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Playing video crashes the tv

Another strange problem, yesterday i was loading a video with no problems everytime i used the widget, but today everytime i try to load it, it seems to give a lot of problems, crashing both the simulator and the tv before loading, no changes have been made to the code and the video is still normally accesible from a direct link on the pc, any suggestione?

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  • Also is it possible to set a timeout when starting a video that if it cannot be loaded or it has problems it stops trying and returns to the previous view with an error?
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  • QUOTE (Gades @ Oct 13 2010, 11:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Another strange problem, yesterday i was loading a video with no problems everytime i used the widget, but today everytime i try to load it, it seems to give a lot of problems, crashing both the simulator and the tv before loading, no changes have been made to the code and the video is still normally accesible from a direct link on the pc, any suggestione?


    If it can help when the video stops the terminal is showing
    CODE
    >>>>>>>> GetSystemTvState: attached shared memory

    and the terminal can't load if i close it after this problem if i don't reset it with the simulator reset, otherwise if i start it again it just shows a black screen and doesn't load anything
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  • QUOTE (Gades @ Oct 14 2010, 12:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Also is it possible to set a timeout when starting a video that if it cannot be loaded or it has problems it stops trying and returns to the previous view with an error?

    Hi Gades,
    There's a couple of things you can try. First, in the simulator settings, you can specify a log file:

    CODE
    # To redirect console outut to a file please put a fully qualified file path below 
    # Please note that the current date and time will be appended.
    # example:   logfile=/tmp/log
    logfile=/devwidgets/log

    I use this a lot when the simulator crashes. This way, you can open the log file to view the reason of the crash.

    Also, I assume you're using the media player (you should be, if you're not). There's an event published by the media player called onStreamLoadError that you can subscribe to that will allow you to recover when a stream is unavailable. This may help you out. I would suggest trying this approach before putting in any timers.

    - Ben
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  • I just started using the WDK and I'm encountering the same problem: when I select any video to play, the simulator freezes (the spinner itself freezes) and I need to close the console window manually. I can restart the simulator without resetting, though.

    Last thing the log files says:
    QUOTE
    TV 00:00:26:966: [T:10550] TV API ACL IS DISABLED
    TV 00:00:26:967: [T:10550] CONTROL GIVEN TO com.yahoo.widgets.tv.videosample


    Last thing the console says (skipping blank lines):
    QUOTE
    >>>>> play:2149
    >>>>> GetSystemTVState: attached shared memory


    @Benjamin Toll, what do you mean by
    QUOTE
    Also, I assume you're using the media player (you should be, if you're not).
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  • QUOTE (Karim @ Oct 20 2010, 05:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    @Benjamin Toll, what do you mean by

    Hi Karim,
    Before the media player (KONtx.mediaplayer) there was the video player (KONtx.videoplayer). It's now been deprecated, and all widgets should now use the media player API.

    As far as the freezes you're experiencing, you should test your widget on a television to see how its media player handles the content. The wdk uses gstreamer for audio/video playback, and as such is not a true measure of how it will perform on a tv.

    - Ben
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  • We had the same problem when not using the correct version of Ubuntu or after we upgraded the OS components.

    What version of Ubuntu are you using to run the simulator? The video will _only_ play correctly in 8.02 - in our experience and it needs a little love, as well.

    We have a pre-configured VirtualBox/Ubuntu8.02 image available in this tutorial: http://forums.widgetrealm.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=998

    Hope this helps.
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  • Benjamin Toll & WidgetRealm,

    Thanks for your reply.

    I checked the code for the sample media player widget and as far as I could tell it's using the KONtx.mediaplayer API.

    If the simulator is using GStreamer, is there anywhere I can find the command string that's passed to GStreamer? Can I hook into GStreamer itself to find this information? This would help debug the reason why the video is hanging.

    Concerning my OS setup, I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 (32 bit). I'll try the VirtualBox image and report back here.
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  • I must say, i sometimes get that problem when the internet connection is not in good conditions and the simulator/TV have difficulties to load it.
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  • @Karim - To get the GStreamer to work with the simulato,r you _MUST_ be using version 8.02... There is no work around.

    @Gades - the Internet connection will sometimes cause problems. We have seen this as well.
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  • WidgetRealm: Your VirtualBox appliance ran the video! Great job and many thanks for sharing that resource.

    Concerning the GStreamer / Ubuntu compatibility, I understand that out of the box, Ubuntu 8.02 has the right setup to be compatible with Konfabulator. I'm not sure yet what are the compatibility requirements, but it would be a shame to be stuck on this Ubuntu version just because GStreamer needs some love!

    For reference, here are the relevant GStreamer versions:
    Ubuntu 8.02, GStreamer is version 0.10.18-3
    Ubuntu 9.10, GStreamer is version 0.10.25-2
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