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Playlist - contents, loading in STB, writing to USB drive

Playlist is a formalized set of video and audio files that can be played back with media player. Internal playlist of MAG STBs (Embedded portal playlist) is stored in IPTV channels application as IPTV channels list.

MAG STBs support (can analyze contents of) external playlist of M3U format that is a text file that has a filename extension of .m3u. The following description and examples are given for m3u playlists.

STB models starting from the 4xx series can support additional playlist formats (see Specifications).

Channels of an external playlist can be added (imported) to STB's IPTV channels list. The import of channels is the main way of composing the IPTV channels list. Import of channels can be provided as follows:

1) from an external network, by URL;
2)from a specific folder of shared local network recourse or USB drive.

Users are also allowed to add channels manually and make other Operations related to the IPTV-channels list (delete, edit channel, etc.).

Add IPTV list (download playlist from URL)

Adding IPTV list means downloading preset channel list from server:

  • Call up the Operations window (tap Menu on RC).
  • Select Add IPTV list - that opens Add IPTV list window.
  • In Add IPTV list window:
    • Fill in File Encoding option - necessary encoding (utf-8 encoding is usually used in m3u-lists, otherwise - choose necessary encoding);
    • Fill in URL option - where the channel list is located;
    • Click Save (OK).

Example of filling URL option:

http://192.168.1.1/playlist.m3u

If channel list does not load:

  • Address of file (URL) is incorrect;
  • There is no connection to the server;
  • File with this name was not found on server;
  • File has the wrong format.

Loading playlist from USB drive or via SMB / NFS network

The playlist is a file that has the format as filename.m3u. The encoding type is UTF-8 (recommended).
Example of playlist

Playlist loading

Playlist loads to STB from a USB drive or from a shared network folder (you must first provide network access to this resource - for example, see Access to network PC (SAMBA).

    • Open Home media.
    • Open a required folder containing the playlist. The folder can be located on the connected USB drive or shared network resource.
    • Open the playlist file (*.m3u) with OK key on RC;
    • Select option in appeared window Open playlist:
      • See playlist content (F1 on RC);
      • Start playing all records(F2 on RC);
      • Add all records to IPTV channels(F3 on RC).

Image Documentation

Looking through playlist contents

See playlist content option (F1 on RC) opens playlist for looking through its contents. In channel list view mode (without playback), the following operations upon the channels are provided:

  • Navigating through channel list (Down and Up buttons on RC - switch to the next and previous channel of the list, respectively; Left and Right buttons on RC- move to the beginning and the end of the list, respectively).
  • Start playing back current channel by pressing OK on RC (description of operations with playlist in playback mode - see below, for Start playing all records option). When you exit the playback mode (by Exit button on RC), you return to a playlist viewing mode.
  • Adding/Removing channels to Favorites (F3 on RC).
  • Copying required channels for adding them to IPTV channels list:

1. select required channels from playlist (use the F2 button on RC or Select command from Operations menu);
2. if you want to select all channels in the list - you must use Select All command from Operations menu;
3. copy selected channels (Copy command from Operations menu).

  Copy command from Operations menu

Image Documentation

4. go to IPTV channels window (TV button on RC);
5. in IPTV channels window, paste the copied channels into the main IPTV channel list or in the desired folder (press Menu button on RC to open Operations menu, activate Paste command).

Start playing all records

Start playing all records option (F2 on RC) starts playback of the first playlist channel. During channel playback the following operations are available:

  • OK or Exit buttons on RC- switches to channel list viewing mode combined with info-block (reduced window displaying channel playback). You may can navigate through channel list (Down and Up buttons on RC - switch to the next and previous channel of the list, respectively; Left and Right buttons on RC- move to the beginning and the end of the list, respectively). Return to full-screen mode - by pressing the OK button.
  • Down / Up buttons on RC - go to the next/previous channel.

Add all records to IPTV channels

Add all records to IPTV channels option (F3 on RC) adds entire contents of the playlist to the main IPTV channels list.

Export channels (write playlist to USB drive)

Export channels mean saving IPTV channels list to file on USB-drive in the format of filename.m3u (filename defines by user):

  • Being in IPTV channels list open Operations menu (press Menu on RC).
  • Select Export channels command.
  • In appeared Export channels window:
    • in File Location select required USB-drive;
    • in File name enter a name of the playlist;
    • in Save from groups select:
      • ON - export channels from common list IPTV channels and from channel groups;
      • OFF - export channels only from common list IPTV channels (not including groups of channels).
    • click Save (OK).

Add operator's IPTV list

Add operator's IPTV list feature is used to load the playlist of certain operator IPTV channels list of STB (this feature should be agreed with the operator):

  • Open Operations window (tap Menu on RC).
  • Select Add operator's IPTV list command;
  • In Loading operator playlist window fill in the next options:
    • Country;
    • City;
    • Operator.
  • Click Save (OK).

Example of playlist (m3u file)

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0,HD Media
ffmpeg http://89.208.33.168:8100/
#EXTINF:0,HD Live
ffrt2 rtmp://wms002.pik-tv.com/live/piktv3pik3tv
#EXTINF:0, RBC
ffmpeg mmsh://tv.gldn.net/rbc
#EXTINF:0,ORANGE SPORT INFO TV
ffrt2 mmsh://livewm.orange.fr/live-multicanaux
#EXTINF:0,Радио Гора
ifm http://mirror.radiogora.ru:10040
#EXTINF:0,stream1
ffmpeg http://192.168.2.35:1935/live/1.stream/playlist.m3u8

 Not allowed:

  • Empty newlines
  • Headers by VLC player

Media content playback options

Channel playback options are set in the URL option (located in Add and Edit windows brought up in Operations menu of Edit window).

Format of URL option is as follows:

Solution + Stream address

where:

  • Solution - provides the player with the required format and proper decoder for audio and video file/stream playback. The list of Solution values is shown in the table below.
  • Stream address - network or local address of media content. It may contain an IP address, port number, and a path to file on the server.
Type of Solution Description
auto Automatic detection of content type, container, codec by given URL, if URL begins with rtp:, udp:, rtsp:.
rtp

Play string in format MPEG2TS. If the URL begins with rtp: then the RTP stream should be played.

If the URL begins with udp:

then the UDP stream should be played. Required codecs are set if additional information of the stream is present, for example, H.264, AC-3, etc.
rtsp Play content from the RTSP server. Required codecs are set if additional information of the stream is present, for example, H.264, AC-3, etc.
ifm Play an audio stream Internet radio.
fm Play audio from MPEG-TS stream (udp:, rtp:).
ffmpeg Play HLS as well as various formats of audio-video files: avi, mkv,mpg, mp4, mov, wmv, AC-3. It is used, in general, for non-stream broadcasting, except for HLS.
ffrt Play MPEG-TS streams from HTTP server.
ffrt2 Play streams with http, rtmp, … But container can be non MPEG-TS type. Content looping is always on (SetLoop(true)).
ffrt3 Similarly to ffrt2, but assumes non-real-time stream. That is, with ability to pick position within the stream. Suitable for playing video from YouTube.
ffrt4 Similarly to ffrt2, but is used to quickly launch streaming using rtmp (rtmp:// ...).

Detailed information can be found in document: JS API MAG200 (Rev 1.20) (pdf) (Section stb.PlaySolution. page 19.) (Appendix 2. Video content formats and examples of use. page 89)

To play streaming

Streaming specification should be as follows:

rtp space URL

For example:

rtp udp://10.20.30.40:1234
rtp rtp://10.20.30.40:1234

For access to stream with RTSP-server specification should be as follows:

rtsp space URL

More information can be found in document:JS API MAG200 (Rev 1.20) (pdf) (Section stb.SetupRTSP page 35)

For broadcasting http

for example:

ffmpeg http://10.10.30.40:12434

It is also possible to use the following Solutions as fm, ffrt, ffrt2, ffrt3. Depending on type of streaming.

HLS-stream

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) supports live streaming and video on demand (VoD) modes. To transfer audio and video data by HLS protocol, the MPEG2-TS transport stream is used. HLS protocol splits transport stream into fragments (files) that are stored on web server along with index-file that contains information about the order in which series files must be played. The index file extension is m3u8. In example of playlist, channel in HLS format corresponds the last entry.


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Dave is an expert on the MAG STB and the author of this article.

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