gollum.artefacte.org TSS :: Theora Streaming Studio streaming tools for social networks

Using the debian/ubuntu package: just open the package with gdeb GUI, that will work with just a double click. gdeb will install all the dependencys needed.

Using the source package you need automake and autoconf.
tar xzvf tss-0.2.tar.gz
cd tss-0.2
./autogen.sh
make
make install

cd src/tss_player
make
make install

Use it!!

This is a short step by step guide, for better one look for TSS in the flossmanuals TheoraCookbook http://en.flossmanuals.net/TheoraCookbook/TSS (english) or tss@minipimer.tv http://www.minipimer.tv/?tag=tss (spanish)

Open tss from your gnome menu (in Audio/Video apps) or Open a terminal and type the command "tss" this will be enough.

The application should start and the first thing you see is something like this

1. the first step is to choose the video source of your stream, this is done in the "source" page of the notebook.

As you see, you can choose between tree diferent video sources: "dv input" to use a dv-camera or other firewire video device; "video capture card or webcam" to use any video device supported in video4linux; or the "video file" option to stream or reencode any video file in your hard drive. if you choose the "video capture card or webcam" option you will need to adjust the "v4l device" and the "audio device" options, but anyway if you are unsure here try with the default settings.

2. the next step is to setup almost one of the targets, so go to the "target1" page and you will see the target configured with the default settings.

Configure the encodding settings as you like, the default settings are good to send an audio/video stream using about 128Kbps of bandwidth.
All the metadata fields are optionals.

In the "icecast server settings" you must put the correct values for your streaming server, port, mountpoint and password. If you leave any of this fields empty, the target is NOT configured to stream, but still can be used as a video encoder using the "dump to local file" one.

If you put a filename in the "dump to local file" field the theora encoded video will be writen in your hard disk.

NOTE: the TSS interface give you the option to encode two "targets" at the same time from the same source. This will be usefull for example to stream video in two different qualities in two diferent mountpoints, to cover diferent audiences with diferent bandwidth. Anyway be carefull with the CPU use on this.

3. the last step: Execute!

When you click in the "Execute" button your encodding(s) and streaming tasks will start. Take attention to the terminal because there you will get important information about the processes, connections, etc...

Some tips about the preview window
The preview window is enabled by deffault, it will show you the result for the first "target", so if you are encodding two targets at the same time, we recommend you to use the "target1" as the lowest quality to reduce the CPU cost of the preview.

If your soundcard does not support full duplex the preview will not work.

If your preview audio or video dropps or suks is possible that you are using too much CPU or too much bandwidth with your settings.

Known Bugs

the "dump to local file" option overwrites files without asking.
the open/save setting feature is not well implemented at all.
the "file input" source don-t accept spaces in the filename.
in some audio cards you cannot capture audio from /dev/dsp and use the preview feature at the same time.

Troubleshooting

error :
/usr/bin/ffmpeg2theora: invalid option -- F

ffmpeg2theora should be the version 0.18 or higher.
lower versions will give this error.
this is because versions lower than 0.18 dont support framerates lower than 25 fps.
however, you will still be able to stream but it makes a very heavy kbps.

error :
raw1394 - failed to get handle: No such device or address.
File `pipe:' does not exist or has an unknown data format.
oggfwd: Connected to server

u need to have dv1394 drivers loaded. check your firewire card.
the kernel should be 2.6.18
due to a problem with last debian kernel 2.6.22 (all former kernels work with
raw1394, which is module needed to use dvgrab).

error :
Found AV/C device with GUID 0x0800460101c567d9
Warning: Cannot set RR-scheduler
Warning: Cannot disable swapping

probably because you are missing libtheora-bin - doesnt seem to exist in debian but u can
install the ubuntu package :
http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/utils/libtheora-bin
u can still stream even tho' u dont have this installed.

error :
raw1394 - failed to get handle: Permission denied
the user who starts "tss" need correct privileges to access the firewire device

Tips
also useful to know :
tss creates a shellscrip and it's located at /tmp/tssSTREAM

please send bugs and comments to lluis AT hangar.org , thanks.