ZodiTV

Bringing IPTV to the Amiga

ZodiTV is a native AmigaOS application that brings IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) to very fast 68k Amiga computers. It provides a MUI-based graphical interface for browsing, selecting, and watching live IPTV streams. It's new approach achieves smooth 720p MPEG2 playback on a PiStorm/CM4.

"Live TV on a classic Amiga in High Definition? But how?"

Because classic Amigas lack the processing power to decode modern video codecs directly, ZodiTV takes a different approach: it uses FFmpeg running on a Windows/Linux PC to transcode the IPTV stream into an Amiga-compatible MPEG format in real time. The transcoded stream is written to a shared SMB directory that both the PC and the Amiga can access. A local Amiga MPEG player (FroggerNG or RiVA) then plays the file while it is still being written.

The result is live TV on your Amiga, with the heavy lifting handled by a modern PC on your network.

Features

1. Full control of FFmpeg yet easy to use
2. Both RiVA and FroggerNG MPEG players are supported with full control of player arguments
3. Higher playback performance & quality than similar solutions and no Docker needed
4. Add your own IPTV streamlists
5. Keep your favorite TV episode after watching it
6. Tune your settings until your precious Amiga turbocard is fully utilized
7. Autosave settings on exit
8. Checks for update on Aminet
9. Native MUI workbench application

How it works

1. You select an IPTV stream from a downloaded M3U playlist.
2. ZodiTV sends a command (via SMB) to your PC to start FFmpeg, which fetches the stream and transcodes it to MPEG.
3. FFmpeg writes the output file to a shared directory accessible by both the PC and the Amiga (via SMB).
4. ZodiTV launches an Amiga MPEG player that opens the file from the SMB mount and starts playing.
5. When you press Stop, ZodiTV stops FFmpeg on the PC (via SMB) and stops the player.

Requirements

Component	Details
Hardware	A very fast networking RTG Amiga, like a PiStorm, Vampire, A600GS, A1200NG, RetroPi or UAE (Let me know how it works on an overclocked '060.)
Operating System	AmigaOS 3.2+ or 3.9 (also tested on CaffeineOS and CoffinOS)
TCP/IP Stack	Roadshow, Miami, or any AmiTCP compatible stack
SSL	AmiSSL v5+ (needed for HTTPS downloads)
MUI	MUI 3.8 or newer (also tested with MUI 5)
MUI Addon	MCC_NList 0.128+
RTG	Picasso96
MPEG Player	FroggerNG and/or RiVA (free on Aminet) | RiVA for Vampire (paid) which needs mpega_libmad.lha or mpega_library.lha
curl	curl 8.18
SMB Filesystem	smb2fs + filesysbox (Not required when running under UAE)
PC shared directory	A folder shared via SMB that both the PC and the Amiga can read/write

Support & Contact

For bug reports, feature requests, or general questions about ZodiTV:

• Check for the latest version and documentation here and on aminet.net
• English Amiga Board: Post in the ZodiTV discussion thread at https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=122522
  (Which can't be linked here due to a harsh bot protection.)

When reporting issues, please include: your Amiga model and accelerator, OS version, MUI version, the MPEG Player, the FFmpeg arguments you are using, and the list and stream (if applicable).

License

ZodiTV is freeware. You may freely distribute the original, unmodified archive. You may not sell ZodiTV or include it in commercial products without written permission from the author. The software may be included on Aminet and similar non-commercial software collections.

Credits

I want to thank the developers of all the software projects and tools that ZodiTV relies on. Also a big thank you to the hardware developers like the PiStorm team for pushing the limits of what Amiga hardware can do and enabling projects like ZodiTV to exist. And without my friend and tester Smiley with his good suggestions and bug reports, ZodiTV would not have reached "release quality". Thanks a lot!

History

Version	Changes
1.0	Initial release.
1.1	Stack size bug fixes, added additional wait time to preferences, removed curl path textinput (has to be in path now)