Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

Hello everyone,

Here's the problem.
I've been watching NHK World TV for several years now using the VLC Player as streaming software. Since the VLC Player allows recording as well, I could simply record (and save) programs even if I hadn't time to watch them live, and watch them later. Sometimes, NHK would change the streaming URL but that could be dodged. Senior member biezom provided a simple but effective method for that; see here: http://stream-recorder.com/forum/do-...k-t18612.html?
Since yesterday, though, the NHK streaming URL won't work on the VLC Player anymore. It simply stopped working while I was watching a program.
Of course I checked if NHK had again changed the streaming URL. But they hadn't. It still streams using the same URL as before but when I enter it, the VLC Player comes back with an error message stating that the URL could not be opened.

Of course, I've tried all the usual things you try in such a situation:

- restarting VLC
- restarting my computer
- restarting my WLAN router
- resetting VLC preferences to default
- deleting the VLC preferences file
- clearing the cache.

All to no avail.

Funny thing is: On other streaming devices, e.g., Quicktime or AirFlick, streaming is still possible, using the same URL. Unfortunately, I can't record with either Quicktime or AirFlick. So whatever the problem may be, it seems to be targeting specifically the VLC Player.
Of course I know that this is not a VLC support forum. I've tried VLC support but haven't got an answer. So I hope someone might by chance have a solution.
Thank you for your time.

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

ffplay can play this, vlc cannot.

ffplay.exe -i "https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_600.m3u8"


ffmpeg.exe -user_agent "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0"
-i "https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_600.m3u8" -c copy "C:\index_600.ts"



C:\>ffmpeg.exe -user_agent "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0" -i "https://nhkwtv
global-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_600.m3u8" -c copy "C:\index_600.ts"
ffmpeg version 3.2.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable
-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-li
bbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enabl
e-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-li
bopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --en
able-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable
-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zl
ib
libavutil 55. 34.100 / 55. 34.100
libavcodec 57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
libavformat 57. 56.100 / 57. 56.100
libavdevice 57. 1.100 / 57. 1.100
libavfilter 6. 65.100 / 6. 65.100
libswscale 4. 2.100 / 4. 2.100
libswresample 2. 3.100 / 2. 3.100
libpostproc 54. 1.100 / 54. 1.100
[aac @ 02fa2a20] element type mismatch 1 != 0
Input #0, hls,applehttp, from 'https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_600.m3u8':
Duration: N/A, start: 32456.140433, bitrate: N/A
Program 0
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], Close
d Captions, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (HE-AAC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Output #0, mpegts, to 'C:\index_600.ts':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf57.56.100
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-3
1, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (HE-AAC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 48000 Hz, stereo
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 720 fps= 55 q=-1.0 size= 1992kB time=00:00:24.01 bitrate= 679.4kbits/s speed=1.84x

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

VLC can play it like this:

streamlink.exe "hls://https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_600.m3u8" best


C:\>streamlink.exe "https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/" best
[cli][info] Found matching plugin nhkworld for URL https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/
[cli][info] Available streams: 360p_alt2, 720p_alt, 180p_alt, 180p (worst), 360p, 720p (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 720p (hls)
[cli][info] Starting player: C:\P\VLC\vlc.exe

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

j_cool,

Thank you very much for your answer.
However, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. (Which is, of course, entirely my fault.)
First: If VLC can't play this (now) - why could it play it until yesterday? That's what I'm wondering: It worked perfectly fine (except that I used to use the _1180.m3u8 stream) until it stopped out of the blue.
Second: Quicktime and AirFlick can play it without any problems as well.
So the question is: Why can't VLC play it all of a sudden anymore? What's the difference to other media players?

- ninjagame

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

I don't know how players work internally.

It is matter of giving a try to each one and find one that suits you.

I never use mplayer for live streams.
However, when playing some video files it is the one that works the best at that time.

As you see from my last post, VLC does play it with streamlink.
If we knew how to use vlc parameters right ...

What streamlink cannot do is go between resolutions.
For example, on your site there is big jump between low and high,
none that suits me.

This can be recorded with ffmpeg, and set video size to your liking.

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

ninja,

I owe you this one a little bit...

I did not know about this news bradcast before, strange that I never came across that before.

This is good news broadcast.

Here is how it works for me:



playing:

set url=https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_1180.m3u8
start wmove %url%
start /min ffplay -i %url% -vf scale=854:480


recording:

@echo off
title ~NHK
:start
for /f %%x in ('dt') do set d=%%x
set var=https://nhkwtvglobal-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/263941/nhkwtvglobal/index_1180.m3u8
ffmpeg -i %var% -c:v h264 -c:a aac -vf scale=854:480 c:\NHK_%d%.flv
sleep 3
goto start

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

j_cool,

Sorry to bother you again but -
- how do I handle this code?
Please note that I work on a Macintosh so I don't exactly know how to handle code meant for Windows or Linux machines. Thanks again for your help!

- ninjagame

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

I read long time ago that Mac OS is based on Linux, so according to that
there must be the same shell ( command line ) like in Linux.

That code I posted are batch files run by windows command line processor, cmd.exe.

This commes under scripting, batch files, bash shell scripting, etc. search terms in google.

http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/introd...x-command-line

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC

 

j_cool,

Thanks again for your reply!
Actually, MacOS is based on Unix which is not quite the same as Linux but close enough. So, the command line is indeed roughly the same.
However, the method you suggest is way too complicated to be really convenient and, therefore, useful for me. Please don't get me wrong: If I'd make my living doing this, I wouldn't hesitate to get deeply into it and to get really proficient. In that case, I would long ago have done it, just to have an alternative.
But since I'm doing this purely for my enjoyment and recording just for convenience (in fact, there are several livestream players I could use to watch live but I simply don't have the time to watch a program when it's aired and VOD is available only for one week or so after airing which I more often than not can't make either), what I'd need is a GUI into which I can input the livestream URL in order to get the video livestream and a button to click or a command shortcut to start and stop recording.
Having said that, I will certainly try your method one day when I can spare the time.

Thanks a lot!

- ninjagame

Re: Problems streaming NHK World TV on VLC