Adding external channels to your TV Server channel list

You can add external channel sources to your platform 3.x or platform 4.x TV Server, HD Encoder or SD Encoder product such that the external source appears in your existing channel listing. The following steps outline the procedure.

Importing from another server

  1. Access the first appliance's web admin interface by reading this article
  2. Select Channels from the left hand navigation
  3. Tap Import Channels in the top toolbar to open the Import Channels dialog:
  4. In the Import from server field, provide the IP address of the other server and tap the Load channel list button
  5. Put a checkbox next to channel entries you want incorporated in the other server's channel bouquet
  6. Tap the Import Selected button at the bottom of the dialog

Importing other sources

  1. Access your appliance's web admin interface by reading this article
  2. Platform 4.x and later: Select Channels from the left hand navigation and tap Add new channel in the top toolbar. Platform 3.1 and earlier: Select Ext. Sources from the left hand navigation and tap Add new source in the bottom toolbar.
  3. Give the source a name by typing in the field in the highlighted Name column and press Enter when complete
  4. Select TV from the drop-down list in the Type column
  5. In the URL column, enter the correctly formatted source address for your stream (see Source URL section, below)
  6. Select Status from the left navigation pane and click Restart in the lower toolbar

Source URL

The format of the URL is very specific. If the URL is incorrectly specified, the stream will not work.

RTSP Streams

When adding RTSP streams, ensure the URL takes the following format:

rtsp://<server>/live/<streamname>

Be sure that you substitute <server> with the IP or hostname of the source server, and <streamname> for the name of the source stream.

Note: If the source is a TV Server or HD Encoder platform 3.1 or later appliance, you can find pre-formatted URLs for this purpose in the web interface. Choose Status from the left navigation, then select the All Channels tab.

Multicast Streams

When adding UDP multicast streams, the URL takes the following format:

udp://<server>@<ip>:<port>?streamName=<streamname>

Be sure that you substitute <server> with the IP or hostname of the source server, <ip> and <port> with the IP address and port of the multicast stream, and <streamname> for the name of the stream itself.

Example URLs

Some example source URLs follow.

rtsp://192.168.9.194/live/BBC NEWS<br />udp://192.168.9.194@224.0.1.2:10000?streamName=BBC ONE

Certain earlier platform versions of TV Server and HD Encoder appliances require that you escape the URLs, replacing spaces with "%20". Examples of escaped URLs follow:

rtsp://10.123.100.5/live/Channel%204

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