Answers to common issues when setting up or using Albatross Home Media Streaming Server

Questions

Q: Albatross? What happened to TyStreamer?

A: TyStreamer has been renamed the Albatross Home Media Streaming Server. A colleague of mine pointed out that TyStreamer was never really stable enough (and in many respects still isn't) for a 1.0 release, let alone 3.0. Since just rolling back the version numbers would cause unnecessary confusion, the name was changed. Additionally, Albatross is no longer just for TiVo users. Albatross can also stream videos found on the local hard drive, including navigating folders, etc. The "Ty" in TyStreamer referred to the TiVo's internal video format, called ty streams. The new name reflects the more global nature of Albatross

Q: Do I need a TiVo to use Albatross?

A: No. You can use Albatross to remotely stream any video files over the internet, not just from your TiVo.

Q: Can Albatross stream xvid / mpeg / ogg-vorbis / some-random-format?

A: Albatross can stream any format that can be read by VLC

Q: Can I use Albatross with TiVo Series 1 / Series 2 / Series 3 / TivoHD?

A: You can use Albatross with any TiVo that has been hacked and has vserver installed. This is more difficult on some models than others. The Albatross 0.5 release also supports streaming from unhacked TiVos through the HMO interface.

Q: I can watch video on my local network, but not from work / school / someplace else? What's wrong?

A: Albatross streams video on port 8090 by default, so you need to open that port in your firewall and / or router to see video outside of your local network.

Q: How do I secure Albatross so that some random guy doesn't start tying up my server watching all my stuff?

A: Albatross no longer has any built-in security. The security that it used to have wasn't, and so it was removed. You should use your web server's built-in security to add password protection. On Apache, this is accomplished with htaccess and htpasswd. IIS has it's own security features, as well.

Q: I can't start a new program after I stopped a previous program unless I wait a long time. What gives?

A: Could be a couple of things. Normally, VideoLAN Client shuts down nicely when click the Stop sign icon, but sometimes it needs a little help by using a kill command. Albatross does not keep track of individual processes, largely to maintain Windows compatibility, so you have to kill the process by name. There's an example in the sample configuration file. On ^`*`NIX-based systems (Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, etc.), you can use "killall -9 vlc". This is a shotgun approach and will kill all instances of VLC running under your webserver's user. Usually, this is only those instances started by Albatross, but if you happen to have any other web applications that utilize VLC, it will likely kill those, as well. There are also various Windows versions of the killall command, but I'm not familiar with them. Google is your friend.

Q: I can't start a new program after I stopped a previous program, but only on HMO TiVos.

A; While VLC will quit as expected, TiVo Decode hangs around. Change the killall command to kill TiVo Decode (killall -9 tivodecode).

Q: I can't start a new program after I stopped a previous program, but only on a hacked TiVo.

A: Try using mfs_ftp instead of vstream. Albatross 0.5.1 and later supports using an updated version of mfs_ftp, which can be found in the Deal Database forums here instead of the current vstream method. This allows VLC to fetch the file directly from the TiVo instead of streaming it from vstream.

Q: Will Albatross work on the Wii Internet channel?

A: Yes! Albatross should work with any browser with Flash version 7 or higher installed, including Opera on the Nintendo Wii! Fullscreen playback is supported where available.

Q: I'm on a Mac and I get this wierd error about libJPEG.dylib in my log file. What can I do?

A: Apparently, Mac OS X has a lot of trouble keeping track of different versions of libjpeg.dylib and other common libs. For example, I use MAMP as my web server, and Albatross gave me the following error:

dyld: Symbol not found: __cg_jpeg_resync_to_restart
  Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/ImageIO
  Expected in: /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/libJPEG.dylib

This was conflicting with Mac OS X's internal libJPEG.dylib. The solution was to replace MAMP's dylib with Apple's:

sudo ln -sf /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libJPEG.dylib /Applications/MAMP/Library/lib/libjpeg.dylib

BE CAREFUL WHEN REPLACING LIBRARY FILES!!! Replacing, removing, or copying over system files can have a seriously adverse affect on your computer! Make sure to create a backup of any files you replace in case something goes horribly wrong, and if you're not comfortable doing it, DON'T! I take no responsibility if this fix turns your Mac into a toaster, or worse.

But if you think it will help, what the hell! ;)

Reference: http://www.nabble.com/dyld:-Symbol-not-found:-__cg_jpeg_resync_to_restart-t3562461.html