Playing strm files in OSMC Kodi?

Help and Support
1

I would like to be able to play strm files in Kodi and I think I had it working a few years back. Now I need it again but it seems not to work.

So I have created stream files with the name of the video and extension .strm
The content of the files is a single line with the following URL pattern:

https://user:password@video.mysite.com/path/to/2020-06-12_Videoname.mp4

When I select the strm file inside OSMC and hit the OK button the screen just momentarily blinks and then nothing at all.

Expected behaviour is to play the video.
If I use the URL inside the strm file in Chrome or FireFox on my PC or Linux box the video plays fine.
What is needed to enable Kodi to play strm files?

Note that the video location on the server is password protected by Apache so the user login is made part of the URL.

My video site is using SSL (https) and the certificate is signed by LetsEncrypt currently with expiration on July 25 2020.

OSMC is running Kodi 18.6 on a Raspberry Pi2

2

Impossible to tell without logs.
You should know this by now — you’ve been on this forum for five years.

It may help to refer to your post about this last year: Can OSMC/Kodi show strm files pointing to an https server?

3 Likes
3

Thanks for the pointers, it’s been a while since I tried this the last time…

But by the timestamp of the post it was the same situation, when I was going to move to the summer home where we only have mobile internet with limited data…

Meanwhile, though, I have installed a properly signed LetsEncrypt certificate on the video server so using the browser on my laptop does not cause an exception like the self signed one did.

The test I did in my post above was on the RPi2 OSMC box at home, where I have not done anything related to the thread you linked to. But I have updated it to a new Kodi recently.
The OSMC box at the summer home is running on an RPi3 unit and does have the /home/osmc/myserver.crt file which is dated BEFORE I got the LetsEncrypt certificate on my video server.
So I will have to check what to do when I get to the summer home later today.
And make the proper logfile…

4

Well, before I started packing up the stuff for the move I enabled logging and retried the strm file viewing. Then I uploaded the logfile via MyOSMC:
https://paste.osmc.tv/etakarisib
Would be interesting to know what was actually the problem.
I have also made a test by putting the video on a non-SSL server I have access to where it is also not password protected and then making a strm file without the login part. This plays on the OSMC box, albeit after a rather long wait for it to start showing.
The OSMC over at my summer home is an RPi3 rather than the RPi2 I have here so it is probably better suited for web streaming anyway.

PS: Is there just a coincidence that the log url contains etakari, which points my thoughts to the Eta Carineae area in the sky? DS

5

Seems not debug enabled logs.
But anyhow seems to be a server issue. Suggest to try once more that URL from wget.

Open failed with code 404 for https://video.boberglund.com/MSNBC/latest/2020-06-12_21PM_Rachel_Maddow.mp4:

6

Strange, that is not the URL it is supposed to be!
/MSNBC is not supposed to be there…
I have to check the script that creates the strm files, because when I hand edit the erroneous strm file by removing /MSNBC it starts working!

So it looks like a scripting error on my part, not discovered since I have been using the DLNA feed from Kodi to my smart TV for the last 9 months or so.
I need the strm files at the summer home because the server is then no longer on the same network…
So I have to fix it server side.

Thanks for looking at the logfile so the error was discovered!