Beginner's (probably naive) question

Discussion about this major DATV Project. See https://wiki.batc.org.uk/The_Portsdown_Transmitter
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Basil
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Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:28 pm

Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by Basil » Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:40 am

I was very elated to get a test card on the satellite and received by myself and others. With just an SG Labs amp I am able to get a very reasonable card image at 333Ks. I now want to use the Portsdown to transmit a .mpg video. How do I go about streaming it via the Portsdown, from a Windows 7 64 bit PC on the same hard wired network as the Portsdown please? I am using a Pluto on a LAN cable at the dish.

I have read about using OBS without a Portsdown, "talking" to the Pluto direct, can I use my Portsdown with its easily configured menus?


Thanks 2E0ILY, Chris in north Shropshire.

G8GKQ
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by G8GKQ » Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:35 am

Chris

Yes, you can use OBS with Portsdown, but your PC needs to capable of encoding the video stream.

The normal setup is
  • OBS with the virtual cam plugin (not the in-built virtual cam)
  • F1EJP script to encode the video as a Transport Stream and route it to the Portsdown
  • Portsdown in "IPTS in" mode (selected from the "Encoder" button)
The exact configuration is very hardware and network dependent, so it is not possible to offer the same level of support as we do for the stand-alone Portsdown system.

There is plenty of information on this forum to help you configure the setup. btw it is exactly what I use for the Thursday nets.

Dave, G8GKQ

Basil
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by Basil » Sun Jul 18, 2021 2:56 pm

OK, thanks a lot Dave. I have amazed myself again, and actually got a video clip to the satellite! What I DID find confusing, and it's probably a language translation thing, is in the .bat file from F1EJP it says something along the lines of put the IP address of your transmitter here. Now, being new / idiotic / whatever, I assumed that meant the IP address of the Pluto, but by as much good luck as good management, I decided to check the IP address of the Portsdown's RP, and entered that.

The next thing was when I went to the Portsdown menu to look for an IPTS stream, the screen was blank. Being an impatient sort I clicked back to the first screen. After many goes I was distracted by someone and when I cam back to the previously blank IPTS viewer screen, there was the video. Patience is indeed a virtue, probably especially with a geriatric PC such as I am using...

So, thanks you Dave, thank you F1EJP!

my next question is, given I have a few videos of my motorsport activities, how might I most easily caption them with at least my call sign and locator? I see some web sites claim to b able to do this "in the clouds", but expect Chrome, which I do not have. I use Firefox and sometimes Opera.

Is there a simple way to add basic static or active captions to an existing video in say .mpg format?

Finally, I have seen some RP Linux commands to turn the RP camera image in the RP 7 inch housing through ninety degrees. Will something like that work to edit the Portsdown software somehow, or do I still need to butcher the housing and physically turn the camera 90 degrees?

Thanks again.

g0mjw
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by g0mjw » Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:22 pm

If you make your own ffmpeg script you can add captions through ffmpeg. However if you don't want to do that OBS is really not that difficult to use at a basic level. Perhaps we need to demonstrate how easy it can be via the net.

Mike

Basil
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by Basil » Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:27 pm

What would be useful, at least to me, is some info on movie formats people may have stuff saved in, whether it will convert to something usable, how to do that, and how to add say your call sign, setup and locator as text, scrolling or stationary. It all seems a bit of a minefield right now :) Thanks.

Pa3fbx
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by Pa3fbx » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:39 am

You need OBS and a good youtube search on how to use OBS as it will solve your problems...
And probably create new ones :) :D
Benno

Basil
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Re: Beginner's (probably naive) question

Post by Basil » Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:10 am

Thanks, it is certainly a complex piece of software. I have managed to get some text on my videos now though, not sure of it's the best way, but it's working.

l will try and get a better understanding of things as I go along.

All the best and thanks for the replies everyone.

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