v2.2.0-beta1 - E-Mail Alerts, Connection Check, and Schedule Generation Overhaul

This is the first beta release for Mr. OTCS version 2.2.0, which introduces new features and overhauls a number of existing features to fix long-standing bugs. Several new options have been added, so you will need to update your config.ini file to upgrade.

Highlights

• A simple e-mail daemon has been added to inform the user of stream events. See E-Mail Alerts in the wiki for more information.
• The console output now includes timestamps.
• The function to generate the array of previously played videos in schedule.json has been rewritten. Mr. OTCS will no longer repeatedly write the current video into the array when the stream is disrupted due to connection issues.
• A new playlist command, %STOP, is supported that will end the stream and cause Mr. OTCS to exit. The index in play_index.txt will be incremented to the next line when exiting.
• A bug that causes the SSH upload to occur multiple times has been fixed.

New Configuration Options

• [Paths]:
  • MEDIA_PLAYER_LOG and RTMP_STREAMER_LOG: Paths for log files for the ffmpeg output of the encoder and RTMP processes respectively. As the default command lines for ffmpeg set -loglevel fatal, this can be helpful in diagnosing encoding and connection issues. Logging can be disabled, but is not recommended. Default values are ffmpeg_media.log and ffmpeg_rtmp.log.
• [VideoOptions]:
  • CHECK_STRICT: If True, the ffmpeg processes will be terminated if a single connection check fails instead of all of them. This can help reduce the chances that the audio will fall out of sync with the video when the stream resumes. Defaults to True.
  • STREAM_WAIT_AFTER_RETRY: The default value is now 15 seconds. The previous default, 5 seconds, was found to be the cause of audio desyncs. Increasing it above 10 seconds has been observed to further reduce the chances of desync after the stream restarts.
• [Schedule]:
  • SCHEDULE_PREVIOUS_PRUNE_TIGHT: If True, the array of previous videos will be trimmed such that the total length of the previous files will not exceed the length defined in SCHEDULE_PREVIOUS_LENGTH. If False, the previous behavior that allows one video longer than the SCHEDULE_PREVIOUS_LENGTH will be retained. In both cases, SCHEDULE_PREVIOUS_MIN_VIDEOS will be respected. Defaults to False.
• [Mail]:
  • See E-Mail Alerts.
• [Misc]:
  • STREAM_MANUAL_RESTART_DELAY: Pressing Ctrl-C will now stop the stream and restart it after a short delay, defined in seconds. Press Ctrl-C again before the stream restarts to exit Mr. OTCS. Defaults to 5.
  • VERSION_CHECK_INTERVAL: Set to off, daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly (default) to check for new versions of Mr. OTCS.

Full Changelog: v2.1.2...v2.2.0-beta1