

I would be skeptical if it'd be fast enough as the whole point in why Kevin's nodes are fast is that they offload the decoding work to the browser (on another computer). But if the browser also runs on a Raspberry 3 you'll do both the stream copying AND browser based decoding on the poor SBC.

[BartButenaers]

Makes sense