How to use iView (ABC Australia) downloaders

[gxdata]

Originally Posted by Anywho

Hmmm... Have you deleted any 0-byte files that may have been created?

Ooops - yes, that was the problem.

Thinking about unattended (scheduled) DL for things I want to see, when I am remote from a TV or computer for 1 to 3 days, I wonder how to get over these periods of server or whatever problems that ABC/iView seems to encounter. I'll code something up, possibly next week, and share the workflow.

[Anywho]

Originally Posted by gxdata

Thinking about unattended (scheduled) DL for things I want to see, when I am remote from a TV or computer for 1 to 3 days

Have you tried the Windows scheduler and the batch file d/ler, IView Later, I created?

I wonder how to get over these periods of server or whatever problems that ABC/iView seems to encounter. I'll code something up, possibly next week, and share the workflow.

What do you mean by this? Like reacting to server dropout, non-existent files, etc?

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Anywho

ffff. fff. ffff. You ready? ..."so"...

We've shown you ours, now you show us yours!

Well Anywho you must have some retained air after that effort!

I have stuck the fetchtv.sh script at:

http://pastebin.com/HuSkwzm8

It is still riddled with debugging statements, but at least there is bash script code to handle the json, and plus7 and sbs. I run it under windows 7 or XP with cygwin, but could easily be modified to work with lynux

[gxdata]

Originally Posted by Anywho

Have you tried the Windows scheduler and the batch file d/ler, IView Later, I created?
No, will do so.


What do you mean by this? Like reacting to server dropout, non-existent files, etc?

Exactly. When to retry, which programs have short residence times (eg, midday report, evening news), exception handling so that the app controlling rtmpdump doesn't die, reading authentication and other primary paths from a config file, putting json parsing into a DLL that can be swapped when the format changes, etc.

[vipher]

I've updated the Linux script (now v6.8.1) and it's on the wiki, I think the same script should work with OSX just by changing the rtmpdump binary.

[streamed]

Hi,

Had to register for this forum, this seems to be the place to ask questions about functionality for Iview grabbers/downloaders.

I would like to know if one of you can build some sort of QA tool to check/verify the downloads. Often I find myself watching a downloaded episode, when suddenly the download seems to be incomplete. End of video, bugger.

I have had incomplete downloads with Iviewnapper and also with IviewFox. They all use the same RTMPDump, so that seems to be the problem (and possibly also the solution?)

Would it be possible to have a little tool that scans a certain folder on your local PC, and verify the length of each of the media files with the length/size as stored/reported on the server? If the file is not on the server anymore, bad luck, but for the files that are still there, wouldn't that be very practical?

I wouldn't mind programming something like this myself, but I have zero knowledge of RTMPDump, so I would have to familiarise myself with the syntax etc.

I would think that if you already have the source to download the media files, it would't be too difficult to built this verification tool?

Or am I the only one with incomplete downloads?

[gxdata]

Originally Posted by streamed

Hi,
I would like to know if one of you can build some sort of QA tool to check/verify the downloads. Often I find myself watching a downloaded episode, when suddenly the download seems to be incomplete. End of video, bugger.

I have had incomplete downloads with Iviewnapper and also with IviewFox. They all use the same RTMPDump, so that seems to be the problem (and possibly also the solution?)

Would it be possible to have a little tool that scans a certain folder on your local PC, and verify the length of each of the media files with the length/size as stored/reported on the server? If the file is not on the server anymore, bad luck, but for the files that are still there, wouldn't that be very practical?

(edited quote above)

With iViewNapper, there is an indication (SUCCESS) in a panel on the downloader form, which is some help.

About 6 months ago, I had the same thought as you, and asked of (someone - ? rtmpdump coder) if a checksum (CRC, MD5) could be ascertained for a file on the server, and checked against what you downloaded. I answered myself, that this would be a silly idea.

I'm not sure what metadata is available for the files that get streamed (ie, the files on the server that rtmpdump "downloads" to us) and how good that would be as an indication of the success, partial success, etc.

Others may have a more definitive answer for you.

[streamed]

Originally Posted by gxdata

With iViewNapper, there is an indication (SUCCESS) in a panel on the downloader form, which is some help.

I have not used Iviewnapper lately, found the fact that every instance of the software can only do on edownload at the time quite complex and inconvenient. Am now using Iviewfox, ideal for multiple transfers as the frontend is just the Iview website, and not some program.

Originally Posted by gxdata

I'm not sure what metadata is available for the files that get streamed (ie, the files on the server that rtmpdump "downloads" to us) and how good that would be as an indication of the success, partial success, etc.

The length (size) of the file would be ok, to check that against the local file size.

Originally Posted by gxdata

Others may have a more definitive answer for you

We'll wait and see. Thanks for your reply.

[gxdata]

for mce - see the Plus!7 thread on Whirlpool
p7Napper Exception - Air Traffic Investigation 6Nov2010

[jameskinds]

Originally Posted by vipher

I've updated the Linux script (now v6.8.1) and it's on the wiki, I think the same script should work with OSX just by changing the rtmpdump binary.

Can you please repost this somewhere else as localhostr.com seems to be down.

Thanks in advance.

James